My First Craft Show Recap - Rocky Ripple Festival

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So the Rocky Ripple Festival was a success!!  I am so relieved to have my first craft show under my belt and I could not be any happier with how it went.  I love getting compliments from friends and family when I show them my stuff, but it's even better to get positive feedback from complete strangers! 

The festival started at 11 am, so we started setting up at around 9:30-ish and were done just in time for the first customers.  Things started out kind of slow, but I had lots of interest - people just want to pick up those bunnies, so that drew a lot of people in.  Also, my wonderful husband made me some apron and bib displays that drew shoppers like magnets to the crayon aprons, bibs, and the kids' aprons.

I started to get a few sales, and before I knew it, the booth was looking a little thin.  I gotta tell you, that cheap knuckle-buster credit card machine is a piece of you-know-what.  I had a HORRIBLE time with it (although Mom seemed to have made friends with it).  I felt really inept trying to swipe people's cards, but it worked out in the long run and I'm sure I made a few extra sales by taking cards.  Propay makes it super easy to process the cards, but I did have one card get declined - luckily it was only $18.

Some Things I'm Glad I Had
Granola bars (there was only one food area, and the line was SO LONG)
Diet Coke and Water (the drinks were with the food)
Stickers for the kids
Extra tags and signs (I had missed tagging a few things and had forgotten to make a sign or two)

My daughter's quilt (made a great colorful table cover)

My mom's old doll cradle (perfect place for the bunnies - people made a beeline for them)

Things I Wish I Had Brought
More business cards (I had around 50 and they're GONE)

More snacks

More crayon aprons

More gift sets (these were way more popular than I expected)

I use these spreadsheets on Excel to track inventory and sales, so before I left for the fair Saturday I printed out all of my inventory in a spreadsheet.  I checked off everything that sold so I could balance my money at the end of the fair.  This worked out especially well because Mom and I just put all our money together.  It also made it really easy to open my Etsy shop back up and remove everything that sold at the fair.

I sold probably a third of my inventory, which is wonderful and terrifying at the same time.  Now I have to replace that inventory (plus add more) before the Irvington Halloween Festival in a month.  The kicker is I'm going on vacation for a week in October, so I really only have three-ish weeks.  It'll happen, right?  A few extra cartoons won't permanently damage the kids, right?  I don't need much sleep, right?

I'll give you some more details later this week - it was interesting comparing what sells on Etsy with what sells in person.  Let me know if there's anything else you all want to know about my maiden craft fair voyage!