Tips for First Time Tabling...

Moving to Melbourne as an art student, I knew I wanted to try selling my art at an art market at some point, maybe even make it a bill paying gig. I did some research but when day 1 came there were some things that I hadn't planned for but really were pretty integral to having a good table.

Here's a list of mistake and things I missed that are easily accounted for to make your first time tabling at an art market run smoother.

PACKAGING

My schtick was that everything I used at the market was recycled or preowned. I still stand behind reducing purchases and using what you already have where possible, but you have to make it presentable.

My old sheet protectors did fine but it looked ridic and cheap. Even tough people are buying your art not the packaging, buyers will be walking around the market carrying your cheapened work and passively advertising you as someone who doesn't respect their own art.

Envelopes work well especially if you can prepare some with your branding written or stamped on it plus are recyclable.

LESS IS MORE

I constantly am relearning that less is more. Like with my portfolio, I'm always chipping away the selection of illustrations and asking my housemate 'which of these is the weakest?' and booting it off the island.

When prepping for the market, my approach with deciding what to print was like firing a shotgun and seeing what hit and restocking those but that meant the strays that weren't selling enjoyed their many excursions to the market before returning home with me.

Overloading your table is the 'people pleasing' of tabling. You try to provide something for everyone so in the end no one finds what they want because you printed one of everything and ran out of what they would have liked. Trust that your people will find you.

STICK TO YOUR PRICE GUNS

That last point runs into my next piece of advice; trust your prices. Please I beg do not do what I did and priced your work a couple cents above what you spent to make it. It might feel uncomfortable when people spot your prices and shuffle away but what would you prefer having to make 80 sales or 5 to make your table back (meaning earning what you spent to be at the market).

Also try not to nitpick your prices. Again, I am a culprit of doing this with everything (including this post) but especially with prices. Fluctuating your prices means any building customer base will feel either cheaped out when you lower your prices or like they can wait you out when they you raise them.

REHEARSE YOUR SET UP

If you own a table similar to what they'll give you on the day, figure out your layout and snap a photo of it to copy on the day. If not, tape on the floor works fine. As you are aware now, I am an iteration fiend and will constantly fiddle with things until but that's not something you want to be doing on the day. Rehearsing also gives you the opportunity to find things you missed.

TIP 4.1 TABLECLOTH

For me, even though I rehearsed, I forgot to get a tablecloth which seems so simple so surely it won't matter but the grubby plastic fold out table surface really made the difference between 'here's my art good' and 'here's my dump table watch your step.' Find something kind of plain so it compliments your art, not overpowers it.

LINKS SHEET

The amount of people who asked for my business card or where they could follow me, dude. If your brand is anything other than 2 easily spelled nouns with no special characters, you need to have it written somewhere you can point to.

QR codes are good, just make sure it's big enough and won't reflect light like if it's in a plastic slip or laminated. Also write below what the QR code scans to, I don't know about you but I'm not very trusting of public links so that keeps the scanner in control.

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS

My sales goal for every market is 1. If I sell one thing that's a success. Having that front of mind took the pressure off and helped me maintain a realistic goal.

I want to note though that pessimism doesn't equal realism. All it does is suck energy away from your goals.

While I tend to prepare for the worst and get pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen, that's a good way to avoid risks and really slow down your momentum. If what you're risking is the $80 you spent to be at the market, I think you can afford some optimism.

Markets are for fun. Mistakes are part of the life and you should never expect to be perfect. My motto lately: do it scared. I have insane social anxiety but I stuttered my way through conversations. Last piece of advice, take a friend, maybe even share the table with them if they're also an artist. At least then you got to spend those 6 or so hours hanging out.