Market Mania

Stress: a state of unnecessary self induced panic, well for me it is anyway. This week I found myself getting riled up about having a stall at our local market. Why? Because I wanted everything to be perfect and it wasn't and I wasn't able to buy and do everything I needed to make it perfect. 

I was selling second hand books, stickers, a few knick knacks and some of my photography in the form of cards and postcards. I wanted proper storage boxes to carry the books in, removable labels to stick the prices on the books and be able to get them off without wrecking the books, I wanted to produce my price stickers with Excel and mail merge so I could track sales etc. and I wanted lovely little display stands for my cards and postcards so you could see each variety.  I wanted business cards and flyers to promote my services and I wanted it all to look professional and beautiful so I didn't die of embarrassment.  Oh and wouldn't one of those fold up trolley things be really handy?

I was so overwhelmed by the amount of things I had to do that I didn't even want to go. I mean it's not like I was really going to sell anything anyway right?

Reasons that I didn't end up with a perfect market stall:

1. I didn't have the time or the energy to go and buy everything
   
2. I was making myself crazy with stressing over it
   
3. It would have cost a fortune to buy everything I thought I needed
   
4. It was just a little local market stall, NOT dinner with the Queen
   
5. I decided too bad, I'll just go with what I have
   

So this morning we set off with the books safely packed in new storage boxes because I really need something to carry them in and to pack them away again. Without removable price stickers on the books, without an excel spreadsheet,  without any display stands, without business cards or flyers and definitely NO cute lil fold up trolley. 

Guess what?  Not only did I not die of embarrassment, I sold several books and even one of my own cards with the koala mum and bub on it, plus a few other odds and sods and came home with an extra fifty bucks in my pocket.  I even had a good time, chatting to new people, meeting other stall holders and talking books with customers. Bonus!

So big reminder for me to just do it!  It doesn't have to be perfect, it might even be fun and it's certainly not worth making myself so crazy stressed about everything being perfect all of the time. 












I sold this photo as a blank greeting card! Woo Hoo!