Hello there! Have you been thinking about selling your homemade goods in a craft mall booth? It can be a difficult decision since it takes a lot of your time to create a successful booth business. I have just finished with a 6-month lease at a local craft and antique mall. Did it all go as planned? No. Am I still glad I took the chance and rented a booth? Definitely.
Here are a few things I learned from selling my painted furniture and home decor.
While you might be excited to get started on your booth business, take your time and look into different places. I thought the best location was the one that has been in business a long time and many people have a booth there. The building was large and packed full of different size booths and all types of merchandise. If this craft mall was good enough for them, it must be right for me. That’s all the research I did ahead of time. Yes, the mall was full of all different types of items but what were people really shopping for and buying? I realized a few months later that people were buying things they could carry. Not very many people came in prepared to haul out two end tables or a dresser.
motto. When your goal is to sell painted furniture but have a small booth (4x4) it can be tough only being able to put one or two pieces in at a time. I liked to move the home decor around at least once a month that way people stop to see what new things I have added. If your space looks the same every time then they will just walk past. Craft and antique malls get a lot of repeat shoppers looking for unique items.
Picking just the right number of items to put in your booth can be a challenge. I wanted to put as much as I could in the booth, to give people options. I stacked tables and added my cute little home decor items on top. I put up shelves and hung pictures. Well that just ended with damaged end tables and items moved around. After taking advice from a booth business group, I took out a few items and went with the less is more motto. When your goal is to sell painted furniture but have a small booth (4x4) it can be tough only being able to put one or two pieces in at a time. I liked to move the home decor around at least once a month that way people stop to see what new things I have added. If your space looks the same every time then they will just walk past. Craft and antique malls get a lot of repeat shoppers looking for unique items. The difficult part when I added smaller items to my booth was that they were newer items not antiques which most shoppers were on the hunt to find. Focusing on these smaller home decor items took time away from what I really enjoy doing which is find and paint furniture.
I have learned a lot these past 6 months and I am so glad I jumped in and tried something new. Not everything in your business is going to go perfectly but, in the end, you will gain more experience and use that towards your next adventure. I can’t wait to see what my next adventure will be.
Share this post and leave a comment.
~Becky
Becky's Paintbrush
Comments