Craft Fair Profit Calculator
Work out whether a craft fair is worth doing, from the stall fee and the travel to the profit per sale.
A craft fair is a business with a fixed cost and an uncertain revenue, and it can be judged before you pack the car. This calculator adds up the stall fee, the travel and everything else the day costs, then works out how many sales you need to cover it and what you keep at the volume you expect. It also reports the profit per hour of the day, which is the honest comparison against staying in the workshop.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Stall fee, Travel, parking and fuel, Other fixed costs, Average price per sale, Cost of the goods in an average sale, Card fees, Fixed charge per card sale, Sales you expect, Hours the day takes in total, Extra units to make for the fair
- What you get
- Contribution per sale, Contribution margin, Sales to break even, Sales to break even, unrounded, Revenue at expected sales, Card fees at expected sales, Profit at expected sales, Profit per hour of the day, Sales of margin above break even, Margin of safety on the expected volume, Sales to clear the costs and 250 of profit, Profit including unsold extra stock, Units to bring to the fair, Value of the stock on the table, Sales per hour needed to break even, Each sale contributes towards the day
- Formula shown
- Yes, every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only, always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Craft Fair Profit Calculator
- 1 Enter Stall fee
- 2 Enter Travel, parking and fuel
- 3 Enter Other fixed costs, Accommodation, event insurance, a display bought specially, price cards and signage.
- 4 Enter Average price per sale, The average transaction, not the cheapest item. Work it out from a previous fair or from your range.
- 5 Enter Cost of the goods in an average sale
- 6 Enter Card fees (%), Card readers and payment apps charge a share of the sale plus sometimes a fixed amount.
- 7 Enter Fixed charge per card sale
- 8 Enter Sales you expect
- 9 Enter Hours the day takes in total (h), Packing, loading, driving, setting up, trading and packing away, not just the trading hours.
- 10 Enter Extra units to make for the fair, Optional. Units made specially for the event that will not sell anywhere else.
- 11 Press Calculate. You get Contribution per sale, Contribution margin, Sales to break even, Sales to break even, unrounded, Revenue at expected sales, Card fees at expected sales, Profit at expected sales, Profit per hour of the day, Sales of margin above break even, Margin of safety on the expected volume, Sales to clear the costs and 250 of profit, Profit including unsold extra stock, Units to bring to the fair, Value of the stock on the table, Sales per hour needed to break even, Each sale contributes towards the day, and every intermediate step stays visible under "How is this calculated?"
- 12 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result, that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
A local one day fair
A 120 dollar stall, 45 dollars of travel and eighteen expected sales.
You enter
- Stall fee
- $120.00
- Travel, parking and fuel
- $45.00
- Other fixed costs
- $25.00
- Average price per sale
- $32.00
- Cost of the goods in an average sale
- $11.00
- Card fees
- 2.50%
- Fixed charge per card sale
- $0.10
- Sales you expect
- 18
- Hours the day takes in total
- 13 h
- Extra units to make for the fair
- 0
You get
- Contribution per sale
- $20.10
- Contribution margin
- 62.8%
- Sales to break even
- 10
- Sales to break even, unrounded
- 9.45
- Revenue at expected sales
- $576.00
- Card fees at expected sales
- $16.20
- Profit at expected sales
- $171.80
- Profit per hour of the day
- $13.22
- Sales of margin above break even
- 8
- Margin of safety on the expected volume
- 44.4%
- Sales to clear the costs and 250 of profit
- 22
- Profit including unsold extra stock
- $171.80
- Units to bring to the fair
- 72
- Value of the stock on the table
- $2,304.00
- Sales per hour needed to break even
- 0.77
- Each sale contributes towards the day
- 1
A contribution of about 20.10, ten sales to break even, and 171.80 of profit at eighteen sales, which is 13.22 an hour.
A fair that barely clears its costs
A higher stall fee at a bigger event with modest expectations.
You enter
- Stall fee
- $350.00
- Travel, parking and fuel
- $90.00
- Other fixed costs
- $60.00
- Average price per sale
- $32.00
- Cost of the goods in an average sale
- $11.00
- Card fees
- 2.50%
- Fixed charge per card sale
- $0.10
- Sales you expect
- 25
- Hours the day takes in total
- 16 h
- Extra units to make for the fair
- 0
You get
- Contribution per sale
- $20.10
- Contribution margin
- 62.8%
- Sales to break even
- 25
- Sales to break even, unrounded
- 24.88
- Revenue at expected sales
- $800.00
- Card fees at expected sales
- $22.50
- Profit at expected sales
- $2.50
- Profit per hour of the day
- $0.16
- Sales of margin above break even
- 0
- Margin of safety on the expected volume
- 0.0%
- Sales to clear the costs and 250 of profit
- 38
- Profit including unsold extra stock
- $2.50
- Units to bring to the fair
- 100
- Value of the stock on the table
- $3,200.00
- Sales per hour needed to break even
- 1.56
- Each sale contributes towards the day
- 1
Break even at 25 sales, so the expected day makes nothing at all before any of the maker time is counted.
A two day event with stock made specially
A larger commitment with forty units made only for the event.
You enter
- Stall fee
- $260.00
- Travel, parking and fuel
- $130.00
- Other fixed costs
- $180.00
- Average price per sale
- $45.00
- Cost of the goods in an average sale
- $17.00
- Card fees
- 2.50%
- Fixed charge per card sale
- $0.10
- Sales you expect
- 30
- Hours the day takes in total
- 28 h
- Extra units to make for the fair
- 40
You get
- Contribution per sale
- $26.78
- Contribution margin
- 59.5%
- Sales to break even
- 22
- Sales to break even, unrounded
- 21.29
- Revenue at expected sales
- $1,350.00
- Card fees at expected sales
- $36.75
- Profit at expected sales
- $233.25
- Profit per hour of the day
- $8.33
- Sales of margin above break even
- 8
- Margin of safety on the expected volume
- 26.7%
- Sales to clear the costs and 250 of profit
- 31
- Profit including unsold extra stock
- $-446.75
- Units to bring to the fair
- 120
- Value of the stock on the table
- $5,400.00
- Sales per hour needed to break even
- 0.79
- Each sale contributes towards the day
- 1
Unsold extra stock turns a profitable weekend into a loss, which is the trap of making specially for an event.
Guides that go with it
How to Make Your Handmade Projects Look More Professional
How to Make Your Handmade Projects Look More Professional Your work is good. The problem is usually not the work. It is the last 10 percent that separates a piece someone admires at a craft fair from...
Standard Paper Sizes for Crafts and Handmade Projects
If you are pricing a paper project, the honest headline is this: most small handmade paper projects cost somewhere between a few dollars and about $30 in materials, and a bigger run of cards, journals...
How to Fix Common Handmade Crafting Mistakes
You just finished a project and something went wrong. Maybe a seam puckered, a wood joint gaps, glue oozed where it shouldn't, or the paint dried with brush marks. This guide walks you through the fix...
Frequently asked questions
How many sales do I need to cover a craft fair stall?
It depends on the stall fee and your contribution per sale, but the arithmetic is simple. A stall at 120 dollars plus 45 of travel and 25 of other costs is 190 dollars of fixed cost. If an average sale is 32 dollars with 11 dollars of goods and a small card fee, the contribution is about 20 dollars, so ten sales cover the day. Below ten you have lost money, whatever the table looked like.
Is a craft fair worth doing?
Worth doing if the profit per hour beats what those hours would have produced in the workshop, or if the fair brings customers who buy again later. It is not worth doing just because it made some money. A day that consumes fourteen hours for a hundred and fifty dollars of profit has earned about eleven dollars an hour, which is below most makers labour rate before counting the stock that was made for it.
How much stock should I take to a fair?
About four times the number of sales you expect, so the table looks full and a good day can be served without running out. A full table sells better than a thin one, because customers read an empty space as nothing being available. Take a range of prices as well, because a stall with nothing under ten dollars rarely serves the browsers who would otherwise buy something small.
Should I take card payments at a fair?
Yes. A large and growing share of customers carry little or no cash, and a maker without a card reader loses those sales entirely. The fee is typically around 2 to 3 percent plus a small fixed charge, which on a 32 dollar sale is under a dollar. Compare that with the whole sale lost and the reader pays for itself at the first event, though the fixed per transaction charge does hurt very small sales.
What fixed costs do makers forget at a fair?
Parking, the extra stock made specially for the event, a new display or signage bought for it, the event insurance if it is charged separately, the food and drink on the day, and the time spent packing and travelling. They are individually small and collectively often half the stall fee again. This calculator includes a line for other fixed costs precisely because the small ones decide whether the day was worth it.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.