Recap & Pics of My Show

[BusyBumbleBee]

My 3 day show at a local mall was a great success this weekend! My husband was by my side the whole time and it was so funny to hear him talking with customers telling them how they could "coordinate" this with that and really getting into the whole thing. Couldn't have done it without him! Our goal was $1,000 for the weekend we ended up taking in just over $1,200 so I'd call that a good show. I sold a little bit of everything. The flower clips and kufi hats were big sellers as well as the butterfly wings and baby wipe cases. I didn't sell not even one pony streamer?? Lots of interest - not sure why none sold. I didn't sell any snap clips either. I sold lots of the bigger themed bows and maybe half of my simple solid color bows. I was surprised at how many people bought Halloween and fall bows! Went through a good amount of headbands b/c I had them buy 3 get 1 free. Also made simple ribbon lined alligator clips and sold those buy 5 ($1 each) get 2 free and those went over really really well. I even took 4 orders for tutus. I've included pics. I wish I had one more banner to put on the 3rd side of my booth but I didn't really know how much space I'd have around my tables and after getting there knew I had to put one banner on the shorter side b/c that's the way people were walking towards the booth. It was a lot of work but I'm glad there was a good end result. Enjoy!

[claycourtney]

Congradulations, $$$ pretty setup was your rent for the space very expensive?

[Murolyushka]

Wow, great job!!! You did awesome! Nice setup. Do you mind sharing where you buy your flowers?

[Barbara Jean]

OMG, Shannon! Congrats on exceeding your goal. Your 'space' looks very nice and inviting. I am sure you will get many more sales from your exposure, too! Way to go!

[MsJCreations]

Congrats on a great show and making a great profit. Your set up looks great.

[BusyBumbleBee]

Congradulations, $$$ pretty setup was your rent for the space very expensive?

I paid $300 vendor fee, which is VERY steep for me. The odds seemed in my favor though. I made a pros and cons list and the pros out weighed the cons so I went for it. The mall hosted this expo, but a promotional group set it up and ran it. Now that I'm on their contact list I will get discounts and first dibs on anymore of the upcoming shows. ALSO - I sat outside of Carter's (location of my booth) and I befriended 2 of their workers. One was directing people to my booth and the other said I wouldn't believe the number of people asking for items that I sold, but that they didn't carry. So she took a hand full of business cards and said she'd give them out as people asked! Many great things I think came from this show in addition to the monetary success.
Thanks for everyone's positive feedback! All of your help aided in my decision to go for it too!!

[BusyBumbleBee]

Wow, great job!!! You did awesome! Nice setup. Do you mind sharing where you buy your flowers?

Flowers came from Halo Heaven. The daisies sold the best. I did sell a couple peonies. I also bought the HUGE peonies and mums they are now offering and sold about 4 or 5 of those too.
*Time to restock again!

[mysweetbowtique]

Great work everything looked awsome i am so glad you did so well :clap:

[Karyn]

Congratulations! Your set up is beautiful! Can I ask you where you got your table skirts? I need to get some ASAP. TIA~Karyn

[lcsobota]

hey! you forgot to say... was your hubby happy? did you feel vindicated after buying all the ribbon? the glue strings... the endless fluff from cutting the ribbon.... you know what I mean.... and I only make ribbons for my girl! cant imagine making 25 or fifty of just one item! Loris

[BusyBumbleBee]

hey! you forgot to say... was your hubby happy? did you feel vindicated after buying all the ribbon? the glue strings... the endless fluff from cutting the ribbon.... you know what I mean.... and I only make ribbons for my girl! cant imagine making 25 or fifty of just one item! Loris

LoL! :rofl: No I did not mention that. I decided to jump on the band wagon two weeks before the show, not a lot of time for prep. I pretty well locked myself in my craft room every night for those two weeks. My MIL was in and she came and took my daughter part of one day and then I got almost a whole Sunday to try my set up and lock myself back in that room to make more bows. My fingers were pretty well toned by the end of those two week! :smilielol5: I couldn't even count the number of glue sticks I went through and yes, yet another order for MORE ribbon needs to be placed. I think there would have been big ol' tears if this show was a flop, thank goodness I didn't have to resort to that.

I think my hubby was more then happy. He really has been nothing but supportive since I started this whole thing a year and a half ago. He even took off early Friday to help and took off all day Saturday to sit up at the mall for 13 hours with me Saturday. Love him! Lucky me!

**Table skirts came from Party City; however, Party America's has MUCH better ones. Those table skirts are a whole different story. I bought a different color green and when I opened one they looked yellow so I took them back to exchange them. Well long story short a manager was involved and I was able to exchange the opened one... but I had to work for it. (If it were green in the first place there wouldn't have been an issue, that's not my fault! LoL!). Party City (the ones I bought) are thinner then I'd like and the glue sticky came off with the paper backing, tape was involved to keep them up. Party America's are MUCH better, thick and I've been able to use theirs more then just one time. Learned my lesson!

[kclements73]

Congrats on your success! Your setup looked very cute!

[claycourtney]

Congradulations, I was wondering where do you keep your extra inventory to restock your display in that type of situation?

[JakeGiginLolasMommy]

WOW! Congrats Shannon! That is so wonderful! I am very happy for you :clap:.

[alondra]

Congratulations! You inspired me! Way to go

[BusyBumbleBee]

Congradulations, I was wondering where do you keep your extra inventory to restock your display in that type of situation?

One of the rules was that no boxes could be visible. So what I did was used a table skirt on the from of the tables and the top table cloth I only put on the front edge of the table (doesn't hang in the front over the edge) and hung the excess to the floor on the back side of the tables and stored all my inventory in plastic stacking containers I got from wal-mart under the tables. HTH!