Maker’s Markets | April 10th, 2021
The first market of 2021, I was busy crafting away during quarantine and excited to get back out there and interact with the sweet people of South Georgia!
This time, with a few markets under my belt, I was less stressed out about preparing and didn’t even do a mock setup beforehand.
This was the first market I was able to use the new grid walls.
I decided five days before the market to upgrade my main booth sign from the heavy wood piece to a custom printed vinyl banner. On Tuesday night I found this website that would make my banner and ship it within 24/48 hours, guaranteeing it would arrive on Friday giving me enough time to have it ready for Saturday’s market. I was leary about that guarantee but prepared to use the heavy old sign if it didn’t arrive in time.
Sure enough, the sign arrived Friday afternoon and it was exactly what I ordered. I was thoroughly impressed and looking forward to upgrading my table runner with them. Shout out to BannerBuzz.com, 10/10 would recommend!
Two nights before the market I decided to send out a little email. I gathered the email addresses from past orders, and emails submitted on this website and created a dope email for all 38 people. I watched the analytics as some people opened it, and when a couple of emails bounced, I called it a night. I checked the analytics in the morning and to my dismay, 4 unsubscribes. It doesn’t sound like much but it hits a little differently when it’s your own business, it’s personal. One even had the audacity to say they didn’t sign up for the email list. I was disappointed and contemplated why I even took the time to do that… Until the day of the market. Early in the day and a fellow vendor came by to say hi and says “I got your email!” before purchasing a keychain. It literally made my day and made that whole process worth it.
Another marketgoer said “I literally stalk your Instagram,” and it was the second-best thing I heard all day!
Luckily it didn’t rain until the drive home, but the wind was pretty intense. Luckily, I had the sandbags for the easy-up and sturdy displays on the table but we still had some issues.
With all the new shirts, the clothing rack was top-heavy and fell over twice! Once while the booth was filled with people, all super helpful in picking it all up. After the second time it happened we strapped it to the easy up and that solved the problem.
The grid walls were also an issue with the wind. We were able to lean one up against the light pole on the right that kept that one from blowing away. The second one seemed to be hanging in there until a big gust of wind came and it blew over despite me trying to catch it on the way down. Again some kind market-goers were quick to rush in and help pick everything up, one of which is now my chiropractor, shout out to Nomad Chiropractic!
A few pieces ended up breaking, but nothing that I can’t fix. Most of my pieces are epoxy resin so they are quite sturdy.
We took off the backdrop to allow more airflow but once we locked down all the problem areas we were good!
We had to support some of the local booths, grabbing a prickly pear plant, some of Tam Tam’s jam, kettle corn, and macaroons to take home.
So grateful to have such a helpful husband!
I appreciate your help and company!
