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On Friday 3rd June 2022 I took my business to the Jubilee Artisan Market setup by Little Bird Made in Harrogate.
I have a brand called Maude & Noah, I sell homemade candles, homemade wax tarts, greeting cards that I have designed, Chickidee stock, face masks and some clothing items.
I applied to do this event, I have applied to do many events with Little Bird Made but they only allow a certain amount of the same industry in so have always been declined because there are a lot of candle business applying. I like this, however it is so disheartening when you get declined because they already have candle companies but I understand.
Anyway on Wednesday 25th May I got an email from them saying a space has become free and do I want it, when I got that email I was so surprised but so worried that I wouldn't be able to do it so emailed back declining but then quickly sent another email saying to ignore that and I will do it. Everything was confirmed on Thursday 26th May that I had the stall at the market.
A week and a day notice and it was a mad rush, thankfully I had the week off for annual leave from my regular job so I spent a lot of time making as much product as possible. I had a banner made and had to pay extra to get it to arrive in time because bare in mind Thursday was a bank holiday. I had to get a gazebo as soon as possible and a quick trip to IKEA to get some display bits.
Night before the event I tested out my SquareUp machine and it is broken which cased me to have a break down, the night before the event, it's a bank holiday so shops are shut and I have no card payment method and think the world is ending (just me having a break down).
So here is what I learnt:
Setup your stall prior to the event: I didn't like the way the stall looked, I think it looked like a school fete stall that a kid has done so if I was to setup the stall prior I could have figured out what I was missing, first of all if you look at this picture I did end up having a banner with Maude & Noah up, I was just waiting for my dad to arrive with cable ties but the stall needed a banner saying things like VEGAN FRIENDLY, SOY WAX, BIODEGRADABLE & COMPOSTABLE PACKAGING (that's the wax tarts), HANDMADE but nothing. I hate the fact that I am using old office desks and not pop up tables with proper table cloths, I hate the fact that there are cardboard boxes on the bench behind, it just doesn't look very professional. If I set it up prior I could have made changes.
Don't rush everything: Because I rushed things I found my card reader wasn't working the night before so check things out prior, I printed the signs the day before and the printer broke (thankfully we managed to fix it).
Wear comfortable clothes: I wore my Mango fake leather trousers and t-shirt plus Dr. Martens and this was the wrong outfit, the boots are heavy and keep rubbing so probably needed more comfortable shoes but also it was a hot day so the fake leather trousers just stuck to me and was uncomfortable.
Make things easy for myself: I will be getting a pop up gazebo instead of one where you have to put each pole together plus I wouldn't have anxiety of the poles falling in one us. I would also get a trolley or something to move products from the car to the site.
Take snacks: I got slightly peckish and thankfully I had my brothers help me out on the day but there was a time when my brother was gone for bout 25 minutes to get food and I just felt light headed so I think having things like Nutri-Grain bars and water.
Have more samples out: I had a few candles out of their boxes and those were the one's people purchased because they got to smell them, now the boxes are sealed up with labels and I wasn't going to seal them all but I went on a trip to Liverpool and IKEA and left my dad and brother to sort them and they sealed majority of them up.
Socialise with other stall holders: I got speaking to the lady next to me on the left and she told me about some of her experiences but I wish I spoke to the woman on my right because she was a similar age to me, she had sides to her gazebo up so I didn't feel I could leave my stall to go round and talk to her.
Chat to people walking past: I think maybe holding a candle and asking people to smell it and see what they think but maybe ask what sort of scents they like and figure out if I have a scent they will like, interacting to the public but I just got a bit shy but also because I wasn't happy with how my stand looked I kind of lost interest.
I have done two events prior to this which was a Christmas indoor market in a hair dressers in Leicester, I think there was about three businesses there and another Christmas thing in a nursery school, those events was when I was selling just the jewellery.
Anyway I am trying to get over my heart break and try to prepare for future events, I won't be accepting events a week prior to it but I will be going to more events.
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