As some of you know, I have a fine art painting habit which takes me to up to 20 events per year. As we all know, art shows are rediculously expensive when you note the entry fees, entry preparation costs, travel expenses, booth fees, sales tax collection and income tax filing requirements.. Since I sell nothing but originals, getting to the point of my work being self supporting has not yet arrived despite my years of doing summ outdoor events..So when my nearly full-time part-time day job evaporated when it became inconvenient for my former employer to allow me to have the time to do summer art shows on the weekends, I had to come up with some sort of an income stream to replace the money I was making at Home Depot (they treat and pay their average employee like a roman galley slave and most of their products come from the people's republic...buy from the other guys)....So I started to make and sell scented soy jar candles. I make an all-soy candle with no dyes or other additives and I put it in a very plain package. They have been well-received. I do several events with the candles where my wife works the candle booth and I work the art booth. The promoters for these events are very accommodating and will often place us side by side. These events are usually in the early spring and early fall. Then I do a crazy 12-15 weekend season where my wife and I are doing 1-3 events per weekend. This runs until the 2nd or at best 3rd weekend in December. Then it's sleepy time/art show applications until spring.The fall craft show season is a whole bunch of one day events for the most part which have table fees of less than $100. Many are churches, synogogues, and high schools. Average attendance is under 5000 people But, I think I had a great fall season thanks to all my repeat customers, phone orders and wholesale orders...if any of you are out there reading this, Thank You! I am sure that I made more in 15 weekends than I did doing art shows all summer.. Especially if you look at net profits after expenses... No overnight travel, lower mileages, lower cost of goods....Along the way, I noted some things:1) the local craft show scene is awash in wearables. I see a some of the 'jewelers' that I see on the summer show circuit plus the next crop of summer show 'jewelers' at these events. I also see a lot of folks trying their hands at women's wearables. The jeweler all complain that there are too many jewelers at the events. I ask them, well, what are you going to make to sell which will get you out of the over-supplied category. They all expect the other folks to get out off the business for them so they will be one of the few survivors. Makes sense to me....2) Buy/sell is officially prohibited at most events, but the events are awash in it. I did an event in Delaware which has a lot of documentation requirements to participate, including submission of raw material receipts, workshop images, paperwork, restrictive contract..... So I get there and someone has bought a 10 space suite of booths and is vending a total obvious buy/sell paradise. Then I look around and see multiple 3-4 booth 'suites' which are more of the same...The promoter is surprised when I complain and later asks how to spot it..... It's a good event for me and it's her first year doing this event as chair, so we do a little touristing and chat. Hopefully, she brings the hammer with her next fall and does a 'Carrie Nation' on these folks before ejecting them. There was no stomach for it this year.3) times must be getting harder for the promoters. More and more of them are allowing 'consultants' and 'vendors' into their events to fill the available spots. There are no end of these folks...cosmetics, candles, jewelry, fashion, and food.... the number of franchisees and consultants is increasing...again, the focus is on the female customers who make up the bulk of the attendees who buy anything. One promoter simply announced that it was too hard/too much trouble to screen out buy/sell, so they were no longer trying..As long as I am making a profit, I will keep doing these events, but there will soon either be a reckoning in the wearables division, or one group will fade, with another eager group to take their place (more likely). The promoters would be hard pressed to fill their events with original craft if all the jewelers and wearables makers dropped out..
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