My First Art Stall – Expectations vs Reality

Since I started my art business in 2020, I’ve always been a social media kinda gal. Even before then, I loved social media. I use to create makeup videos and beauty posts, song covers, and much more on instagram and Youtube. I even used to sell American bath and beauty products online (Bath and body works era anyone???)

Anyway, as you can tell – I’ve always been comfortable in the online world. So naturally, my business became an online one too, I have my website and my online shop where people can browse and order at their leisure. That was until I decided to take the big leap into real life and actually bring my business to a new kind of light. Yes, the kind that comes from the sun – not from my phone like I had been so use to.

Yes I brought my shop to life, I hosted my first ever Art Stall.

What is an art stall, you ask? It’s basically where you have your business and your products on show, at some kind of location. Could be at a market with lots of other businesses, could be at a shop, or it could even be at your place of education. In my case, I hosted my first stall at my University.

I was nervous, to say the least. Being a small business owner behind your screen is so much easier and less daunting! You can present yourself as super professional online, sending thought out messages to potential customers where you can pause to curate your reply, as opposed to face to face interactions where you would look like an idiot if you stood there in front of someone for 5 minutes trying to think of that star quality response.

I expected to trip up on my words, and not be able to think of the perfect response on the spot each time, and that did indeed happen a few times, which was completely normal. But there were a few assumptions I had about doing my first ever art stall, that turned out not to be a reality at all. Continue reading to hear my top 5 Expectations vs Reality on holding an art stall for the first time.

Expectation – People would look, but not speak.

Reality – THEY SPEAK TOO

As students having stalls at the Uni was not a common thing (I was actually the first student at my Uni to do this!), I assumed people seeing a random girl with a table with loads of prints and such on them would be confused. That led me to believe people would look, but not interact with me. However that was not the case! I had people on their own, in two’s, groups etc. come over to my stall and ask questions. Ask about what I was doing there, what my business is etc. People were actually… interested! So, if by any chance anyone reading this blog post is interested in having a stall somewhere, make sure you are prepared to interact with people, answer questions and talk about your business! I know social interaction with strangers (or anyone) can be scary, but trust me, in the moment when people are showing an interest in something of yours, and something you love, it becomes so much easier to talk to them when it’s to do with something you’re passionate about.

Expectation – I needed to be and act perfect

Reality – I just needed to be myself

I think we all have, or will feel imposter syndrome some point in our lives. It’s that feeling where you feel like a fake. I definitely felt some anxiety and imposter syndrome when setting up my stall; trying to think of things to say to people, how to start a conversation and generally how to sound really professional and mature. I have a business, and I want it to come across as the perfect business, and to come across as the perfect business-woman. It’s a high goal to reach, and one that’s quite impossible. But hang on – firstly, perfection doesn’t even exist! We are always striving for something that truthfully we can never reach. And secondly, what resonates more with people – Perfection or authenticity? Authenticity. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather buy from someone that is true to themselves and whose heart shines through their business (not to sound too cheesy haha). But it’s true; I realised I didn’t need to be perfect. If I made mistakes and tripped up on my words, or had a brain fart moment where I couldn’t think of anything to say (which did happen), it didn’t matter.

Expectation – I wouldn’t get many compliments or positive feedback on my art/business

Reality – People actually did, which felt super validating

Since I started my business, I’ve always been a pencil portrait artist. That is, I do graphite drawings of people and pets, (I take commissions – message me for more info hehe). I started to dabble in digital art when my mum bought me an iPad for Christmas 2021 and I started thinking about the possibility of selling art prints too. It wasn’t until later on in 2022, and earlier this year that I started to actually make prints and turn some of my graphite drawings into prints too, and list them on Etsy. And even though I was, I didn’t really believe they were something people would actually buy. Compared to the quality of my portrait drawings, I wasn’t sure if these were good enough. However actually representing this aspect of my business in person at my stall gave me a boost of confidence I’ve never had in my prints before. Loads of people complimented my work and said lovely things. Some were in awe of the detail in my hand drawn portrait drawings, and many loved the vibrancy and prettiness of my digitally drawn art prints. For the first time, I felt validated in this side of my business.

Expectation – I wouldn’t know what to say to people

Reality – Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. And that’s okay

I knew I would have to try and make conversation with anyone that approached my stall, but I worried I wouldn’t know what to say or how to reply to any questions. I tried to pre-plan some things I would say; how are you today? Thank you for taking an interest in my business, etc. But of course you can’t know what people are going to say or ask ahead of time so you can’t plan for everything! I found that most of the time, I knew somewhat what to say, especially when the questions were about my business. Even if I had to take a moment to think of what to say. There were moments I found more challenging though; such as when people were just browsing – I didn’t know how best to initiate a conversation. I also didn’t know what was the right way to remind people that my products were on sale that day, or how to suggest they sign up to my newsletter or take a business card – without sounding pushy! I didn’t get everything right, and that’s okay. From this experience and from feedback I’ve gained, I’ve now learned what I can do better next time to improve

Expectation – That I would measure the success of the stall on how many sales were made.

Reality – Success is based on so much more than just sales!

Initially I thought that if I made no sales, my stall would be a total fail. But I realise now I was focusing on one element out of a sea of opportunity. The goal of this stall wasn’t merely to make sales on that day – it was to get my business and name out there more, share my business with more people and allow people to connect with me online to support my business and stay up to date with what I’m doing, while also opening the opportunity for these people to make future orders if they wished to do so. The success of this stall was based on so much more than the number of sales I made that day. And in the end I was so happy and proud of myself, and thought it went amazingly well despite only making 2 sales. In the end, it wasn’t even the sales I was most excited about. I was excited about the conversations I had, the people who signed up to my newsletter, the people who followed me on Instagram, the people who expressed excitement and an interest in commissioning a piece from me, or buying from my Etsy store in the future etc. For my first ever stall, the two sales was just an amazing bonus!

Since this stall I’ve held one more at my Uni, during a business networking event that was being held, where multiple students had their own stalls. That went amazing too and I got even more people interested in my business that day!

I guess the valuable lesson taught here is that, despite my anxieties and low expectations, I pushed myself to do something out of my comfort zone which has allowed me to grow even more in my business and as a person. The lesson here today is to NEVER let self doubt win, if you have a goal – then push past your comfort zone and go grab it. And you’ll find that most of the time, the reality is that it goes a lot better than you expected!

Whatever that thing you wanna do that scares you is, whether it’s doing a stall like me, or literally anything else – take a deep breathe, think of what you stand to gain from pushing yourself to do it, and remind yourself that if you don’t try, you will never know what amazing experiences/opportunities could be waiting for you if you just pushed through your barrier of comfort. I believe in you.

Thank you for reading, I hope you gained something from this post

Stay creative x

Ayesha