Show Time

 "I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

Helen Keller

Holiday Craft Show Season is just around the corner and it is a whirlwind of activity in my sewing room to create enough inventory for the two shows I will be participating in this year.  The first will be next month, Oct. 9th, at the "Deep in the Arts of Texas" Show, sponsored by the Randolph Air Force Base Spouses Club held in the Live Oak City Civic Center.  This one day show is held every year and is quite popular and well attended so we look forward to a busy day there.  The next one is a week long craft show in downtown San Antonio, TX, sponsored by the First Baptist Church.  The show runs from November 15 through the 20th at the Wolfson House located on the corner of Broadway and 4th St. in a lovely Victorian house.  If any of my readers are in the area you are invited to attend this wonderful show in a relaxed cozy holiday atmosphere with free refreshments served all day, everyday of the show.  At both shows there are a variety of items, clothing, table linens, jewelry, Christmas ornaments and foods to buy in a wide range of prices that are affordable and reasonable.

I enjoy getting ready for these shows because I love the atmosphere and the friendly customers that are in the holiday spirit.  This year I am featuring my sets of doll quilts and pillow combos and the "Flower Child Series" of Pillow Dolls, that are child friendly with their hand drawn faces and made out of cotton fabric and polar fleece. For the adults there are aprons made from recycled blue jeans trimmed using cotton fabric in a variety of designs and of course there will be the usual Holiday table linens, quilts and other gift giving ideas.

Show Preparations

I have been so busy this last couple of weeks making last minute preparations for my shows. I participate in a local Trade and Market Days show once a month and it seems that every month I am scrambling to get everything ready to go. If it isn't inventory, it is displays that need to get revamped for each show, and this month is no different. This Saturday I will be kicking off the holiday season of craft shows with the Randolph Air Force Base Officers' Spouses' Club Holiday Bazaar, "Deep in the Art of Texas". This show is held every year and is their major fund raiser for their scholarship fund and other charity organizations that they help sponsor.

I first started doing shows last year, and not having any experience at it, I think I did okay, I was lucky. This time around I just want to give my booth space a little face lift with some new racks and table top containers. Where to begin?

Garage sales!

Last month our community had its annual fall garage sale and my hubby and I set off early just to take a look see. I am not really a garage sale junky but DH can browse all day if given the chance. We made several stops and found that other peoples trash was our trash also, so we passed on any purchases. We made our way through the maze of streets, the layout always confuses people that don't live here, and methodically worked our way from one garage to another.

Finally, paydirt, we stopped at what seemed a multi-family sale with racks of clothing and tables piled with anything and everything you could think of. Hubby made his way around looking at some tools, which he doesn't need and probably won't use, and picked up a couple of things. I on the other hand headed to a table full of sewing items, being a quilter I am always on the look out for fabric finds. Well, I didn't find fabric but I found what would normally be a $40.00 pair of scissors marked for $2.00, the first bargain of the day. At that point I had to remind myself what I was looking for and force myself to stay on track, "look for display items", I told myself.

Next stop was a table piled high with wicker baskets where I found this great basket perfect for displaying my baby blankets, I was on cloud nine. There was also several other baskets that would work for a variety of items so I payed for them and headed out. I bought four lovely baskets for all of $10.00, a great find at a great price.

I feel that you should never purchase anything new if you don't have to. Some items need special types of display setups but if you can make it or use items from a garage sale, or thrift store then go for it. This is a great way to keep your profits from flying out the door.


My next stop was the local hardware store, you know the one where everyone wears an orange apron. I picked up four 8ft lengths of 1X2 and some hinges, wire mesh and other assorted items of hardware and headed home to my garage. I had decided to make a hinged display wall where I could show off some of my smaller items. I had worked it out all in my head and on paper and so I set up my work space and proceeded to cut, screw and staple things together.

Each section of the display stand measures 4 ft tall by 2 ft wide and folds flat making it easy to move and store, very portable and it fits in my small car nicely. It is made to clamp to the edge of a table so that you add height to your display without taking up table space. If you wanted to, you could stand it on the floor but it is not very tall. The next step is to spray paint it white so that it will not be a distraction to customers. I want them to focus on what is on the display wall and not "the display wall".

Tomorrow is setup day for this weekends show at the civic center and I will be taking pictures of how it all comes together. I think I will also have a suggestion box at my booth and see what customers have to say about my merchandise and my setup.

What do you think of this display wall idea? If you have any cost cutting display ideas please share and comment.

Thursday Tips - Craft Shows and Credit Cards

There are many things to remember and prepare when deciding to do craft shows. Inventory and how to display it is usually the first thing that comes to mind when getting ready but one thing that sometimes is put on hold until the last minute is the decision to accept credit cards.

I am not an expert in this area but I will share some of the things I found out as I did some research for my own company.

There are many different companies and banks that can fill the need but I can not stress how important it is to do your research. When I first decided to do shows last year I Googled "merchant services" and I was given a number of options to choose from. I did my online research but there were many questions with the big one being about costs. Although very quick and easy to have a card reader especially a wireless one, it can add up to more than you are willing to spend.

Some of the charges that can add up are:

1.) monthly service fees

2.) monthly wireless connections fee (just like a wireless phone fee)

3.) credit card processing fees, these vary between types of cards and sometimes depends on the amount being charged.

4.) statement fees (there is a charge for the company to provide you with a monthly statement of all transactions)

5.) equipment rental or purchase fees and a wireless card reader can run up into the hundreds of dollars.

Just be sure what you are getting and what it will cost before you sign any type of a contract. Some companies will offer a "no contract" setup but often these require that you process a minumum amount of transactions per month. When I was contacted by one company I was told that I could get a refurbished card reader and I later found out that these so called refurbished card readers would be obsolete within 4 months because of new laws concerning the type of printouts they were using. I found this out after researching the equipment model and cross referencing with a number of other companies. Just as with any purchase be sure of what you are getting and what it will cost you in the end.

The next two options can be accessed online through a wireless connection. You can check with the show organizers if there is wireless services available, sometimes it is free and sometimes there is a small charge. You could also use your own wireless connection card for your computer, if you own one or an iphone.

Just by chance a show organizer was the one that told me about "Propay", http://epay.propay.com/, an online service with fees that start at $34.95 per year and can be upgraded depending on the services required and of course, the fees increase with the amount of services. I found it very easy to sign up and was ready to go by the next day.

With this service you can process cards online with the ease of a card swiper(card reader is an extra charge) that attaches to your computer or you can store info on the card swiper and download it at the end of the day. If you do not have a laptop you can use your iphone or process individual purchases by phone very easily. My one bit of advice if you plan to process by cell phone is that when you sign up use your wireless number as your business phone. When processing transactions use the cell phone that is listed as your business phone on your account, this will make it easier and cut down the number of steps required. Your funds are processed within 1-3 days and can be transferred to you bank account or you can get a prepaid mastercard to use your funds directly through Propay.

There is also another online system called "Intuit" http://www.intuit.com/ that can be used with Quick Books and although I have not reasearched all its aspects it does sound very reasonably priced at $12.95 per month. This is a good price for someone that is just starting out and there are no contracts to sign, so cancellation can be done at any time. This service can also be used to process cards on sight with the use of a laptop and a wireless connection or you can use your iphone. With Intuit your funds are deposited directly into a business bank account within 1-3 days of when transactions are processed.

Both of these last two options are user friendly and you can access your statements online and print them out at home if you like. I do suggest that if you choose to do Propay or Intuit you do the online sign up at least a week ahead of time just in case you run into any problems.

Remember you are not required to take credit cards at all and sometimes show organizers will provide a check cashing, credit card station for a small fee that is either paid by the vendor or the customer. Another idea is to check and see if there is an ATM available where customers can use their debit or credit cards to access funds. Some vendors will set a minimum charge that they will process, be forewarned, this is against credit card rules of use. According to Mastercard Company, it is considered discrimination to only allow charges of a certain amount or to charge a processing fee. You can read the rules of use for Mastercard at http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/support/rules.html
Visa rules of use can be found at http://usa.visa.com/merchants/index.html#/page2

I do hope this information is helpful and I do not claim to be an expert in this area, so please do your own research before you decide which type of credit card merchant account to use, if you decide to accept credit cards.

As always remember to have fun and smile.