In the long view....10x is standard.
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on September 30, 1999 at 02:10:29:
In Reply to: 10 x the booth fee? posted by MyST on September 29, 1999 at 18:40:51:
The 10x rule is for people who are on the road doing craft fairs full
time, without a straight job. I worked festivals from 1970 to 1998,
and that's what any professional artisan would tell you. Booth x 10.
If you don't have to travel, set up a fancy booth or costume, you can
stretch that out... the 10x rule is a generalization for folks who
are working 50 weekends a year, with some shows brilliant and some
suckky.
Now, certainly, if you have a straight job, any profit you make is
cool. If henna, for you, is a profitable hobby, you will look at
things very differently. $650 on a weekend, minus your travel,
supplies, insurance, costume, .....dadadadadada stuff....is fine.
BUT If you are doing henna full time....you need to figure in ALL
your expenses + booth fee before you start to count profit, and make
sure things stack up to be a functional middle class income. You'll
need to have AT LEAST $750 a weekend clear profit (after all the dust
has settled) if not more to compensate for the "down times" of the
year.
Also...the 10x rule gets really intense if you understand the dynamics
of cash flow! If you have a straight job that you can take money from
to put out all the fees in the spring of the year (when there may be
precious few shows)...those big fees may be manageable. But....bigger
$ fees certainly are no guarantee of bigger profits. You can henna
only so fast. The dynamic of cash flow when hennaeing is very
different than cash flow when moving merchandise. At a huge show you
might be able to sell more widgits than at a small show (if you have a
sufficient inventory and variety of widgits) , but you can't actually
henna any more people per hour than you could at a small show.