gonna miss the chance of 2 outside fair's/fete's before i start in late aug/sept..
for all you regular people who go to markets / events ect..
I if i wanted to take my mug & swing away + i printer and try and sell/promote my products - what the hell runs the machines ? - guy out back of tent with a bike and a large rubber band connected to a pully system - feeding him mars bars & protein shakes every 10 mins ?
no seriously, what would i need ?
some kind of petrol generator ? - health n safety issues ??????
can some of you kindly tell me what you use ?...please
I have done a lot for my photography and the majority of time if its outside theres no power.
Have seen a few peopel with generators but from what i understand it is up to the venue and the organisers to decide if they are allowed, mainly due to the health and safety and also noise issues.
Some indoor markets/events provide power, but you often have to book this in advance (so they can allocate you a stall which has power, or get the cable run to one for you), and there is sometimes an extra charge for it, and normally you are limited to only 100 Watts, as it is mainly intended for you to have some lights on your stall. 100 Watts isn't much for running a laptop, printer, and heat press though, so you may want to rethink your plan, or may have to negotiate with the market/event for more power, or be self sufficient and have a super-silenced generator (if the market will allow them)
Also, think about your plan carefully in terms of labour/time. Are you wanting to sell bespoke/made to order products which is the reason for wanting your equipment with you? If so, think really hard about how much time it takes to get the image from the customer into photoshop, get it retouched and resized and into the template, then printed out, then transferred onto the product. Now, at the same time as this you have a good flow of people coming to your stall to look at your other products, ask questions, buy things, give you new orders etc etc If, there is only one of you, the plan does not work. You will either lag behind and get buried in orders, or you will be too distracted and make mistakes. A market/fair is not like a shop, the footfall is much higher.
Other things to think on - for a market/fair, most of the people there don't know to expect you, so won't have high resolution and good quality shots with them - at most they may have them on thier phone or on FaceBook - do you really want the hassell of trying to make those photos work printed? Also, what mobile internet connection do you have - is it fast enough to be downloading FaceBook photos etc?
You would be much better off knowing your own products and designs, and knowing which sell really well, and having a ton of them printed up and ready to sell. People at these events are more likely wanting an impulse buy, rather than something they have to order and come back for, so have your stock ready and on display for them to just pick it up, and walk away with it immediately (after paying for it of course)
Watch the episodes of the Apprentice where they've been working in shopping centres and markets and doing some kind of made to order service, whether it be printing stuff or producing video/DVDs - look at the size of the teams involved to try and cope, and how they divided the roles. Obviously they aren't the experienced printers, but in terms of workload, it should give you an idea of what you are trying to get into - and as 1 person how it is not really workable.
Get an event right, and you can make a killing, get it wrong, and you can loose money, and stand around for a day and not make any sales. Even on days when you think everything is perfect, sales can be disappointing - there is some (a lot of) randomness to working at events/markets.
