The Duluth Fall Festival was held in Duluth, GA, September 24th and 25th of this year, and I was lucky enough to be chosen as a vendor.

 

I had been designing and selling my janiebee quilted nap mats for about a year and was working part-time for a law firm.  One of the paralegals there suggested I try some festivals to market my nap mats so I completed the vendor application and was accepted! This was in the Spring, so I began making nap mats day and night.  Summer came and it was all I could do to fill my on-line orders.  I was selling from my ready made stash, plus filling custom orders.  June, July and August were crazy! My sewing room had turned into a nap mat FACTORY.   

 

By the end of August, I only had 18 mats made for the festival, and my goal was 100. I was starting to freak out, so I decided to quit my part-time job and concentrate on promoting janiebee.  

 

I spent all of September sewing and gathering the things I would need for my booth: a really cute white tent, some hanging racks, hangers, extra biz cards, some of that indoor/outdoor 'fake' grass and some cute appliqued signs, (which I made myself.) 

 

My husband, Randy,  was very encouraging and even helped me cut and serge. We had a lot of laughs over that. He kept telling me, "I think you're gonna sell out!" In the back of my mind, I was counting dollars and already had my eye on a commercial serger.  But, other days I thought, "What if I don't sell any?" I didn't know what to expect, but was preparing myself either way.

Randy and I set up the booth on Friday night, and on the morning of the festival my youngest daughter, Hailey,  and I woke up at 6:00 am, drove to Duluth, and  set up shop. As you can see, she was thrilled.

 

I Looove Festivals...especially the food. Just a rundown on what Hailey and I ate that day. Funnel cakes, Lemonades, Cokes, Bags of sugared nuts, Pizza, Corn dogs, Chopped Pork BBQ Sandwiches, Frozen Lemonades and Cotton Candy....Rolaids.

 

The festival opened at 9:00 and I got my first sale at 9:30! I was thrilled and texted my husband.

 

I was in a good location. There was a huge oak tree shading my booth and right next to me was a sweet young woman, her husband and their 12 DAY OLD baby. She made and sold a hair accessory called ezbun. It's a very cool product and I bought 2 myself! It was amazing to see 15 or 20 people gathered around her booth watching her demonstrate her hair ties. She would do someone's hair from the crowd, and when she finished they had the biggest smile on their face...instant ego boost...it was like a magic show..I think some people even clapped. :0 She was selling those things left and right and I was getting  a lot of traffic...but no more sales.  I was getting great feedback and handing out lots of business cards.  Unfortunately, most people who were interested had already bought their nap mats....yeah, should have thought of that...note to self, "do a Spring/Summer festival".

 

Everyone kept saying, "What a great idea!" and "These are so cute!" 

 

By the way, I have some 'cute' puppies for sale too! 

 

Around 2:00, Hailey decided to demonstrate my product. She 'demonstrated' it for about 2 hours so I took this picture to show how hard she worked. Thanks Hails, Love ya girl!

 

I did sell some kids' clothes and I think I covered the booth rent, but I'm pretty sure Hailey and I ate up all the profits...literally.

 

On Sunday, Randy came and helped.

 

And guess what?  I sold another ONE...to the ezbun lady! 

 

Just a rundown on what Randy and I ate...corndogs, beer ,margaritas, beer ,margaritas.  By closing time, I tripped over my tent and nearly wiped out on my fake grass. 

 

I did get a couple of custom orders and at least 250 more people know I'm out there.  I know this, because I gave out a WHOLE BOX of business cards. So, all in all, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got it out of my system, and Yes, I'll probably do some more. I also can't say enough good things about the organization of the festival and the generous volunteers. They were exceptional.

 

By the way, I took 60 finished nap mats to the festival... I brought home 58 WAAAAaaaaaaa! I was really bummed out for a couple of days, but hey, I'm not giving up. Everything's a learning experience and we just gotta Keep Calm and Carry On :0

 

I'm selling these ready made ones for $60 ($20 off), so if you're interested, just leave me a comment or email me.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

(and don't forget the puppies)

 

Rene'