This is a VERY vulnerable entry, but hopefully truthful as well. I had a busy weekend of two markets back to back, Saturday & Sunday. In preparation for the markets I worked really hard to get a product sorted under £10, and was really hopeful for it, especially for the Sunday market.
Sunday was definitely better than Saturday, but still not enough really to make it worth my while – although I can’t quite say that – as I have had a commission come from my quietest market – so you never know! But it’s hard – putting in so much prep, 5am starts, effort getting to the venue, setting up, giving up a weekend when I still work full time – to only receive a handful of sales.
People are always so complimentary of my work – which is really lovely – but compliments, unfortunately don’t help to make my business viable, but hopefully, the compliments at least show I am on the right track…
I won’t lie as well – I feel like I’ve lost my mojo a little this week but I’m hoping by getting these feelings off my chest, I feel less defeated and ready to ride the Handmade Business roller coaster once again.
So here goes – below are two entries into my Handmade business diary. One after the market on the Saturday, and the other after my market on the Sunday – as I said, they are pretty vulnerable, but they are also truthful – and that’s what I want this series to be – a real insight into starting a handmade art business.
“Dear Handmade Diary,
I should be going to sleep, I was up at 5am and have to be up at 6am tomorrow for another market and it’s gone 10pm, but I feel the need to get my raw feelings onto paper.
My rational brain is fighting my irrational brain.
My irrational brain is screaming: give up – your rubbish – it’s not worth it.
My rational brain is softly whispering: it was a new market, non established. People are so complimentary about your products – maybe it wasn’t the target audience
My irrational brain: I should flatten my business – go more main stream.
My rational brain: people bought you’re new products – you love what you do – my product is unique – it’s still early days.
I have come SO FAR in a year. This time last year the thought of a market scared me. I had a single market booked in September and that was it. The thought of anymore wasn’t even on my mind. I’m now 11 in – my one tomorrow will be my 12th – in under a year. With each market I have learnt something, about my target audience, my products and my self – but TBH I’m getting tired of answering the question of how it went, with the answer of “not so well” or “I covered the cost of entry”.
I want to be like my neighbours at markets – making sales! Even the markets they say are slow, I can see them making many more sales than me. Why is this?
I thought my products were too expensive, so I made under £20 options. I thought they too were still too expensive so i made under £10 options – it’s still not enough to make regular sales.
One thing I think I need to configure for success is target audience.
The market tomorrow is £60 for a day – luckily for me it was only £40 due to a cancellation slot – but that’s still a high barrier to break when my markets at the moment don’t seem to be very consistent in sales…
After the Sunday market is the Vegan market – which hopefully is more the right audience. Then it’s the black shuck festival, that should be spot on.
It’s just hard – and heavy. I love Wild Minder. I love it’s depth, it’s symbolism, what it stands for – but is it too much for everyone else to be viable?
I feel like not everyone gets it – how do I make people get it – or have I just not found the right people yet… who knows.
What I do know is – I should probably get to bed. Lets see how tomorrow goes…”
“Dear Handmade Diary,
Yeah, I’m not going to get into it too much but ‘tomorrow’ didn’t go much better.
I made my back entry fee + petrol → but probably no profit.
Again lots of compliments – people taking my card, and one or two investing but I’m still not getting the sales I need.
It’s exhausting – getting up early, travel, lugging boxes, setting up and then waiting. Hours and hours of waiting – hopeful – then it ends – normally disappointed – time to pack up, go home, and answer the questions of ‘how it went’.”
Although both these entries are quite honest, and a bit depressing, please don’t think it’s all lost. Markets are hard for many reasons, but I have had successes, namely being Bury St Edmunds town centre’s makers market which I attended at the start of May. At this market I sold one of my bigger pieces and was over the moon about that – read the blog post here.
Lets perk this up a little and list the things I’m proud of from the Weekend:
Things I’ve learnt/want to improve for next time:
A final thing I need to keep in mind – probably the most depressing of all when you think about it for too long, is – time’s are hard. A lot of people do not have disposable income right now. As much as they’d like to support a handmade business, my products as are all handmade goods – luxuries – so although this is super depressing, it is something I need to keep in mind.
For now – thank you for reading, and remember it’s not all lost, it’s just about learning and adjusting but not forgetting the passion and how far you’ve come. Hopefully one day soon, I’ll be getting regular sales – until then – I’ll use this blog to vent…