How do I manage a schedule with 341 hours of shows over 2 months?

Sam & Oliver

Sam & Oliver

This upcoming fair season, I was able to book myself into some of the biggest state fairs we have in CT.  Now that the contracts are in place, deposits are paid and the venue booked, I need to start looking at staffing.  341.5 total fair hours of billable time if an employee were to help.  I'll be there earlier than the times posted each day on setup day and later for breakdown day.  The booth stays up during the duration so each night I can simply remove the cash box, lock the tent down and let the police patrol the venue.
 
One question I have is: What's the best place to find employees to work for cash, all or partial hours?  I have a few people I know, but doubtful anyone wants to slug out a 46 hour work week at the Durham fair, even if it's the largest in the state.
 
Another question is, how do I take care of myself during this time?  Some of those events are damn near 15 hour days.  I can't leave my booth, per show rules, the booth must be staffed at all times.  Should I be taking chronic breaks from the booth?  Maybe 30 minutes per 4 hours?  How do I stay sane, not get exhausted and not loose to much money?
 
I am fully prepared to run the booth myself, but sales will suffer because people get impatient.  Any show I've done by myself, I've noticed if too many people queue up, the ones in back take off after a little while.  I will try to engage everyone and say hello, etc.  But even if I'm handing out samples, if someone ponies up with a credit card, I'm stuck there for 1-2 minutes doing the credit card swipe, and apologizing to people that it's taking so long, etc.  I keep the cash behind me in a cash box, so if someone pays with a $100 bill (don't you love that?) I have to go get change.  That puts me in a position to turn my back to the customer and while I'm not worried about someone stealing a bottle of sauce as much as people walking that could be buying... it also seems rude.
 
Having a 2nd person there seems to put all that at ease.  I work with a guy who's daughter has helped me out and I've given her $10 per hour to assist, which she thinks is fair.  I've never had employees before.
 
Please pardon my third question but where do I find girls to staff the booth with me for $10 per hour?  I say girls because when I have another guy help me, we don't do nearly as much sales as when I have even a quiet girl standing there.
 
Is there a source I can contact for staffing at shows?
 
Here's the schedule I'm looking at.
 
schedule.PNG
 
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I have never done anything like what you are attempting,
but I certainly would not trust anyone from an agency or "Help wanted" ad.
I would be looking at family members, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Maybe a neighbor or neighbor's teenagers (16+) 
 
Good Luck
 
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I just did a county fair. It was 17x 14 hour days in a 20 day span. 12 hours of fair with an hour before/after for travel.

And I had 1 person working with me, I made sure she was available for it before I booked the fair.

And it was brutal. There's no way I'd do more than one.

You mentioned "cash" - you may want to check your paperwork closely. My county fair is part of the fair commission which is a state entity. As such I had to sign a sworn statement that all of my employees were above board, and that I had disability insurance & workers comp paid, along with payroll taxes.

So I had a payroll dept onboard my farmers market temp employee and the festival employee (my existing employee was already legal) and I paid them on direct deposit.

As for where to find people, that's on you man - these people are representing your business. They need to be trustworthy with large chunks of cash, and you'll need to work them long hours. They'll require breaks, and will get overtime for shifts longer than 8 hours, and more than 40 in a week.

You are also failing to understand the difference between a show and a fair. I dunno about your fairs, but the one I did we had a steady stream of people all day, start to close. I took the occasional break but mostly I lived in my booth.

But when I did take breaks, my employee was fully capable of charging credit cards or handling cash. She had her own change every day & handed me larger bills as the day went on.

Using a cash box is asking to get robbed. Use your pockets - cash boxes get taken. Frequently. And state fairs are notorious for crime. You have an item easy to steal.

$10 isn't enough $ IMO. The amount of work involved and long hours, $15 is the least I would pay. You also get what you pay for. If you expect this person to work hard, give a shit and hustle at all for that many hours, $10 isn't enough.

You also need to figure out inventory & logistics. I started with 150 CS of sauce & had to restock my booth both incrementally (8-12 CS/day) and one full restock at the 2 week point.

I dunno - I thought I was crazy to do the 1 fair then the CA Hot Sauce Expo a week later. You've booked something that even I think is crazy.

#1 suggestion - pay a fair wage and pay your employees above board. You're working state events, and those folks frown on illegal labor. As to where you're going to find them, man - that sounds pretty impossible to me. In addition to underpaying & overworking them, you're overlooking reliability. Employees get sick and miss time, or need days off. And any day you're stuck in your booth alone is an impossible day. You are contractually bound to staffing your booth (same rules I had) and it might be considered unprofessional to crap in a bucket or wear a catheter.

Good luck - you're gonna need it.
 
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For the 14 hour days you probably want to have at least 2 helpers on half day shifts that overlap a bit in the middle for you to be free to take an hour or 2 break during the overlap (that way you have them each work an 7 - 8 hour day and have 2 people manning the booth when you do take a break ( or even 3 on 6 hour overlapping shifts !! ) and it only costs you an extra couple hours of pay and no overtime pay so you wind up with less overall payroll (figure everything over 8 hours in many states requires time and a half and usually after 8 hours the employees production is actually dropping just when you are paying them more so better to have 2 on 8 hours with some overlap then 1 for 14 hours for less overall pay and better production)
 
As far as finding them - are there any nearby college campuses ?? IF so check with their employment services (most college kids could use a few hours over a few weekends and you could always throw in a couple bottles of product in addition to the pay. )
 
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Yeah there are a few colleges in the area here.
 
I've begun reaching out to friends and family first to see who they know, paying $15 an hour and $20 on the weekends.  I'll look into the split shifts, etc.
 
As far as logistics, I'm reordering product now so I have enough stock, and will re-assess stock levels after my first show in 2 weeks, and place an order then as well.

I didn't realize the cash box was such a target.  I would have thought carrying a wad of cash would be worse.  I've got an apron on over a pack so I'll just start keeping in tthere.
 
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Cash box has a bullseye on it.

Someone would have to be much more bold to reach into your pocket.
lol

Back to employees, you'll need these people to be able to sell for you as well.

Don't have day #1 of the fair be their first day. My employee has worked with me for years and knows my product as well as I do. I was actually impressed a couple of times when I'd come back from a bathroom break to hear her pitching a customer, suggesting pairings, closing the sales - you won't have that luxury but whomever you bring in, make sure you've spent at least 1 full shift prior to going to the fair training them on the products, pricing, pairing suggestions, bulk discounts, tips to up-sell, customer service, etc.

If you can't leave your booth for 30 mins without panicking that all hell's gonna break loose, you need different people.

Also having a guy work for you can help with lifting things - just a suggestion.
 
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I'm 99.5% certain my booth will NOT be on fire when I return from using the can.
 
I've started seeking out friends and surprisingly I have had about 10 or so people express interest.  The trove of people came from a woman who is a work-at-home mom who makes a living selling wellness products.
 
Well, she's a regional manager and knows lots of other stay at home women with time and sales experience.  So they jumped on that wagon.  I'm actually trying to now work out things like "who gets what show" etc.  I offered $15 for weekday shows and $20 per hour on weekends.  Much better than $10 eh?
 
I guess now that you planted the seed, my biggest hurdle and fear is running out of inventory.  I'm going to re-assess my inventory after the first show there as I have some downtime and I have a decent amount of inventory on hand and place the order asap.  It would suck to run dry mid-fair or worse: be unable to vend and breach contract.  I'm sure they wouldn't like that next year.
 
Didn't think about the guy.  I guess it would make sense to have someone help on last day to break down, etc.
 
Hey: Anti-fatigue mats... worth it?  I'll be on  hard-packed dirt most of the time, I doubt any of these shows are on asphalt.
 
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Get a mat or your back will be fucked. Knees too.

Re: inventory, be realistic. Get last year's attendance #'s from each of the events and make an assessment of what you'll need for that kind of crowd.

If you run out of product you're not breaching contract - you can still present your company and talk to people.

While I've not read your specific agreement, I'd guess that the only thing that constitutes a breach is having an abandoned booth.
 
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Basically:
 
Selling product not pre-approved on the contract (application)
Subletting your booth / selling someone else's stuff not approved
Having people in your booth not part of your business.  (hanging out, Occupy Sam & Oliver, etc)
Alcohol, firearms, smoking (some places you can't even smoke outside your booth) - I don't smoke
Not being open / closing early
Leaving the booth unattended
Having garbage everywhere within 10 feet of your booth front.
Serving Food / Drink if you're not a food vendor / approved / Health Inspected
Loud Music
Selling your product outside the booth (walking around handing out flyers)
Taking up more than your share of allocated space
Being an asshat
Crapping in buckets
 
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Re: labor/employees-
 
There used to be such a thing as "casual labor".  IIRC, we used to be able to hire someone for up to 2 weeks and not have to claim them as an employee, pay taxes on them, etc.  That's an IRS thing though, not sure what your state regs are, but it's worth a question to the right person.
 
For shifts- people can work 4 10's and still be counted as a 40 hour work week with no overtime, as long as they accept the job with those hours, not changed opn a whim from 5 8's.  If the fair is 4  10-12 hour days, shifts like that might work better.  Also, do you need a 2nd person there for the whole shift?  Maybe for theft and just to have someone help load in, stock the table, set up the fresh handwashing, and the reverse in the evening...maybe.  But if you think you can handle it for an hour or 2, have them come in for someting like 11-7. 
 
Good Luck!  Stock up on Tylenol~  ;)
 
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salsalady said:
Re: labor/employees-
 
There used to be such a thing as "casual labor".  IIRC, we used to be able to hire someone for up to 2 weeks and not have to claim them as an employee, pay taxes on them, etc.  That's an IRS thing though, not sure what your state regs are, but it's worth a question to the right person.
 
For shifts- people can work 4 10's and still be counted as a 40 hour work week with no overtime, as long as they accept the job with those hours, not changed opn a whim from 5 8's.  If the fair is 4  10-12 hour days, shifts like that might work better.  Also, do you need a 2nd person there for the whole shift?  Maybe for theft and just to have someone help load in, stock the table, set up the fresh handwashing, and the reverse in the evening...maybe.  But if you think you can handle it for an hour or 2, have them come in for someting like 11-7. 
 
Good Luck!  Stock up on Tylenol~  ;)
Click to expand...
 
In CA we have "contract workers" - Sity (you met Sity) worked too many hours to qualify for that.   
 
Fairs are also different than festivals - S&O's festivals that might be fine. But from what I learned at the fair, most have affiliation with the state, which means workers comp insurance and above board reported income when you pay them. 
 
I dunno about S&O's fair and/or state requirements - S&O better learn it though in a hurry! ;)
 
 
As for needing someone the whole time you do the shift, hmm....12 hour days, there were several times I let Sity go play when it was slow, but whenever a crush of people showed up there's no way I could have flown solo. No way. Now I don't know the size of any of S&O's events, but CA Hot Sauce Festival or Alameda County Fair sized events, I would have been hosed without an employee. And I would have lost countless sales - one of the things Sity does best (besides just being awesome and hilarious) is engage people who're waiting so I can keep the demo rolling. Soon as I'm done with the current demo, Sity rings 'em up and I start with the next.  Some rushes we'd have that rhythm going for 3, 4, even 6 straight hours on the busier days. It got pretty intense. 
 
And since you never know which days or times of day will get crazy, it would be difficult to plan to work solo for any length of time. And then there's also the "having to crap in a 5 gallon bucket" thing. Not recommended. Health dept frowns on that shit. Literally. 
 
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Yea, dunno what exactly these events are (fairs, or ???) , each show is different, and each set up is different.
 
At the CA show, I could of done the first hour or so solo, but DEFINITLEY could not of done the whole show solo.  Evan was getting in on the sales pitch and tastings, ringing up cards, making change.  Obviously, sampling Pure Evil was way different than sampling 8-10 sauces.  I had 2 sample items to represent how Pure Evil can be used.  Way different than talking about each sauce, the heat, the ingredients, uses......
 
 
Only bummer for us at that show was.....Evan's not 21.....couldn't fetch drinks......:lol:
 
 
and PS- Sity is awesome and funny!  I wish I'd been next to you guys, would of liked more time to visit.  I really enjoyed our dinner at the pub. 
 
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Hey if you guys ever get out my way, let me know... first 3 rounds are on me.
 
I've found most of my help, oddly enough, the people who I recruited for the show asked me if they could do the entire event, open to close and not have to split shifts.  I'm going to hire a friend's high school kid on day 1 and the last day of each show for a few hours for the muscle.  Not because I need a massage, but for lugging equipment around.  hopefully I won't have much product on the last day!
 
I've got alternatives as well for each show I told I would let know ASAP if the other cancels.
 
My going rate was $15/hr weekdays, $20/hr weekends.
 
The state fairs: Durham, Woodstock, etc (from my schedule) are state agricultural fairs.  Quite literally, you could play the Benny Hill song from the time the gates open until they turn off the lights.  Nearly shoulder-to-shoulder foot traffic.
 
My last expo I did with help back in May.  After COG I was making just over $100/hr with heavy foot traffic in an outdoor vending setup, back in may with a crappy advertised expo on a rented fairgrounds.  These state fairs attract people from up to 100 miles away who drive in for the entire day.
 
Durham Fair, on a saturday night, just a single section of the main concourse.  The fair is about 30x of what you see here:
8037697581_1e3a2c0a1a_b.jpg
 
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bring throat lozengers, gatorage and a huge dose of patience.
 
Have as much info that you Repeat-repeat-repeat on laminated signs  and Hang them up!  People 2-3 back can't see the table signs.  Things like- Ingredents, heat levels (make a chart listing your mildest to hottest with numbers)..
 
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