Imagine you make cards and small prints. A fair is coming up, and one design sold well last time. Do you make another batch, or take the stock you already have? You cannot know what this fair will sell. You can decide what you are willing to make, spend and bring.
Count what is ready before ordering more
Write down the finished stock you can actually take, then the materials and time a new batch would require. Separate the money already spent from the cash a new run would use. A shelf of existing cards and a planned print order are different starting points.
Keep the scope to this event. A small table with the items you plan to offer, what is already made and what you could reasonably make before packing gives you a useful baseline.
Compare two choices under the same uncertainty
Suppose one choice is to bring current stock and another is to make a modest extra batch. Consider each under the same quiet-day and busy-day possibilities. How much cash and time would the extra batch put at risk? Would the existing stock leave your table too thin if the day goes well?
These are questions to inform a choice. A busy-day assumption is not a sales forecast, and a neat calculation cannot tell you how many people will stop at the table.
Turn the choice into a packing decision
Once you choose, write a short reason and make two practical lists: what still needs to be made and what must go in the bag. If an item is already finished, it belongs on the packing side. If it needs materials or drying time, it belongs on the making side. That distinction is easy to lose when the fair is close.
After the event, note what you brought, what sold and what came home. The note will not predict the next fair, but it gives the next decision a better starting point than memory alone.
The maker and fair above are an illustrative scenario, not a sales result. Booth Sandbox is the PlanSprig workspace being built around this kind of choice; it is not a demand forecast and is not available to buy or try yet.