This post brought to you by: Last Christmas – Wham!

As I sit here with my maple turkey bacon, fired egg and tomato sandwich while simultaneously trying to watch “Kill Bill” Volume 1 and 2, SafariLive and do laundry. I realised that I hadn’t written a post in a few weeks, okay more like months (sorry, ). I also realized that I was stagnant, everything about my life was/is stagnant. I’m pretty sure that this post won’t make sense to most of my 5 followers, but I had to get it out there and off my chest. I think the best way to do this would be in parts, just to keep it all straight.

Round up of 2017

As the year ended I had been to 2 craft fairs, my goal was to always make, at least, my booth fee back. I did that at both, but not much more than that. I felt disconnected from and dissatisfied with the whole thing. I hated having to explain myself and my product over and over, I hated the hurry up and wait of it all, I hated the horrible locations I was put in because I was new (I get it, but I hated it), I hated feeling like I was defending my product all the time. I worked (and still work) in retail/service since I was 15 and I never liked customers.  Yes, I’m proud of what I create, and I know it’s a good product but I hate stupid people and, let’s be honest, 90% of “customers” that come to craft fair’s act like they don’t know how to tie their own shoelaces, far less read the informative signs that have been painstakingly made to help alleviate their confusion, if they would just take the time to read them. I would prefer to only do online sales, but that is not going so well either, as of the writing of this post I’ve had 0 sales online. It’s enough to make someone want to quit this whole thing. So while all the Instagram soap makers that I follow were taking a Christmas break, I took one too. I needed to evaluate why I got into this, if it was something I really wanted to do as a business, or just as a fun hobby.

The 2 craft fairs I did last year were educational to say the least. The first one was a very relaxed atmosphere in a well to do area of the county. When I was originally given the map of where my booth would be placed I wasn’t upset at all, it was steps away from the food court, score! Then the day of the fair came and they moved everything about. Now the food area was now down the hill and behind some trees. No one found me till late in the day when they had already spent all their money. then there was the sitting around and waiting and waiting and waiting, I was sooo bored. So, I broke the craft fair vendor rule, I sat down behind my table and played on my phone. I probably turned some people off, but as a person who works in retail, I personally think that someone who is one their phone when no one is around but puts it down for a customer doesn’t bother me as much as the person who ignores you to talk to others around you. My goal was to make back my booth fee, which I did.

Craft fair numero dos was supposed to be my foray into the highly lucrative Christmas craft fair. It was not that at all, though the coordinator did everything they could do to get people to come out, we had a total of about 16 vendors and 6 customers. And while I made my booth fee back thanks to the other vendors, I spent more at their booths than I ever made that day. The coordinator was very apologetic about the whole thing, but it put a bad taste in my mouth for the inconsistency of craft fairs.

I learned a lot about realistic expectations, the fact that I don’t have them and neither does the people around me. If I hear, “Oh, wow! You make soap? You should have a website.” One more time, I may punch that person in the face. From the experience of trying to launch my website all of 2017 and getting nowhere. I’ve decided to go to etsy and see how that would work for me. I was at first against it because all the soap forums I’m on says it’s the worst and over saturated, but I have to start somewhere (again).

This was not the most happy of posts, but I want to document all that it takes to make it. I don’t want to Instagram picture it, in other words only showing the good and happy moments. I want the 5 people who follow me and the 2 people who actually read my posts to know I’m trying and working and not giving up through it all.

Thanks for reading,

Jamila