County Fair Booths

[cowboy1296]

Well Eric it seems you and I will both cut our teeth this 4th of July. I have bought all my stuff and am making signs/artwork to show. I am in the mountains of Colorado so there will be vacationers in town. But for now this will be a learning experience for me. My biggest concern is over pricing my stuff but have been told by others that i am not. Its a 3 day event with the prices being reduced on the 3rd day if I should over charge. Let us know how it goes.

[joe]

Dave,

Most guys on this forum probably agree with you. But Suzzie home-maker only wants a "Welcome Home" sign and could care less about the noisey eqiipment. They're probably more impressed with the guy hand routing than the ugly, noisey, and expensive machine. I think that's a loosing idea. It's been tried out at several annual fair grounds with little success.

The sample film I posted is V carving. It's just not 2.5 carving. Makes no difference in this case. They're more interested in price.

Now lets see:
What kind of sign can you make for $40.00 and how many can you turn out in a day? A good order form to take back to the shop is the way to go. Perhaps some of our group will share their pricing. That way we don't have to do the ring around the rosey. Everyone thinks I'm too expensive except me. Over the years I've noticed lots of router people who are proud of how cheap they can work. They never gain much respect and seldom perculate to the top. It's a perscription for failure. If your a big company and have the financial muscle, cutting prices makes sence. It's a killer for the small guy. Cheap means failure, quality means success. It's a mental thing!

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com

[Acmeaviator]

For what it is worth here is my $.02 on selling at farmers markets and craft fairs.
My wife and I have produced pottery for a few years now and sell functional work to a few local stores, at local art and craft fairs and about once a month at the downtown farmers market. We have a pro grade pop-up tent, nice displays, a pretty sign (made on the Bot) and price points from a few bucks to $100. Potters in this part of the country (southwest Ohio) are a dime a dozen so we always have a few other potters to contend with. Anyway after a few years at it many sales still feel like a **** shoot lol. Some days (like yesterday at a local winery) we set up, sit all day and sell $100. Painful. Other days we set up and sell $1000.
What selling in the area HAS done for us is build name recognition and "brand identity". We sell much more via our website now than when we first started and have many more repeat buyers. We purchased a new kiln and brought all the production in house. This year we began to actively pursue commissions and had good responses that were aided by our growing portfolio and recognition.
Ultimately like others here have said success comes from consistency, quality, and determination. It takes more than one show, or even one season of shows, to begin to turn that corner.

[joe]

Brian,

You have good .02 cents.

It's true you need to be represented more than once to reap the benefits.

When you show up the first time your product may not be right. Every one wants to think they will be a hit success. It seldom works that way. One of my friends was goofey about 3D carving so he bought the carving packages and made a couple dozen carvings to be sold at our local Golf Fund Raising event. Every thing sold except his wood carved animals. He was crushed.

One of the golfers asked if they were hand carved in asia!

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com

[bleeth]

Seems to be a lot of interest here as well as different opinions. That's a good thing. Many years ago I worked the "farmer's market" circuit for a while with a friend (Think summer vacation from school time). We were selling candles, beads, and other hippie stuff that "is not intended for use with illegal substances". Never made much but we did make enough to get by and enjoy the summer. Two guys running around Central Florida in an old post office van with flowers, rainbows, and "US MALE" painted on it. Lot's of fun.
Point is that even though this is designed to earn some money you will do better if your attitude about it comes across as "I'm not only having a good time doing this but you will have a good time remembering where you got it"
I would imagine that just as results can vary by region there could also be quite a difference between farmers markets, flea markets, county fairs, and craft markets. I would make sure I had a nice "post card" business card with photo montage for people to take with them. The price for getting those done now is really a bargain.

[blackhawk]

Hello All,

I am the one that Joe mentions that first posted on the signtalkforum. On top of what I posted there, here are a few few more thoughts and takeaways that I had. Again, my perspective is from only doing a single craft fair, so my experience is limited.

As an example of pricing, I made a 3/4" thick 10-1/2" x 18" cedar sign exactly like the one that Eric uses in his profile pic above. My show was at the local lake, so I had it read "The Gilbert's 208 Lake Drive". I put a tag on it for $40. In 8 hours, I had three people seriously look at it and only one placed an order.

I agree with Joe, that taking a Shopbot with you to a show would be difficult. (In the case of my show, it was impossible, because they did not provide electricity and generators were not allowed.) You would have to have someone helping you take orders and talk to the customers. I think that if you had very much business, you would have to be at the Shopbot non-stop. Of the whole two orders that I got, both customers were fine with waiting a few days for their sign.

I didn't make up generic signs to sell on the spot. But, If I had, I have the feeling that I would have sold very, very few. It is worth a try, but I wouldn't go in with 50 "Welcome" signs, maybe 5 at the most.

[rej]

i have been watching this with some ideas.
i have alot of show experience.
i own property here in indiana and we have one of the largest shows in the u.s. we have one million people walk in front of our yard in 10 days.

there are 4 sign booths here, all hand router.
only one does alot of business. he uses a font something on the order of madfont.

he applys paint to almost all of his signs, and he never uses cedar, all redwood. his display is 16 feet high, 20 feet wide. eric's signs would be the style, with paint added.

almost all of his signs are custom.
most customers do not see him cut. but being an artist, he works with them to do custom artwork.
if you want to compete with these guys, good luck.

maybe that was too harsh.
i just don't want anyone to get all gung ho and spend a ton of money to try to re-coup booth rent. doing shows is very expensive and losing money is a real part of it.
the only people who haven't lost money at a show are the people who have never done very many shows. rent at our show is at least 500.00 for a 10x10, and the best spots are 1000.00. then there is camping or motel,food,gas, and long lonely days if it rains.

[blackhawk]

Robert - How does the guy at your show apply the paint? Does he use a paint mask and spray, for example? Just trying to understand how quickly someone could carve, mask, paint, and dry the paint in order for quick turnaround on the same day.

Do you have any example on the prices that he charges?

[harryball]

Do what you want but...

If I go to a show and stand there with stuff piled around me I find nothing generally happens. If I talk and interact and generally look stupid for the kids, we sell a little more. If I stand there and build bat houses, flipping the drill in the air, spinning screw drivers over my hand, making intentional laughable mistakes, making stupid jokes while letting the kids paint little freebee bats we do the best.

Learn how to make people look at you and keep looking.

/RB

[rej]

HE CARVES, SPRAY PAINTS THE LETTERS, THEN SANDS IT ALL OFF.
THEN PAINTS BY HAND THE ARTWORK, THEN CLEAR COATS.
MANY OF HIS SIGNS ARE MAILED TO THE PEOPLE.
HE IS USUALLY HERE FOR ABOUT A WEEK AFTER THE SHOW FILLING ORDRES.

THIS GUY IS A FULL TIME PRO, DOES 30 OR MORE SHOWS PER YEAR.
IT IS HIS ARTWORK THAT GETS THE ORDERS.

HERE IS HIS SITE http://www.fairsigns.com/

HIS PRICES ARE OK, A LITTLE ON THE HIGH SIDE.
HE DOES SEVERAL LARGE SIGNS AT 300.00 PLUS.