A.k.a. craft shows, fairs, charity events and the like— they’re a different breed of business, but not impossible to benefit from! This past weekend I flew up North to participate in several craft shows with my amazingly skilled mom, and it took me a canceled flight and a bout of food poisoning to get there, but I made it to the homey province of New Burgh, New York to bake! And bake we did, holy hell—holiday be damned! I spent the ten hours between arriving in New York and setting up for the event baking and packaging goodies to sell. But it was well worth the seller’s high of having an entire rack of sold-out cookies.

These events I’m sure sound about as glamorous as a glorified grade-school book fair, and honestly, the audience is pretty on par, but they aren’t a terrible place to start. Unless you have a comfortable nest egg to invest in a business idea, it’s not easy to transition from your day job to your life dream. Because of this, my mom has been running her side-business bakery for years in her limited free time—what you can make out of a small kitchen in a basement apartment will astound you—but her success mainly comes from events like these she attends annually. Rickety little craft fairs are great for upstarting businesses and aren’t limited to just baking (or crafting); any combination of handmade jewelry, clothing, toiletries, services, trinkets, antiques, and oddities sell well too!

The best part? Minimal licensing and permit problems. Honestly, most shows are too small to warrant major liability concerns. Of course, don’t sell things that are detrimental to the public’s health, and you’ll be fine! Plus they’re c h e a p. Like broke-college-student affordable. It’s amazing. Most shows have a small flat fee to pay for space while others, usually organized by schools or churches, require a percentage of your profits, and at least then you know you’re funding an establishment that helps people. Win-win!

However, reserving your spot in a craft show is the easy part. Newspaper clippings, event boards, online postings—all great places to find these pop-up shops, especially around the holidays. Even setting up is easier than the preparatory work, but here are some tips I gathered between my mom’s veteran experience and my first-hand suffering of what goes into these shows.

1. The Importance of Preparation

..And the impotence of poor planning; seriously there are so many things you need to be prepared before you can even consider hosting a table. Change is one of the most important, as you likely won’t invest in an attachable card reader right off the bat, and your customer base will carry cash in bills (depending on your location) anywhere from wrinkled beyond recognition $1 bills to multiple, crisp $50 bills that you’ll need to exchange if you want to make a profit—that means having a couple hundred of dollars on hand.

Then, of course, there is the actual product you’re selling. Had I arrived a day earlier, we wouldn’t have been up the entire night before the show baking last-minute cookies and packaging the rest. But that only includes the simpler, single-bowl cookies. My mom worked on the hand decorated cookies for two months. That’s at least three months of working ahead, including an extra month for planning the designs and gathering needed supplies. And we still sold out of the standard cookies in that first day!

2. Affordable supplies

Buy. In. Bulk. Shamelessly thrift like a reality show hoarder, especially if you buy non-perishable or long lasting supplies. I could’ve made life-size sculptures with the leftover butter my mom had stashed away, and there were enough bags of sugar to anchor a hot-air balloon, but it’s not like we didn’t use it.

We had to completely replenish our non-decorated selection of cookies the same night because we had another show the next morning! As long as you’re confident in your product’s ability to sell, it’s impossible to over-stock (plus the extras can be gifts, making your Christmas roulette much easier!)

3. Variety of Goods (and People)

It’s guaranteed that a diverse display will attract a likewise array of people. This one lady asked me at least ten times if any of the cookies would give her the runs and I still have not recovered, but anyway.

With trends like the keto diet, veganism and vegetarianism as well as sensitivities like gluten and nut allergies, it’s generally beneficial to be inclusive in your products. I baked the gluten-free section of the display and I expected it to be more popular than it was, however, B.F.E. New York is not an ideal location to capitalize on trendy foods. Being aware of your customer base will boost your profits because you can directly cater to their palates.

I’m still quite the rookie, and of course, these don’t all apply to every craft show or every baked product, but it’s not a bad start. It’s an interesting experience to say the least, even though I’ve been working in customer service for a couple of years now it’s quite incomparable.