We arrived right at eight, and I hobble through FROST to get to my booth space (seriously, my splint was caked with snow by the time I got there), only to find out I was on a hill. Even if I thought I could set up without all my product rolling off my tables, I knew I would never be able to navigate on anything but a level surface. Luckily the coordinator sympathized, and he moved me down to a more level location!
My parents were kind enough to come help me & David with the set up. I could lift things, but not walk. David could walk but not lift things. Yeah, we were a GREAT pair! As we started to unload the van, David panics. He forgot the tent!!! Miraculously, he was able to run home in my parents' truck, grab the tent, and get back down with it before the show started, but it was a lovely little wrench thrown into the plans! But we survived!
While he was getting the tent, my parents helped me set up as much as we could. I went to put the black table cloth down on the 8 foot table, and found out that my cute little WHITE puppy must have somehow found it. It was covered in dog hair! So we were forced to use the green cloth that was provided with the table. It looked okay, but not quite what we were planning!
Although I really like how the burgundy runner looked draped over the table. I think it'll be really stunning on the black cloths for future shows. We did have another one for the other table, but forgot to put it out, and I'm going to blame my forgetfulness on the percocet! (which sadly, is probably accurate)
We also added sheer burgundy tie back panels to each of the front corners (sorry, no pictures!). It really added a nice final touch to the booth and helped tie things together.
Oh, and our other freak out moment during set up...
My mom asks me, "Lindsay, where are the rest of your lip balms?"
Me, "They're in one of the boxes."
Mom, "No they're not."
WHAT?!?!?!?! Guess what, I left two entire boxes of lip balms at home. We had about 7 flavors out of our normal 40 flavor line. Of course we discovered this AFTER David had texted me to let me know he was on his way back, otherwise we would have had him bring those with him as well. So... big change of plans in set up! We originally had one more 4 foot table running along the right wall. Without all those lip balms, I didn't have enough product to fill all 3 tables. But in hindsight, the good thing about pulling the table, it gave me a place to sit and elevate my foot during the day.
(our booth is the one to the left of the big american flag)Finally it's 10am, our booth is set up, I'm not completely freezing, and the buyers are starting to stroll in. My parents head home and David & I are up and ready to have a great day in sales.
And we really did! I am so glad he came with me. Even if I'd been at 100%, I wouldn't have been able to do it all on my own! We were kept busy busy busy all day long. We handed out at least 150 business cards (I'll need to get more before the next show!), we handed out all our 1/4 oz lotion samples (those were a hit!). We sold out of several soaps and a couple of lotions. We also took some custom orders that we'll be shipping out this week.
Highlights of the day:
- Someone came to the show because she read about it on my blog! That was awesome!
- I met one of my regular Etsy customers! She and her friend walked around the corner of my booth and all of a sudden I hear her shout, "Oh my gosh, come here! This is who I buy all my lip balms from!" As soon as she told me her name, I knew exactly who it was! It was so much fun to meet her in person!!!
- I also had two ladies ask me about wholesaling! They're both unique local business, and they'd be a lot of fun to work with! So here's crossing fingers that that works out!
Finally 4 o'clock rolled around, and my brothers showed up to help us break down. I was actually sad to go! We had sales right up until the very end (and some people looking even when we had almost everything packed up). It was so cool to be hauling EMPTY product boxes back to the van. We brought 8 or 9 bankers boxes filled with product and we went home with 4 empty ones! WooHoo!!!
I'm now utterly exhausted (I slept for 12 hours last night!!!), and I'm forcing myself to take Sunday completely off (more for my ankle than anything else). But I'll be jumping back into the swing of things Monday morning again! (and we'll be adding our soaps back into our shop as we double check our post show inventory since we also have a new wholesale account that we'll be filling as well)
If you'd like to see more pictures of the show, we have some posted on our Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blsoaps/sets/72157622467673770/
4 comments:
Looking at your booth is like looking at porn! Wish I could have been there to sniff every thing!
Congrats on the success!
Congrats on having such a successful show, now take good care of that ankle!
Wow, how exciting, I'm glad you had a good day of sales, meeting folks, and potential opportunities. I've never really interacted with you except on Twitter (I'm herbndvelopment), but when I first started out in this venture, your sites was one that most inspired me.
Dang! Im so sad I missed it! Im just right down the hill from Sundance & would have loved to have met you, & stocked up on our dwindling soap supply. We are on our last bar of your soap (which smells deliciously like Starburst candy, by the way) so I'll be ordering more soon!
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