Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Ready, set, sell..........

It was fun; talking with other vendors, seeing your creations get bagged and paid for (with my new "square" credit card processor) and seeing the fun in the church and on our town square where the first sale was held.


 My cider and hot chocolate snuggies were the hit; they sold out after the end of two shows.  Easy, quick and fun to make; some said great stocking stuffers, other customers were talking office gifts.  But they flew off the table at $3 each.  : )


It was our first show so we had a pretty basic set up, that didn't seem to matter though; people seemed to be more interested in all the color than a fancy display (so thankful for that) and we put alot of effort into our packaging which I think separated us from the guy next door.  Our products, though all handmade, had that finished look for gift giving.  The investment in the A2 clear envelopes (which housed everything but the large composition books) was just the right size. 


 My talented husband made all our price signs so they were easy to read and the customer had no confusion on pricing.  They didn't have to have that uncomfortable moment of asking how much something was and we could stand with confidence that they extra measure of professionally made signs meant we were serious business women!  (At least we felt what way!)


 Surprisingly we had one card display that we kept stocked with cards and they sold at $2 each or 6/$10 with a free gift box (I had left from another Uline order over a year ago so I was again using stashed stuff).  Most of our cards came from previous classes, SAS classes and demos so we felt able to sell them at a lower rate than others might but we moved so many out of the old stock.  I would never go through that many cards, not in a million years.  I have at least one of everything that we had in the display in my card notebook for samples but the rest were put out for sale.  They did as well as anything at both shows.  I liked reducing my stock/stash of cards to get ready for the new sets coming out in January and then the new catalog next summer.  If you look closely you will see that many of the cards on display have stamp sets more than two years retired. 


 Okay, the lip balm purses, again, thank you Frenchie for the great turorial.  I made my money on those and they were a big attention grabber as folks walked by.  Double duty I say!


And amidst it all, I got great contacts for parties after the holidays with a recruit just waiting for the SAB recruit promotion coming up in late January!  What a fun day.  Both weekends netted me the funds I needed to place my Mini Occasions pre-order and SAB order come January 1, I'll be earning maximum benefits and meet my quarterly minimums right off the bat! 

Thanks SU for making our New Year so exciting before we even get there!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Ooo wow Leslie, everything looks great! You've been a productive lady these days.
Looks like you had a blast too.

It was good hearing from you today. I hope you're doing well.

Have a great day!

Margaret said...

That is really fantastic! Glad that you did so well. And all your displays look so wonderful.

Jacquel said...

That's awesome news & I'm glad you had such a wonderful time!!! TFS!!!

Unknown said...

Hi Leslie, stoppin' by to say hi and see how you're doing.

Have a great day!

Kate said...

Congrats on doing so well with your first show!!

MrsD07 said...

Great projects! Congrats on your success :)