My Open House

[LanetteG]

Well after the diappointng craft(or as I like to call it CRAP) show, I decided to have an Open house at home because I had so many friends want to see my things but the show was on the other side of town. So I had it this last Thursday and wouldn't you know we had a terrible snow storm. But I had two friends show up, one who lives down the street and the other who would have been couped up with her kids and no hubby for the 7th straight nite(he's out of town) and 2 other people phoned in. I made more off of 3 people than I did at the show and NO table fee! One fo my other friends wants me to bring my stuff to her house so her mom, 2 sisters and SIL can see because none of them were able to make it. I think I may do the same thing again next year only earlier(to avoid the snow!):clap

[mimi_mia]

Way to go Lannette!! :woo

[Pink]

Well done - it sounds like you have a promising business idea, 'cos I'd guess when you have one open house in someone else's home one of their friends will want to host an open house as well. Good luck!

[CraftyShannon]

I'm sorry about the snow because it sounds like you really would have done well if the weather had been better. But it's great you got sales and and invite. Maybe your friend can invite her friends when you bring your stuff. Wouldn't hurt to at least suggest it. You should feel proud that your stuff is so good that your friend wants to go to such effort to see it.

My great aunt's been doing open houses for years. She's played around with the date for years and told me her best ones are after Thanksgiving but before December 1st. She said that's when people seem to be in the mood to get into Christmas shopping, but it's not too late that they haven't already done their shopping, so they will buy from her. I've never tried one at that time yet, so who knows how accurate that is.

Getting paid without having to worry about booth fees is great, isn't it? :D

I didn't get to do an open house this year, but my dad will be taking some of my things to his workplace on Tuesday. He was going to do it tomorrow, but I didn't get done with quite everything. I spent all night tonight crocheting until my hand is sore. Tomorrow will be the same. Normally, I would have liked him to take stuff in sooner, but he's been on business trips for weeks, and this was the only time he's been here. I just hope there are still people who haven't finished their Christmas shopping!

[mimicat]

That is nice to know, congratulations! :clap I'm also selling what I make. 3 years ago crocheted hats, bags and scrunchies were a hit here and I sold as much as I can make at a friend's booth. Now I see a lot of boleros, shrugs, stoles and scarfs in the malls but I wasnt able to make some to sell.:blush

[pampsmom]

Congratulations on your sales! I just did a craft show over the weekend. Almost tripled my sales from April craft show. I don't know what's good or bad in selling, but I went with 9 tubs of clothing, two tubs of ornaments and came home with 2 tubs of clothing and one tub or ornaments. Got 4 orders from the show! I haven't tried a open house yet!

[Roxanne]

Wonderful! That's a really great idea!

[yarncat]

WooHoo,Lanette!

[TepperWear]

That's so great. Good for you. I had the same experience and it made me so happy that my friends liked my stuff even though I didn't sell well at the crafts fair. Nice to have that extra money for the holidays too.

[Tracy C]

What a wonderful concept! This would never have occurred to me.....how many items did you have available? Just trying to think this through.....no table fee,and no competition! How do you advertise though?
Thanks for any more insight! Tracy C

[CraftyShannon]

I think it really depends on what kinds of things and how many people you'll have to know how much you'll need. When I did my open houses, I did a variety of crafts and I invited almost 100 houses in my subdivision, so I needed a lot of stuff. I think I had about 3 rooms of stuff, but some of it was furniture and almost everything was one of a kind. I only have one sale a year around Christmas, so I had more people thinking the "had" to buy now, so that helped get stuff out the door. Yet, I knew I wouldn't get stuck with extras forever because I was selling via cosignment at a store as well.

My great aunt doesn't have that much stuff, mainly because she just focuses on knitting and sewing. She says she just has maybe one or two rooms of stuff, and focuses on making multiples of a select number of items. Then again she doesn't invite as many people as I do, nor does she sell in any other manner, so she doesn't want to get stuck with extra stuff afterwards. If she doesn't have enough of something, she just takes orders.

Do a search for my name and open houses and you can read more about how I did my open houses. Yet for advertising, I made flyers on my computer and put them in my neigbors' newspaper box. For friends outside of my subdivision, I either mailed them a flyer or e-mailed an invitation.

[CrochetMonkey]

That's great Lanette! I was thinking of trying to sell a few of my crocheted items at our next garage sale, but maybe an "Open House" type of craft showing in our home would be better. Great to hear that it went so well for you!