Selling At Events And Fairs

Dinah93 · 14 November 2007 at 12:02AM

Hi all,

my partner and I have been looking at selling our mixed media canvas pieces and hopefully in the future the metal work designs I have recently begun doing. We're both very creative, and have frequently been told we could sell our work, and as we have frames and materials overflowing in our house now might be a good time! A lady at work sells decorated candles at craft events, and takes around £700 a day at this time of year, after materials and paying for her stall, she still makes over £500 profit. I was wondering if anyone had any experience to share of selling at fairs and events, and also if anyone knows what the tax position is on income generated through selling in this manner. Will it make a difference if we register as a small business (not a clue what the costs of this are, but a lot of people seem to do it, and the lack of VAT on all the materials is very tempting).

Also, my dad suggested I should also look at doing displays or sessions with groups on basic artistic blacksmithing, and I'm wondering whether to bite the bullet and purchase a protable forge which would be around £190 :eek: . Another option with the displays would be that my partner does fire dancing using a fire staff, but I'm not sure if that is a complete no-go in a health and safety obsessed world. I've seen it done at a few festivals in recent years, but it always seems to be pretty, young girls doing it, not sure if he's likely to be missing out just by being a man!

Thanks for reading,
Dinah x

Edit: Sorry for the title, I entered 'Selling at events and fairs', but for some reason it changed to 'Ms' when i posted. If anyone knows how to change it to sometinhg that makes sense for the content, I would appreciate it

jessicamb · 14 November 2007 at 7:45AM

Hi Dinah

I changed your thread title as requested.

Registering for VAT has its costs as well as benefits - firstly you have to charge VAT to the customers - hence a 17.5% price increase. There are fairly strict record keeping requirements (anything you want to claim the VAT back on must be a VAT invoice amongst other things). For the size of your endeavour I think the costs of being VAT registered would be excessive - but speak to an accountant if you want further info.

Otherwise good luck!

Chollita · 14 November 2007 at 12:37PM

I guess you'd have to check it out with the local council re the safety aspect. I've certainly seen guys doing shows with fire, and it does attract a good audience, although I think I've seen it more as street entertainment.

Consider if the portable forge could be set against tax, and how quickly it would pay for itself. Also research how much people would be willing to pay for your pieces, and whether you could make a decent profit. I imagine they would be somewhat dearer than candles! They might do well at this time of year as unusual Christmas presents, if you already have enough stock completed, but I don't know if you would be too late to book a stall at craft events.

Selling At Events And Fairs

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free