Get Ready for Craft Show Season

This week on the Craft Business Challenge

Preparing for craft shows with loads of craft booth lighting ideas, a printable craft show packing checklist PDF, and shade options for irregular-sized outdoor booths.   

In early April, craft business owners are emerging from months that are typically fairly quiet.

If you sell at craft shows, you've probably discovered which ones you've been accepted to for the upcoming year (or you'll find out soon). You're likely creating stock and thinking about what displays you need for your booth.

You're preparing for the busy months ahead and making sure you have everything in place for a successful sales season.

With that in mind, this week we'll take a look at preparing for craft show season by ensuring your booth is well lit with plenty of portable lighting options. You can also check out my craft show packing checklist to ensure you have everything you need when you're at a show.

Finally, if you've committed to do some outdoor shows that provide an irregularly shaped booth space, shading your booth will be an issue you'll need to deal with. If a standard 10x10 canopy won't fit in your space, I have shade options for you to consider.

Plus, I'm sharing some of my reader's favorite posts, and an in-depth guide to applying to craft shows.

What's New This Week?

How to Apply to Juried Art Shows

If you're about to start applying to craft shows for the first time, you might be surprised by all of the requirements and the process that's involved.

To help you get started, this week, I've completely rewritten the guide to applying to juried art shows to help you make the best impression with your applications.

You can read all about it here:

NEW: How to Apply to Juried Art Shows

Craft Fair Printable Packing List

Do you worry every time you pack for a craft show that you've forgotten something important? This list of what to bring to a craft show, plus a printable packing checklist you can download will help keep you organized as you get ready for shows.

I published this list of craft show essentials a few years ago, but the printable craft show packing checklist PDF is brand new, just in time to get yourself organized for craft show season.

NEW: Craft Fair Printable Packing List

Best Craft Business Tips

I'm trying something a bit new this week. I don't normally post roundups, but I thought readers might be interested to check out some of the most popular posts on this site.

If you're starting a craft business, and you don't quite know where to begin, these top posts will give you a good place to start.

NEW: Best Craft Business Tips

Timely Tips

Focus: Get Ready for Craft Show Season

Craft show season is starting to heat up, and it's time to get your booths in top shape!

7 Booth Photos Featuring Great Portable Lighting: Lighting is an easy thing to overlook when designing your craft booth, but that can be a big mistake, particularly at indoor shows.

It's hard to show your products at their best without good lighting. These 7 booth photos show you what a huge impact good lighting has on a display and provide you with ideas and resources for lighting up your own booth.

More Lighting Examples: If you're convinced you need great lighting to complete you booth, and you want more portable lighting ideas, you'll find them here. While these photos all feature jewelry booth lighting, the lighting solutions shown will work for all kinds of craft displays.

Shade for Irregular-Sized Craft Booths: Irregular booth spaces can be full of challenges, particularly at outdoor shows. If you're doing some outdoor shows that provide a booth space that won't fit your standard 10 x 10 canopy, you won't want to be standing unprotected in the hot sun all day. You'll need to do some thinking about how to provide shade.

Here are some options to help you get out of the sun when you can't use your regular craft tent.

Printable Signs for Your Craft Booth

Encourage your customers to splurge a bit!

I have plenty of printable craft booth signs in my Etsy shop to inspire your customers to treat themselves and support your small business.

Show your customers some love! "We love you for loving handmade."

Encourage your customers to splurge a little. "Life is short. Buy the soap."

"Life is short, buy the jewelry."

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