Does this empty forum mean no-one does shows?

[GoldRapt]

Thats beautiful mik, can we come visit for free training and photographs?

[Market Mik]

That looks a fabulous display Mik and what we'd aspire to. Well done.

I'd dearly love to know more Mik but obviously understand if you prefer not to elaborate.

1. How many people to run the stall?
2. What products would you expect to produce on site?
3. What ready made stuff do you take with you?
4. What's selling for you?

and finally!
5. Is it financially worthwhile?

Cheers

John

PS I live hundreds of miles from you

Hi john,
To answer your questions,

1. usually just me but i do have one helper for the xmas season (since last week). If i was to do a busy show or special bank hol market i would need someone there too.
2. During the summer i produce t shirts, caps, mugs and hoodies. when the weather gets cold i only do vinyl printing on the tees and hoodies. Laser printers and mug presses don't like it when its too cold.I am Saving up for an embroidery machine so hopefully next year i'll be doing that too
3. I bring some ready made mugs with me and i usually have a few of the best selling slogans pre printed.
4. Ah the tough question.... During the summer i sell a lot of tees with pictures of the cruise ships and "I Love Southampton" or "CSI Southampton" to the yanks arriving on the ships. last summer " i am the stig" was quite popular too. At the moment the meerkat with "simples" is a popular xmas pressie but most of the time its just peoples names on hoodies or tees. The slogans are just a crowd puller because you can get a screen printed tee with most slogans for £6 or 2 for £10 on most markets.The advantage is that i can make up a tee straight away so for example last year when southampton FC fans were protesting about the club owner, i sold quite a lot of tees with "Lowe must Go!" on them. it only lasted a couple of weeks tho'.
Also this xmas i have imported a load of "graphic equalisers " and i sell them on tee shirts. Again another handy xmas pressie.

5. The important question lol. In a nutshell No. I have a day job mon to fri. Market trading is fickle and altho the daily rents are cheap you can still struggle to make it worth while. I have tried to make a living from the markets in the past and i just couldn't. The only way to make anything worthwhile is to work from your shed and use the markets as a top up.. Also you really really have to enjoy it. this weekend i started at 6-30 sat morning and got home at 6-30 sat evening. was in bed by 10 and was up again at 4am sun and home again at 5pm. And of course I was wearing two pairs of socks, thermal undies, 2 tee shirts, a sweatshirt a hoodie and my jacket and i was still freezing all day pmsl.
As an example of how hard it is to make money on markets, some of the traders I Know on Blackbushe market, near basingstoke , come from Birmingham, southend, Rugby Nottingham and even south Wales!!!
Another limiting factor is that you can only produce a certain number of items per hour thus limiting your turnover. If you were just selling pre printed shirts, you could sell 1 every minute so 60 per hour but printing you can only do about 1 every 10 mins so 6 shirts an hour.Unfortunatly you can't charge 10 times more for yours
A lot of traders these days agree that most people have a "car boot sale" mentality when they go to markets and they expect to get everything for nothing and some people are always haggling and looking for money off.
I find it nice that i can afford to say no discounts to people when i feel like it ( and they annoy me )

If I had to make a living from this I would get a stall in a shopping centre as the footfall is greater and you will after a while build up a customer base. One of the problems i have found this year is that every photo booth and camera shop in the country seem to be doing subli printing, whereas before it wasn't always easy to find a specialist t shirt printer, It must be the recession i suppose

Thats beautiful mik, can we come visit for free training and photographs?

Of course you can, the next training course starts in march and will only cost £500 lol...book now places are limited


Think I'll move to gateshead next year !!!!!

[Karen.]

Sounds good. I did use to do markets, but only casually and only a small stall. We didn't print on site, as it was mainly for advertising and mainly the car graphic side of things.
Carreful of your Stig T shirt though - A friend of mine almost got 'done' for that, as the word Stig is heavily copyrighted.

[Stitch Up]

Just thought I'd comment on the embroidery side of things.

Forget taking an embroidery machine to shows as it just takes to long to stitch out products. We've done it and whilst it attracted onlookers, it's just not practical.

John

[GoldRapt]

Just thought I'd comment on the embroidery side of things.

Forget taking an embroidery machine to shows as it just takes to long to stitch out products. We've done it and whilst it attracted onlookers, it's just not practical.

John

Your wrong there stich,
let my very expensive education paid for by my last employer come to the fore
If you had a load of pre stiched stuff, badges whateever and you had the machine in a glass booth stichin away you would draw in the old punter who would watch with awe and then buy one of your pre stiched bits and bobs.

[GoldRapt]

Thats beautiful mik, can we come visit for free training and photographs?

Of course you can, the next training course starts in march and will only cost £500 lol...book now places are limited


Think I'll move to gateshead next year !!!!!

Thats cool, will you accept £500 pound printed off on me oki?
Gateshead? whats happening you taking up singing?

[Stitch Up]

Your wrong there stich,
let my very expensive education paid for by my last employer come to the fore
If you had a load of pre stiched stuff, badges whateever and you had the machine in a glass booth stichin away you would draw in the old punter who would watch with awe and then buy one of your pre stiched bits and bobs.

I agree, it does pull in the lookers who love watching the machine at work BUT, it's a lot to haul around with you and when you get a thread break .......

Pulling in the onlookers is really the only reason to take an embroidery machine. I should know as I've just returned from a weeks residential course at the NPIA (Sorry folks, an 'in joke')

We did enjoy the show we did and we did make a profit and picked up customers after the show.

[GoldRapt]

NPIA (Sorry folks, an 'in joke')

.

Giz a badge

[Flash]

Nice set-up Mik 8) Looks cold out there though, maybe i'm just a

Phil

[mrs maggot]

Mik, just a thought, why dont you put up pictures of your market stall on your website ? will show people that you are worth travelling to