craft show tips - part 3

Wednesday and Thursday I posted part 1 and part 2 of my craft show tops series. Yesterday I participated in 17th craft show in four years! So here is the final post of my craft show tips.

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part 3: AFTER THE SHOW

WHEW! The craft show is all over. The jitters and butterflies are all gone now and you made it through the show!

DON'T PACK UP EARLY
• It's disrespectful to the hosts of the show to pack up your things early. Don't even start 15 minutes early. You should wait until the show ends to pack up. You paid your show fee to be a participant in the event that the hosts work so hard to put on. I've always waited (while others are packing up) and made 3-5 more sales.

via Urban Outfitters

CLEAN
• Clean up after yourself. I like to have a couple of Target bags for my food trash. Leaving your area trashed after you left isn't a good look to your hosts.

THANK
• Before you leave personally thank the hosts for having you at their event (even if it wasn't successful for you and you don't want to participate next year).

CELEBRATE
• Shower, get a victory meal and sleep (may not be in that order).

HOW DID YOU DO?
• Count your money and cross check with your inventory list.

• Sort and put away your inventory.
- Add your remaining items on your Etsy shop.

NEW CUSTOMERS
• Add your new customers to your email list. You may want to send them an email to thank them for visiting you at the event.

PHOTOS
• Go through your photos that you took.
- Do a blog post about the event.
- Post the photos on Flickr.

RECAP
• Did you enjoy participating in a craft show?

• Would you do that show next year?

• What things would you change?
- More inventory? Did something sell better than the other?
- Change your display?
- Something you wished you had or could of done without?

NOTE: Your Etsy shop.
In the past I've temporarily closed my Etsy shop to use the inventory for my craft show. But for the past few shows I've made enough product and kept my Etsy shop open while I was participating in shows.

I think it's a professional look to keep your Etsy shop open while you're at the show. A customer may go home and take a look at your shop and it may be disappointing if they see that it's closed. You may loos a potential sale.

I've left my Etsy shop open for the Ric Rac Roundup yesterday and I've gotten TWO Etsy sales today!

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Well, that's it. I hope you've found my craft show tips helpful. I'll post my recap of yesterday's Ric Rac Roundup events soon!