Lessons from First Market Event

After 2 years of an online shop, I’ve decided to take my shop to a live event! For my first market, I decided to keep it in Queens since it’s my hometown and all. Importantly, it was being held at Queens Museum, an art museum and I felt like it would fit my works.

The event was only 5 hours and occurred on Sunday, a day after our first winter storm so I knew there would be slower traffic. But I kept busy and had a great time.

But here are some lessons I took away from the event.

Lesson 1: Make sure the event has some of your target market.

Lesson 2: Decorate with a hint of holiday without taking away from the brand.

Lesson 3: Have someone with you to help with sales, food and bathroom breaks, and support.

Lesson 3: Dress for comfort.

Lesson 4: Have cash ready while offering a card payment system.

Lesson 5: While I have signs that say “Artwork” or “Handwritten Quotes”, I got a lot of people asking me if I did the work. There were some surprise that each of the work is unique. I think for my next event, I’ll have a big banner that says all work is handwritten.

Lesson 6: Change your table as the day move on to learn what sells and what intrigues. It helps to have an iPad to showoff portfolio.

Lesson 7: Make bigger signs for pricing.

Lesson 8: Keep busy by writing and you’ll never know who would like your work. It was awesome to be able to do commissioned work on spot! So have paper and pen ready!