Tips 1 – 5 were posted yesterday. Perhaps these and my past writings will help you to have successful shows.

  6. Take Someone to help – If you work your show right, you should never be sitting down when someone is at your booth.  Sitting says, “I don’t want to bother getting up for you, sell yourself something, then I will get up to take your money”. Observe the other vendors, you will quickly see who is selling and who is not and why not. 

This means you will need someone to relieve you. If they know nothing about your stuff, make it quick. Grab a fast bite or a quick potty break. Never be away from your booth to long. My husband always worked with me and knew as much about our soaps as I, so this allowed us to take breaks, walk the show and see how and what the other vendors were doing.

 7. What to Pack – Hopefully you will be able to foresee the day and pack all you can sell, but not your whole inventory.  At the end of the day, packing up is a chore when you are tired.  

Make a check-list, it will save you much stress in the long run. Be sure to take a calculator, credit card machine, receipt book (for all those sales) bags for the many sales, small table for all this, chairs, water and food, especially if you have no one to help you, and marketing material. Never let potential customers leave your booth empty handed.

 8. Be a show stopper – You have got to give the buyer a reason to stop at your booth. People love to see you creating your works, but don’t get so involved that you forget to stop and sell that customer something. Make your booth attractive without overdoing it. Remember your creations should take the spotlight and besides, you have to haul all that stuff.

Many times the rooms are not well lit. Pay the extra for electricity if necessary, and bring lights to show off your work.

 9. Building your customer base – People love something free. I bought candy molds in the shape of animals and used them for soap. Each one was put in small zip lock bags with our business name, email address and the scent used in that particular sample. I would tell them to keep them handy in their purses for that emergency use. Have a gift basket or one of your art pieces as a giveaway. Of Course, they need to sign up with their name and email address to have a chance to win. Now a days people are leery of giving out personal information. It is easier to get an email address than it is to get a mailing address. Especially if you will insure them that you will not give or sell their  addy to anyone. I did not have contest, but had them sign up for a newsletter on beauty tips.

Keep in touch with these customers. Let them know your show itinerary and always make them feel special. I always addressed them by name. Everyone got the exact same newsletter, but I addressed each one as Dear ______. Time consuming, but well worth it.

 10. Count your money – As soon as you can after the show, count your money, amount of sales, etc.  Did you pass that breakeven point and make a profit? Analyze the show – Is it worth going back next time? Did the promoter do all they could to make it a good show?

You may not make a lot of money, but remember shows are a great form of advertising. You are building a customer base that will serve you well into the future.

If these tips were helpful or if you can add your advice to them. Please do so in the comment section.

Have a Happy Day,                       

Barb

Do not waste your money by choosing a show, paying the fees, setting up a table, then sitting your butt down and waiting for the money to roll in! It just does not work that way. Plan, think, and plan some more. Here are a few tips that will help you to be successful.

    1. Walk a few shows- Check to see if your work is a little different or a little more unique. Do the show sponsors work with you or against you? By that I mean-do they just take your money or do they limit the number of booths that will be selling the same thing as you?  

Talk to artist and craftsman at the show. Most are more than willing to talk and tell you what shows are good and ones not to bother with. Of course, step aside when they have a customer. And never asked for advice from someone that would be your competitor!

 2. Do a Little Homework – Find out the type of people that attend and the amount of attendance. You need to factor in the booth cost, tables, decorations, shipping, and travel cost. What about your material costs? Do you need a license? Some states require you to buy a yearly license and others require a separate one for each show.

Find your breakeven point – the amount of sales you will need to cover your expenses-  before you start making a profit. This alone could be the determining factor!

 3. Start Small – Build up your customer base. Many go to the same show year after year and can become your repeat customers. (I haven’t done a show in nearly 5 years, but still have many of my show customers) Keep your expenses to a minimum.

 4. Price it right- You worked very hard on your art or craft, and it is priceless to you, but….If you sell to cheap, it takes a lot of sales to reach your breakeven point. On the other hand, if you sell to high, will you sell enough to reach the breakeven point? Pricing is important, think it through throughly.

 5. Bring your credit card machine- It is more important than in the past to accept credit or debit cards. More and more people are not carrying cash. You definitely do not want to loose a sale because you don’t accept credit cards! I have always used a company called ProPay. Similar to Paypal, but you can post the credit card number yourself on your computer. Now they are offering a swipe machine that can be used at shows. This way you can get instant approval.  For a small business, you might find it is the cheapest way to go. But do check out all your options.

This is getting to be a bit long, so look for 5 more tips tomorrow.

Have a Happy Day!

Barb

I love books and buy from Amazon all the time. It is nice you have a choice of new or used. In fact, I can’t wait for the new book I have ordered on making fairies from clay!

Barb

The Little Shop of Soaps is one of my newer Twitter followers from England. I like to let you know when a great sale is going on. Their sale is not on certain products but a big 20% off of your entire order.

Found some interesting items to make your bath a relaxing and fun time.

 Sumptuous sweet and sticky toffee fragranced bath truffles with caramel curls on top!  Containing pure unrefined Cocoa butter

A refined feminine gentle tea rose fragranced truffle with a pretty rose bud on top.

A pretty soap shaped like a little cluster of violets and the soft and delicate floral scent of sweet violets. Making these perfect guest soaps or an extraordinary gift for a special someone

You will like their webstore. It is bright and colorful and very easy to find your way around. 

Have a Happy day,

Barb

How to Create a Group on Facebook
 by: Damien Willis

Possessing a facebook group is 1 of the finest techniques to advertise your self (or business) as a leader or as somebody of importance. They are in addition basic to produce. I am going to aid you generate your very own group with this specific guide. Shall we start off?

Sign in to facebook and that ought to deliver you to your own home webpage. Upon the left, basically under your current profile image there should be a listing of hyperlinks, the 1st of which is “News Feed”. Press towards the “Groups” link.

This will bear you to the groups website page which is going to have listed the groups that you simply are apart of or have been invited to. At the top of this web page there ought to be a button called “create a group”. At this web page, you fill from the details of the group that you simply are creating.

To begin with, you are going to want to come up with a group title. The title of this group must be catchy and ought to also relate to what the group is about. eg. you will not wish to call your group, pepsi lovers, if it really is really for Coke lovers.

When you’ve made the name, you can fill out the nest box which will contain the primary details about your group.

This is wherever you tell everyone precisely what the group is and why they need to become a component of it.

Do not forsake to include command for them to join the group for example “join now to obtain the latest……”.

You will also need to select the group sort – it’s quite straight forward.

Following will be a area for group updates (“Recent News”). You don’t have to complete that out right now, but you’ll be able to use it in the future when you will find current developments you want the group members to learn about.

All that’s left are the contact details. You are advised to place the hyperlink to a applicable website to make sure that members are able to uncover more about you or what you have got to give. Aside from that it’s your choice the amount of of the remainder of the section you need to complete (eg. you may well not wish to set ones email down to avoid spam). Now you’ll be able to scroll down and hit the Develop Group Button.

The following web page is where you will be able to handle your group’s configurations. For example you are able to decide whether persons will place links or video clips to the group wall or you’ll be able to pick to have the group private. A lot of it is your choice, therefore just use your time, look over the options and pick out what suits your group greatest.

After you’ve pressed the “Save” tab, a new window is going to show up wanting to know if you want to publish the creation of your new group to your wall and on your friends main pages. Make sure you publish. However , if you ever needn’t want other people to know about the group, don’t publish.

So now it gets a lttle bit more fun – sending out invitations.

In my opinion, I probably wouldn’t recommend you inviting everybody all at one time, only because the group may well not necessarily be optimal as yet, and there might be some tweaking that you want to perform to get the group exactly the way you need. Once your group is looking very good, you are able to invite as much as you like, however till that time only invite a small proportion of your associates.

When you are inviting people to join the groups you really should also add a personal message. The cause for that is to set yourself a part since the majority of competitors don’t include a individual message when they’re inviting individuals to a group.

So now you are able to hit the Send Invitations link.

Give yourself a a reward. You now own your unique group.

You are at present seeing your brand new facebook group’s home web page. Now you’ll be able to commence to personalize & contribute to your group. By means of the web-links located on the left hand side, you are able to transmit a message to the whole of the groups users, you are able to advertise your group through an ad, edit group configurations , edit members, invite others to become a member, produce a group event, and insert a simple blurb down below your image to use as a brief summary for your group.

It is possible to also alter or add for your group utilizing the tabs towards the top for instance:

- Add pictures

- Insert video clips

- Contribute notes

- Modify the group’s description

- up-date with recent news

- Start out a discussion

Now you know how to create a group, go and produce a single!

If you would like a video type of this guide where you would find specifically what to do, simply click the link in the box beneath this document that will bear you straight to the video tutorial.

About The Author Damien Willis is regarded as a Expert on Marketing With Facebook. Click on the Hyperlink to Find Online video Variant of http://damienwillis.com/how-to-create-a-group-on-facebook or Explore My Weblog to Read and learn A lot more Concerning http://damienwillis.com/category/social_media The author invites you to visit: http://damienwillis.com

Visit Natural Handcrafted Soap and the first thing that strikes you is the enticing design of their website. It is rich and colorful. It is a very complicated site but extremely well done. The name tells you what they sell and is a keyphrase in itself.

The photography is excellent. I wanted everyone to see the soaps I randomly picked. As you can see, there is a very large selection. Based in North Carolina, they offer free shipping within the state.

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

 I had another thought about picking shows.

Like I told you in the  last couple of post that First Monday Trade Days IS the whole town of Canton. There are areas that do extremely well and others that are total flops.

When people are at a show that is primarily designed to be a flea market, they do not want to go into a building. Even when it is air conditioned. They can go to a mall for that. The city built one. Vendors were excited. Air conditioned and on the city side. They failed to notice that it was indoors, and to far to walk from the main area. Also, you can not see the goodies. Nothing to pull you there. It is a flop.

First Monday is in sections. The city owns the original, and a major citizen owns a section that connects to the cities. Then there is an area called Old Mill Marketplace.

Old Mill has 7 nice pavillions, buildings that have individual store/booths that each open to the outside and outdoor booths. Old Mill is just about a ghost town. I could not believe the difference in the amount of people compared to just across the street! What a shame. It really is a nicer area than the cities. But, nice doesn’t pull the crowds and put money in your pocket.

Getting away from First Monday – Charity shows are usually very good. Especially ones that are supporting their church or school.

I once did one that had been very sucessful, so they added more booths to a room that was already crowded. The booths were very small, all you could do is have one table and it has to be on the edge of the aisle. Which were so narrow, in order to get one more row of booths in, you see! The crowds were there, but they could not stop to look at your booth, because they would be run over. NO SALES!

There are many other points in picking a good show, I could go on and on. The best advice I can give you is to look at the show as a customer and not as a vendor.  And Think!

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

  Ok, continuing from yesterday.

  First Monday Trade Days has everything and I do mean everything. From crafts to junk. Old and new.  I saw booths with glycerin soaps, and cold process soaps, lotions, dog products, dolls, furniture and much more.

I wasn’t there to buy, but to observe who was making money and who wasn’t. With wall to wall people there should be no excuse why a booth wasn’t making money. But there were people that were not or may just be lucky enought to make booth rent. We stopped at a booth, handled the merchandise and examined serveral different models of the same thing. The lady did finally get up, but she did not speak or acknowledge us. Instead she started straightening another table. I got the distinct impression we were being watched incase we got sticky fingers. Would you buy from this booth? Of course not.

At Canton, people come to buy. They also want to see everything and they don’t have time to just browse while you sit on your toosh and watch and wait for them to hand you money. It just doesn’t happen!

My friends for an example make lots of money at Canton. They sell knives. Not kitchen knives, but pocket knives and other knives that men like. They have new, cheap, expensive and old knives. Competition, you bet. I saw dozens of knife booths. What is their secret?

We stood in the back of their booth and observed. They were so busy.

          They set their booth up with tables that go across the booth. People do   not have to come in the booth but stop right in the aisle.

          The knives are in open cases. Only the collector or the very expensive are in glass cases. These are not locked, but do protect them from the quick  finger artist. What does this say? We trust you.

          They never once sat down, but worked with the people. No high pressure selling. When someone wanted to see a knife in a case, they would pull it out, hand it to the person and walk away to wait on someone else. Again this said, I trust you and want you to have time to make up your mind, without me standing over you.

          This husband and wife team both know their products very well. Men feel very comfortable buying from her and well as her husband. With Fathers Day and graduations coming up, many women were buying from them.

How about you? When you do shows, how do you handle your customers? How do you set up your booth?         Think about it…….

If interested, google First Monday Trade Days Canton Tx.

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

Took a trip to Canton Texas this past weekend. This is where the largest flea market in the south is held. You might have heard of it – First Monday Trade Days. It might even be the oldest.  It is to large to see in one day, which is all we had. Also, it was so hot and humid that I gave out quicker than I wanted to.

In the very early days of Texas, farmers in the surrounding areas of Canton would always come to town on the weekend before the first Monday of the month. They would barter and sell their animals and produce.  Thus, the name First Monday.

Trade Days is held in just about the whole town. The original area is still used for buying and selling animals and produce. But, the heart of First Monday Trade Days is held on city property and you rent booths inside the pavillions or out. One of the things they tell you is, “If you see it, buy it because you will never find the booth again!”

It has been about 5 years since, I had a booth. I did see old friends that still have booths. Several of the pavillions are set up with backdoors to each booth and you can park your RV right there. Electric and water hook-ups are provided.  This show runs 4 days, so it is worth bringing your RV.

Despite the heat, it was wall to wall people and most come to buy not just look! Dogs are allowed on leashes and many people bring their dogs. We did. Our 2 dogs thought it was a great adventure and they got new collars.

If you want to know more just google First Monday Trade Days Canton, Tx. Tomorrow I will tell you about some of what I saw.

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

Did you read the article that I posted Sunday, May 30? If so, you know that “A Wild Soap Bar“  may not have read the article, but she certainly subscribed to this philsophy.

Her blog is entertaining and not constantly selling soaps and skin care. But, you know what the business is by the name, which is catchy and yet tells you what she sells. All of which, in stills confidence in the company and the products.

Below is a small sampling of A Wild Soap Bar soaps