A Simple Spreadsheet to Track Profit Per Convention

If you've ever come home from a con and genuinely could not tell someone whether you made money that weekend, you're not bad at business, you just don't have a system yet. Most artists track total sales in their head or on a receipt roll and call it done. The problem is total sales tells you almost nothing about whether a specific show was worth doing again.

Why "I made $600" doesn't actually tell you anything

$600 in sales at a show that cost you $150 in fees and a 40-minute drive is a fantastic weekend. $600 in sales at a show that cost $500 in fees, flights, and a hotel is barely break-even once you count your time. Same revenue number, completely different outcome, and you can't tell the difference without tracking cost per show, not just income per show.

The columns that actually matter

You don't need accounting software for this. A spreadsheet with one row per convention and these columns gets you 90% of the way there:

That last column, profit per hour, is the one that changes how you pick shows. A con that nets $400 profit over a grueling 3-day, 10-hour-a-day run can be worse use of your time than a single-day local market that nets $150 in four hours.

Setting it up so you'll actually keep doing it

1. Make one tab per year, one row per show, so patterns across a season are easy to scan.
2. Fill in the cost columns as soon as you book the show, before you even attend. You'll know your fixed costs immediately and can flag if a show is looking expensive before you're committed further.
3. Fill in sales the night you get home, while the number's fresh and your receipt roll or card reader app still has it.
4. Add a simple notes column: weather, foot traffic, whether a big name was also tabling nearby, anything that explains an unusual result. Numbers without context get misread a year later.

What patterns to look for after 3 to 4 shows

• Which shows consistently land in your top profit-per-hour bracket, regardless of how big or "prestigious" they feel.
• Whether travel-heavy shows are actually worth it once accommodation is counted, or whether you're chasing the feeling of a bigger show rather than the number.
• Whether your restock costs are creeping up faster than your sales are, which is an early warning sign worth catching before it becomes a real problem.

Keep it boring

The spreadsheet doesn't need charts, color coding, or formulas beyond basic subtraction, though a simple sum formula for the total row saves you doing it by hand every time. The goal isn't a beautiful dashboard, it's an honest number you can look at in January when you're deciding which cons to apply for in the coming year. Twenty minutes per show, done consistently, beats a fancy system you set up once and abandon by March.

Curious what a Shapeshift kit actually looks like in person? Head to the Artist Booths homepage to see the full lineup and find the one that fits your table.