Thursday, May 9, 2013

Star Saleswoman



Ellianna is a finger-knitting whiz! She wants to sell these as bookmarks. Would you buy one? And she's not just a maker and a salesperson, she's also modeling one of my favorite kanzashi flowers!

The star of our craft fair was our 8-year-old sales charmer.

Ellianna is the daughter of two geeky introverts and she swings between being shy around unfamiliar people and circumstances and being effervescent with friends and family. But put her in a sales position, and she really shines!

At last December's craft show, Ellie worked our table for a couple hours after setup and then her favorite babysitter came and took her off for the afternoon to have fun. This time around, I decided to keep Ellie at the show for the whole day, partly as a way to teach her that it takes time and effort to earn money. (An ongoing lesson for an 8-year-old to learn.)

I was a little worried that it would be a long day and hard for her to get through, but she was quite the trooper! She didn't complain about being bored or annoy our neighboring vendors. Whenever someone came to browse our offerings, she was right there to tell them about her notecards or my flowers.

Sunset Over the Ocean, a watercolor, made its notecard debut at the craft fair. It will soon be available for sale in our Etsy store.


And my child, who hides when someone wants to shake her hand, actually shook hands with two customers who bought her notecards! Without being pressured to take their outstretched hands, which is just huge! (Actually, the pressure never works anyway. So I'm glad I didn't even try when she hesitated before shaking the first customer's hand.)

It was heartwarming to see Ellie come out of her shell and bubble with enthusiasm as she interacted with potential customers. And it was a rare one who could resist her pitch! Ellie's notecards don't get a lot of interest (yet) in our online shop, but they are the most popular item we've had at our two craft fairs so far.

We may not have broken even at this most recent craft fair, but it was definitely a positive experience for all of us.



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