Back in April I received a phonecall all the way from Berlin, if I wanted to join DaWanda at the MuseumMarket on May 17th in Amsterdam. I've never attended a market as a seller, despite encouraging words from friends, telling me that my products would fit in well and that I should give it a shot.
- What if no one would stop over at my booth? I had visions of myself sitting on a folding chair all day long, feeling miserable.
- What if no one likes the things I make?
- I am a big 'ol introvert and pretty awkward, so getting out there is not my cup of tea. At all.
Reasons to do give it a go this time:
- I don't really do New Years resolutions, but two of the things on my sort-of-resolution-list this year are: saying 'yes' more often, and trying out new things.
- My friend Eefje wanted to come with me. It's great to try out new things, and facing things that scare you with a good friend. At least we would have fun!
- DaWanda could arrange a bit of a discount (you know us Dutchies, we like our discounts!) on the booth, and they would take care of the social media part of the market.
- The whole thing would take place in Amsterdam, that's on the other side of the country. The only person I know in Amsterdam is friend Nardje (Hi, Nardje!), and making a fool of yourself surrounded by people you don't know, sounds a lot better than doing so in a place where you are likely to run into people you actually know, right?
- Never try, never know. Thanks Lieke ;-)
On our way! It was a last minute decision to do take some stools. We were traveling by train, so we couldn't take as much as we could have if we traveled by car. Most of saturday night was spent making a nifty little construction that would enable us to take them along.
Everything's set up, Eefje snatched us up some coffee, and we are ready!
I love those fabric packages Eefje made
I've known Eefje since we were 6, but I don't have many pictures of us together,
so I like having this one!
The I Amsterdam sign, with the famous Rijksmuseum in the background
DaWanda's booth
Well how did it go? Great! I had a wonderful time, and was very happy I decided to go. I even want to go again during summer. We had loads of fun, and even made quite some sales. Especially the bags and postcards were a hit. It was pretty busy all day long!
Things I would do differently next time:
- I expected things to go slow, but from the moment we started unpacking, people were coming over, asking questions and even making purchases already. I thought things would be slow, so I took pen and paper to make pricetags right there on the spot. Next time I would type and laminate them in advance, so I could use them from the getgo.
- Take an extra tablecloth for the front of the booth, so people wouldn't be able to see the mess going on underneath the table
- Take some more bags, some of them sold pretty fast, and I think I may have been able to sell more of those.
Last but not least, to those of you who commented on the post friday before the market, those comments meant a lot to me. And thanks for all of the useful tips!
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