St. Georges Market

This year we took the decision to compliment our on-line business with a presence in St. Georges Market, Belfast.  With our lines finalised we needed to work out how to raise capital in order get our products branded and ready for retail.

There are so many things one could say about St. Georges.  Firstly, we are a long way off fulfilling our need to raise the capital.  Things have been slower to get rolling than we had perhaps expected yet strangely we are fairing better than many of our counterparts.  We could do a Saturday to compensate but we try as much as possible to keep that day for family time.

We've considered investing money on banners, branding, packaging for the stall etc., but as a casual trader we really just wanted to see if we could get the stall to work.  And, it has.  We are currently looking at expanding to sell at Victoria Square on a Sunday as well and plans are in place for their Christmas fayre too. 

If these opportunities provide the capital it would permit us the opportunity of having finished products ready for retail; that would allow us to consider expanding and possibly, just possibly, consider taking some money out of the business.  A much needed source of income for the expanding Falls family.  

Incidently St. Georges' Market has been shortlisted in the top 10 "good causes awards" and is currently open for voting.  You can give it a big thumbs up here: http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards

Craft Fairs, Stalls and Displays.

In the run up to Christmas we had been spending a little bit of time and money to enhance our presence at craft fairs and stalls.  I wish I could say that the investment paid off.  I confess, my belief in doing charity craft fairs has now ended.  The next person that can convince me to do a charity/community craft fair deserves high praise indeed.

That said 2014 will see us committing to St Georges Market in Belfast for a short period to see if we can increase our presence in Belfast as well as make more money from sales rather than solely from the internet.

So here is a little of what we have been up to...

It started with the crates.  We needed something that provided multiple layers to ensure we could get a wide variety of our lines out on display without it looking cluttered and difficult to differentiate.  We needed something that would be easy to pack and display, was visually eye-catching and offered us a way to keep changing the format so people wouldn't keep seeing the same old week in week out.  Something that didn't offer a blank canvas that the products would fade into but would instead enhance the appearance of the products.  We think we found the answer.  The white crates work perfectly to bring out the colour of the products whilst the blue ties in remarkably well with our brand colour.  The odd bit of blue in the display really draws the eye and the best bit is that we can carry much of our stock in the crates to and from the market.

Much better than a flat table and tablecloth!

Carla had a few ideas of how to develop the stands for craft fairs.  Some of which haven't materialised yet but one which has are the letters for ScENT.  Carla has been working with Little Roots to come up with some letters for the stall.  Here is a quick look at what they have been working on together...

Personally, I can't wait to see the rest of the letters.

So what exactly goes into a craft fair?

We did a craft fair in aid of a cancer charity at the weekend.  Generally we tend to avoid working on a Saturday but on the odd occasion we do accept an invitation.

This one seemed like something we would be keen to get involved in.

I must say though - craft fairs take work - lots of work and I can't truly say that it pays off.

One example of this is the set up...

We generally like to know the size of the table that we are going to be using.  It means we can then go about marking out the size of the table and rehearse a stalls appearance at home.

We then take a few photos, and upon arriving at the stall we can set up as we think best in a much shorter amount of time than arriving with a lot of stock and finding a place to put it.

This one was Carla's design.  And, as is usual in the crafty department.  She trumps me every time!