Thinking Of Doing A Table At A Children's Expo/festival. Advice?

Business By Gingerlocks Updated 28 May 2014 , 10:10pm by Gingerlocks

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Gingerlocks Posted 13 May 2014 , 4:41pm
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I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice about doing booths at expo's/festivals..this is a completely new area for me so I treading very carefully before I commit the time and money to it. 

 

Basically its a Children's festival this summer, and its an outdoor table under a large tent..I was thinking of selling cupcakes and cake-pops and having some custom dummy cakes and taking bookings and deposits for those.

 

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck with these types of things? And is it worth my time and money? Its only $100 to book a booth for the whole weekend..but then again, I need to buy the materials to decorate my booth and signage (which can get pricey), plus packaging, plus I'd need to make a few Styrofoam dummy cakes..

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howsweet Posted 13 May 2014 , 5:30pm
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AIf you specialize in children's cakes, it might be a great idea. Of course you'll get all price ranges there. I had a delivery to a kids party place several months ago where lots of affluent little kids have their parties. They had me there too early, so I sat in the entry with a stunner of a cake and handed out cards. Mainly to kids, but their mommies were right there. I've since booked three orders who mentioned the saw my cake there.

I don't know if it was party attendees or these people that were oohing and aching over the cake. But it made me wonder if I should just have someone hang out with my cakes at the right locations, hahaha.

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Gingerlocks Posted 13 May 2014 , 5:40pm
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Well I wouldn't say that children's cakes are my target market, no. I am hoping it would get me some other cake orders, I'm not sure selling cupcakes alone would net me a bunch of profit..as there will probably be 100's of other sweets vendors (cotton candy, pop, chocolates etc..). 

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howsweet Posted 13 May 2014 , 5:41pm
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ASorry, my phone wouldn't let me edit. It's *they. And no one is aching over my cakes, hahaha! It was supposed to be oohing and ahhing.

After thinking about it, it was more like 6 weeks ago. I'm correcting that in case I say it differently in another thread and someone thinks I'm not being truthful.

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howsweet Posted 13 May 2014 , 5:47pm
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A

Original message sent by Gingerlocks

Well I wouldn't say that children's cakes are my target market, no. I am hoping it would get me some other cake orders, I'm not sure selling cupcakes alone would net me a bunch of profit..as there will probably be 100's of other sweets vendors (cotton candy, pop, chocolates etc..). 

If children's cakes is not a big part of your business, in my opinion, for what it's worth, it might not be the best place to do this.

But I want to make sure and add that this is not something I have direct experience with.

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MimiFix Posted 13 May 2014 , 6:12pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by howsweet 

I'm correcting that in case I say it differently in another thread and someone thinks I'm not being truthful.

 

Love your posts, howsweet. This one is a perfect example of your attention to detail and concern with accuracy. Your reputation here is already solid.

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howsweet Posted 15 May 2014 , 8:30pm
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AOn the other hand, if you're just start

Original message sent by MimiFix

Love your posts, howsweet. This one is a perfect example of your attention to detail and concern with accuracy. Your reputation here is already solid.

Thank you so, so very much, Mimi. You don't know how much your kind words mean to me. :)

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AZCouture Posted 15 May 2014 , 9:05pm
post #8 of 10

A

Original message sent by howsweet

After thinking about it, it was more like 6 weeks ago. I'm correcting that in case I say it differently in another thread and someone thinks I'm not being truthful.

Ha!

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kazbur Posted 27 May 2014 , 12:52pm
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I did a Christmas fair where I sold cupcakes and other bits... It was worth it, in that I got business out of it - I made display cakes and had business cards, etc. I made some useful contacts. But I didn't make any money at the fair. I think I may have broken even. I had fondant topped cupcakes, regular size... all handmade and detailed - they did sell, but parents weren't happy paying the prices - they were cute though, so the kids twisted arms. What did sell was mini sized buttercream swirl cupcakes - I sold them cheap (they were made from leftover cupcake batter and I originally intended them to be samples!) and children bought them with their pocket money. 

 

I'd do it again I think. Was a fun day. Is a LOT of work and I think I slept 12 hours straight afterwards. :) 

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Gingerlocks Posted 28 May 2014 , 10:10pm
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In the end I decided not to do the Children's fair..this is its first year (so they can't give any kind of estimates of how many people to expect there); then I did all the number crunching and with the table rental, signage that I'd need to buy, I'd also need a sneeze guard to display the cupcakes, cake pops and cakes; then  there's all the other little bits, ingredients costs, plus paying someone to help me out. The number of cupcakes etc I'd have to sell just to break even was pretty steep..and I'd want to actually make money for my time on top of that.

 

It just seemed like a big risk considering they weren't willing to exclusively allow me to sell cakes; and that they couldn't even give me an estimate of attendance. 

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