I've been accepted to my first Texas show, the November Paragon Fort Worth Fine Art Fest. I was excited at first but now I'm having doubts. Has anyone done this show before? If so, do you think it's worth it (I'm from Montana and looking at a 26-29 hr drive...one way) I've heard Texas is also a bugger to deal with concerning taxes. Any thoughts?
Thanks mucho!
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I've done 2 shows in Texas. One was my best show in 20 years. The other is a floating convention that I've done for 15 years. It floats to various cities around the US. This year in San Antonio was the best one. I'm from Wisconsin so the drive is only about 20 hours
Judy Peterson
3800 miles round trip from Whitefish to Fort Worth at .555 gov't per diem per mile = $2100
5 nights in a hotel at let's say $60 per night = $300
Booth fee $400
Food for 2? for 5 days, let's say $250
Before you even open your booth for your 1st sale, your cost is over $3000. Though Fort Worth has a good spring show (not Paragon) the Paragon fall show is unproven and only in its second year. Your chances of coming out ahead are slim to none.
Excellent advice. Even ignoring the gov't mileage allowance, assume 25 mpg for a lightly loaded minivan, and you're looking at 152 gallons of fuel for the round trip, and at $3.50/gallon, that's going to be $532. A full size van is going to get 14mpg, so it's even worse using 270 gallons of fuel and costing $945. What most folks forget is that the expenditures come out of of post-tax money, so the sales have to be 20-25% higher to take care of Uncle Sam. So the sales have to more like $1200 to take care of the gas bill for the land barge van. That's why I don't do Florida shows It's just not economically feasible.