Do you need a hotspot for selling at events?

Have you heard all of the buzz about having a hotspot with you at markets to sell your handmade goods?  And you think to yourself..."I don't have one, but do I need one?"

The short answer, no.

After we touch on a few key points you'll be able to confidently decide if you need to spend extra money on setting up a hotspot to sell your handmade goods at events or not.  I want you to make educated decisions when spending your hard-earned cash on your maker biz and only on what you absolutely need.

For many years I successfully sold at markets without a hotspot.

I had a low data plan.  And it worked just fine.  The only issue was that the months I had a lot of markets I had to make sure that I wasn't using all of my high-speed data outside of events that month.  If I accidentally used it up, my cards would still process, but it was painfully slow.

What to do if you have unlimited data.

If you have unlimited data, you really don't need to spend extra money on a hotspot unless your particular cell provider has spotty coverage in the area(s) of your markets or if you stream games or a lot of movies from your cell data.  You may want to think about investing in a hotspot through a different cell provider than your cell phone for cross coverage.  Otherwise, you'd be paying for more data on top of an existing unlimited plan.

What does a hot spot look like?

If you do end up going the hotspot route.  It's usually a little brick that you will need to have charged and you'll connect your phone or POS system to it just like you would any other wi-fi.  The password is typically on the hotspot device itself.  You can run multiple devices off of the hot spot wi-fi as well.  Just be aware that the more devices you have connected to it, it could potentially slow down your speed/service.

There you have it!  I hope this short and sweet blog saved you some $$$, headaches, and helped you to feel more confident in deciding where to invest your money when selling at markets.  If you haven't yet, make sure you download my free 'Ultimate Guide to Selling at Artisan Markets'.  Click here to get your hands on it, and learn my 5 tips for market success.