Three Things I Learnt From My First Christmas Fayre

At the end of last week, I took Isobelle's Pantry into the wild and had a table at my very first Fayre.  I was such a busy bee all week, worrying that I'd forgotten something important and, sadly, it wasn't quite the success I was hoping it would be.  However, I learnt three lessons that I'll be sure to take on board for the next time!

RESEARCH YOUR VENUE
As this was my first time selling in public, I wanted to go for a venue that was rather low key. I treated it as a trial run to minimise the chances of getting in a flap in front of customers!  Unfortunately, despite the organiser's claims of promotion, there were very few customers.  Although I was disappointed with the number of sales, I'm actually quite glad that I was eased in gently to selling in person!  I'm already looking for locations with a larger footfall.

PLANNING YOUR STALL IS VITAL
Before even thinking about what stock I was taking with me, I got onto Pinterest to research other people's visual displays. I decided to go for a festive colour theme that complimented both my handmade and vintage products. Overall, I was really happy with how the stall looked. It took next to no time to arrange it all too, as I had a mental image of where everything would go. I managed to find a table cloth and runner in Primark to draw attention.  I also took along vintage suitcases and wrapped up an empty box to create height at either end of the table.  I'll definitely be using these thrifty merchandising tricks again.

ENJOY YOURSELF
I was super nervous as I was setting up, but after a short while I felt relaxed and started chatting to other stall holders.  This proved to be just as valuable as talking to customers.  I was recommended another event to sell at and collected business cards from fellow sellers.  Turns out that I was being quite the business woman and was networking without realising!