Truth, Consequences & The Biggest Sale Ever

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Okay, truth first.

In the spirit of my You're the Boss series, I feel like I should allow those of you who are looking to me for business advice to learn a little from my mistakes.

I have participated in and even planned several boutiques.

I enjoy boutiques so much.

I love getting to be face to face with my customers.

I love meeting other vendors and encouraging each other.

But the boutiques that I have done have always been on the small scale.

There are several larger scale events that I have considered over the last couple of years, but nothing has ever really seemed like exactly the right fit.

So two months ago, when I heard about The Creative Connection, I thought... this is it!

The Handmade Market at The Creative Connection seemed like the perfect fit for Much Ado About You.

The booth fees were reasonable, some of my favorite businesses were participating, and the 500 people attending the conference were crafters... my kind of customers.

I invested a small fortune to participate in TCC.  Booth fees.  Airfare.  Hotel.  Shipping 9 boxes of products to Minneapolis.  That Target fiasco.

Participating in boutiques and markets is always a craps shoot.  Anytime I sign up for one, I do it knowing that I may not sell a single item.  I may have to consider that event to have been a networking opportunity, and not a sales opportunity.

Let's just say that The Creative Connection was a great networking opportunity.

So for those of you that are getting ready to start your very first boutique season... a few tips:

1.  Consider the audience.  Who is the event being marketed to?  Will these people be likely to be interested in your products?

2.  How many products will you have to sell before you will turn a profit?  Is that realistic?  Can you not only cover your costs, but also make enough money to also cover your time?

3.  How are you going to attract people to your booth, and how are you going to make them remember you?  Be strategic about your set up and consider either handing out a small item attached to your business card or offering some kind of make-and-take item from your booth.

Alright, so that's the truth.  While TCC was an amazing amount of fun and a fantastic opportunity for exposure... it was not a successful sales event.

Now the consequences.

The great thing about selling calendars is that people need a new calendar every year.

The bad thing about making calendars is that they are a time sensitive product that can only be sold for a limited time.  Which is why I usually make my products to order.

For the TCC I had to have product to sell off my table, so I pre-made lots of calendars... all starting in September.

I've got several boxes of September start calendars on their way back here from Minneapolis.

Which leads me to the final part of this posting... The Biggest Sale Ever.

As I have mentioned, I have been working on the 2011 line which will be released on October 15th.  It is pretty fantastic {if I do say so myself}, and I am super excited to for you all to see it.  

But in the meantime I am offering the best deal on a calendar that I ever have and probably ever will {since I plan to learn from my mistakes and not pre-make this many calendars ever again}.

From now until they are sold out, all the calendars in my shop are 25% off!

So what are you still doing here... get over there and get shopping!