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So, you applied and were approved to participate in your town’s upcoming art festival, that’s great! The next thing you need to do is layout your plan of attack and get to work.
To help you better prepare for the big day, we’ve come up with the 4 recommendations for you to follow to experience your best show. Keep reading to know what to do!
When you started your business, you likely had a list of products you would be offering your clients. Whether you’re a photographer selling landscape images and postcards or a woodworker selling hand-carved flutes and tools, it all started because you were passionate about your creations.
In order to fully succeed at your upcoming festival, you should be fully stocked in whatever it is you’re selling. This means slowly creating more products for the festival and making sure your inventory is full. It wouldn’t be productive to have an item run out after only a handful of sales.
You’ll also want to be sure to have a variety of products. Many people visit local art festivals for souvenirs and decorative pieces so you should try to stock up on the featured item you showcase along with many other smaller pieces that would catch people’s eyes.
If you do run out of inventory, what will you do? Do you have backup stock that you’ll bring? Or will you close up your booth once things are gone?
You should make sure you have a plan for the best-case scenario, and for your worst-case scenario.
Best case? You sell every single item you brought with you, along with pieces of your second inventory. Or you have to start directing people to your website because now you’ve only got photos of what you’re selling. How will you handle these situations? Be sure to think things through.
Worst case? Nothing sells. Or only a few pieces do and you’re stuck hauling everything back home with you. Do you have a plan for dismantling the booth? Will you be okay handling things on your own? No one would wish this on themselves, but you should look at both the positive and negative possible outcomes.
There are two different goals you should come up with before the day of your show: a sales goal and a networking goal.
Coming up with a sales goal can be a little tricky but we suggest you do a little math. How much time went into planning and producing items for the show? How much do you think you’ll be able to sell? This can be based on your past sales or based off of your success at a different show. You’ll want to keep track of how your sales go the day of the show and how much you’ve sold by the end of it to know how successful you were.
Networking at a craft festival is a great thing to do if you want to connect with other art locals in your area. You should make it a goal to meet the other vendors in the booths neighboring yours as well as the event promoter if you can spare some time to go look for them during the event. Even if you don’t meet other artists and crafters, you will connect with tons of people in your community and get your name out there more than it already is.
Most venues require proof of insurance for you to participate in the event. So one of the most important things you’ll need for your event is one day event insurance from ACT Insurance. One day event insurance is designed to meet insurance requirements for most venues where arts and crafts shows are held. ACT gives artists, crafters, and tradesmen general liability insurance which insures them against third-party liability claims such as slip-and-falls and property damage.
You can fill out an application for one day event insurance on ACT’s website and have proof of coverage in less than 10 minutes! Plus, you’ll have 24/7 access to your account, making it easy to provide documents when needed.
Meet event requirements and don’t leave your business vulnerable—get insured today.
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