Don’t forget to to visit the The Big One Art & Craft Fair in Fargo, North Dakota this Oct. 20 & 21, 2012. Also reserve your booths for the shows in Minot, ND on Nov. 2 & 3, 2012 and Apr. 5 & 6, 2013.

Handcrafted arts and crafts festival vendors contact Stacy or Lisa Frank at 701-837-6059 to reserve your show booth now. Remember to tell them thank you for listing their show with The Extravaganza Craft News.

Want more information on this and other art and craft fairs in North Dakota each month subscribe to The Extravaganza Craft News at www.extravaganzacrafts.com.

Found this fun idea for getting customers to buy jewelry (or any art or craft) at craft shows.

How to Get Your Jewelry Customer Buy at Craft Show Event.

Thank you Ooh-la-la Beadtique for sharing such a fun idea!

Also read Do Sales and Discounts Hurt Craft Show Sales? and 5 Places to Market & Display Your Handmade Jewelry for Free

How do you get your customers excited about buying?

First read Why Add Art and Craft Buyers to Mailing Lists.

Next decide what information you need to mail and email your customers useful information that will encourage them to buy your one of kind handcrafted art work. Information that is generally collected includes:

First Name Last Name Address City State Zip Code Phone Number Email Address Birth Date

Remember that the more information you try to collect at one time the less likely your customer will be to give you any information at all. Try to collect small bits of information at a time but...

be sure to collect information that makes sense together all at once. For instance mailing address, city, state and zip code. It wouldn't make sense to ask for the street address and not get the other information.

Begin to collect your customers contact information. Read Simple Inexpensive Ways to Collect Your Customers Contact Information.

A database program will make it so much simpler to mail your customers. Many people also use a spreadsheet program like (Microsoft Excel) and that will work but may have some flaws that could cause you hassels as your database and needs grow.

I'm using Microsoft Excel successfully for now.

Don't have money for expensive database software or Microsoft Excel? It's free to download Open Office (which includes a database, word processing, a spreadsheet, a simple graphics program, a power point like program, and more at http://www.openoffice.org/.

Now all that is left to do is create mailings or emails that share valuable information (valuable to them-not you) with your customers about your products or services. Merge their information into the mailings or use it to print address labels and send.

Need to see examples of email messages that give your customers valuable information? Visit http://www.extravaganzacrafts.net, on the right it says Get 6 Articles Free put your email address in that box and hit Sign Up. You will receive my marketing emails, including 6 articles that will help you make your art festival or craft show booth more profitable, some bonus articles etc. Don't forget to think about how you can make your emails valuable to your customers! Comment below and let me know how I can make my emails more relevant to you.

You need to be a great salesman to make money selling arts and crafts. The problem is how do I become a great salesman without becoming the pushy salesman?

I have to admit I haven’t been the best example of a good art and craft salesman. Why, because I was always afraid of being too pushy. So, when I heard the word no I took it to mean no and I didn’t push the issue any further.

A good salesman of arts and crafts will have already contemplated all of the reasons someone would buy their product as well as the reasons someone wouldn’t buy.

They will already have answers ready to overcome the objections made by people considering buying their arts and crafts. They won’t take no personally and will simply see what they can do to gently persuade the customer to make the purchase, without being pushy.

So what are the reasons people should buy your art or craft?

1. high quality
2. price-affordable vs. good value for the money
3. handcrafted
4. great customer service
5. support local economy – local artist
6. help a good cause – charity

What are the reasons someone might not buy your handcrafted merchandise?

1. poor quality
2. price – not affordable or not a good value for the price
3. poor customer service
4. not ready to buy right now
5. not what customer is looking for -salesman needed to offer something else
6. salesman didn’t ask for the sale

So now you know why someone might buy your handcrafted art and you know why they might not. You are now prepared to offer the customer the sale several times through out the sales process and work to overcome their objections.

Also read 6 Reasons Your Art Festival Customer Won't Buy

What other objections do you face? How do you overcome these and other objections? What do you say when faced with these problems?

Visit Summerfest in Evergreen, Colorado happening Jul. 21 & 22, 2012.

Arts and crafts festival vendors contact Becky Guy at 303-674-0056 to reserve your booth now.  Please thank then for listing this show with The Extravaganza Craft News.

Want more information on this and other art and craft fairs in Montana each month subscribe to The Extravaganza Craft News at www.extravaganzacrafts.com.

One day I was riding in my sisters car. The roads were slick and the car slid off the road into a deep snowbank. The car was very stuck and trying to drive it out did no good. Along came a car with 5 guys in it. They couldn’t pull the car out using their car. They all got out and stood at different points around my sisters car then lifted up her car and put it back on the road.

One guy couldn’t have lifted the car alone, but together the 5 of them easily moved it.

Business is like lifting heavy objects. Doing it alone it’s too heavy but with many people working toward the same goal it becomes light.

Craft businesses often go out of business before they even get a good start when business owners try to do it all alone. There is just too much work to do and too many things to learn for one person.

Have you noticed that KFC and A&W teamed up? Have you thought about why they would do that? I have.

KFC and A&W are in direct competition with each other.

They chose to work together because they share costs and reach a wider customer base.

• They rent/own one building instead of two as well as sharing equipment.
• KFC and A&W share advertising costs. They put out one ad with both chains specials mentioned.
• They both use one set of employees rather than each company having to hire their own.
• KFC and A&W foods compliment each other. You might want rootbeer and ice cream with your fried chicken and mashed potatoes. You might want fried chicken and mashed potatoes while your friend wants a coney dog and tator tots, and everyone wants a rootbeer float. Both companies get more sales by working together.

In the business world working together is called a Joint Venture (JV for short). Jeff Dedrick says doing a joint venture isn’t like if I would make $1000 selling jewelry and my friend would make $1000 selling hair bows that we would make $2000 together. He says that if I would make a $1000 working alone and she would make $1000 working alone it’s possible that we would make $5000 working together.

So how do you make joint ventures work for your art or craft show business?

1. Choose someone with similar products but not exactly the same.

• Jewelry-Handbags-Accessories-Clothes-Other Types or styles of Jewelry-Makeup
• Woodworking-Furniture-Home Decor-Pillows-Curtains-Florals-Pictures-Light Plate Covers-Wood Carvings
• Pottery-Table cloths and place mats-Furniture-Florals
• Body Care-Embroidered Towels-Bath Fixtures
• Rugs-Furniture-Lamps-Curtains

2. Choose someone with a different style than yours if you choose a product that is very similar to yours. For instance two Asian jewelry artists can work together if one does very elaborate work and the other does only very fancy work. They would be able to offer products that closely match their target audience but would be able to offer a wider variety of price ranges, making more sales. Both jewelry artists would be experts in the same field and able to share information on the use and care of Asian jewelry.
3. Ask show promoters if it’s okay to share a booth or rent two booths next to each other and mix products.
4. Make an agreement to know each others products and to offer them equally if someone is looking for that item. Offer each others product as an upsell or downsell.
5. No one likes to work for nothing. Be honest with your partner and keep good records making sure they get paid for their items that sold.
6. Evaluate partnerships and adjust or discontinue as necessary

Looking at it from both the perspective of a show promoter and artist the one thing that other vendors at shows do that bothers me the most is not including the legs of their displays into the size of their booth.

Having the legs of their display sticking into the aisles and into the booths next to them is hard for show promoters, as well as dangerous for customers and also inconveniences the vendors in booths nearby. Show promoters are then pressed to find an acceptable compromise for everyone.

Keeping all parts of your display in the footprint of your booth keeps everyone happy.

Also read Attending Craft Shows Isn't Just About Selling Arts and Crafts.

What is one thing other art & craft vendors do that tick you off at craft shows?

Recently I’ve been working to make my business more profitable each and every day. Today it occurred to me that I should share with you how I plan to do that.

Week one I worked on catching up on left over unfinished crafts and business projects from previous weeks to prepare for my 30 days of greater profitability. As usual I accomplished some of the things I intended to do, did some things I planned to do later early, and didn’t accomplish some of the plan.

Week two I learned new things about my email marketing to keep my messages from being flagged as spam. I joined a networking site I’ve been meaning to join for months when they ran a special I couldn’t pass up. I did a client consultation which was a new service for me. I blogged about what I was doing and I did all this while keeping up with requests for information about my business.

Week three I mailed coupons to show promoters, had a second client consultation, worked on facebook profile and group pages. I created a profile on Fast Pitch Networking and added a few contacts there. I worked on cleaning out my email box, and signed up for a MySpace account, and I blogged about what I had done to make my business more profitable this week.

Week 4 what I accomplished.

• Power Pay contacted me but then never got back to me. I guess I still need to call them next week.
• I remembered that I had a Linked in account and had a new member join there.
• I found my friend that was already on MySpace and reconnected with her.
• I created an email I can send to all my customers and prospects reminding them that they can follow me on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Linked in. I need to finish formatting it and send it to everyone. I remembered to tell a client over the phone that they could follow me all these places.
• Worked on creating my profile on Fast Pitch Networking. Added a few contacts there.
• Worked on cleaning out my overly full email box which got even fuller despite my efforts.
• I blogged about my experience working toward greater profitability this week.

Here is what I didn’t accomplish.

• I still didn’t get my accounting done.
• I didn’t call the people I just mailed free newsletters to in the last few weeks to ask them what they thought of the newsletter. It is probably too late but I will try to fit this into next week anyway. Call your prospects right away they are only interested about 7 days!
• I didn’t create any articles to send to show promoters that will encourage them to list their shows with me.
• Since I didn’t write the articles I also didn’t start calling my huge list of show promoters. Obviously I didn’t sign them up in my email marketing system.
• I didn’t get the article written for my newsletter although I have some very good ideas to write about.

I hope that this series is inspiring you to work along with me to improve your businesses profitability by doing something each day that will make your business stronger. I know that I’m a bad example but I would really suggest that you write your goals down on a calendar. This way you can truly see what you did accomplish and will remember what you didn’t get done so you can work on it in your spare time or in your next 30 day plan.

The plan for the next 8 days:

Day 24-Write and send a quick email to all my customers from the past asking them how their businesses are doing? Tell them how my business is doing and showing them where they can get more information from my business. Sort of bring them back to take another look at my business.

Day 25-Write the article for my newsletter.

Day 26-Finish writing my book.

Day 27-Clean out my email box.

Day 28-Do my accounting

Day 29-Create articles to send to show promoters who haven’t listed with me yet.

Day 30-Call show promoters and ask them if I can send them free articles.

Day 31-Blog about my 30 days to Greater Profitability for my art and craft show business.

Entry 4 of 6 in the series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Profitability.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.net to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

1. There must be enough people interested in buying your arts and crafts.
2. You must be able to persuade people who are interested in your art to buy.

These are two very separate and distinct problems with different solutions.

First one needs to realize that to be very successful selling their handcrafted goods they must chose to create a craft that is wanted and needed by a large enough group of people to support the number of sales the artist needs per day, week, month or year.

Most artists choose which craft to sell based on which one they like to create the most, the one they get the most compliments on, or the one they like the best. This is actually backward and can be detrimental to your business ever succeeding.

Crafters spend too much time looking for those who want their crafts this way. Artists don't realize they are trying to make people who aren't even interested in their art not only like it, but buy it-a losing game to be sure. 

They are always looking for people interested in their handcrafted merchandise and have no real direction to look... instead of going to a group of people who are already interested in their crafts and trying to persuade them to buy.

It's like trying to tell your customers their favorite color is purple when really their favorite color is green. They aren't going to even want to stand around and listen.

Like trying to sell hand tatted doilies to every child, teen, and young single adult that comes near your booth rather than slightly more mature married adults and grandmothers.

Let's be honest here we can't make people like what they don't like or want. They just won't buy it and our time and money will be wasted in the effort.

If your artwork meets the needs of a large group of people but still seems like people aren't interested the problem may be:

• is the group of people who want, need, and like your product large enough?
  • one caveat here is that you want to target a very specific group of people. Get too generic and you go back full circle.
• are you targeting your prospects well in your advertising, marketing and offers?
• are they are willing to pay your price to get it?
• are you selling where your buyers are, where they are prepared to buy, when they are prepared to buy?

You can still succeed selling your artwork this way if

• there is a large enough group of people who want, need, and like your product.
• they are willing to pay your price to get it.
• you learn where your buyers are and go where your they are to sell your product.
• you don't mind that your business will be less profitable than it could be.

On the other hand persuading a person to buy your crafts when they are already interested is much easier. It requires many skills but most of them are small and can be learned over your career.

The skills you will need include:

• correctly pricing crafts.
• using signage and tags effectively.
• proper displays.
• learning to make small talk that draws out the needs of your buyer.
• recognize the needs of your customers from clues they give in conversation.
• not over selling or underselling -giving the customer just the right amount of information so they don't feel overwhelmed or that their questions haven't been answered.
• recognizing when a buyer is on the fence-knowing what will get them off the fence and on the buying side.
• using coupons, discounts, sales, samples, upsells and downsells effectively to persuade an undecided buyer. Read Do Sales and Discounts Hurt Craft Show Sales?
• staying in touch with and following up with customers so they will buy for the first time, make repeat sales, and refer you to others.
• using your business documents, fliers, business cards, to sell more handcrafted works of art.
• asking for the sale and calls to action.

The difference between trying to create interest in your crafts and persuading people to buy your crafts is: You won't be able to create an interest in your crafts where there is none! You will be much more successful trying to persuade a large group of people who want, need, or like your craft already to buy.

The way I see if people really aren't interested in buying your artwork you have 3 choices:

1. Go where people are interested in buying your crafts.
2. Find a craft they are interested in buying and sell it.
3. Find a job working for someone else.

What do you think?

Well last week I worked on catching up on left over unfinished projects from previous weeks to prepare for my 30 days of greater profitability. As usual I accomplished some of the things I intended to do, did some things I planned to do later early, and didn’t accomplish some of the plan.

Here is what I did accomplish.

• I kept up with incoming orders and new requests for information while getting my kids ready to go back to school.
• I published my monthly craft newsletter that I try to accomplish the last week of the month (although it won’t be due out until the next week).
• I learned something new about my email marketing that will keep my messages from being flagged as SPAM as often.
• I worked with a new client doing a phone consultation on building their website (this is a new service I offer).
• I blogged about my experience working toward greater profitability this week.

Here is what I didn’t accomplish.

• I really didn’t get my goals written down on a calendar although I do have them planned out in my head.
• I didn’t get my accounting done and it has been falling behind a few months now.
• I didn’t get my office really clean (instead I worked on my daughters room and it is greatly improved).

I hope that this series is inspiring you to work along with me to improve your businesses profitability by doing something each day that will make your business stronger. I know that I’m a bad example but I would really suggest that you write your goals down on a calendar. This way you can truly see what you did accomplish and will remember what you didn’t get done so you can work on it in your spare time or in your next 30 day plan.

The plan for the next 7 days:

• Day 8 -Get my coupons sent out that I mail to show promoters each month.
• Day 9 -Call the people I just mailed free newsletters to in the last few weeks. Ask them what they thought of the newsletter and if I can sign them up for a free report and to receive further information from my company. Sign them up as prospects in my email marketing system if they say yes.
• Day 10 -Do my accounting.
• Day 11 -Create a few articles to send to show promoters that will encourage them to list their shows with me.
• Day 12 -Start calling my huge list of show promoters and ask them if I can send them free articles that will help make their businesses more profitable as well as articles that will make their vendors businesses more profitable. Sign them up in my email marketing system.
• Day 13 -Continue calling my list of show promoters and sign them up for the articles in my email marketing system.
• Day 14 -Contact PowerPay about getting a system in place to be able to accept credit cards.
• Day 15 -Continue getting PowerPay set up and blog about my experiences this week.

What are you doing to increase sales in your craft fair booth?

Entry 2 of 6 in series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Craft Show Profitability. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Recently I’ve been working to make my business more profitable each and every day. Today it occurred to me that I should share with you how I plan to do that.

• Day 1-Set a goal to do something to make my business more profitable each day for 1 month.
• Day 2-Make a plan. Get out a calendar and write down the goal for each day until calendar contains one goal for each day. Make each goal one that can be accomplished in a time frame of 1 day to 1 week.
• Day 3-Finish writing down goals on calendar. Breaking larger goals down into step by step goals if necessary.
• Day 4-Clean office so I can find everything I need to accomplish goals.
• Day 5-Do projects I’ve been putting off for the past month or so especially accounting.
• Day 6-Finish projects I’ve been putting off for last month.
• Day 7-Blog about my experiences this week.

Entry 1 of 6 in series My 30 Day Plan to Greater Craft Show Profitability. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Press releases are informational articles sent to the press. They are meant to inform the public of things happening in the area. They are free and will be printed in most publications as space allows (so send them early and often).

Press releases are a great way to advertise your art festival schedule and your craft product. A press release includes certain necessary parts:

• Exciting and newsworthy headline
• Summary that clarifies and defines the rest of the release
• Body answers where, when, who, what, why and how

The body contains 6 parts they include:

Include your schedule of art fair, holiday arts and craft show, street fairs, and festivals and shows.

1. Lead paragraph
   - City, State – Month Day, Year – Your Business Name
   - What is happening
2. Quotes – From previous newspaper articles, quotes from show promoters, other crafters, or previous customers about your product.
3. The Why and How paragraph – Tell the reader why you are attending this craft show, why you make your product, why someone should come see your product and how to attend the event.
4. Call to Action – Ask the audience to do something i.e. See me at The Extravaganza or at my other upcoming shows.
5. Corporate Summary – Include a short summary of your art festival business here.
6. Contact Information – Name, Business Name, Phone Number, E-mail Address, Website

For samples of press releases look in your local newspaper, also examine the People in Business Section to determine the best place for your advertising.

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

By Amrendra Singh

If you have decided to try your hand at setting up at craft shows, festivals, or flea markets, then you’ll need to have the right craft show display to make your wares stand apart from the rest. This is especially important if you are selling something like jewelry or any other staple craft show item. Having a great craft show display can make a big difference between having someone walk right by you or stop for a look and hopefully a sale. Here are some great ways to create an eye-catching craft show display.

Craft Show Display Basics

When you first get started you will have to purchase the right equipment and this can be a bit of an investment, but if you think you will continue doing shows then you’ll need the following:

• Canopy or tent – The proper canopy or tent will protect your goods from rain and sun. Delicate crafts made from fabric, paper or handmade clothing can become damaged from just a few hours of direct sunlight.
• Tables – Most craft show displays require at least table or two for their set up. Buy the lightest, easiest thing to carry around. You can find many aluminum models that fold up with ease and can be tucked away in almost any vehicle. Don’t forget a small chair for yourself.
• Weights – Make sure you carry weights, large water bottles that can be filled, or small sand bags. You will need to tether these to your tables or tent with bungee cords in case of a windy day.
• Display cases – No matter what you are selling you can find the right craft show display case for your items. Look at retails suppliers or ask other vendors. A thrift store can give you some great items on the cheap.
• Quality fabric – Cover your tables in bright fabric. Take your time to come up with a great color scheme for your craft show display. Work your tent color, table covers, and products into a harmonious craft show display.

Beyond The Basics

Once you have the basic equipment that you’ll need for your craft show display then you’ll need a few creative ideas to get people into your booth.

• The set up – Make sure that your tables are positioned in a way that is easy for customers to see. Keep your tables near the front of the tent so people can walk by casually. Don’t expect people to walk to the back of your booth, it may seem obvious, but people want to keep going unless something really interests them.
• Height – Try hanging things from the tent to catch people’s eye from afar. This can work for a lot of items. If you can’t do that, make sure you vary the height on your tables. Use small shelves, boxes, or other display items to give the tables a richer feel.
• Mirrors – Always bring a mirror for people to look at things they may want to try on.
• Signage – Have a banner or business cards on display is a great idea. Even if someone doesn’t want something today, they can come back and find you or email you.
• Pricing – For many people seeing clear price tags on items is very helpful. Lots of shoppers don’t feel comfortable engaging in chitchat over every item in the booth. If you are getting really busy, this will save you lots of time from answering questions.

Hints To Keep You Ahead

If you are a newcomer to the festival scene then you may not yet realize what an ally other vendors can be for you. Although they may seem like the competition and in some cases they are, they can also help give you invaluable advice. Remember to always respect your boundaries with your craft show display. Most arguments between vendors center around just an inch or two! When space is at a premium people can become very territorial, just remember to take care with your craft show display and stay on your neighbor’s good side. He’ll be the guy you entrust with your craft show display when it’s time for a bathroom break. Follow these tips to have a great craft show display no matter whether you’re a newbie or a festival regular!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amrendra_Singh

Buyers at art and craft shows love to hear the story of the person creating the crafts.  They love to feel that they know person they are doing business with and that they are doing business with a real approachable person.  This is an important part of the trust building process that must go on between a buyer and seller.

A craft blog (short for weblog) is a great inexpensive way to share your story with buyers at the markets, both before and after they attend craft shows.  There are many different providers of free blogs including WordPress.  I used WordPress because when I built my website I had no technical knowledge of HTML, installing blogs, etc.  WordPress was fairly easy for me to figure out and install, yet it has many different plugins that add functionality.  You pick and choose what you need your craft blog to do.

Your blog is a great place to let people know what craft shows you are attending and what booth number you will be in.  It’s a wonderful place to announce new products and services, as well as to share tips on product maintenance.  Share bits of your personal story, as well as information about the techniques and supplies you’ve used.

Key to getting a lot of traffic to your blog stay on topic giving your customers the information they are looking for, and post search engine optimized posts often.  Be sure your blog points your visitors back to your website if you have one.

One last tip that was shared with me recently join blogfrog at http://theblogfrog.com I joined a few weeks ago and new people follow my blog every single day.

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Go to http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Pricing an art or craft show product is more of a science than an art. You can’t just set a price that you think is okay and expect to sell a lot of your product for a profit.

First of all you need to know what it costs you to produce your product. You want to include the costs of the goods used to create your product plus a little more to buy extra supplies.

Second you need to include your wages. What price per hour would you like to make? How many hours did it take to create your product?

Third you need to add in the price of your other expenses. Don’t forget to include things like the cost of your studio, electricity, advertising, cost of travel, cost of shows, in this figure. Then spread these costs out over the price of all your products.

NOTE: You will recover a small portion of these miscellaneous costs each time one of your products sell. For example your miscellaneous costs add up to $2000 a year and you sell approximately 1000 products a year that means that you need to add $2 to the price of each product to recover those costs.

In order to make a profit you must build one into your price. At this point adding 1or 2 dollars to your price probably won't hurt sales but...not doing it can hurt your business.

Last and definitely not least you need to know what price the market will support. What this means is that your price can’t be higher than the amount the people who buy your product are willing to pay for it. IF you sell a product that is similar to a retail product you can go to the stores and see what price products like yours are selling for.

Then you need to decide if you can make your product for that price.

Here is a formula to help!

A. Cost of goods used x 1.5 = cost to replace supplies used + costs of new supplies

B. $dollars per hour I would like x #number of hours it took me to create product = my wages

C. Miscellaneous expenses for the year divided by approximate number of products I can sell a year = cost of miscellaneous expenses per product

D. Whatever Profit you would like to receive.

E. Add A + B + C + D=Total wholesale cost of product. This is the price you would receive if you were selling to someone who would resell your item to someone else at a significant markup.

It is not necessarily the price you should charge a retail customer, that price will usually be almost twice your current figure.

F. E x 2=Approximate Total retail price

Compare the answer you got in F to retail prices in the area to know if your price is inline with market expectations.

It may take some adjustment to find the price point that sells the most product at the best profit. Read Are You Pricing Your Original Art Too Low? to know why pricing your crafts too low isn't a good idea.

Here is a link to a simple example of how this works http://www.whatthecraft.com/arts/pricing.htm

Art and Craft Show Expert Shasta McLaughlin provides articles, hints and tips, checklists and more for artists and crafters that sell handcrafted products who want to save time looking for shows, packing for fairs, and get more sales at festivals. Now she is revealing how to collect your customers contact information, follow up with them and make more money while working less. Visit http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com to get her newsletter, The Extravaganza Craft News, that will help you avoid mistakes, save time and money when preparing your craft show booth.

Don’t forget to to visit Winterfest Arts & Crafts Festival in Evergreen, Colorado happening Nov. 12, 2011.

Arts and crafts festival vendors contact Becky Guy at 303-674-0056 to reserve your booth now.  Remember to thank Becky for listing her show with The Extravaganza Craft News.

Want more information on this and other art and craft fairs in Wyoming each month subscribe to The Extravaganza Craft News at www.extravaganzacrafts.com.