Weekend Of Setbacks
This weekend was one of setbacks.
I was in Chantilly Virginia at the Craftsmen's Spring Classic at the Chantilly Expo Center. This show was hyped by the promoter (Gilmore Shows)
as "#2 in Northern Virginia and #4 in the State. Consistently Named a "Top 20 Show" In The Nation - "100 Best" Show - Sunshine Artist Magazine 2014.
This show has a total of 13 Awards from Sunshine Artist Magazine.Previously Named A "Top 20" Event - Southeast Tourism Society".
It did not live up to that nor did it live up to my expectations. I have done well there in December and again in January, but that was with Sugarloaf Shows.
I wonder if the customer realize the differences? I wonder if I should continue to do Craftsmen's Shows?
In addition to horrible sales and low attendance, I BROKE MY TOE, had a frame damaged and barely covered my costs. I was hoping to use this weekend's sales to put some money away for my own trailer. It is so inconvenient to keep renting a Uhaul trailer, along with not being cost-effective. Now I will be lucky to get a couple of new tires for my truck, much less a trailer.
A couple of good things to come out of this weekend were that 3 people came back to me after seeing me in the fall and winter in Chantilly. One couple bought another frame from me (thank you!) and another praised my photos from her previous purchase. Also there was a LOT of other photographers here at this show. I did have a couple people tell me that "everything looks the same, except for your's" and "I have never seen anything like this before". I was extremely encouraged by this!
This has been a tough Spring. I have one more indoor show this month (Gaithersburg, MD) before my first outdoor show. I am looking forward to this Spring Daze in Cary NC as it is my first FREE outdoor show of the year. I have done well the past two years and I got my same spot back.
Not much time to dwell on this past weekend as I need to focus on my Sugarloaf show in 10 days and get stocked back up.
ONWARD AND UPWARD!
Comments
Yes, I did fantastic in Gaithersburg. Y'all really like me up there. I meant to make a blog post about that show (soon). I was in 'the barn' in November 2015 and I did just okay. I think the new location helped me get more notice and allowed me to display more of my work.
I WILL be back there in the Fall of 2016, hopefully in the same space as April. I plan to have more inventory as I keep shooting and finding these gems in my travels.
Please keep checking my website as I am adding new stuff all the time.
Smiling,
Kyle
I am trying to network as much as possible with other vendors to find the 'good shows'. Also I have subscribed to Sunshine Artists Magazine in hopes of getting some insider information on these shows before I commit to them.
So of these shows were 'great' the previous season and nobody know why they were down this year. One common refrain I am hearing is that 'during an election year, sales are down because of the uncertainty'. I can't find data to back that up. It is just what a lot of vendors are saying.
I will try to ice the toe and stay off of it as much as possible.