Hi! Welcome to my blog. My name is Jeannie... otherwise known as Jeannieinabottle. I am the owner / sole proprietor of ColorfulSparkle.
Originally, my business began with just me making bracelets in my spare time. It was an incredibly stressful time in my life and creating these bracelets helped me. I find it very therapeutic to obsessively create patterns and then organize beads in little containers. Eventually, I had too many bracelets and not enough people to give them to. So I created an Etsy account. And then I started making earrings. And then I started making necklaces. Somewhere along the way I even posted picture frames I had painted. Now I even sell resin products, beaded pens, keychains, and more.
Within a short period of time I realized I was not having too much success on Etsy. So that is when I started doing events. Mostly I thought I could promote my shop at events. (Eventually I learned I could make more money at events than Etsy, but that is another story.) My first event was a craft fair at a skating rink. It did not go so well, but a lot of people took my business card and had suggestions. That is the first piece of advice I give anyone.
Let your first craft fair be a learning experience. Do not expect to make a lot of money. Instead, get feedback from people that visit your table. Make more products that people want to buy. Figure out who the customers are for your products. Arrange your setup in a way that is welcoming to people. What are people asking about the most or looking at the most? The lessons learned at your first event are really valuable.
That experience was over 2 years ago and since then I have learned a lot that I am happy to share!
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