Is that booth fee worth it?
A €120 table can leave you with €225.80 after costs and your target pay—or a €29.60 shortfall. The difference in this example is selling 40 items instead of 20.
Start with the sales you can justify, then work backwards to the fee you can afford. An organiser’s visitor count alone cannot tell you how many shoppers will buy your products.
One table. Three possible Saturdays.
Imagine a maker selling an item for €24. Materials and packaging cost €7, each sold item takes 15 minutes to make, and payment fees average 2% of sales. The booth costs €120, travel and other event expenses cost €45, and travel, setup and selling take 8 hours. The maker values their time at €15 an hour.
These are invented planning assumptions, not market averages or a promise of sales. All figures exclude tax and overhead beyond the costs listed.
| For the day | Quiet: 20 sold | Expected: 40 sold | Busy: 60 sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €480.00 | €960.00 | €1,440.00 |
| Materials + packaging | €140.00 | €280.00 | €420.00 |
| Payment fees | €9.60 | €19.20 | €28.80 |
| Booth + travel | €165.00 | €165.00 | €165.00 |
| Left before your labour | €165.40 | €495.80 | €826.20 |
| Making + event hours | 13 hours | 18 hours | 23 hours |
| Value of your time | €195.00 | €270.00 | €345.00 |
| Surplus after target pay | −€29.60 | €225.80 | €481.20 |
The quiet day still leaves cash after the listed event costs, but it does not pay the maker’s €15 hourly target. Keeping those two results separate helps you avoid treating a busy till as proof of a good return.
How many sales cover the table and your time?
Each item contributes €12.77 after materials, payment fees and making time: €24 − €7 − €0.48 − €3.75.
The remaining costs are €285: the €120 booth, €45 travel and €120 for eight hours at the event. Divide €285 by €12.77 and round up: 23 items cover these costs and target pay. That threshold changes when your mix of products changes.
If an item contributes nothing after its variable costs and making time, selling more of it cannot cover the fixed event costs. Review the price, cost or time assumptions before booking.
What is the most you could pay for the booth?
At 40 sales, the calculation leaves €345.80 available for the booth after the other listed costs and your target pay. At 20 sales, that falls to €90.40.
Those figures are ceilings under the assumptions, not suggested fees. Paying the ceiling leaves no surplus beyond your target pay and no cushion for costs you missed. Choose a fee that still works in a quieter scenario you consider plausible.
Three checks before you book
- Use a comparable event. Start with actual sales from a similar audience, location and season when available. For a first market, use a range and make the uncertainty explicit.
- Count the whole day. Travel, loading, setting up and packing down all use time. Add parking, accommodation or helper costs if relevant.
- Separate sold stock from cash tied up. The example charges materials and making time for sold items only. Extra inventory still needs money and work upfront. Allow separately for damaged, perishable or unsellable stock.
After the event, record what sold and the costs you actually paid. That record is more useful for the next booking than repeating an optimistic forecast.
Check your own market.
The free calculator lets you change every assumption above. No signup or email address is required.
Calculate your break-even pointPlanning several markets or products? The BoothWorth Market Kit adds saved events, product-level inputs, scenarios and packing lists. It is in preparation at a planned €29 one-time price; checkout is not open yet.