The downward trend in the fourth show of my Florida tour continues. Raking in a disappointing $1200 in each of the first three shows (Artfest in Ft. Myers, Coconut Grove and Naples National), I didn't think sales can get worse, but they did.
I'm now convinced of two things. The recession continues here in Florida, and the work I do is not connecting with this audience. I'm a digital artist (which disqualifies a percentage of the art-buying public), and I don't expect stellar sales at every event. But to participate in these events, I need to make enough money to cover the overhead. Thus far, in Florida, I have not been able to do that.
My impression was that most artists at Las Olas were disappointed in sales. I'm curious to hear from other artists. Were sales down for others? Howard stopped by my booth a couple times on Saturday to give me a pep talk. He'd been following my posts and assured me that Sunday was the big buying day at Las Olas. Big wind and rain probably kept some people away, but I did have sales of $400 on Sunday while only $300 on Saturday, so, I guess Howard was right.
As for the show, it seemed that Howard Alan brought in a big crowd. The streets were mostly full, even when it rained early on Sunday afternoon. The location of my booth was excellent, just off of eighth street, facing North. I was in the shade all weekend and I had easy access to my car and trailer in a metered parking lot only 1/2 block away. Parking was $1 per hour, worth it, for me, because of the convenience of having my trailer so close. Of course, my plan of being able to quickly restock as my pictures flew out of the tent in the hands of eager buyers was, in retrospect, a bit overly optimistic.
I've still got three more shows to go before I can go home to Saugatuck to lick my wounds. Next week, Bonita Springs, then Winter Park and finally, Naples Downtown... all highly ranked shows, and shows that I have done in the past with some limited success. Of course, I did OK at Las Olas a couple years ago as well. My wife, Marcia will be joining me for these last three shows. Maybe her pretty face will bring in the big bucks.
Comments
John, we are all pulling for you.
As posted in another blog I too have "pruned" my showing and the sales blossomed. I now only show the best of the best, discontinued the smaller prints, and only have one of each item in the browse bins. My husband and best friend (one and the same) replaces inventory each time I sell a piece. We found a booth and a half works better for than a 10x10 or even a corner space. People can scan the art while walking by and come on in without feeling crowded or claustrophobic. Good lighting is a must. What we spend in increased booth size and electricity cost is more than made up for in sales. We learned about lighting at a particularly dark indoor show. Jim (the best friend previously mentioned) went to the local Lowes, bought some floodlights and as soon as he put them up we made our first sale of the weekend. He went back to Lowes, bought more, and we sold more. We now have good quality lighting system (not just flood lights) throughout the booth. We moved from gridwalls covered by sheets to pro-panels. If you present yourself as a professional artist you will be perceived as a professional and people like to buy what they perceive is professional quality work. We continue to walk every show and examine what we like (or not) in other displays and implement the good. We learn a lot from talking to those who have been doing this since the good ole days and appreciate their generosity. Same goes for the sharing of wisdom in ArtFairInsiders. Thank you all.
John, I'm sorry to hear that sales were down for you. Try as Connie suggested - I've also pared down on the quantity on display and it has helped people to "see". Melanie - excellent rundown, I felt like I was with you at the show and almost holding a corner of the tent down!
Melanie Girl, you just keep pumping out the facts--that is what matters-- and you do it well. I am always cheering for ya girl.
Thanks Connie, do I get at least a B, maybe a B+? You know I am an aweful writer. Damn European ed. Yes Riverside looked like a great option but...
Just read Melanie's wrap up of the show (excellent grammar and spelling, Melanie!) -- what intrepid adventurers artists are AND what a concise fact-filled review. Me, I'm thinking as I'm reading along and those winds are whipping up on Sunday that I'd be sitting in the Riverside having bloody Mary's with brunch -- but, oh no, the HA staff and everyone is hustling around salvaging the day. What a very cool business we are in. My hats off to everyone on Las Olas.
John, I hope you are using your down time between shows to accumulate a bunch of new Florida images to add to your portfolio. That is what I would be doing if I was in your position. Oh, I would also be looking foe all the bars that had great deals on Margaritas. Shoot son!
This has to be disappointing for you John. I know you have good work and that you have work that should be selling better than this.
Have you thought of how you are displaying your work? When we were just getting started Norm would hang 101 photos, all sizes, showing everything he could do. One day another artist stopped by and he said it was nice work but that we were exhausting our customers because they couldn't make a decision. It was way too much for them to look at, they were burning out. We were trying to cover every option from high price to low price. We thought that was necessary. As we let the advice sink at each show there would be less work in the booth. Sales improved. Then we went to Winter Park where the rules were that you could only hang 20 or 21 pieces. How were we going to make any money? Lo and behold we had our best sales yet. On to Oakbrook Center where there were these 8 x 10 pegboards for display and only one bin -- what would happen? No one would see everything we had. The answer - an award and very nice sales.
Have you thought about this? Do you have a lot of stuff in your booth? If so, what do you have to lose by removing duplicates, different sizes? You have to have had a good booth shot if you have gotten into this solid group of shows. Does your booth on the street look like that?
It was starting to look like my booth mate would be the front line. By 10:15 there were enough staff and tents down to be able to go back to my booth. During all this the shoppers kept walking through the middle of it all and trying to shop. I guess they thought it was part of the show. Anyway all the spare dollies helped clear everything out and the wind held at a nice manageable 20mph for most of the day. Then the rain came and the temperature dropped every hour. I usually blow out my back and use my sides and anything I can. Until 3pm I had to have everything in my tent and it was tight but people were happy to flip and dig around. HA offered to have tents reset up for those artist that lost their booths and at least 2 of them set up again. I am so impressed with those artists. Hats off to them, they are tough. If it was me I would have been in one of those fancy Las Olas bars licking my wounds. Those that were there in the wind, rain and cold were the serious people and the crowd was pretty good. The January Las Olas was almost too crowded. The crowd on both Saturday and Sunday was just right IMO this time.
All and all it was a good show for those around me. I do have to say I was very impressed with how well everyone handled the wind. I don’t think anyone got hurt. The Howard Alan staff and the artist around did a great job getting everything under control and pretty quickly. At wholesale shows it is every man for themselves, but at the Art Fairs it is nice that most people work as a group.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next