Market Event Picker · guide
Short answer: pick the set of events that nets the most for the season, not the single event with the biggest sales. An event is worth its sales after cost of goods and any percentage fee, less the flat booth fee, travel and the crew hours it takes including setup and teardown. Two events that overlap cannot both be worked, so the winner is a combination.
One Saturday you are offered a big fair and two smaller events. Cost of goods is 35%, crew cost is $15 an hour, setup is 1 hour and teardown half an hour.
B and C leave room for setup and teardown and are not blocked by each other, but A overlaps both. Together B and C net $2,442.50 against $1,867.50 for A: the biggest event costs $575. The Market Event Picker finds that answer on any list, exactly, and states what each skipped event would cost to swap in.
Every chosen event shows the sales at which it nets zero. If your honest estimate is close to that number, the event is a bet on weather and foot traffic, and a fee negotiation or a different event may be the better move. The tool also says how much a skipped event's fee would have to drop to take its place.
Not automatically. Compare the season's total net with and without it: its sales after cost of goods, percentage fee, flat fee, travel and crew hours, minus whatever the events it overlaps or crowds out would have netted.
Convert both to the sales you actually expect. A $400 flat fee and a 10% cut cost the same at $4,000 in sales; below that the percentage is cheaper, above it the flat fee is. The tool uses your expected sales, and shows each event's break-even sales so you can see how much room you have.
That is your call, so it is an input: set the most events you will work in a Monday-to-Sunday week and the plan keeps the best ones within it. The tool also warns when a week passes 60 booth and setup hours.