The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
Once upon a time, a friend told me this was a good event.
Not sure I still believe her.
Last year, I didn’t pass $1,000 in sales with my solo effort. On my birthday. That’s not a good thing, truly.
This seems like a good community event, though. Free music. Beer gardens. Carnival rides. Vendors. 30,000 in attendance projected. What’s not to like?
It’s not like there are many better events in July that I’ve found, after all.
So, I’m in for another year. I want to see if I can do better with some legacy working for me. It’ll be just me and a couple of hundred buy & sell vendors offering imported goods….
New Ideas
- This event was marginal last year, really. It was barely OK. So what did I do? I doubled down with a double booth. I have room for everything this way. Still no Mrs M, though. She might melt in the heat. Oh, wait, I mean her lotions & balms & such might melt. That’s it.
Observations
- I left home at 5:08a on my way to the Golden State Freeway … and my ramp was closed. No problem; the GPS will get me there on the 126. I’m told. I arrived at my booths at 6:18a, and was unloaded 30 minutes later. Same location as last year, so it’s easy.
- This event does not send out formal confirmations, maps, booth #s or anything to help you find your booth or your customers to find you. Things may change up until the last minute, they say. At check in, they don’t give you a map, they just show you about where your booth is on a spreadsheet that has business landmarks on it that are years out of date.
- No clue why they think that’s OK. It’s annoying, in my not-so-humble opinion as a well-seasoned veteran.
- Canopies were up at 7:30a, and the booth & products were set up at about 9:30a. I was still putting pricing up at the official opening, 10a.
- I looked across the street at 10 booths, most of which were community businesses (bath remodel, new windows, insurance agent, etc). Of the 10 booths, 8 had canopies that were totally unweighted. 1 had 20 pounds of weight, total. One had sandbags of undeterminate weight. I hope there’s no wind this weekend.
- 11:40a: first sale of the day. I try to not every make duplicates of the same cheese board blanks, and I did make 4 of the same pattern in the last go round. Finally, finally, I sold one of them in this sale.
- 1:03p: second sale of the day … and it’s another copy of that same cheese board. Huh?
- I’m a monkey in a cage. Seems like it, anyway. Since I’ve added the signs on the mesh walls … people stop in front of the booth, look, point & laugh. And I just sit there looking at them.
- Me. Monkey. Cage.
- I did not expect that to happen.
- Saturday ended barely ahead of last year … but I doubled my booth size. Did sales double? Nope, they were basically unchanged.
- The drive home was an adventure. I followed the GPS, and it sent me through farmland. I drove a canyon to get to Fillmore. Why has the GPS forsaken me?
- Sunday opens at 12n for some reason. I arrived a bit after 10a, and was open by 11a. I had walkers immediately.
- No buyers though. First sale was at 12:45a.
- But something did happen early: the insurance agent across the way brought a sound system. They turned it up so they were broadcasting to a 100′ radius above speaking volume, and proceeded to chat to everyone about their raffle.
- I was that guy. I called the organizer to complain. She showed up 15 minutes later and had them turn down, thankfully. For some reason, they shut down the sound system & it left at 2p. No problem from my perspective.
- A lady walked into the booth.
- She said, “I have a cutting board. I got it from your competition. I love it. It’s my favorite thing. I got it from your competition.”
- I said, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s good to have a favorite thing.”
- She said, “I got it from your competition.” And then she left.
- Before I was unkind to her.
- At the end of Sunday, sales were barely ahead of prior year, and far, far below my expectations for a 2-day event and my double booth. Very disappointing.
- The drive home was another adventure, but I at least drove a different canyon. Why is Camarillo so hard to get home from?
- This is my last July event before the end of my Kickstarter campaign, and I did mention it to several customers in the hopes of garnering a bit of support. The campaign is currently at 93% and just $329 away from goal! I know that I’ll bring it home, but it is oh so close. Here’s the link: Handmade Cutting Boards & Wooden Serving Pieces.
- Requests were for bigger chess pieces (nope), a cheese slicer (on the list!), a cookbook stand, a horse tack shadow box, a coffee table top, knife cases and the 10 Commandments on a plaque. Bilingual, too. Oh, and a chicken shaped cutting board. That’s a trend. And I still haven’t made it.
The Food
- Best Meal: I tried to order take out ahead of arriving back in Santa Clarita … and a lousy cell connection resulted in a bad order. Oh well, I guess we will eat 5 side Caesars. Eventually.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 220
- Booth cost: $500
- Food cost: none
- Travel cost: $114
- Total sales: $1,092
- Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $478
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
- Saturday alarm: 4:20a
- Sunday alarm: nope
- # transactions: far too few
- # soap & lotion vendors: no clue
- # woodworking vendors: no clue
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 23:0
- Returning next year? Nope. Nope. Nope.
Boards sold: 23
Word Blocks: 5
Cheese Boards: 3
Magic Bottle Openers: 3
Cutting Boards: 3
CNC Signs: 3
Trivets: 2
Heart Board: 1
Coaster Set: 1
Wine Bottle Coaster: 1
Sous Chef Board: 1
Cheese Board 18 – 117. Jatoba, Yellowheart, Cherry, Padauk & Purpleheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.
Cutting Board 18 – 320. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Padauk. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.
Cheese Board 17 – 320. Padauk, Cherry, Black Walnut & Jatoba. Chaos Board. 8-1/2″ x 11″ x 5/8″.
CNC Sign 18 – 29 Steak. Hard Maple. 9″ x 12″.
Wine Bottle Coaster 18 – 503. Cherry. 8″ x 11″ x 1″.
Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 118. Wall mount.
CNC Sign 18 – 51. Hard Maple. 6″ x 22″.
Sous Chef 18 – 706. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 20″ x 3/4″.
Cutting Board 18 – 323. Hard Maple, Bloodwood & Purpleheart. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 202. Black Walnut, Yellowheart & Hard Maple. Double Magic.
CNC Sign 18 – 52. Hard Maple. 10″ x 14″.
Carnivore Board 18 – 905. Hard Maple. 14″ x 19″ x 1-1/8″.
Trivet 18 – 713. 8.5″ square.
Trivet 18 – 715. 8.5″ square.
Heart 18 – 918.
Coasters 18 – 07. Jatoba, Hard Maple, Bloodwood, Purpleheart, Yellowheart & Black Walnut. Shown with Black Walnut holder.
Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 109. Wall mount.
My wife and I experienced the same thing too with a bigger booth. We went from a 10 x 10 to 10 x 20 for a few months but our sales didn’t double. After about six months, we downsized back to a 10 x 10.
It’s all about showing your stuff to your buyers. If you have enough space, you don’t need more room! When we started, Mrs M & I were sharing a single booth (her lotion, my boards). That didn’t work well, and when we went to a double booth, our sales zoomed. Now that I’m solo at some events, I’m finding a double for me alone works sometimes … but, clearly, I haven’t worked out the “when” very effectively yet.
plus I don’t think women want to buy lotions from a man. haha
Hey, I own the lotion bar demo! I can at least dance on the line when Mrs M isn’t available!.