I'm just wrapping up my 12th market of the year, when I went freelance I was excited to spend more time focusing on my business and markets and I'm really proud of the results.
This Christmas I challenged myself to larger markets than ever before including my largest scale market to date, a 5-day market at Circle Craft at the Vancouver Convention Center and another 5-day market with Make It at the PNE Forum.
I wanted to take you through the development of my work and booth over this Christmas season of markets. I've been doing markets since 2017 but it took me a while to really get my footing and build my style.
For Circle Craft this year I had to build a custom booth to fit a 3' x 3' space. I sketched out my design for my application and when my dad came to visit in September I asked him to help me make it real. My dad tweaked my design a bit but in the end, it was quite similar to where I started. I underestimated the time it would take us, thinking it was a one-day project but luckily my dad loves building things with me and we had a great 3 days building it.
I got tons of compliments at the show and I'm proud of the final look. I'm able to sell everything I design including prints, cards, tees, totes etc. I added the desk in the back last minute and was really grateful for it, it definitely helped me get through the 11-hour days.
After that show I did a weekend market at Eastside Flea, I am able to split my rack into pieces so I used one side of it for a rack along with my table.
In the summer I purchased a tent for my outdoor shows and at the time I considered painting a mural for the background that I could reuse for indoor booths but I couldn't decide what to paint and ended up not doing it.
I decided it was time to do it for the Make It Market, I ended up painting the shapes from my Magic Tee and cutting my information out on my Cricut. I'm really happy with how it turned out, it's eye-catching and ties the booth together.
I purchased this rack on Amazon and added the wire grids from Daiso creating a great display for my variety of work. In addition to my table, it felt like I had a mini shop and I loved it. With all of my goods packaged and displayed I just felt so professional. Another vendor thought I had gotten my backdrop printed which was so sweet as I can see all the mistakes on it but I think the hand-drawn look works for it.
In conclusion the longer markets are definitely a lot of work and exhausting, you really need help. Luckily my sister was able to help me on the weekend which was a big relief and my friend Ata helped me set up for Circle Craft and Jen helped me take it down. I am considering doing an 11 day market next year and I'll need to remember that. I love getting to meet people and share my work and that was definitely a highlight as well as getting to reunite with my vendor friends and make new ones. I love being a part of that community and I have met so many great people though it.
I've enjoyed my booth more in the last couple of years but this year I really feel like I've achieved a full and professional look. I've seen a lot of new businesses launch in the last year or two and they have such gorgeous displays. I'm really proud of them but I also want you to know that if your display isn't everything you want it to be on day one that's okay. I kept working and reinvesting for years before I reached something I really liked. I believe it's always better to try than to perfect. It's about progress, not perfection. If you're letting that hold you back from starting please don't, you got this!