Balmain Art and Craft show 3

The show has ended yesterday
I cried after I colleted my stuffs
The sales was not as good as I expected
but as a start
it's not so bad
I have sold one third of my stuffs
and after the commissions
I still have enough money to buy David a dinner
I was sad because that's still not enough for me to buy flight ticket to taiwan
but at least I've tired

Seeing almost 200 crafters in the show
my stuffs arn't very professional
but not too bad
Many many people makes bags and other fabric goods like pouch, dolls, table cloth
mine arn't too bad but not too professional
I saw many people has print out lable, description and they're just like stuffs from retail store
David said it's not necessary for me to go that far
although my works are raw, it might be a differentiation between all the goodies
that's true
I just tried my best within my financial ability
(i can do better if i am a millionaire...haha... but then i don't have to work)

Dad said he'll support me all the way to taiwan
but i haven't decided if i want to use his money to do my own business
i don't want to....
he said we have to look at the long term
it's an opportunity and we have to take risk
yeh, but using my parents money to take risk isn't my style...

dad said experience costs money
that's so true (why all the stuffs he said are so true?)
after this show, i definately have learnt a lot

this is the conclusion for this show

(1) if i have any chance to join this kind of show, I need to make sure if i am the one who take care of my own goods and can sell my own stuffs at the counter. It's quite bad that you let other people to sell your stuffs, well, it won't be too bad if there's only a few customers, then the sales people can explain everything to the customers, but if there are 50 people in the room, obviously your stuffs will just left out... so next time, if i am not the seller, or i cant present in the first place, i rather not to join it... making money is just a short term thing, I want people to know my brand instead..
(2) know your market! Shame that I didn't think about it before I join the show! The thing is, you have to know what kind of people will go to the show and what kind of people are living around the area... the main customers at the Balmain show are parents, so I have sold lots of mugs, one third of the bags and very few notebooks, usually notebooks are the best seller on my etsy shop, but obviously expensive notebooks arn't what parents will buy..
(3) I still have so many things to improve... my sewing skills, my printing skills, time mangement, inventory records, delivery

that's true that we need to "buy" experience
i hope that next time i can do better