I was going through some old pictures that I have saved from a while back, and I stumbled across some pictures of some of my early booth setups. These are from back when I was going to craft fairs, before I found my love of the conventions, and I was just struck by everything. My booth setup has significantly grown from 5 years ago. I'm not talking about size, I just mean everything is so much better.
When I started out I did a lot of researching online for how to setup the best booth. Unfortunately (both then and now) there isn't much out there for what I was needing. I tried to take advice from so many different places, that the booth ended up looking mish-mashed and actually ended up with a look that I was trying to avoid. Since then, I have improved so much! No doubt that has helped to increase my sales, as well.
Back in the craft fair days, I was super happy if I broke even and made back my booth fee. If I made a little more, then it was a great success! At the beginning of 2019 is when I did my first con, and it was a game changer. My items were such a success, that I practically immediately stopped attending the craft fairs I was doing before and dug right in to the convention scene. I dabbled a bit that first year, and had no regrets as to the sudden change in events. I had so many plans setup for the next year, I was going to attend as many conventions as I could, and hopefully do so well that I could turn this into my full time job.
Well, the next year was 2020, and we all know what happened. So many cancellations and postponements over the next 2 years slowed everything down for me. Luckily, I still had the day job (I even got a promotion in there), so I didn't have to worry about my income during all the lockdowns. I truly feel for those who already were doing this as their full time income, and the struggles that they no doubt went through during this unforeseeable and unprecedented time. I only lost $75 for a small con booth fee during this time, and I count myself extremely lucky.
Now we are in 2022! Things are started to get back to normal for us, and my schedule is looking pretty jam-packed (especially in the next couple months). There are several conventions that I can't even attend because there are schedule conflicts with another convention I am attending. Things are looking way up for everything, and I'm hoping it continues to do so. I hope to see everyone at one or more of my upcoming cons! Check out my Events page to see where I will be next!
Comments