Was the Event Actually Worth It?

How Small Businesses Should Evaluate Vendor Events Before—and After—Signing Up

If you own a handmade business long enough, eventually your calendar starts filling with events.

Craft shows. Festivals. Farmers markets. Fairs. Holiday markets. Home shows. Community celebrations. Fundraisers. Pop-ups.

And once your business becomes established, something else starts happening:

The invitations start coming to you.

“We’d love to have you as a vendor!”

“Thousands of people expected!”

“Huge annual event!”

“Only a few vendor spaces remaining!”

It’s exciting.

It’s also very easy to fall into the trap of believing that a busy event calendar automatically means a growing business.

We’ve learned that isn’t necessarily true.

An event can generate thousands of dollars in sales and still be a mediocre business decision once you calculate everything it took to get there.

Another event might produce lower sales but introduce your company to hundreds of new customers, generate online orders afterward, create valuable relationships and become something worth attending every year.

That’s why we’ve started looking at events differently.

The question isn’t simply:

“How much did we sell?”

The better question is:

“What did this event actually do for our business?”

Welcome to the second installment of Behind the Handmade Business.

Treat an Event Like an Investment

One of the biggest mistakes a growing business can make is treating a vendor application like buying a ticket.

You’re not purchasing admission.

You’re making an investment.

A $50 local craft show fifteen minutes from home and a $1,000 multi-day event requiring employees, hotels, travel and thousands of dollars of inventory are completely different financial decisions.

The larger the investment, the more research it deserves.

And a professional organizer shouldn’t be offended when a business considering investing hundreds or thousands of dollars asks reasonable questions.

Before we commit, we want to know what we’re buying.

How to Spot Questionable Events Before Sending Money

Not every event advertised to small businesses deserves your vendor fee.

As your business becomes more established, you’ll likely receive more invitations through email, social media and direct messages promising incredible exposure, enormous crowds and opportunities you supposedly “don’t want to miss.”

Some will be fantastic.

Others deserve considerably more investigation.

We’ve learned that the bigger the promises, the more comfortable we should feel asking questions.

Here are some things that make us slow down before sending money.

🚩 A Brand-New Event Promising Enormous Attendance

Every successful annual event once had a first year.

Being new doesn’t make an event bad.

But if an event has never happened before and is advertising “10,000+ expected attendees,” we’d like to know where that number came from.

Is it based on another established festival occurring alongside it?

Is there a comparable event?

Is there a significant advertising campaign?

Does the venue routinely attract those crowds?

Or is 10,000 simply the number the organizer hopes will show up?

There is an enormous difference between expected attendance and established attendance.

A first-year event might become phenomenal.

Just understand that you’re investing in an unproven concept.

🚩 They Won’t Discuss Vendor or Category Counts

If you’re paying to participate, asking how many vendors are expected is reasonable.

So is asking how many businesses will be selling products similar to yours.

An organizer doesn’t need to guarantee exclusivity.

But there’s a difference between healthy competition and accepting everyone willing to pay.

If an event has 100 booths and eight of them are handmade soap companies, we’d rather know that before submitting payment.

A quality event is generally curated, not simply filled.

🚩 Applications Never Seem to Close

You’ve probably seen this:

ONLY A FEW VENDOR SPOTS LEFT!

Two weeks later:

STILL ACCEPTING VENDORS!

Then five days before the event:

LAST-MINUTE VENDOR OPPORTUNITY!

Cancellations happen. Legitimate openings occur.

But continually extending applications or manufacturing constant urgency can also indicate that an event is struggling to fill—or that there was never much of a vendor limit to begin with.

Urgency shouldn’t replace due diligence.

🚩 Payment Is Urgent but Event Information Is Vague

We’re cautious when an organizer is extremely clear about how to pay them but surprisingly unclear about everything else.

Before sending money, we should be able to determine things like:

● Exact location

● Event hours

● Setup and teardown times

● Booth dimensions

● Indoor or outdoor setup

● Electricity availability and cost

● Parking

● Insurance requirements

● Weather procedures

● Cancellation/refund policies

● Expected vendor count

● Advertising plans

If the payment instructions are three paragraphs long and the event information is three sentences long, we’re probably going to have some questions.

🚩 Reasonable Questions Are Treated Like an Inconvenience

Vendors are businesses too.

Asking about attendance, advertising, competing vendors, setup logistics or cancellation policies isn’t being difficult.

We’re deciding whether to invest our company’s money.

An organizer doesn’t need to have every answer immediately.

But evasiveness, hostility or repeatedly avoiding straightforward questions can provide a preview of what communication might look like once they already have your vendor fee.

🚩 The Advertising Doesn’t Match the Claims

If an event claims tens of thousands of attendees but you can find almost no evidence of previous events, investigate.

Follower counts aren’t everything.

Some long-established fairs and festivals draw enormous crowds without having impressive social-media accounts.

Look at the entire picture.

Search for photographs from previous years.

Look for local media coverage.

Check old event pages.

Look at comments, shares and community discussion.

See whether other businesses mention attending.

Ask previous vendors.

A legitimate established event should usually leave some kind of footprint.

🚩 They’re Marketing Harder to Vendors Than Customers

This is one of our biggest considerations.

Look at the organizer’s social media.

Who are they talking to?

If almost every post says:

VENDORS WANTED!

NOW ACCEPTING VENDORS!

ONLY FIVE SPACES LEFT!

…but you see very little telling the public why they should attend, pay attention.

Because vendors shouldn’t be the event’s primary customers.

The shoppers are.

Recruiting vendors fills the building.

Marketing to customers fills the aisles.

A successful event needs both.

🚩 There Is No Clear Cancellation or Refund Policy

What happens if severe weather cancels the event?

What if the venue changes?

What if the organizer cancels?

What happens if you need to withdraw?

Vendor fees are frequently nonrefundable, and that isn’t inherently unreasonable. Organizers incur expenses long before an event happens.

But those terms should be clear before money changes hands.

🚩 Everything Comes Back to “Exposure”

Exposure absolutely has value.

We’ve met customers at events who continued purchasing from us long afterward.

But exposure doesn’t pay for ingredients, payroll, hotels, fuel or vendor fees.

If concerns about attendance, advertising or a high booth fee are repeatedly answered with:

“Think about the exposure!”

…we start looking harder at the numbers.

Exposure should be a benefit of a good event—not an excuse for a bad one.

Do Your Own Homework

One of the best sources of information about an event is often another vendor.

For significant events, find businesses that attended previously and ask them privately:

Would you pay to do it again?

You don’t have to ask for their sales figures. That’s private information for many businesses.

Ask instead:

Was traffic consistent?

Were people actually shopping?

Was setup organized?

Did the organizer communicate?

Did attendance seem consistent with what was advertised?

Were there too many vendors selling similar products?

Would you return?

That final question can tell you a lot.

Don’t rely exclusively on statistics, photographs and testimonials supplied by the person selling you the booth.

Remember:

The organizer is marketing an event to customers—but they’re also marketing a booth to you.

Treat the decision accordingly.

One Red Flag Doesn’t Automatically Mean “Don’t Go”

This distinction is important.

A new event isn’t automatically bad.

A small social-media following isn’t automatically bad.

A last-minute opening isn’t automatically suspicious.

A high booth fee isn’t automatically overpriced.

And an organizer who is also a maker isn’t automatically unfair.

Look for patterns.

One concern deserves a question.

Five concerns deserve serious consideration.

The goal isn’t to find reasons to reject opportunities.

It’s to understand what we’re purchasing before we purchase it.

Because once the vendor fee is paid, inventory is produced, employees are scheduled and the trailer is loaded, you’ve already made a substantial investment.

The best time to discover that an event wasn’t what you thought it was is before you send the money.

“10,000 People Attend!” — But What Does That Actually Mean?

Attendance numbers are one of the first things many vendors look at when evaluating larger events.

They’re also numbers we believe should be approached carefully.

“Expected attendance” is not necessarily documented attendance.

Ask how the number was calculated.

Was admission ticketed?

Were customers counted at the gate?

Is the number based on previous years?

Is it an estimate?

Does “15,000 attendees” represent 15,000 unique customers—or total entries across a three-day event?

Did weather significantly affect previous attendance?

And there’s an even more important question:

Are those people there to shop?

Ten thousand people attending a free community festival primarily for concerts, children’s activities and food can produce completely different sales than 4,000 people who paid admission specifically to attend a holiday shopping show.

Foot traffic and buying traffic are not the same thing.

Don’t become hypnotized by a big attendance number.

Crowds Make Great Photographs. Customers Make Great Events.

A packed aisle looks fantastic on social media.

It doesn’t necessarily mean vendors are making money.

We’ve learned that the right 2,000 people can be far more valuable than the wrong 10,000.

Think about the audience.

Does your price point fit them?

Are they coming specifically to shop?

Does the event attract people interested in handmade, local or premium products?

Does the audience align with your brand?

Watch attendees during the event.

Are they carrying shopping bags?

Are booths making transactions?

Are customers stopping and engaging?

Or are thousands of people simply passing through?

Crowds make great photographs. Customers make great events.

Ask How the Event Is Actually Being Advertised

A beautiful venue doesn’t create customers.

Marketing helps bring them there.

For a substantial vendor fee, we want to understand how the organizer intends to attract shoppers.

Paid social advertising?

Radio?

Television?

Email marketing?

Print?

Billboards?

Local media?

Community partnerships?

Influencers?

Cross-promotion with vendors?

An established customer mailing list?

Look at previous years.

Did the organizer create excitement leading into the event?

Were vendors featured?

Were customers sharing posts and tagging friends?

Was advertising happening months beforehand—or did someone create a Facebook event two weeks before opening day and call that a marketing campaign?

A professional event isn’t simply a rented building filled with vendors.

The organizer’s responsibility is to bring an audience. Our responsibility is to give that audience something worth buying.

Both sides have responsibilities.

How Many Vendors Sell What You Sell?

Competition isn’t inherently bad.

We’re not afraid of another business selling products in the same general category.

But category saturation is different.

If you’re a soapmaker, how many soapmakers are attending?

Candlemaker?

Jeweler?

Woodworker?

Skincare company?

Food producer?

An event doesn’t necessarily owe anyone exclusivity unless that’s part of the agreement.

But good organizers understand category balance.

Customers probably don’t need twelve nearly identical booths.

And vendors shouldn’t discover after arriving that an organizer accepted every business willing to pay regardless of duplication.

More vendors do not automatically create a better event.

Sometimes they simply divide the same customer dollars among more businesses.

What If the Event Organizer Is Also a Maker?

This requires some nuance.

Being a maker and an event organizer isn’t inherently a problem.

In fact, makers can become excellent organizers because they understand vendor needs firsthand.

But there is a potential conflict of interest when the organizer is also selling products at the event.

Consider:

Who assigns booth locations?

Who decides which vendors are accepted?

Who determines category limits?

Who controls event advertising?

Whose products receive promotional attention?

Where is the organizer’s own booth located?

Are competitors to the organizer’s business limited while other categories are heavily duplicated?

None of those questions automatically imply wrongdoing.

But transparency matters.

A good organizer recognizes the potential conflict and makes an effort to treat paying vendors fairly.

The Booth Fee Is NOT the Cost of the Event

This may be one of the most important lessons in this entire article.

If a booth costs $300, your event did not cost $300.

Calculate everything:

● Vendor fee

● Electricity

● Parking

● Fuel

● Tolls

● Hotels

● Meals

● Employee wages

● Payroll costs

● Credit-card processing

● Insurance

● Trailer/vehicle expenses

● Product samples

● Shopping bags

● Promotional materials

● Display expenses

● Inventory loss or damage

● Your own time

And then there’s an expense that gets forgotten surprisingly often:

The products you sold cost money to make.

If you sold $5,000 worth of products, you didn’t make $5,000.

Ingredients cost money.

Containers cost money.

Labels cost money.

Packaging costs money.

Manufacturing takes labor.

Those costs existed before your customer handed you a credit card.

Gross sales make exciting social-media posts. Profit keeps a business alive.

Determine Your Bottom Line Before You Arrive

Don’t wait until Sunday night to decide whether an event was successful.

Know what success needs to look like beforehand.

We like thinking about events using three numbers:

1. Break-Even

The point where you’ve recovered the direct costs associated with attending.

2. Minimum Acceptable Return

The level where the event actually justified the labor, time, inventory and disruption required to attend.

3. Excellent Return

The performance that makes you genuinely excited to apply again next year.

Those numbers will be different for every company.

But there’s an important distinction:

Breaking even doesn’t necessarily make an event worthwhile.

Imagine spending three days away from your regular sales channels, loading a trailer, driving several hours, paying employees, setting everything up, standing for thirty hours, tearing everything down and driving home.

If you merely recovered what it cost you to participate, was that really a successful business decision?

Your company should be compensated for its work and risk.

Don’t Forget Opportunity Cost

This becomes more important as a business grows.

If you’re a brand-new company and would otherwise have no sales that Saturday, a $600 local market might be fantastic.

But what if attending an event means pulling employees away from an established retail location?

What if production stops for several days?

What if your website inventory becomes depleted?

What if another proven event was happening the same weekend?

What if you needed three days afterward just to replace what you sold?

The question isn’t only:

What did we make?

It’s also:

What did we give up in order to make it?

The more established your business becomes, the more valuable your time and existing sales channels become.

Keep Detailed Records After Every Event

Memory is unreliable.

Six months from now you might remember:

“We did $4,000 at that show! It was great!”

What you might forget is that the booth cost $700, the hotel was $450, labor was $500, travel was $200 and the products themselves cost money to manufacture.

Keep records.

At minimum, track:

● Event and date

● Booth fee

● Gross sales

● Approximate cost of goods sold

● Labor

● Travel

● Lodging

● Meals

● Additional event expenses

● Approximate net contribution

● Reported attendance

● Observed traffic quality

● Weather

● Number of competing vendors

● Best-selling products

● Customer feedback

● Organizer quality

● Leads/wholesale opportunities

● Post-event online sales or new customers

● Would we return?

After a few years, those records become incredibly valuable.

You’ll stop guessing which events are good.

You’ll have data.

Sometimes a Poor Event Deserves Another Chance

Not every disappointing event should immediately be crossed off the calendar forever.

Context matters.

Maybe it rained all weekend.

Maybe construction closed the primary entrance.

Maybe your booth was placed somewhere terrible.

Maybe an unexpected competing event occurred nearby.

Maybe the organizer recognized legitimate problems and has a credible plan to correct them.

Or perhaps direct sales were average, but the event generated substantial business afterward.

A disappointing year can be an anomaly.

But be careful.

“Maybe next year will be better” isn’t a business strategy.

There should be a specific reason to believe the outcome will change.

Sometimes a High-Sales Event Isn’t Worth Returning To

This sounds contradictory.

It isn’t.

An event might produce impressive gross sales while still being a poor fit.

Maybe expenses were enormous.

Maybe the workload was unsustainable.

Maybe it required so much inventory that your other locations suffered.

Maybe the organizer was extremely difficult.

Maybe vendor treatment was poor.

Maybe category duplication became excessive.

Maybe the customer no longer fits the direction your brand is heading.

Maybe you could have generated similar profit somewhere else with half the effort.

Revenue alone shouldn’t trap you into returning forever.

Businesses evolve.

Your event calendar should evolve too.

Vendors Have Responsibilities Too

It’s easy to criticize organizers.

But vendors aren’t always innocent either.

A successful event requires professionalism from everyone involved.

There are some basic courtesies we believe vendors owe one another.

Respect Your Booth Boundaries

You paid for your space.

Your neighbor paid for theirs.

Displays, signs, racks and products shouldn’t gradually creep into someone else’s booth or obstruct their entrance.

Don’t Block Another Vendor’s Booth

Be aware of where you, your employees and your customers are standing.

Don’t position displays where they prevent shoppers from seeing or entering a neighboring booth.

Don’t Solicit Customers Who Are Shopping With Someone Else

If someone is actively standing in another vendor’s booth having a conversation, let that vendor conduct their sale.

There are plenty of opportunities to engage customers without interrupting another small business.

Don’t Tear Down Early

Unless there is an emergency or the organizer authorizes it, remain set up until the advertised closing time.

Early teardown looks unprofessional, creates safety problems and hurts the vendors who are still trying to sell.

Follow Setup and Teardown Instructions

Few things create more chaos than vendors ignoring vehicle times, parking wherever they want or driving through pedestrian areas because they want to leave first.

Secure Your Equipment

Outdoor vendors especially have a responsibility to properly secure tents and displays.

Your canopy becoming airborne isn’t only your problem anymore.

It’s everyone’s safety issue.

Don’t Tear Down Another Business to Make a Sale

Explain why your products are great.

Educate customers.

Tell your story.

You don’t need to criticize the vendor twenty feet away to prove your value.

Professional competition is still competition.

Help When You Can

Someone’s tent starts blowing away.

A vendor working alone desperately needs a bathroom break.

Someone forgot scissors.

A display collapses.

We’re all trying to run businesses, but we’re also human beings.

You can compete and still be a good neighbor.

What Makes a Good Event Organizer?

The events we value most tend to have several things in common.

They communicate clearly.

They advertise consistently.

They attract shoppers rather than simply bodies.

They curate their vendor mix.

They enforce their own rules.

They provide reasonable setup instructions.

They treat vendors fairly.

They solve problems.

They understand the products and businesses attending.

They don’t oversell categories simply to collect another fee.

And they recognize something very important:

Vendors are not simply sources of booth revenue.

Good organizers want vendors to succeed because successful vendors return.

Successful vendors talk positively about the event.

Successful vendors tell other quality businesses to apply.

Successful customers return too.

That’s how an event becomes a tradition.

When we find organizers who genuinely create that environment, we want them to succeed too.

That’s another small-business relationship worth nurturing.

Don’t Be Afraid to Say No

One of the strangest milestones in growing a small business is realizing that you no longer need to accept every opportunity.

In the beginning, you’re searching for places to sell.

Eventually, people begin asking you to come.

That’s when no becomes just as important as yes.

Every weekend has value.

Every employee hour has value.

Every mile has value.

Every piece of inventory has value.

And your time absolutely has value.

An event doesn’t become a good business decision simply because someone invited you.

Research it.

Ask questions.

Talk to previous vendors.

Run the numbers.

Consider what you’re giving up.

Then make the decision that serves your business—not your fear of missing out.

The Question We Ask When It’s Over

After the booth is packed, the trailer is unloaded, inventory is counted and the final sales numbers are calculated, there’s one question that cuts through almost everything else:

Knowing everything we know now, would we pay to do this exact event again?

Not because we liked the organizer personally.

Not because the venue was beautiful.

Not because there were thousands of people.

Not because our social-media pictures looked impressive.

Not because we want to say we were there.

Would we invest the money, inventory, labor and time again?

If the answer is an enthusiastic yes, you’ve probably found an event worth keeping.

If the answer is maybe, figure out why.

And if the answer is clearly no?

Take the lesson.

Thank the customers who supported you.

Record what you learned.

And move forward.

Because one of the biggest lessons we’re learning as our own small business grows is that success isn’t about being everywhere.

It’s about learning where you’re worth being.

Know your numbers. Research the opportunity. Respect your fellow vendors. Value your time. And never be afraid to ask whether an opportunity is actually moving your business forward.

Behind the Handmade Business is a series from Naturally Lathered Tallow Co. where we share lessons, experiences and observations from building and growing our own small business. These articles aren’t intended as one-size-fits-all rules. Every business, organizer and event is different. We simply believe makers benefit when we’re willing to talk openly about the business behind the handmade.