Free tool
Can You Actually Make Enough Before the Next Show
Put in your target booth inventory, what is left in the totes, your minutes per piece and the bench hours you truly have each week, and see where you will land at load in.
Free tool, no sign up
What a Craft Fair Booth Has to Sell to Break Even
Enter the booth fee, your travel and help for the weekend, your average sale and the share of each price that goes to materials and card fees, and see the number the show has to clear.
Makers usually judge a show by the booth fee, which is the one number printed on the application. It is almost never the biggest line. Add the jury fee, three hundred miles of driving, a night in a motel because load in is at six, a friend paid to hold the booth while you eat, and the fee can end up being under half of what the weekend costs you to attend.
The second half of the arithmetic is what stays with you out of each sale. A thirty eight dollar piece does not put thirty eight dollars against the booth fee. Materials, packaging and the processing fee come off the top first, and what is left is the contribution that has to cover the show. This calculator puts both halves together so the answer is a sales figure you can compare against what that fair has done for you before.
Your result
What the weekend costs to attend
$615
Everything you spend before a single shopper walks up to the table.
Sales needed to break even
$961
The register total that pays back the show once materials and fees come off.
Buyers needed at your average sale
26
Whole buyers, since half a shopper does not hand you a card.
Profit at your expected sales
$281
What the weekend leaves you before your own hours are paid.
Your own labor is not in these numbers, so treat the break even figure as the floor rather than a good weekend.
Costs makers leave out of the booth fee
The lines that go missing are the ones paid on different days. The jury fee went out in February with the application. The canopy weights were bought two seasons ago. The hotel was booked on a personal card. The friend who covered the booth was paid in cash and a sandwich. None of that feels like part of the show, and all of it is.
Packaging is the other quiet one. Bags, tissue, boxes for the fragile pieces, tags, care cards and the ribbon you tie on for the holiday market all come out of the retail price. Rolled into the materials and fees share, they usually add a few points, which moves the break even number by more than makers expect on a weekend of small tickets.
Turning the number into an application decision
The output that matters is not the dollar figure, it is the buyer count. When the calculator says you need thirty six buyers to break even and the aisle you were on last year gave you twenty two, the decision is already made and it has nothing to do with whether you liked the show. Either the average sale has to rise or the booth is the wrong booth.
This is also how to size up a big juried festival that scares you. A larger fee with a much stronger crowd can break even faster than a cheap church hall market, because the average sale moves too. Run both through the calculator with the numbers each one actually produced for you, then send the application to the one that clears its own bar.
Questions about this calculator
Should I count my own hours in the costs?
Not in this calculator, which is why the result is called break even rather than profit. If you want a fuller picture, take the profit figure and divide it by the hours the weekend took, including packing, driving, standing at the booth and teardown. Most makers find that number sobering the first time.
What share should I use for materials and card fees?
Start with your real material and packaging cost as a percentage of retail, then add your processing rate. Many makers land somewhere in the low thirties to low forties. If you have never worked it out per line, use your best line and your weakest line as a range.
Does sales tax belong in this calculation?
No. Sales tax you collect is not yours, so it should not sit in the sales figure or the cost figure. Track it separately for your permit filing, and keep the register total here as the pre tax amount you actually earned.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The post show sheet that turns a weekend into a decision
Four short stages you fill in at teardown, in the van and on Monday, ending with a restock list and a written verdict on whether that fair earns your application again.
Put this number next to the show it came from
The result you just worked out means more sitting beside what that fair really rang up. Bring it to a short demo and we will place it against the opening and closing counts from a comparable market. Within a few minutes you will know whether your estimate matched the aisle or flattered it.