Bad hair day.

[MN Shutterbug]

This little guy was sure interested in my Audubon bird call. I believe it's a song sparrow, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, it's my best of the morning.

[mcary]

X-

How did your time in Battle Lake work out? I was really tempted to stop over and see your setup, but we had other commitments. I hope it went well. I am definitely heading to South Dakota for the spring migration this next year (provided I don't break anymore bones when the time comes). From Detroit Lakes, it's a whole lot closer than it is from Duluth! If you're interested in heading that way, let me know and we can keep it in mind as it approaches.

[mmeyer]

Nice pic XT

[Steve Foss]

Nice environmental portait, Mike!

[Catmendo]

Good work!

[MN Shutterbug]

Nice environmental portait, Mike!

That's the way I like them.

Mike, after motel room expense, show expense and gas, I lost about $20. I know others did even worse. Some that come very year said this was their worst year yet. There were probably a couple thousand people that came thru, so it wasn't for lack of traffic. There must have been over 100 vendors. There was an elderly gent next to me that was selling a lot of handmade furniture. He said he's done better, but I thought he sold quite a bit. However, it was proof that consumers are interested more in saving money than buying quality. He did an excellent job, but everything was made out of cheap pine. It looked nice, but you know how well it will hold up to knocks and bumps.

I set up at a local art show put on by out art gallery, last week. There were only 9 of us vendors and maybe 500 came thru. Surprisingly, I sold more here than I did at Battle Lake. I would never have guessed that would happen. This one cost me just $25 to set up and was only 3 blocks from my house. My profit from this small show was about $150. I was quite satisfied and surprised. I'd have been happy with $100 in sales.

I've booked myself into another one for next month. This is a huge one that has 150 vendors and last year drew about 30,000 peoplelast year. This one should be interesting. It cost me $250 to get in and the motel room for 2 nights will be $150. If nothing else, it will be a tax deductible mini vacation. It's just so tough to know how much inventory to have on hand for a show this large. If I base it on the results from Battle Lake, which was about 8c per person, I'd need at least $2000 worth of inventory. If I based it on the results from Marshall, I'd need over $10,000. Personally, I'm expecting results similar to the Battle Lake show. I think the more vendors, the tougher it is to sell. People are in too big of a hurry to see everything and they don't spend enought time at each booth. Like someone mentioned, at a small show, they have enough time to go by each booth a couple times.

This is definitely a learning experience for me. Eventually, I may have it kind of figured out. There is no shortage of shows in the state. One vendor told me that it took them 2 years to figure which shows made them money and which shows lost them money.

[Dbl]

I like it Mike. Our lake cabin is about 10 miles from Battle Lake X, didn't know that was the show you were hitting!