Out of the Pickle Jar

A blog where I can embrace over-sharing the logistics behind small business, motherhood, and traveling with kids.

All my craft fair sales in a graph, and why I only show at 2 each year now

As I was sharing about Renegade sales last week, I got super curious about ALL the sales. Here's a graph of all my craft fair sales, sorted by 1. Length of craft fair, 2. MM/YY in time

I really loved graphing this out and it's very fascinating to look at this and reminisce through the years... If you notice, I have a pretty steady craft fair cadence now. Each year:

I never miss a SF Etsy Holiday Emporium (bc Rebecca & the planning team are awesome & I can't ask for a better boothmate (4 years running now!)
I apply and do one Renegade if I have energy (and if I get accepted! 2016 I think I didn't get accepted to the one I applied to, and 2017 was getting married/remodeling a house)
I try to accept any weekday pop-up invitations from companies (I hire my cousin (who sometimes doesn't have to work weekdays as a PA) to vend them while I'm at work)

There are so many hot and happening craft fairs out there, but I don't see myself branching out beyond SF Etsy, Renegade, and workplace pop ups, because I've figured out what works for Pickles and the energy I have to spend on weekends.

In that way, 2015 worked out very unintentionally well. I had way, way more time and energy 4 years ago and I was very stoked to meet customers, so I pretty much applied to any craft fair in the Bay Area I got wind of. (Side note: I never thought it was worth it for me to travel because (1) I don't want to take PTO to do a craft fair (2) I live so close to one of the best craft fair cities in the country, so why travel away for it?)

I didn't plan it this way, but I think this is a great strategy if you're looking to establish yourself in specific events: attend a lot in the timespan of a year or two and then decide which ones you sell well at, like the vibe of, meet other vendors, etc. Now that I'm much busier in both my personal and professional life, I know exactly which 2-3 I'll attend each year and roughly how much I'll sell, which means I don't spend time looking up new craft fairs, figuring out how new venue parking and setting up works, etc.

Next up: how it legit only takes me 2 hours to prep for and clean up from each of my craft fairs.

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About Kirstie

Hi! I’m Kirstie. I started A Jar of Pickles 10+ years ago, but if you follow me on IG Stories, you know the products are only half the story.

Between managing a business and the constant chaos of raising two tiny humans, my DMs are usually filled with requests for links, traveling recs, and both asking for and giving advice for raising kids.

IG Stories disappear after 24 hours, but my recs (and requests for them) don't, so I here's a space to keep it all in one place!

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