You’re looking to expand your business and you’ve decided that you want to do vendor events. Events are a great way to get your product seen by more people and bring in more income for your business.
In order for you to bring in the orders and income, you want to make sure that an event is right for you. One way to do that is to do your research on an event you’re interested in.
Do your due diligence!
I’ve outlined some tips to help you determine if an event will be a good fit for you.
Expenses
Figure out what your expenses will be for the event, including vendor fees for the event, lodging, food, travel/gas, employee’s pay, vehicle rental, booth setup costs, and making/buying inventory. Does it make sense financially to do this event?!
Dates and Times
Do the dates and times of an event align with your schedule? Make sure you have adequate child care coverage and you’re available from your job. Make sure you are available for the WHOLE event; that includes the setup process and teardown. You can get banned from an event quickly if you teardown your booth and leave an event early.
The Booth
Does the event have a booth size that you can make work for your items? If you sell painted furniture and the booth sizes are 5×5, then chances are this event is not for you …unless you can take on a double or triple booth if your budget allows.
Setup
If you need help with the setup of your booth and canopy, is your help available that day? If you can do it yourself, keep in mind the setup and teardown time limits at events.
Inventory
Ask the event coordinator if there’s an expected amount of people they are expecting to see at their event. This will help you judge on how much inventory you need to take or make.
Juried Event vs. Non-juried Event
With juried events, there is a selection process on what vendors are accepted to have a booth at the event. One of the good things about this type of process is that it typically limits the amount of vendors with the same items. You don’t want an event where half of the vendors are selling candles or tumblers.
So for a non-juried event, they typically accept everyone that applies. So for those of you that sell a specific, popular item, chances are that there will be someone else selling that item too. In that case, you need to stand out more with your displays.
With non-juried events, you’ll see more flea market/yard sale type booths.
Also, if the event has already announced some of their accepted vendors, do those vendors look promising? Scope out the competition.
You decide which type of event is best for you!
Event Location
Is the event being held at a great location? Determine what you think a great location is.
For me, I don’t want to be in a location where, if it rains, water pools under my canopy. Customers most likely won’t want to step in water to see your items. Also, if the location is in the middle of nowhere, what’s the wifi situation? I’ll need wi-fi in order to take credit card payments. Wifi can be bad anywhere, so check on that too.
Rules and Terms
Take a look at an event’s terms and rules for the event. Are they something you can get behind?
Coordinators of events need to have rules in place to ensure vendors are committed and they don’t get stiffed at the end of the day, but if their terms have a negative vibe, seem outrageous or are completely unaccommodating, it could be a sign of what’s to come. So do they have a positive vibe in the emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, etc…?
Previous Event
Is this the 3rd Annual event for this particular event? See what others have said about the events previously. Social Media is a great place to search for this.
Go to the host’s page and check out their previous event pages. Did anyone leave a review or have something to say about the event?
Marketing For The Event
A lot of elements go into making an event a success. Ask the coordinator questions about how they’re planning to make their event.
If the coordinator is just relying on word of mouth, you may be in for a slow day.
Don’t forget that you need to help market the event on your end too, but they shouldn’t rely on their vendors to do it all for them.
So, what are some things you’d look for before deciding to apply for an event?