Mobile embroidery at craft shows
6 steps to success
By Jennifer Cox
Selling your embroidered products and services at a craft show or a trade show seems easy at first. You set up a booth, run your embroidery machine, personalize items, collect payment, and head home tired but satisfied. In reality, it involves much more. Mobile embroidery can lead to strong profits, or it can leave you drained with little gained for your efforts.
I’ve seen embroidery business owners leave weekend events with thousands in sales, repeat customers, and a list of potential leads. I’ve also witnessed shops decide to avoid shows altogether after one poorly executed attempt.
The difference isn’t the show or luck. Success requires proper preparation, a clear plan, a system, and the understanding that mobile embroidery is primarily a sales activity. The embroidery process must be secondary. If you are considering a craft show or want better results from the shows you already attend, here are some things to consider. I’ll also provide suggestions to increase your chances of success, including what to bring and how to avoid common issues that could disrupt your experience.
Mobile embroidery lets people see the value of what you do. When someone watches their name being stitched in real time, embroidery stops being “just a logo,” and becomes a unique skill and service that you offer. This awareness and visibility supports higher pricing, stronger perceived value, and faster buying decisions. It also creates opportunities for impulse purchases, personalized gift giving, and creates awareness that you are a local business that is serving your community members and business owners with many options beyond hats.
However, mobile embroidery only works if you control the risk factors. If you try to do it all, customize everything you offer, or wing it with your pricing or workflow at the show, you will not have a successful experience.
“There are trade shows for every industry you can imagine. Find one that interests you, and start from there.”
“A live test run before the event will ensure that you have everything you will need at the event. It is time and effort well spent!”
Images courtesy of Jim Serritella, E-Z Stitches
Step 1. Assess
Before assuming that setting up at an event is what you want to do, ask the following essential questions of the event organizers:
- Is on-location embroidery allowed?
- Can you get electricity in your space, and if so, what are the costs and specs?
- What kinds of vendors are successful at this event?
- Are there other personalized products at the event?
- Are there other embroiderers, or have there been any in the past?
- How many attendees are expected? What are the demographics?
Once they give you the demographics of the people who attend this event, ask yourself:
- Is this audience likely to pay for personalized products?
- Are they bargain hunters or people looking for the perfect gift?
- Is this the best use of your time on that date?
A curated or juried show with higher booth fees often attracts the kinds of attendees who value customization, quality, and custom-made items. A show that has a flea market vibe may bring more people, but those people may have less spending power. Either way, you can be successful. They just require different strategies to turn your time into profits.
“Orders like this need to be run after the event. Make the sale at the show if the opportunity presents itself, then order the inventory, run the job, and deliver or ship the work after the show.” Image courtesy of Amanda Ferguson, Your Name Here Embroidery
Images courtesy of Jim Serritella, E-Z Stitches
Step 2. Define metrics
The next step is to decide what success will look like for each specific event. Without a clear goal in mind, it is difficult to determine if you made a good choice for your business. First, determine what the primary objective of the event will be. Is it about profit, getting leads, exposure in that community, or testing product ideas? Next, define a minimum sales goal. Decide how many orders you can create per day at the event, and be very realistic. And finally, what would make you want to do the show again in the future? By defining how you will measure success before the event, you are less likely to make emotional decisions in the moment during the show, such as offering a steep discount or saying yes to work at the show which is best done after the event.
Step 3. Simplify
Do not offer your entire catalog of stock designs, all your available fonts, or your full spectrum of thread colors at a live event. In order to succeed, you need to sell items with a low stitch count. You do this by limiting the customizations you offer to sew at the event. Anything that requires more than a moment to set up in the software needs to be embroidered after the show, not at the show.
You will want to limit the selection of products you offer at the event. Products that work well in a live setting include caps, towels, baby items, bags, totes, and aprons. While you do offer a vast array of apparel, it is very challenging to sell sized apparel profitably at a show. For every two minutes someone dithers about whether they should order an XL or an XXL, you are losing profits. Sewing a thick jacket at an event, without your strongest hoops, is just inviting it to pop out of the hoop mid-design.
Establish customization rules for the event. Limit the number of fonts offered at the event to no more than five. Limit the number of thread colors offered to the number of needles on your equipment. Embroider only names or short text designs at the event, not stock designs. Certainly sell orders that exceed these criteria, as long as you explain that the order will be produced after the event so that you have the time necessary to create their more complex order. This is the best way to protect your time, your machine, and your sanity at the event!
Image courtesy of Jennifer Cox
Raivo – stock.adobe.com
Step 4. Price accordingly
You are making a significant commitment to bring your embroidery business to an event. You have to run the machine while interacting with the public. You will probably run the machine at a slower speed, and double- and triple-check things before you hit start. You will have to get everything there, set it all up, make sure it is running well, and then take it all back to your business. And everything you create is personalized. If you normally sell hats for $20, charging $27 to $35 at the show is quite reasonable. Set your prices for each product, no matter what they order on it, if you are running it during the event. And please, please do not discount a price to speed up a sale. All that does is create a longer interaction with the customer, as well as lower profits for you, neither of which is good for your business.
Step 5. Plan for success
You need a system to prevent mistakes. Determine the specific steps for taking orders, down to the smallest details. Make sure you can read the handwriting on the orders. Verify how names are spelled. Define how products are tagged with their order details. Figure out where completed orders go to wait for pickup, and how they will be labeled, and then noted as picked up. Decide how you will manage a line, should one form. Create a preprinted order form to capture and organize all the order details.
Step 6. Trial run
Before the event, do an actual trial run. Create a detailed list of what you need, and how it will be packed. Pack everything you think you will need. Find a spot to set up your workspace and your display, as if you were at the event. Set it all up, and run some orders, even if you are just making samples to display. You will quickly discover if you did not pack something that you need. Set up your sales display as well, so that you know what fixtures, signage and other supplies you will need. Use fixtures that will add height or storage to your space. Decide what products you will take, and how you will store them so that you can quickly get what you need for orders. If you wouldn’t run your shop without it, don’t leave it at home. If you would like a sample packing list, please feel free to email me at jennifer@nnep.com to get the Mobile Embroidery Packing Checklist.
Surasak – stock.adobe.com
Common problems & how to handle them
Even well-maintained machines can act up. Perform a full maintenance on your equipment before the show. Take basic spare parts and tools, such as extra bobbin cases and a multitool screwdriver. In a worst-case scenario, you could always offer to ship orders after the event if your machine does not cooperate.
Long lines may not seem like a problem, but they can be! Cap the number of orders you will run per hour. Continue to sell beyond that capacity and offer pickup at your business or ship the order at a later date. Offer no more than two pickup times per day, one after lunch and the last hour at the end of each day.
Never assume that the power supply will be optimal. Confirm the specs of your booth in writing before the show. Bring your own heavy-duty extension cords and power bars, and know what your machine needs to operate. Being the last booth in line connected with three extension cords is not going to cut it.
There will always be people who will ask for a better price. Confidently state “You are getting this custom embroidered [insert product] right here today,” and then stop talking. It is not a negotiation.
After the event
The event does not end when you put the last box in your vehicle to leave. Back at your business, enter the new contacts into your system. Fulfill all the orders that were placed at the show for shipment. Review your entire experience. What sold, and what did not? What questions came up again and again? Where were mistakes made, if any? What would you change to make it easier? Run the numbers to review the final results. Did you make money? Did you make enough money to consider doing it again? Craft shows provide all sorts of interesting data and market research insights, if you take the time to collect and review them.
Craft shows and mobile embroidery can be profitable, energizing, and an excellent marketing tool when you approach them as a business owner. Simplify your offerings. Price with confidence. Protect your workflow. Have fun interacting with people about your work. Remember, you are there to sell solutions. You are not trying to prove how many products your machine can decorate in those few days. With the right mindset, setup, and systems, mobile embroidery can build long-term customers who appreciate the value of what you offer.
Jennifer Cox is a co-founder and president of the National Network of Embroidery Professionals (NNEP), an organization that supports embroidery and apparel decoration professionals with programs and services designed to increase profitability and production.
