STREET MARKET ADVENTURES

My business journey is going on

This weeks adventure: I have participated in my first dutch street market: I had a booth at ORIGINAL MARKET in Alkmaar on 2nd October. WHOOP WHOOP

I can tell you, that made me pretty excited. And a little nervous, to be honest. I was thrilled to have an event that feels as my first real business activity. And I can tell you: it was a good experience.

As I painted and created a lot during the last weeks, I had to think about selling some of my artwork. A creative market that sells all kinds of handmade arts and crafts, DIY homedecor and other great creative stuff souded perfect to me to start with. Many differnet creatives collaborating is a cool idea. So I googled for creative/handmade markets in The Netherlands and found this cool website: MevrouwMarkt.nl with an overview of streetmarkets. On that website I saw that ORIGINAL MARKET Alkmaar was still searching for participants.
I got enthousiastic and applied. That was only 1,5 weeks ago.
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Preparations

As I got accepted, I started to panic- well a tiny little bit- and wrote down many to-do-lists. The preparations were fantastic and I was surprised how productive I was be to reach my target.
​Within a couple of days I:

• bought 20 new small frames, for cute little take away 'love messages'
• painted 18 cute little mixed-medias on paper and framed them 
• painted 5 more medium paintings
• sprayed all my paintings with varnish
• did a try-out how to display my paintings and set up my booth
• priced my work, made a pricelist for myself and bought price-labels
• changed money to have change and lots of small banknotes (tip: you can order money at the bank that takes minimum3 (!) days to pick it up, at least this is the case at Rabobank. I found out 2 days in advance :))
• sewed a huge, black tablecloth  for the booth
• photographed all paintings in case I sell them

Try-out at home

​Last minute postcards 

A couple of days before the market, I realised that I had only left a small amount of business cards. Oops.
Since a long time I wanted to use postcards with my contact details instead of business cards. Now was the chance- only the timing was a little - let's say- short notice. 
With good intentions I searched for good options online - not too expensive and with fast delivery options. With the help of friends who know more about printing I found out about DeKaartendrukkerij. During the process I realised that I have zero experience with designing postcards and the hussle to deal with dpi and print marges etc. It was stressfull to sort it all out by myself with little time- lessons learned! I can tell you, don't do it my way. Get some help :)
Friday, I was so nervous to receive the mail- boy!
But it was all worth it- the result is fantastic. I love my new postcards. 

​Stuff to take along:

If any of you, my creative friends, will go to a market one day, you might be interested in practical information what to take with you. This was my list:

• 2 chairs
• 2 small table easels and 2 wine boxes for the display
• small plant 
• paper towel and a microfiber towel for cleaning the frames
• price labels
• pen, note book, sissors, big and small rope, cloth pins, scotch tape, duct tape
• my paintings, frames and postcards
• trash bag
• purse with change
• camera and tripod

​What I didn't take but would have been very, very useful with an outdoor market is a huge tarpaulin or plastic to protect you and your products from rain and wind, plus something to attach it to the roof.
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My experience

Well, after so much preparation I was happy when we arrived in Alkmaar and everything was in its place.
​I thought: "let the people come and buy my colourful paintings". 
Then it started to rain. And to storm. My paintings got wet and one big frame actually fell from the table and got broken. And there was more rain. One shower after the next one. And very, very few visitors. 
So in the end I sold almost nothing and we got super wet. And cold. It were 6 long, long hours, but we had great company, nice neighbours and enjoyed take-away hot chocolate from the cafe across the market :)
I hope, next time, I have more luck. One thing is for sure - now I know how to TACKLE a street market next time!

Lots of love,
​Lisa