Good point Suzanne. I guess as long as your clear up front about what you're doing either approach is fine.

Corrie, I think ladies nights are definately the way forward.

I do regular farmers markets and come home with about £100 each time. With the ladies nights I can make double that in two hours.

I think sometimes it's good to look at alternative ways of selling. My OH is a cop. I gave him a box full of samples to take around the nick, and with a bit of help from a female colleague I recieved £95 worth of orders from all the staff at the Police station.

Both of my kids are at school and so I have made many contacts there. I am doing a school fair next month which I know will be good.

In addition to my regular fairs and markets I have decided to take samples of my soap around local organisations with a view to selling to their staff. I am making up a price list of all my products along with an order form. A box of soap/gift samples will be dropped off at reception and picked up a week later. 
I have approached Morrisons and am in the process of writing to head office. I'm not sure what they will say, but I'm doing it because I've had a few requests from checkout girls to see my soap.

It might work?!

Corrie why don't you organise a ladies night yourself?
Get a few stall holders together, £2 per ticket includes free mulled wine and a mince pie! A friend of mine is organising a ladies night for Nov 14th at the primary school accross the road from me. It's her second one this year as the firts one went so well! Theres defo a market in it!!

 

Hi corrie, i eased off the fairs myself after noticing  a pattern from about Julyish and been paying more attention to private events and the shops, you are right about the pull away when there are other tables for people to visit.

The ladies night/school fairs really seems to work well.  First one I did, I made a fair whack.  I also made quite a few connections with other people who owned stalls and they'll hopefully contact me for other things as well.  Helps there's no L*** where I am, though!  Even so, most people round here aren't really L*** fans anyway so I've got the market cornered, now I just have to keep up.

It does seem that traditional craft fairs are bearing the brunt of the recession, I still have a few to come but will be more cautious next year with the ones I do. I expect to get some good business from the school ones but don't have time to set up a ladies night of my own, got shops shouting at me for stock    Back to the pot 

I do both. I have quite a bit of stock with me and offer the option of either people buying stuff there and then or ordering it and paying in two weeks when the stuff is delivered. I find you get the most custom that way, as the two weeks often crosses a pay-day so people spend more. I can't possibly have every product in every scent available so that way people can order exactly what they want.

The host gets one of my burner/melt sets in their choice of fragrance and 10% of sales to spend on my stock (rounded to nearest £5).

I also do a raffle at £1 per line. Usually make more than enough to cover the price of the gifts. Usually give away one tart/melt set and one £15 gift basket but I judge the crowd and decide on what to give there and then.

Kevin x

Corrie one of my wholesale customers does pamper night with my products and it seems to work well for her and then in turn, me. Perhaps you could get other people doing the pamper nights for you? In fact I just reminded myself to add that to the list for next year, recruit more recruits

Kev is there any legalities involved in doing your own raffle? I've never thought of holding a raffle myself, always thought it was something only schools and charities and the like could do!

With fairs, do you hand out leaflets or cards to encourage on line ordering? Just wondering if that works?

I think it sounds like it could well be something to put some serious thought to.  The good thing about it, if you plan it well, you can (like Sha says) get others to sell for you too.   

Jane, good luck with Morrisons     :buttrf:

I shouldn't think there is any problem with doing a raffle. I've been to Virgin Vie, BS and 'other' parties and they have all had a raffle

I would like to recruit more recruits too Do you offer some sort of incentive to do it Sha, or is it just the wholesale prices?

Kevin x

Downloadble pdf

Raffles are lumped with lotteries and

So as long as you don't make a profit, raffle is held at your own premises and prize is under £50 it is ok? When they say own premises, how would that work if running a pamper party?

Wholesale prices. They are treated like a regular wholesale customer and organize their own parties, hostess gifts etc They approached me and said that is what they wanted to do. I had to draw up different terms and conditions though to make sure they operate independently and do not portray themselves as being employed or representative of my company. The contacted me in the first place. I think when I recruit my own recruits I might not be so generous, perhaps instead of wholesale prices offer some sort of 'package'. I don't know, I'll have to think about it some more!

Sha, as your fairs are near Xmas, why not offer people who buy or and very tempted a % off their first order online? Do have leaflets and biz cards, a lot of people are not comfortable browsing a craft table but if they can read about your products later or look at your website, it helps.
Don't like the raffle idea at all! Smacks of church jumble sales, primary school days and bingo halls, not something I will be doing!

The girl at the off-licence is holding one at her house for me - hopefully one of the guests might ask to do one (if incentive is sufficient) and this might snowball.

Thanks Corrie, that is a good idea.

I am still not convinced that holding a raffle at someone's house as a business is completely legal! I always associate raffles with charities and school (not a church goer ) so I wonder if people would assume the raffle is for charity? 

It would be legal if tickets were not bought but the draw was on receipt/order numbers - might push a ditherer into making a purchase/order.