WAHM Forums

I'm going to put together a Holiday Shopping Fair in my area, where moms (and dad's too) who are in direct sales or crafts can set up a booth. I know a couple schools in my area do them in Nov.,but the more I can get on my calendar the better!

My problem is, I'm not sure what kind of places to approach to host it. What kind of places have you all been to? And has anyone put one together that could give me some tips/advice?

Good questions! I'm interested in something like this also but don't know where to look for a hosting place. I hope you get lots of responses.

I am a member of the local Junior Women's Club and we just had something like this called a Shop 'N Social. We had a lot of local businesses and several direct sales companies there. I believe there was a small booth fee. The Juniors sold refreshments and sold raffle tickets. We used it as a fundraiser for our club, but I know that those companies got a lot of business!

Check with your local libraries, community centers, and elementary schools as far as holding one.

I just called our Chamber of Commerce to see if we could get one going here in our area. It would be great but we have such a rural parish (county) that in the past those events have been total flops. But you might start with them and see if they might would like to help put something like that on. If you have any VFW Halls or Masonic Lodges or anything like that, you might contact them as well. You'd probably have to rent it but you could divide up booth space and charge the different companies represented a booth charge to cover the cost of renting the facility.


I pray for all the best for the event!! Take care and God Bless!

My MOMS Club does one. We rented out the Elks hall. The hall costs $250 to rent, and we divided the cost of the room among the 20 or so vendors. Plus, we had all the vendors donate a raffle item with the raffle proceeds given to a charity. You wouldn't have to do that part, but it was nice.


Good luck!


Melissa

I am personally planning one right now in fact for November 27th. Feel free to email me any questions that you have. I have been having a ball doing this and will be working on a Spring Fling Next.


My email is orangesmoke20@gmail.com


: )
DAWN

Do you have any convention centers in your area? They probably have rooms of different sizes available, and I know some hotels have conference rooms of various sizes... Do you (or someone you know) belong to a church that has a nice size hall (ya know - for receptions and stuff)?

Hey! You just made something click in my head! Number one,
I'm doing something like that on the 15th for breast cancer
awareness. However, I have this other thing in November that a
Relay team is doing--just me and my Noah's Ark animals in a huge
firehall. I have been concerned that they wouldn't make any money
and did not know how to suggest other options or what to suggest.
If I could talk them into having other companies set up--that would be
perfect! They could just charge for table setup and make more
from that than from me probably!



Okay, so how do I go about planning (quickly!) Dawn, can you PM or email me? stuffnfluffangie@yahoo.com

Any suggestions on finding the consultants?

Oh, all you need to do is advertise a little and consultants will hunt you down! We had to turn vendors away at ours...wejust simply ran out of room!! ;0


You could put an ad in the local newspaper, and you'll start getting calls. Also, word of mouth works too, as many vendors know people who represent other companies as well.


Good luck!


Melissa

Angie,


I have PM'd you....


Melissa brought up alot of good points, and I am starting to have to turn people away. I am still look for a Discovery Toys rep and a Big Yellow Box Rep for my show....seems we are very limited in this area with these reps. I have a great group of ladies so far for my Holiday Bazaar....and I did very little advertising and used word of mouth.


Now for the actual Bazaar.....we are planning on ALOT of advertising...Newspaper, TV, flyers....etc


I am having fun planning this and will most likely be doing a spring fling too.


: )
DAWN

I am organizing one at my church as a fundraiser for the church. We are charging a $20 rental fee for vendors and asking for a product donation for door prizes. Ours will be November 26, 2005 in Austintown, Ohio if anyone is interested. Churches love doing these kind of fundraisers as it is easy money and easy set up for them.

yministry....Let me ask you this


Are you selling raffle tickets for the door prizes or just drawing names of the people who come? Someone told me I needed a "Permit" in order to sell raffle tickets for door prizes. I wanted to do this because I wanted to donate money to our local food banks, but I am unsure because of the permit.


Thanks : )
DAWN

We are not selling our tickets they will get tickets with numbers on them when they enter and we will be drawing them. The way we will make our money from the event is through the rental of table spots and kitchen sales during the fair.

yministry, I'm sure you probably already thought of this, but are you providing food as well? Our church does these and the Youth Group always has food available to purchase and makes a very good profit from the sales.


Good luck to you!


Bev

yep we are going to have low cost food available and gift wrapping.

We have been having a lot of trouble getting some of the more heard of reps to participate example AVON, Longagburger, Watsons, Partylite.





However we are almost completely full! Which is nice and exciting!