Gel Candle Articles: Holiday Craft Shows

By, Cheryl Beatty

We did our first craft show November 2001 and I found both good and bad in the way we approached it.

Good Things:
1) We have been filling baby food jars with new scents as we pour, so that we could give people at the home parties we do, a chance to smell the scents that we did not have with us in product. We opened some of these jars and put them out with signs that said "poke me, smell me" which kept viewers from touching our product. (We even encouraged curious children to do so, while parents shopped).

2) We greeted people as they came up, and asked if there were any questions we could answer for them. If they said, "just looking", we said "Oh, please sniff, too!" We had copies of information from urban legends ready for any people who were misinformed.

3) There were several other candle exhibits at the fair that we had scouted out. If people came up to our table and asked for product we did not do or did not have, we told them which other table had that item and where they were located. I felt that this showed we had confidence in our product and that crafters were a friendly non-cutthroat group. Several so directed came back (after buying nothing at the other place) and bought from us.

4) We had bought 1-1/2 oz, jars with lids and poured mini votives. My daughter (this fair was a fund raiser in the school where she teaches) had handed out free votive with purchase cards. We also gave out the free votives to other people saying, "You are wearing "blue", so here is a free mini votive", "I like your smile, so here is...." etc.

5) We printed out the wick trimming instructions and included them in every bag of people who purchased a gel candle.

6) We had brochures everywhere with a local number for them to call (my daughter's) and our e-mail address.

7) I bought several colors of plastic shower curtains at the dollar store, as well as cloth place mats and different size plastic milk crates and small plastic table cloths. The Fall items were set up on the peach shower curtain with a cream colored plastic table cloth covering the milk crate and a couple of cream and gold textured place mats on the peach curtain. Black came next with white cloth on milk crate and black, white, red and gold place mats for food items and non seasonal votives. Burgundy was the next color with cream table cloths on the milk crates and burgundy, green, red, gold place mats for Christmas items. The colors seemed to flow together and the varying heights of the milk crates added interest.

Bad Things:

1) I did not find out what kind of attendance history this show had (poor) so brought way too much product.

2) I was originally told that spaces were booths (8' x 6 1/2') and that we could bring other display items to supplement the 8' tables and two chairs we were getting for our $20.00. Luckily, we bought two adjoining sites. It turned out that all we got were the tables and chairs... no booth space, so we had a difficult time storing all that we had brought.

All in all, I think we did well. The vendors were all complaining about low sales, but we had over $500.00 in sales for the 6 hour show. The best part was buying a bottle of wine to share after the show and then going straight to bed.