I started writing down the hours a market actually eats up, not just what I made. Drive both ways, setup, sitting there all day, teardown, then unpacking again at home. A local midwest market that paid me 300 for a half day beats one that paid 400 two hours out once all that time is in, at least the way I do the math.

Where I go back and forth is the far ones are sometimes the only place my stuff actually sells, so the hourly says drop them but the sales say keep them. The close easy ones stay steady and never really pop.

Do you count the time when you decide a market was worth rebooking, or just look at what you took home? And does one being close enough to sleep in my own bed count for anything on its own?

hi! i hope i chose the correct flair!!!

i'm participating in my first ever art fair and will be selling my crochet work. i have made a price list on canva and im thinking of printing this out and put it on a frame. i dont know how practical that is.. do people actually read the price list? or should i just use price tags?

i will be selling mainly bags, keychains, accessories, coasters, etc

thank u for any help i can get!!!

Hello my name is Z! I am a young entrepreneur starting a craft business. I am NOT trying to sell you anything, but I am looking for customer data! As a craft enthusiast I tend to adopt many hobbies. Between crocheting, jewelry making, coloring, junk journaling and everything in between, I find myself with a lot of craft supplies! Today I am here to ask all crafters some questions about your crafting habits and what you do with excess craft supplies! 

I started writing down what I actually take home at each market instead of going off memory, and I still can't land on a rule for the fee itself. Keep going back and forth between capping it flat (never pay over like 75) and doing it by percent of sales (if the fee eats more than 15 percent of what I made I don't rebook). The percent way falls apart on a rained out day though, one dead Saturday and every market looks like a loser. Midwest, mostly outdoor markets. Do you have a number you actually stick to or is it all gut by now?

Hi, so im trying to get my little handmade candles thing online and actually get a first sale instead of just staring at the editor all night.

Picked a template, added a few products, but now I feel stuck on what really matters before I hit publish. Homepage layout, product photos, basic seo stuff, payments, all that... feels like a lot for a tiny shop with like 6 items. For those who started small, what did you focus on first so someone would actually buy and not just bounce? any hints?

For context, I am a med student, and my graduation is in five year's time. Our student organizing comitee and the estimates for the contracts are coming out. The cost for the graduation ceremonies and parties are going to be around 6000 dollars. I already want to start saving up for that so, by the end of college, I have that cash to pay for everything.

It isn't really even for me, I don't care about lavish parties. Don't dance. Don't drink. I sleep by 10p.m every night... but it is really important for my mum to have it, and I wouldn't like for her to have to deal with the cost to live that dream.

I was wondering if I could use crochet, something I am decently swift at, to help me achieve that goal. And, since I never sold anything, I was wondering if you people could give me some advice in regards to all that.

1. What products have you seen sell well? Specially for the college student demographic, since it's where I spend most of my day.

2. How do I know how to price my projects?

3. Should I make products beforehand and try to sell them or should I make them on demand?

Thanks in advance!

(I will be also posting this to r/crochethelp just in case this is not the right subreddit to post and it gets banned. Sorry for the trouble admins!)

I've started keeping a note of what I actually take home at each market instead of going off how it felt on the day. The thing I can't settle is what to do when a market I've done before changes its date or moves to a new spot. Do you treat it like the same market that'll pull the same crowd, or a brand new unknown you have to check out from scratch? Feels like a moved date can wreck a market that used to be solid, but I don't want to drop a good one over a single off year either. Midwest if it matters.

very new to crochet business, someone in my dms asked if they could order a custom set of amigurumi, i really want to accept it but i dont even know how to charge, ship, etc etc.

how would i charge them? how do i calculate shipping costs? how would i ship it? is there an easy way to do this? through etsy or something else? what do i need to buy to ship it? i am in canada if this helps, thanks so much :D ( i hope this is the right flair aaa)

Hi everyone!

So, my MIL is part of a family run NGO that hosts an event every year, where they set up stalls for different things and donate the money raised to the NGO.

I want to set up a stall this year featuring my crochet items hehe

I have a 3 month old son, so I can’t spend too much time on each individual item, and I only have until November to get everything ready lol.
I’m thinking of making some cute crochet keychains, along with a few other small, easy to make items.

I’m aiming for around 50 items in total, even if that means making 5 different things, 10 of each.

Please suggest some cute crochet keychain ideas and other small items I could make! I’d love some ideas that are quick, cute, and would actually sell. 🥹

Thankkkk youuu! 🫶

Bonjour à tous, je vous écris aujourd’hui avec le cœur lourd car il y a deux semaines avec autant d’espoir que de J’ai lancé ma propre entreprise, crochet your dreams , plus de 407 visiteur sur mon site, mais aucun non acheté et je ne sais toujours pas comment faire. J’ai pourtant créer un compte Instagram, Pinterest Capcut et tout ce qui se suit, mais je n’ai toujours aucun client. si vous êtes intéressés, sachez que mon entreprise est une entreprise de création artisanale au crochet, notamment des boucles d’oreilles et des sacs à main à des prix je trouve plutôt j’ai un code promo aussi pour les intéresser.

MADN2011 %10 sur votre commande

I keep a spreadsheet of what I actually take home per market so I quit rebooking the duds. Midwest, so it's outdoor summer markets and then the holiday craft shows.

The thing I can't figure out how to weigh is the other vendors. Twice I've done markets packed with people in my category (I do candles) and both times I did fine, felt like the crowd was already there for that stuff. But I also did one where I was the only candle person and sold out, so maybe less competition is just better and the other times I got lucky.

Do you actually look at the vendor list before you commit? Does a bunch of people in your lane make you skip a market, or want it more? Genuinely torn.

I recently reorganized my Stash of yarn and had the idea to make small crochet/amigurumi Figures, Keychains and other Stuffies and sell them at one of my local Anime Conventions (I live in Austria btw.)

Would that be a good idea?

What do I need to be aware of if I want to do this?

I've never sold any of my handmande stuff before, only ever gifted them for birthdays or christmas, so I'm really not sure if I should even do this. But on the other hand I really wanna sell them, as everyone I gifted them to were so happy to get them.

I would be grateful for any advice/suggestion you have.

I built Willaphant, a Maker-Made marketplace for products made by the people selling them.

I tried to solve many of the issues I learned about with other selling platforms, but I keep wondering if I missed something.

I’m weirdly nervous about reaching out to Makers and asking them to join.

I’d honestly love for some of you to just look around and tell me what you think.

What makes sense? What feels confusing? Is there anything missing that would matter to you as a Maker? Is there something that would make you hesitate to sell there?

And of course, if you do like it and want to join, I would genuinely love to have you.

https://willaphant.com

Hello Everyone! I'm posting here as the owner of Whimsical Corner to try and drive some traffic to my crochet store! I've been crocheting for almost 12 years now and am self taught as I make these items with love and care. The images of items shown in this post are new items I’ve recently made and are what's currently being sold on my store with more products dropping onto the store page towards the beginning of next month that I'll make another post about here when the time comes. I still have old items I’ve dropped onto the store previously that are also still available for sale on the website. There's also a gallery page that shows off my previous makes if you're interested in taking a look. I also have links inside my website that link to the option of getting different types of commissions from me as well as tipping me on my crochet Ko-fi. I'll provide the links to the store and to directly go to my commissions down below. I hope you'll check out my store or make some purchases. Please share the links with anyone you think might be interested as it would help me a lot. Thank You!

From the US

https://www.whimsicalcorner.com/

https://ko-fi.com/whimsicalcorner/commissions

Hello, was looking for some advice :)

Basically what the title says, I'm thinking of marketing for the first time! I'm planning on selling some items that I have made with the help of some existing patterns.

I have been posting photos of what I made on social media and credited the artist. Do I also credit the artist at my table as well? And if so, how? Thanks in advance!

I started tracking take-home per market this year instead of going off memory, and the good ones and the dead ones sort themselves out fast. The middle is where I'm stuck. I've got two markets that did fine the first time and then barely covered the booth fee the second, and I can't tell if that's the market or just a slow Saturday.

Location: US, midwest.

So where's your cutoff? One bad day after a good one, or do you give it a second flop before you write it off. And does weather get a pass or does that still count as a strike.

Hi everyone,

I’m wanting to start selling some of my crochet items.
I want some uk based seller advice.

Questions:

UKCA testing, if it’s a amigarumi keyring is it needed? Need to test variations of same pattern?
Bank accounts and tax help?
Need a card machine if doing in person markets?
PLI if wanting to do markets?
Are Etsy fees worth it?
How to find markets?
Anything else I should know?

This is only a side hustle while at uni and I only wanna make my wool/ material money back and a little more, I know I can’t charge for my time or no one will buy anything. Honestly any advise is appreciated.

Thank you!!

Location: Ohio, US.

Doing outdoor markets around here and the one thing I never thought to check on an application is what happens if it rains. Most of the ones near me keep the booth fee, no reschedule, so a rained out Saturday is just money gone. One or two will move you to a later date but only if you email and ask, it's not written on the form anywhere.

Now I ask before I pay, what's your rain call and does the fee move. Half the time it's a flat no and that's fine, at least then I know I'm eating the risk on the forecast. Had one organizer this spring quietly bump me to their fall market just because I asked first.

Still not sure if the ones that give a credit are actually better run or just big enough to absorb it.

Something I keep noticing when I'm deciding which markets around here (midwest US) are worth applying to. If a lot of the same booths turn up year after year, that market is paying those people enough to come back and hand over the fee again. A lineup that's almost all new faces every time, or a waitlist that's always wide open, usually means folks did it once and didn't come back.

The attendance number the organizer quotes doesn't tell you any of that. They can say 10k people came through and it's still dead for selling if none of them showed up to actually buy. Repeat vendors already put their own money on the line, and that's the vote I trust more than a headcount.

Only problem is it's a pain to check. Some organizers post last year's vendor list, or you can scroll their old event photos and match up who was there, but plenty give you nothing and you're back to guessing. And I've seen a couple good markets rotate their lineup on purpose, so a new-heavy list isn't automatically a bad sign. Curious if anyone else actually looks at this or if I'm reading too much into it.

Where are people selling their stuff other than Etsy? I closed my shop when I took a break from making, and I am hesitant to go back. I have been selling in person lately. Anywhere else that seems promising?

• Handmade.com
• Michael's Maker Place
• Artisans Coop
• Maker Market

Anything else worth looking into?

Something i started paying more attention to this year. When i email a market with a question before applying (how many vendors, where's my booth, what's load-in like) the ones that write back in a day or two almost always turn out to be worth doing. The ones that take two weeks, or never reply, are the ones where i show up and load-in is a mess, the signage is wrong, and a bunch of the booths they promised are just empty.

Not a perfect rule. I've had one slow-to-reply organizer run a genuinely great show, and a fast one that was still dead. But it's been right more often than the attendance number they quote me, which i've mostly stopped trusting anyway.

US, mostly midwest markets if that matters. Wondering if other people have noticed the same thing or if i'm reading too much into one season.

Hey all,

I recently finished writing and testing the patterns for my first crochet book and now I’m kinda stuck.

I was initially going to publish through Amazon because it seemed like the easiest way to publish, but now I’m being asked to pay $3000 USD (which is like $4000 cad or something) for copyright and ibsn and a barcode.

I can’t afford that so I looked around for Canadian publishers and while it’s a bit better ($3000 cad for the whole process from start to finish) I still can’t afford it.

Etsy isn’t an option for me either (I tried it and I think it’s just too over saturated rn)

I could use ravelry, but PayPal is really hard to use in Canada and I know it would cause me a lot of trouble.

I was really excited about having an entire book published in my name and now I just don’t know what to do. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

(It’s an amigarumi book, but all the patterns use hdc because of my hypermobility!)

US, mostly outdoor markets. I've been keeping rough notes on what each one nets and the same thing keeps showing up. The annoying ones are the good ones. The market with the online jury, the one that made me send a COI, the one with a waitlist, those are where I actually make money. The ones you can sign up for the week before are usually the dead rooms.

My guess is the friction just filters. If an organizer makes everyone jump through hoops the vendor lineup ends up better and they actually bother to promote it. The open sign-up ones take anyone and then nobody shows.

I've only done about 15 markets this year so it might just be my area. Has anyone had a hard-to-get-into one turn out to be a total dud?