Hi lemon8 friends! A week ago I completed my first booth under Makers Market @ ITE College Central. Was a success! 💫
For crafters looking to booth, here’s my experience and breakdown of cost, prep time, tips etc.!
My costs 💸💸💸
🏬 Rental (5 days Mon-Fri, 11am-5:30pm): $150++
~ This rate is cheap as it’s in a school and I was supposed to help out with their business retail mentoring programme. In the end there was only one student assigned to me on my last day!
~ If I rented for a month it was discounted at $300 but since first time I didn’t wanna do so long!
~ Other places like malls eg. Suntec, PLQ will definitely be more expensive, from $80 a day iirc 🫠 if you’re bold and have enough stock then go for it!! But as first timers, I recommend testing your market first or if you want to booth in a mall, share with other creators. Usually they allow 2 or even 3 creators to share one booth.
💍 Product costs (items to make Jewelry, production cost for stickers etc.): $~80 only counting sold items
~ But many were old stock so I didn’t count those in, js used this opportunity to clear them!
🪴 Miscellaneous (display racks, packaging etc.): $25
~ Recommend to buy cute / simple packaging especially since I was selling Jewelry and beaded items, protecting the products is important!
~ Packaging can buy cheaper from shopee, but I recommend buying display racks and decor from daiso!! Much much cheaper than shopee
🕰️ Time used to make items: Around 2 hrs a day for a month straight so 60+ hours 🤭
~ I am now in the limbo period in between JC and uni, so I got time to spare! Beading requires much more time than people think because we need to layout the design first, trial and error, before making the product itself
~ Watched many shows while beading which helped time pass by so fast! 📺
~ In these 60 hours, one item roughly took 30 mins so managed to make around 120 new items!
Total cost: $255
Next booth won’t have as much miscellaneous costs as I will reuse the same display racks! But maybe more cost on rental and making items, as I managed to clear most of my stock
The fun part: PROFITS 💰
Total I got in sales was $750!
~ Mon Tue Fri $200 a day, then Wed Thurs around $75 (I think the crowd is usually like this at ITE cos the bubble tea guy there told me that’s the case for him too)
So total profit was $750-$255=$495. Not too bad for first time!
My experience in general:
📍Location was good. When I say the food at ITE Central is the best I’ve ever tasted for a school I’m not kidding. Since the food was so cheap and good, I just ate lunch there everyday! Bought the bubble tea right next to my booth everyday… 🥤
🧍♀️🧍♂️Crowd was okay considering the place was in a separate shop but it was at the entrance of the school. Only people that know the place exists and wanna visit the booths will go!
👯♀️ People were friendly!! As they were students most of them are my age. I had a few aunties come buy for their daughters! Mostly girls walked pass which was good as my items is more kawaii style hehe. A lot of sales actually were from repeat buyers!!
Omg but I had these guys walk pass me… I think they just wanted to bully me or get a reaction for fun, they were making snarky and very unnecessary comments towards my booth… but I just pretended not to hear and they walk passed, only to return again and do the same thing 🤦♀️ nvm as long as they didn’t affect my business or destroy my stuff HAHAH 😭
Advice for first time boothers:
~ Bring a friend/family member for toilet breaks! Or have friends visit so they can watch over while u go toilet or buy food. You can eat at the booth in my case so I didn’t need to rush to eat!
~ Bring a seat cushion as the chairs they give were hard af but I was standing half the time so it was okie
~ Do a full booth setup at home first, and visit the venue so you know what to expect and how big of a space you’re given
~ Bring plastic bags or carriers as some ppl may buy a lot
~ Have an open mind! Don’t be distraught if sales aren’t going well, take it as a learning opportunity on how you can improve your sales
📞 Booking process:
I applied via the makers market website, and booked the location with the cheapest booth. Your shop has to have a social media account with pics of what you sell and you have to link this in the application.
For all locations, they must approve your shop first before you can book & pay. For popular locations, it’s harder to get approval!
After I got approved, I paid, then they sent me a vendor’s kit on WhatsApp sharing w me how to prep and their t&cs. They were very easy to talk to and even helped me reschedule free of charge to a week after upon my request (lucky there were slots though)
That’s all for now! Hope this helps anyone 😊
And yes I would definitely do it again as the people there were really lovely and encouraging 🙂 also for their food HEHEHE
I’d want to try out in a mall though! But there will definitely be more competition as much more vendors there.
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