Transcripts
1. Trade Show Success Introduction: hi creatives. Welcome to the trade Show Success Guide Course. In this course, I'm gonna walk with you through the process of actually setting up yourself to be successful at a trade show. Now trade show could mean more than just one form of a trade show. When I save trade show, people often think of a corporate huge, you know, grand event. But it doesn't have to be a large event like that. It could also be a craft bear. It could be a holiday market. It could be an art show. Our fair. It could be a farmer's market, you know, it could be a local event that's being put on, like sometimes you could be going to something that's like a holiday bizarre. That's maybe only 20 vendors, you know. Maybe it's a smaller event, even collaborating with another company that's just kind of hosting the event and so on. So when I say trade show, what I really mean is live event, where you're going to be setting up some sort of a table or booth to sell your art products . So maybe you sell greeting cards. Maybe you sell note pads or notebooks, customizable pieces Maybe you sell stationery or art prints. Maybe you sell one of a kind or limited edition art pieces or maybe watercolor paintings. Now this is the thing. Any of those things Comtech Nikolay be sold at a trade show or what I call a live event. So this course is really going to equip you to be successful. That's really the point of this whole course. It's not just to discuss these events, but it's actually to equip you to really sell at these events, cause that's what matters right. The thing I love about trade shows or live events is, for that matter, is that you can actually create ah lot of income in a really short amount of time. That's the beauty of these events, and that's why they're so valuable. They absolutely changed my business, and any time I've done a live event, I've found a huge spike of not only sales at the event, but also after when I got home and when I looked at my computer or my phone, I felt that my online store also had sales. It's because when you go to a live event, it's kind of a kick up the dust and you get everyone's attention. You get a whole bunch of eyeballs, even over social media. If you're posting about the event or obviously at the event, you may have people taking photos of your boots and then you know, hash tag me and posting about you. So you just gonna put a whole bunch of kind of publicity for lack of better terms, Which is great, right? So trade shows, live events, holiday markets, art fairs, all of these type of our live events or trade shows are hugely beneficial to your art business. So that's why I wanted to make a specific course all about trade shows and how to be successful at them and had actually making income while you're there, as well as how to generate awareness about your brands. That's really what we want as well. We don't only want to just make an income. We want to generate awareness who want toe market, which is really what generating awareness is one a market, your online art brand, which is what you're really building here. So I want to encourage you to strap in, get a note pad ready. Oh, also, I'm actually creating what I've called a event checklist. Now, the event checklist is something that you can download whether you want down the beginning of this course, read the and whatever you like to do. But the bottom line is, this checklist is going to be an overall overview of what you need to know or be aware of for every event. So you can actually print this out, maybe print out like several copies of it, and then you can actually write down the name of the event at the top, that date of it. And then you're gonna actually go down and check off all the different things that you're going to be implementing for that event because not all events created equals. You're not necessarily going to need every single thing on the checklist, but I find checklists. Help me to stay on target. They help me to not forget things. And so I'm a huge list person. And so I wanted to create a checklist for you guys that you could at least look at it and refer to it every single time reading an event so that you're prepared in advanced, actually getting to the event The last thing I want you to do is to get to the event. Maybe you're out in the middle of, like, a field or under a tent somewhere. And all this and you realize, Oh, my gosh, I totally forgot to bring a visa machine. I totally forgot to bring my square reader or oh, my gosh, I didn't even bring an email meant less sign of what was I thinking? And all these kind of things cost us. Okay, little things add up, and when we forget stuff like that, it actually affects the entire success of the whole event. And sometimes you can spend a lot of money getting into these events. So I don't want you guys to be spending any money to get into an event and then have it not really return. Have a positive r a y like return on investment. You want every single event that you do to grow your business, and so that's what this course is going to be. So let's go ahead and get started again. If you'd like, you can download the checklist now. You can also download it later. Whatever you like to do, it's more of a referral thing for when you're actually doing live events, but feel free to download that and let's get started into the next section.
2. How To Choose The Right Event: one of the things you might be wondering off the bat about trade shows and live events with your art is which one of these events should I even apply to? Which one of these events should I actually do? And I have a very clear answer for that. The only events that you ever want to do are the events that your people are hanging out at now. What I mean by that your audience. Where is your audience being drawn to? What events are they going to be at? I've said it before and I'll say it again. Your audience determines your marketing. Okay, so this is really a marketing strategy because you're actually out reaching through an external event. It's kind of 1/3 party event outside of your own business. And so you want to find out Where is your audience going to be? What events do they go to? For example, in my own life, I do art prints. I do greeting cards. So a lot of my art is actually behind me. So as you can see, for example, over here, this one here, um, this kind of an art piece is something that could be even hung in a child's room. Um, and so for me, I've actually done events that were specifically targeted to young moms. I did a baby event as called the Baby Show in Toronto. Canada is a really big event, and I sold a lot of art prints similar to this one. And this one here, too. Young moms or pregnant moms. I saw a bunch of Belize that weekend, and it was great because it was such a targeted, specific crowd. And that's really one of like my biggest buyers are really young moms. Young women were just women in general. Doesn't matter their age with just women. And so this whole event was pretty much mostly women. There was a bunch of Dad's walking around to kind of carrying all the bags for the moms that were pregnant, but, um, the really the ones that were shopping that event were women. I've also done what's called the The Woman National Women's Show. That's also another Toronto event, and again, that one was a really big success for me. Why? Because I know my customer is usually women. It's like 90% women and a lot of times they're in there like mid to late twenties, up to about 40 and they're buying art prints and cards. And a lot of times they're buying art prints not only for their own spaces. So for their bedroom, their dressing room there bathrooms, kitchens and so forth, they're also buying. They want modern and they want to relate to. There are they want their modern style to be related also to their Children's room. So they'll also do modern prints for their kids rooms that will come to me for sets and things like that for their kids rooms. And so I know that I know that's my customers. So again, it's really depending on where your customer is. Now, if you haven't already makes you know who your customer is, so write it down somewhere, make it really clear I have actually have a photo that I printed out of my ideal customer. Um, I even wrote I gave her a fake name. Like I've even heard people say this to do this. It is actually really helpful where you actually you write down the attributes of your customer. So, for example, mine is, um, I just I kind of imagined that she's probably, you know, late twenties. She's extremely artistic. Um, she likes, you know, Fashion Blog's. She likes Teoh, go to really cool events and shows and to find unique products. She's that kind of a girl. She's a craft or herself. She's very artistic. And so she kind of appreciates those types of things and even in her Children's rooms, she likes to explore that and also have that kind of art up in her Children's rooms. I kind of wrote down that this person would probably be in their late twenties. I wrote down about 29 and, um, and I actually gave her a name. Now somebody might thinking, This is crazy. What do you thinking is actually a marketing strategy that I have learned from several of the top marketers of our time, and the reason why you do this is because you want to establish in your own psychology in your own mind that there are really people out there they're reaching out to. I find sometimes when we have Internet companies like, say, we sell online e commerce website like Cnet, see your Amazon or wherever. It's almost like these people become pretend to us. They're just money coming in the bank, and that's not really what you want to do. You never want to lose the sight of the fact that you're actually selling to real people. It sounds strange, right? But it's true. You can actually just start to see names and emails and price amounts when you start to do selling online, and that's where the disconnect can come. So always put yourself back into the shoes of your buyer. Who are they and like, where are they hanging out? Not only online but at live events. So obviously online you would talk about like where they hang out on social media and so forth. But on this course, my main focus is what events would they be at? You know, where would they go with their own family? So, for example, let's say you are an artist and you are setting up at a, um, say, an event that caters to pets. Okay, maybe there's a pet show in your hometown or something on those lines. Now somebody might say, Wow, that's kind of weird to have an artist at a pet show. Not at all you know why? Because up pet portraiture right now is a huge trend. It's not going away anytime soon. Why? Because people wanna have their actual, like a photo of their dog rendered in watercolor or in, you know, pen in ink or in maybe in some kind of a cartoon illustration. That's a really big thing right now. People want the debt for their own family. Porter. It's too, by the way. But I find that that's a really cool trend right now. So they actually want to have a beautiful portrait done of their dog because our pets are really like our family, right? So those of you who are pet lovers, you would probably agree, like dog lovers, cat lovers you would love to have, you know, a picture of your cat fluffy up on your wall because she's part of the family and that just that's actually the psychology behind that. So say you do that. You might want to look into a pet show. It sounds so funny, but guess what? That's where the pet owners are hanging out. Now. If you're doing art for young moms like myself, you may want to check out baby shows. Ah, women's shows, stuff like that. Um, you may even want to check out, like home to course shows like modern home decor shows for myself. Another show I did really well at was called the one of a kind show in Toronto. And I know that that buyer is looking for things that are really unique, like even just in the title, One of a kind. It means that people are not. People are coming that show are looking for holiday gifts that are not going to be found in a department store. They're not going to be found anywhere else. And so I encourage you to always, always, always research like, Where is your audience going to be hanging out, Find out what shows they're going to be at and then try and apply to those shows? Okay, in this next video, I'm gonna talk to you all but the application process for most events. And so that way, you know, actually, how to apply and to get the ball rolling in the next steps.
3. How To Apply?: So now that you have discovered the trade shows or live events that you want to be a part of, the next step is really how do you apply now? Every single event is gonna be a little bit different. But overall, the general way that you apply to these events is really as follows. First of all, you go to their website. So, for example, one of the shows that I love doing in Los Angeles is called unique L. A. Now it's on you at our unique usa dot com, and you can actually go on there and check it out if you want. They do a variety of different cities as well. But this is an event, for example, that I love to go to. And when I apply to it, when I do that, go their website and a lot of times it'll say right on the website. When is the application window of time? A lot of times there is, ah really like a window of for when the applications are open and then when they close. So, for example, for a holiday show, it might be like in September, Um, when they actually opened up their doors for applications, so you have to be really aware of that. Often times people think that they can apply, like in like November something for an actual holiday show. And the truth is, it's usually months beforehand. So make sure that you're following the trade shows and events that you want to be a part of , to know when is the open window of time that they are allowing you to apply. So, for example, say it's between you know, the first in the 20th of September, for example, that might be a good window of time. Or maybe sometimes, if it's a really big show, often times it might even be in August. I know it sounds funny. It's summertime. I mean, in North America is anyway. And in August, it's like what? I'm not thinking about the holiday season yet, but trade shows they have so much planning to do that often times you have to apply in advance. So what you do is you're gonna go onto their website and you're gonna look at their navigation bar, and I guarantee you somewhere in the navigation bar it's going to say something about vendors so you're going to pretty much be called a vendor. That's how they're going to refer to you as an artist or creative. Or it might just say applicants event applicants. But usually it says vendors or vendor application. That's what you're looking for on their website. You're gonna click on the application, and you're going to go ahead and go through the process to actually apply sometimes the entire applications online. Other times, I mean, depending the event they want, you actually print out the pdf, fill it in and then, like, take a photo of it with your phone and then actually apply that way. So there's a couple different ways that they may have. You do it. Some events actually require for you to send them photos of your art. Now, some events are not just open to everybody there curated. So, for example, like the event I was talking about earlier, unique USA. There's something like 600 people that apply to that event, and only about 303 50 get in. So as you can imagine, they have to really just say note a lot of people, so it really depends on the type of variety of styles and they're looking for or and I am South, but just variety of vendor options. So I've done that event a few times, and it's been really, really great. Um, and I remember the first time I applied and I got and I was so excited because it was only like 303 25 out of like 600. And so to be part of that, I was, like, so excited, slash nervous. Um, and so, you know, depending on what you're applying to, they may require to see a couple things they may want to see a couple J pegs of your actual art. So it really helps if you have product photos taken already. And if you don't have that, you can actually just send a J peg of what your artists. Maybe if you are prints or you have cards or whatever, actually, just send them the art. I find the best results happened when you actually have product photos. So if you haven't done that, I encourage you to do that. It's so, so, so valuable to you, not only for social media posts and your website and every other way but for applying to these kind of events. So I encourage you to do that. It does take some time. You know, set aside a day, maybe a higher photographer, or you can take them yourself with your phone. Even now, you're like the iPhone is so great or the smartphone. So you can actually do a lot with your phone nowadays as faras photography. So I would encourage you to do that, you need to send photos, but you also may need to send a booth design now. For example, when I was applying Teoh, I believe it was to the woman's show in Toronto. They required for me to actually submit, um, actual structure design idea for my booth, and I believe it was a woman show. Anyway, they actually were asking for me to submit ideas because they want to know what my concept was going to be like. And so I actually was able to send photos of previous art shows and events that had been part of to say, Well, this is kind of what I normally do. Um, and I'll probably do something similar for this event, depending on how it goes in the crowd and so forth. But this is generally what I do. And so, by sending that ahead of time, it gave them more of an idea of how professional I was going to because they don't want United show up and, like, you know, slap things on the wall that looked like as if it's haphazardly put together. They want their show to come across really professional to their customer. Ah, lot of times these shows have a fee to enter into. Not all shows, um, shows their fee. But even if they are free doesn't mean that they want artists to not care of other Booth Booth design is a big deal, which I get into later on. This course, the way our booth looks at a glance is extremely important not only for our own branding, but for the way that the trade show producer, which is really the one who's putting this together, the producer of the trade show needs to know that we have our act together in that regard. So a lot of times last for that so again they will want to see some kind of art pieces they will often always ask for often asked me for a photo of your booth design. It could even mean a design you've rendered on paper. Maybe it's just like a concept. You could actually just scan that in our photograph. That is your computer. And send that along just something to let them know that you have a plan. Okay, So even talking about the different materials, you're going to be used within your booth. What kind of tables you're gonna use? Um, you know, different textures. You're going to use this faras to help reinforce your brand is really helpful, Um, to let you know you have a logo and so on and so on. So these kind of things they'll be looking for with your booth design. And so then, after you've compiled those things and you've sent loaded them into the application, which is usually an online application in that case, then you're going to just fill in your other information. Oftentimes, they're going to ask you for your social media handles. So your facebook, your instagram, your Pinterest, you know, linked in and so on. They want to know. Do you already have a bit of a following? Do you have like a buzz going already. Are you gonna basically help draw people to this event? Um and so the more you have a larger group of people that follow you online, then that's great for them as an event, because they want to know. Are you being They're going to draw more people into the doors. And so I've had several times at events where I've actually had people show up, and they say, Oh, I saw you on social media. I've been following you for a year, and I know everything about you. They like like they know me. It's kind of like, creepy, right, but in a good way. Right? And, um and so buy me posting on social media. All of my thousands of followers found out. Oh, you're gonna be in Toronto this weekend at a show. Oh, cool. I'm gonna come. And so they may not even have been interested in the rest of the show, but they, like, be lines to my booth. I got to hang out them have, like, a coffee with them, and just they would buy prints from me and they bring their kids and their husband and so forth and so it was kind of cool. It's a great way to connect with your audience. So just to know that you have a bit of a falling on social media is really important to the event producers on their team. So the other thing that you may want to also be aware of is they may also want to know kind of like a slogan or basically, what your brand is all about. They might ask you something like, you know, in the summary and one or two sentences, What does your brand do? What do you make? So having a slogan or tagline is really important for that. Um, talk about that in my marketing courses. Well, that having just on elevator pitch, in other words or, ah, really, really short way of top telling people what you do and why you do it and why they should care. Basically, um, is really important, and it comes in really handy when applying to trade shows, craft fairs, holiday markets and so on. Um, the truth is were in competition to get into these events, okay, and oftentimes the first come first serves. You also want to be one of the first to apply because then you have options of where your table is going to be or your boots going to be at the event. And so to get an early is really, really important. Um, to be able to, especially to a curated event, you want to be at the top of their list, not the bottom, because they may just not even get to you. If they get filled up, then they may not even get to you. So again, those are some of the key things when it comes to actually applying to the event. Always, obviously, be very friendly and courteous to them. Make sure that if they require specific things on their application, don't just skip them, makes you give them exactly what they're asking for. Don't give them, like, 20 things that they didn't ask for. Just give them exactly what they did ask for. Obviously, I find people like to, like, you know, make up for, like, overcompensate, and they think that's gonna help them when it can actually just annoy the people on there like Forget it, this person's gonna annoy me. I'm not gonna have about the event so make sure that you are just giving them what they're asking for. B, keep it short and sweet and positive, and, um, they'll help you in your application process. So once you're completed your application you're going to then submit. Oftentimes you won't hear back for like about a couple of weeks. Usually they go through all the applications within 2 to 3 weeks, and then they will email you notifying you that you have been selected to be part of this event. So it's really a Knauss an email to get when you get your first application approval. So I mean, when I first got my first approval, it's for unique L. A. In downtown Los Angeles. Um, it was in the fashion district, and it was a cool event, like it was surgical event. There was like a deejay spinning live music. There was people walking with cocktails. It was like a really full photo booth and, like just really cool party vibe. And there's about 320 of US artists that we're all set up. Everybody made different things. There was art print people. There was craft people. There was jewelry, people, fashion people, everybody had their own spin on their art and their products, but it was such a really cool event to part of. And so if those who have never done event before, I encourage you to find something that you're gonna enjoy being a part of. Um, instead, when you apply and you get in, you're gonna be looking forward to. It would be a fun thing while you're there. You can also take lots of photos and use those photos in promotions and in other types of like on your website, social media and so forth. So it's really, ah, a lot of fun to do that. So let's go on to the next section and let's keep going as we learn how to be successful at trade shows.
4. Booth Design Part 1: it creatives in this video, I want to talk to all about booth design when it comes to live events, trade shows, craft fairs, art markets and so on. Now, when I say booth design that could also refer to just tabletop design, it could refer to a full booth, which is usually a 10 by 10 size. You could also do 1/2 booth, which is about five by 10 depending on the event as well as a traditional either eight foot or six foot wide table. A lot of times, depending on the size that you go with it will give you more or less options when it comes to design, obviously, because if you have more space, you can do more right. But I want to talk to you in this video all about how important it is to really create a booth design that's going to draw people to wards your booth to look at your products. Now, as I said before an earlier in this course, a lot of times when we actually are applying to the event events want to know what our booth or our table or are actual display is going to look like? The reason why is because they want to create an atmosphere that feels professional enough to really entertain the customers that are walking through. They don't want their customers for their event to come and be like, Wow, this is so, like, not put together very well. Everybody looks like they have never thought about anything. It looks sort of messy. They want people to come through and be like, Wow, I cannot wait to get in and look at all these products in these booths. What an amazing event. So when you think about it that way, how are you and I going to make your booth stand out among all the others in the event? Now, some events can be really big and have, like, you know, thousands of booths. And that's even more of a bit of pressure because you want to really not get lost in the shuffle. And some booth there actually are. Some events are going to be more like a couple of 100. Or sometimes you might even be just one of 20 or 30. So, depending on what you're doing, obviously you want to stand out more and more. However, I say that even if you're doing a really small event and it's not really like a huge event or like a corporate trade show, maybe it's a craft market. Maybe it's a farmer's market. I say Give your best at every event, no matter what, as far as your display. The reason why is because every single customer deserves it. Every single customer deserves to see that you as a brand, your our brand is serious about your image and about the branding that you're trying to present to the world. So doesn't matter. What about you do, Whether it's a really big event or really small event, I encourage you to really give it and to really think through how to make your brand release like, you know, represent at these events. So what I mean by that when somebody walks up to your boost, like, for example, when they walk up to a Vision city booth when I'm an event, it's really obvious. Vision City is here, you know, I really kind of make it all about black and white. I really have, you know, have my logo. I have, um you know, all my products really stand out because they are unique in the fact that there a lot of them are black and white. I really make a big fuss over my booth design the recent wise cause. I want people stop and come in or if it's a table, I want them to come up to my table. So I want encourage that the first thing I want to talk to you about in this process is to be approachable. Okay, Number one thing you want to do is make your booth approachable. I I've gone to a lot of events, okay? And a lot of times the boost they're not getting a lot of traffic are those that are literally you feel like you're not invited to the booth. That makes sense. So maybe it's just the attitude of the energy of the people. Maybe it's the fact that the actual booth feels very closed off. So you feel like you can't even, like, look into it. Maybe people like the actual design is Actually, there's so many things in the way of looking into it that people don't want to like come in all the time. I actually story about this. It was the national woman's show. And I did this event, um, talk about this event quite a bit because there's so many learned lessons I learned at this event. Now, when I did this event, um, I set up my booth the exact same way I had set it up in Los Angeles. Now I was now in Toronto doing this event, and so I thought, OK, no big difference, right? I'm just going to set up the exact same way now. The booth was the exact same size. It was a 10 foot by 10 foot booth. I had a table. I had, ah, clothing rack. I had cards that I was selling, so I had not only cards and art prints for selling T shirts at the time, so I had all my products seem products. Same price is pretty much at a converted to Canadian. Obviously, um, everything was pretty much the exact same that I was selling. I created some packages and stuff for that event, which I'll talk to you about later. But I was, you know, I had had success with this booth designed before, so I obviously thought course it's gonna work this time. However, when I set up the booth, I had all of my art prints on a table at the back of my booth. So if you can imagine with me, I'll post pictures of this. But people have to kind of walk into the booth and on the left side they had T shirts on the right side. They had cards at the very back. There was bins, and it had all of my art prints. Now this was the problem about a couple of hours into this show, and it's a two day show. I noticed that the sales were like, really low for me, and I was like, What is going on? And remember looking to my left and there was a, um, a jewelry company beside me, and they had set up their booth completely different there on a corner, first of all, so, by the way, corners cost a lot more. But they're on a corner, so they actually had their booth set up as an L shape with two tables on the very corner. So they had their products right up against the corner so people would walk by and look at their products. and it was like there are jewelry was right on the edges of their booth, whereas my products were in the very back of my booth. And so it was like people to walk into my booth to see them. I remember I was kind of like venting to my husband, like, What is the deal with this event? Like everyone said, such a great event, what happened? And then I the lady beside me who had she's was much older than me, and she's been doing this a long time. She looked at me, said, You know, your problem is and I was like, What do you see? She said, You know, your problem is I'm like, No, tell me she's like your booth sucks and I'm like, Pardon, like I was just in Los Angeles and this booth killed it, like, What do you mean this booth sex? She's like nobody in Toronto was gonna walk into your booth and I'm like, Why not? And she's like because Canadians don't like to walk into boots, apparently, and we kind of had a laugh about it. I was like, I know Canadians give me more conservative and I allowed to say that some Canadians, all the Canadians watching don't get mad at me. But I was like, What were you trying to tell me? So many. We had this big discussion and she talked about her experience at events and she was saying that the events that she doesn't Canada, she finds that Canadians don't always want to walk in. And I don't know if it's just a, um people say Canadians are like, super polite. We say sorry all the time, you know, stuff like that. And so I was kind of laughing about it. But I'm like, I wonder if this is actually true. Is this like for Riel? And so while people were walking by, I redesigned my booth. So it took me about 10 minutes, but literally. What I did was I put all of my prints on a table at the very front of my booth. So now, like my booth was a square, but only the front part of it was being like, walked by, you know, and I put all my my art prints on in bins on the front of my booth. So it was the very edge. So, like, literally people would be able to touch them as they walked by immediately while I was even finished setting out, people were already there at my booth. It was like they were I in my book but not walking in, and for some reason among that crowd. They didn't want to walk in. They wanted to just stand the outskirts and touch things on the outside. And so right when I started to put my art prints on the very outside like line or edge of my of my booth, I start to get sales. Now. How crazy is that? OK, that's a really big lesson, though, because I literally went from not many sales at all and really like freaking out because I had spent money to get into the event to making thousands of dollars in sales just because I changed my booth. So if you don't think your booth design is very important, you're wrong, and I want to encourage you to listen up because over the next few moments I'm going to share with you some tips on how to make your booth approachable, not only approachable but salable. You want people to be able to buy things for your booth. Not feel overly intimidated. Unsure if even one walk in a lot of times. Like, you know, l A people are walking right in. No problem. They would walking with her dog like they were, like much more. Go for it. Like aggressive. I'm just gonna look at your stuff and I don't care, Like, out of my way kind of thing. Where? As Toronto. No, they were like, I'm not coming in. And so I had to kind of meet them halfway. So approachability is huge when it comes to your booth. So I want encouraged you to think about that and let's go on to the next one.
5. Booth Design Part 2: the next thing I want to talk to you about this size. Now the bigger your booth is at an event, the more it's gonna cost. So the largest booth size a lot of times that I've seen is 20 feet by 10 feet. I'm sure those larger sizes as well, but it's basically considered a double wide booth where, you know, a standard booth sizes 10 by 10 which is feet. But a lot of times, once the company gets big enough, they can actually afford to fill 20 feet wide by 10 feet deep. So this is only if you're really ready for that if you have a lot of products. This works really well for fashion brands, because then you could bring in Iraq's, um and actually set up your your T shirts or whatever it is you're selling your dresses and so forth. Um, in a way that actually feels more like a store, you can actually have a cache table and all that. It actually is basically like setting up a portable store. A standard size, like I said before was, is 10 by 10 feet, so you can still have a lot of room to play depending on the audience, you may have it set up for people to be able to walk in where you can actually create an atmosphere as though it's a room. Now these I find really effective in spaces where saved your on a corner oven oven event like you're actually at a corner unit. I find this works really effectively because, say, if you are in a place like Canada in Toronto, where people may not want to walk into your booth, Um, but either way, if you're on a corner, it's a lot less intimidating, so people can kind of poke their head in and then walk out. Um, I encourage you to try that, but I do find that a 10 by 10 it's a standard size that you'll be looking at for that You can also do 1/2 size, which is a five by 10. So you're gonna have 10 feet wide by five feet deep now. This still allows you to have wall behind you. You can, in my case, that the one of a kind show I actually had ah, wall behind me and then a little half Well, because I was on a corner, and so that little half well became a slave wall. And I kind of had this nice corner unit that worked really well. But say if you don't have a corner, you can still use the many sidewalls as places to display your products. Maybe have price List your instagram handle on social media handles. Maybe you have different sign it and so forth to get people's attention as they're walking by. You can also hand hang things on the sides, and then, obviously you're back, while in general, no matter what kind of space you do have whether you have a 20 by 10 a 10 by 10 or five by 10 or even just a table, your back wall needs to display your products. You need to actually use the height and the space behind you behind your table to really use every ounce of that as real estate to really show what it is you make. So whether you're making sure it's or art prints or cards or whatever might be, I encourage you to use that space because it's real estate where everyone can see it nice and large. Now, when it comes to your logo design for your sign Egx. You can also use that on your back wall or on, like within your design or your booth design. But I wouldn't make that the main attraction. I've done that in the past. I kind of regretted it because your main thing you're trying to show is not just your logo , right? You're trying to show your products and get those products out to them as accessible as possible so that they can really see them pick them up and look at them and actually discover whether or not it's right for them on. And so I encourage you to do that now, Like I said before your table, if all you have and in the booth is a table, you can still make it killing and the reason wise, because you can actually use the tabletop space specifically designed so that it gives you the most effective space you can always build up onto the table and which I'll talk to you about in a moment when it comes to this Blake cases and so forth. This works really well. If you sell stationery or cards, you can actually build up on the table, you can actually get customized build. You can buy things. I find it's easier if you actually kind of customize it. I know it's kind of a pain in the butt to find our to actually build things, but I find you get a bigger bang for your buck, and you're also not look generic when it comes to your branding. I've seen people use boxes I've seen will use all kinds of different things to display their products just on the table. Top on. And then a lot of times, even if you just have a table, you'll be allowed to have. Maybe you have a wall behind you. You could maybe put a little bit of products up on the wall, or you can actually use a stand. I've done this many times, were actually used, my kind of like a photography stand or a portable backdrop stand and I, like, hang some curtains on it or I hang something. Are burlap something to be a backing behind me? Even if I'm just setting up the table, I find that if I don't do that, that I'm actually just wasting space. This works really well if you just have a table space. Ah, lot of times your your events Will I do this? Sometimes they might say you're back. Backdrop can only be a certain height, so a lot of times it might be only eight feet, but you want to use as much space as you possibly can. So ask these kinds of questions. If all you can do is a four Teoh just set up a table on event. That's great. Just get into the event, especially, was the right audience for you. And then just ask them. Is there any limitation on my back drop height? Um, I find most of time will be between eight and 10 feet. 10 is really high, obviously. So I find the higher you go the better, because then people can see you from a mile away when they walk into the event. So I would ask that question and pushed the boundaries and see how much you can actually get with just a table. Oftentimes they'll just give you a chair on a table, and that's it. So you have to bring everything else which I will talk to you about more and more in the next sections, but those are generally the size is you're gonna have to choose from. So a table, which is usually six feet eight feet wide, which is like a foldout table, or you're gonna have a five by 10 booth. Or you might have a 10 by 10 book, which is really standard size for a trade show or a craft fair and so on. Or you might you might be able to graduate to the largest size, which I find in my experience has been 20 feet wide by 10 feet deep. Now there's also alternatives. Now what I want to talk to you about briefly is that some events and she craft fairs, they might it even allow you to be portable. So, for example, renegade craft fair. I believe it was. They actually allowed you to have a mobile sort of a carts that you could then apply to actually be moving around throughout the event so that you're kind of mobile. You're not just in one place, so you might even almost beyond like a bike or something and have, like your art kind of connected attached. So sometimes, depending on how creative the event is you would be able to create something completely off the wall in different, um, and do that. So it sounds funny. I've also seen in the past where, um, the events would actually allow you to have just a stand, a stand that might be only a few feet wide and then maybe eight feet tall. So it's almost like you're kind of standing and hanging out beside just a very narrow tall stand. I've seen this happen before, really large events where they've got all the different sizes of booths. But then they've also got another area that's maybe just like a craft area or on Etsy section, or are so forth where they're only allowing you to be a scale like a standing room. Only you might be able to have a stool beside it, and that's it. So you don't really get a full table. You might just get a stand. So these are the different options. But I would check your options depending on the event you're going to go to and see what they have to offer. Um, and a lot of times they I find now it is the more modern very progressive kind of art events there, really opening their eyes in their mind to selling people space in a different and unique way, not only the traditional booth way. So ask the question a lot times the corporate events might be standard sizes, but you never know until you ask. And you might even say to them, Hey, look, I don't think I have enough. I can't afford the even a table. Do you have half tables? Do you? Can I share a table? And that's nothing. You can always share space. So you go. We share a table. You could share a booth you could share hat, you know, five by 10 or an eight by 10 are Sorry. 10 by 10. I find that that's really effective, too. So you could actually have your friend could be, like on one side of the booth, and then your art could be on the other side. And that could be kind of cool, even kind of like a bit of a cold lab in that way. So I encourage we encourage you. Excuse me to check out the booth sizes and see what will work best for you based on the budget you have to spend on each event. When it comes to frames and displays, it really creates an environment when you were actually using a specific form of framing and displaying within your actual booth design. And the challenge that comes up first and foremost when it comes to frames is Well, what if you don't have walls, right? And so a lot of times in, in order to use frames and to have them, you know, actually displayed around your booth, then you may need to actually create walls, and it sounds like a crazy thing. But it's true now. I've done all kinds of things in the past. I've built walls at the one of a country in Toronto actually built by my dad, and I actually built some those kind of thin wood board walls where we actually to buy for a structured as a skeleton. And then we actually nailed on the front so they were still light enough to carry there a little bit heavy, actually. But they worked for that event, and we actually set up legit wood walls for that booth. That was really great. And then that way I could actually drill holes on, actually put nails in there to hang on my art. So that was fine for that event. But what if you don't have that option? What if you are setting up in a very floated space, So maybe your booth design or when you arrive to the event, all you're going to get and by the way, you always want to ask, What is it going to look like when I arrived? The event? Are there going to be walls there as it's going to curtains? Is it going to be just nothing? Are there gonna be tense trying to bring my own tent and so forth? That's actually a really big deal. If you are doing an outdoor event, make sure you ask about tense cause that my first outdoor event I didn't and I was like hoping and praying that somebody would help me with a tent because I didn't have one. And I found out the night before, and so, literally by the grace of God, somebody like hooked me up with the tent, which is incredible, but that's really important to note. Um, now say you arrive and yet you're an intent or you're in a space in a large auditorium are indoor, you know, convention space, for example. And you don't have any walls. And you have to think, how am I gonna actually hang art on walls aren't here, right? So you can use things like there is kind of, like, grid kind of structure wells that are portable. They're kind, like metal grids that can work. I find that it's a little bit distracting because they're still see through. You can also do what I've done in the past have actually used my backdrop pools as a wall structure. And then why did I stretched burlap, um, over top of them and I actually string berlack together to make it a lot larger piece. And then that burlap actually became like a portable, thin like structured wall because burlap in itself is so thin, it's light. And so I can actually roll it up when I was done with it. And I have done that in several events, and it works really well. That way I could actually attach my frames, which I always take the glass out of honey frames I'm gonna use. So if you're buying frames. You don't want to use frames on your display that have glass in it. Because obviously, for a couple of reasons, number one, it's reflective. So people are not able to look at your art easily. If there's frames are with the glass on them. And also it's just heavy. And so whatever you're putting on the wall, you want it to be light that doesn't fall down. And you don't glass flying everywhere like, you know, big. No, no, right. It's the last thing you want. So I would encourage you to think those kind of things through. How can you actually create walls that are like, um and maybe want to try the burlap idea you could get burlap at, like Home Depot or any home improvement store? Get a huge role of it for like I think was like $35 or something like that. But I end up using that several times, and I used burlap string to kind of pull it and actually keep it strong and tough. So that's an idea that might help you guys. You can also buy like perforated walls so you can buy kind of like chipboard or almost like . It's like a thick, corrugated kind of cardboard from stock that you can actually find at again. Ah, home improvement store. But if you find something like that, then it could be really effective to because it's already got holes in it, she goes, but hooks through it. You could hangers through it in order to hang your products that way, and then that way you can actually move things around. Depending on what you want. It's colic, a grid already set up for you.
6. Booth Design Part 3: I know that you can use for walls is it's called foam board. No full board. There's obviously there's foam core, which is only about let's say, it's only about, you know, 1/4 of an inch wide. The full board I'm talking about is actually used for insulation, and so I actually recently my church. Actually, we were doing a really big display. Well, for the back of the stage is actually for a stage design. And so we ended up using foam board, which I will, actually, While I'm talking about that, I'll put a photo of it so that you could know what I'm talking about. But it's actually made for insulation in walls. So the great thing is, it's eight feet high and four feet wide, so it's kind of the perfect size does a lot of times these trade shows they don't want you to go past eight feet, so that might be a really great solution. You could always either paint them or cover them with some kind of a covering. Um, I mean there's a 1,000,000 things you could do to actually make them not look like insulation, but obviously insulation is so light that you may want to use that that would work. Well, if you're just hanging paper products on them, um, for example, you may not want to use frames. In that case, you may want to actually clip them. Like in the past. I've actually just hung my pieces on the wall and actually clipped them with little paper clips on strings or on on. I actually put little nails in the walls. And then I just hung the clips holding the art pieces on there. That's another idea that you can use as well, So ways to display your art, um, are really, really important, especially on the walls. Okay, the walls air really the highest real estate. I guess you could say that in the tables that you use because obviously your walls or what people are going to see when they're walking by, they're going to see the attic. Lance, they're gonna be drawn towards your booth by what you have on your walls. Even if you have to create the walls to put this stuff on it, I would encourage you to do that. You could, even with those insulation walls, you could even cover the wallpaper, and you can get really creative with that kind of stuff. These are just some ideas you may want to consider to make it look like you're in a room, even if you only have 1/2 booth or you If you just have a table, you have these really cool, insulated kind of walls behind you that have there are wallpapered or that are covered with , like a certain cut, you know, paint, maybe even a chalk paint. You know you could do all kinds of crazy stuff, so I encourage you to be creative. Most importantly, you want all of these things. Teoh drive home the message of your brand so you want everything to work together to really bring home the messages. The overall tone of what it is your brand represents now displays that there's lots of different kind of displays you can dio, I find. For example, if you're doing greeting cards and stationery, having displays that are slightly vertical on your table tops is really, really given. If everything's flat on a table of people have to look down. When people are looking down, it's harder for them see things properly because First of all, there's always bustling around them, but that everything's kind of upright and it's kind of displayed really well for them. They can just kind of glance it and look at that. Oh, yeah, I want that and that and that It's easier for them to shop. Okay, if it's on a vertical display, not gonna show some examples of that here because I find sometimes just want to kind of see them in order to get an idea. Now the textures of what those displays are going to be are going to depend on what is the messaging of your brand. So, for example, are you very slick, Modern brand? You may want all your displaced to be maybe white and kind of like a nice shiny satin finish forever, whereas if you're doing something that's a little bit more earthy tones, you may want to use boxes. You mean one of these burlap boxes. Or you may even want to use wicker wicker boxes work really well, kind of like baskets and so forth. You could use those kind of things to display things as's faras to gain height on the table that you're displaying on shelving is also a great way to display things on in your booth. So again, it's all about getting things up off of the table alone. But to actually create height within your booth is really, really powerful again. It just gets people's eyes upto look around and to really feel like they're in a regular shop, even if you just have a table. So you want to set up height and things. For them to look at that are not just looking down at the table in order to feel like they can actually purchase from you. And it just kind of gets their attention, their walking by now. The next thing I want to talk to you about is textures. I kind of touched on this just now, but the textures of your booth really say a lot about your brand. So for me, I actually create lacking weight art prints. But my black and my art prints are on Lee printed on recycled paper. So I wanted my black and white story. I guess you'd say to be presented still in a way that was not cold because black and white can come across kind of cold Um and I wanted to still have that earthy warmth about it. And so I use burlap. I use Would I use these kind of earthy textures? Because I wanted to still bring across the point. This is still unequal, friendly brand. This is not I'm not just using Onley regular paper. I'm using recycled paper only. And so I found that that was a great way to bring that across and that I could use scientist and things to bring those messages across within my booth. But I found by using soft, earthy tone textures and colors within my booth that actually helped to bring that across. No, for you. Maybe you're using a vibrant floral wallpaper and that really brings across the vibe that you're trying to bring it in your business on. And then you could have your logo on top of that. You can make it really beautiful and feminine if that's what you're all about. Um, maybe you are all neon bright neon modern colors, and you want it to be like kind of like pop culture vibe, and you want to go in that direction. Um, you know, it really depends on what it is you're trying to say in order to some of the colors and the textures you're going to be using your booth. No, nothing I want to talk to you about. I've talked to be a little bit of baskets and bins baskets, and Ben's come in really handy, especially if you're selling art prints, anything that has to be kind of flipped through like I use would. They're kind of like a milk crate baskets. I guess They're milk crate bins, um, that are made out of wood. I think I bought them at Michael's. I bought them, I think in like for maybe like $10 each. But I have used them so many times because they're perfect size for my prints. So finding something that works with the size of what you're offering, maybe if you will offer a larger size, get a larger basket or been. But I like it because people can kind of flip through it as if as if they're looking for a record. And I find I always put those at the very front of my booth because people it's a bit less intimidating. People don't necessarily want talk to me yet they don't know if I had the trust me, right? I don't wanna have make eye contact, but they can try. But with me just flip through and those pull something out like I want this and is a bit more like an easier access to the actual products. So if all you have is art on your walls and nothing for people to flip through and touch, I find that that's in this because otherwise they have to then come to you and ask you to go into the very back corner and, like wrap up their art print. So those are some of the reasons why I person like baskets and bins because they're not only a display item, but they're an item of interaction with the customer. You can also use baskets and vins, if you are doing, say, sales. And so you have like a sale basket. It's kind of like what women, for example, are familiar with men, too. But I find that people are really familiar with the idea of like a sale been or your last chance been something like that that can work really well if you have small items or if you're selling prints or stationary booklets and stuff like that, you can actually have them in that bin, and they still be displayed beautifully. But it's like the been for sales that could work really well. A swell. So I want encourage you to try using baskets and bins for your own purposes. It's also helps to make your booth feel neat and tidy. Everything has its place. It's not flying all over the place, falling off the table. You want things to look organized and clean, so I encourage you to try that. I hope some of these ideas for your booth design have helped you. Now it's really impossible for me to tell you how does it on your booth? Because your brand is so different. It's got its own style, and I really want you to explore your own options and to really have fun with it. I loved designing my boots, and I still do whenever I do an event, because it's a time to really express what this a brand that your building is all about, and you can really have a lot of fun with it. With colors with textures, with tables with displays with I mean building walls like it's a very hands on kind of D I Y. Project. So I encourage you to check it out and to actually have a lot of fun with it and to enjoy the process gets and friends involved, I always actually set up my booth at home. First, I want to see how it's going to look. Obviously, it may or may not work to do that, to pay how much space you have. But, um, I remember doing this in my basement at the time where I was living where I had some space is just a unfinished basement. But I set out my whole booth and I actually walked into it, and I was kind of like, How does this feel is working? So you may want to do that, do like a dryer on and actually set up your booth. Sure, it might take some extra time, but those that come prepared to trade shows make money and those that don't don't so seriously, I encourage you to always prepare, prepare, prepare, so that you are ready to rock. When you get there. You are like hitting the ground running. Okay, So most important thing about this whole section is approachability. Okay, Make your booth so welcoming to those people that they will either come inside or come up to the edges depending on your crowd. Make it like they want to get in line. They want to get into your booth. You want to see what you have to offer? I really encourage you to think about that. Now, in the next section, I'm gonna talk to you a lot about product display as well as lighting. And so I would encourage you to check out the next section and let's go on and keep moving forward.
7. Lighting and Electricity: when you're displaying your products at a trade show or craft fair or an art market, it's really important to know the lighting scenario that you're going to be in before you get to the events that you can plan accordingly because you may have the most beautiful products. You may have a great booth design, but then when you get there, you don't want your our products to be like half in the dark or in shadows or whatever it might be. Maybe you're doing outdoor event and then you don't remember. Oh yeah, the sun's gonna go down and I have no lights at the end of this thing for the last two hours of the event and so forth. So you want to think about lighting? Okay? Lighting is a really big deal when a booth is lit well, and it's like bright and happy. That's when you really gonna draw in a crowd. Light always draws a crowd when you go into a store in a mall or in any kind of a shop setting. The lights were always bright. There always a cool color. They're not like yellow lighting when it what I mean by that is You don't wanna have all this like yellow tungsten lights. So you want to use lighting That's going to be bright. Daylight lights works really well because we're selling art. Okay, So people want to see your heart in the right lighting, which is generally just neutral temperature. So I find sometimes when people use tungsten lights and normal traditional lamps and so forth, then they emit a yellowish tone onto the art. And so you're nice, beautiful white paper, for example. Behind me actually turns into yellow paper, which is not as, ah attractive in my mind. It's not really what I was trying to get across. So when you are looking for lighting, make sure you look for the right color temperature, which is basically daylight. Um, now, I encourage you to think these kind of things through, like what kind of lighting will work for your booth? You can definitely use lamps if you want to create like a soft and beyond vibe. But make sure that they're still bright enough that you can actually see all your products really. Clearly you may want to use tabletop lamps or kind of like portable lamps to actually shine light downward on the products that are on the table. I've done this many times, especially when I used to tour with my husband, hasn't a rock musician and we traveled all over the country. Are all of the world really? And we always had lighting for the tabletop because a lot of times people were only looking down where they're buying products this way, that you know what? We had shirts on the table. We had pins, we had CDs, all kind of hats, all kinds of different things. And so sometimes, depending on the event, if we only got table, we'd have lights on that table. Now, when it comes to lighting than you, obviously the start thinking about electricity and how you're going to get electricity to the lights unless you have battery power lights, which could be very, very handy. You can have kind of like camp lights that you can hang around, say, uh, an event that has maybe tents set up and so forth. So think about lighting to make sure that your booth is well lit. Aziz. When it comes to lighting up walls, maybe you have to build the walls and the walls are already there. But if you're displaying things on walls around you, you wanna have nice, overall bright, wide lit lights. So, for example, when I did the one of a kind show in Toronto, I actually clipped on some nice bright lights that actually shown onto each of the wall. Who's actually two different walls. There's a back wall just 10 feet wide, is a five foot deep well, and I actually used the light from this wall to light the opposite wall. So it's kind of guys connecting the lights on on the opposite wall is too light each other . So I find that that helped a lot, so that might help you guys when it comes to lighting. Look, if you're clipping your actual light onto a wall, it's kind of hard to light that wall with it cause you're gonna then be pointing the light downward. And that's kind of harsh lighting for art. I find it works better if you actually point the light on this wall onto the opposite wall and so forth. Hope that makes sense. But I encourage you to do that, to think about lighting now, when it comes to electricity, you're going to need Teoh. Ask your trade show. Are the producer who's putting on the trade show? What is the situation with electricity? Often times you have to pay for electricity on top of your fee to get into your trade show , so it depends on what it is you're going to be doing. But it might be like $50.75 dollars extra but to have electricity wired to your booth. This is often the case at indoor events. Obviously, outdoor events are not able to do that because they're not gonna wire have running wires running everywhere in case it rains or whatever. So, um, and if there's tents set up for an indoor trade show, it's really, really rare to have electricity run to your booth. If you've experienced that, then you can let me know. But I haven't experienced it myself. But you can still have lighting in your booth if you have portable camp lighting, um, and battery powered lights. So I encourage you to think these kind of things through. Do you need lighting? Um, at the event. What kind of lighting is it is really required for your booth. How much lights do you need? And are they going to be battery powered or are they going to be electrical? If they are electrical? You need to pay for electrical connectors, which will be brought to your booth by Electrician's. So that's usually an extra fee. So I wanted to encourage you to be aware of that, Um, and think that through beforehand because you can't ask for electricity when she already get to the trade show. They're going to just say no because they've got so much things going on. They've got, you know, hundreds of people arriving with their products, setting up booths so they're not going to. Generally, they're not going to that on the time of the event that happens in the time of booking. A lot of times your application lacks, you say, Do you need electricity? Um, and you know, last few questions like that, so be aware of that and apply for that if you need it. So again, lighting really important, having a nice, bright lit booth. Very, very important. Whether it's a table, a display case, what you doing? Five by 10? At 10 by 10 or 20 by 10. Just light that thing up because you're a lot lot more attention if it's lit well and make sure you request electricity if you need to.
8. Taking Payments: the more ways that you can accept payments at a live event, the better for you. Okay, so when it comes to setting up, you don't Onley want to be able to take cash as payment. You want to be able to take a variety of credit cards, debit, a swell as possibly check and so forth. Now I encourage you to have as many options as possible so that you get as many sales as possible. Nowadays, pretty much everybody walks with credit cards, so having as much cash on hand is a lot more of a rare experience. I pretty much never carry cash because it's just so much easier to have a credit card on hand our debit card. So making sure that you have the ability to take debit and credit cards is really important . Now there's a couple things to know when it comes to this. Number one, I would encourage you to check out a square reader. You can actually go online and actually request a free square reader to be mailed to you. And the cool thing is about this company is called Square. The cool thing is that they will send this reader to for free, and then they will just take a percentage of of your payment. So say you have a certain number of sales and they're going to take a percentage of that, and it's a very small percent. I will post the percentage on, um on this video to make sure that you're aware of that percentage. I want to encourage you to be aware of that because it's so so handy. You can actually just literally plug the square reader into your phone and so that, um, while you're at the event, you're literally holding your full and you're swiping people's credit cards on your phone and taking payments that way. So that's super handy. Um, and it works really well. The only thing is, you need to have, um, to be in a place where you can get, you know, good coverage for your bones. You either have Internet, wireless Internet connection or just to have, like a real connected phone. So say, for example, there is actually one time where I was at an event and the actual convention center in itself was like a tank. It was like so closed in is like Fort Knox and I founded the actual walls. They were like huge, thick walls that were, like, you know, cement to whatever. And it was literally, like, impossible to get a phone call in there, let alone to actually run cards in there. And so we actually had to bring our own hot spot, portable and Internet hot spot, which is, Actually, it helped us a lot. Um, so you may need to do that as well. Encourage you to look into that if you need to. Basically, it would be like an actual box at that. The hot spot I find nowadays, phones are getting better, but or this you only need that as much anymore. And for most cases, you won't need that. You just need to have your phone. You can use the square reader that way. All you do is you just set up an account with square, Um, and you connected to your your PayPal account, which then could be deposited into your into your bank account. Now, be aware of the currency like, for example, when you're taking payments on the square reader. At first, I didn't recently thinking about currency, and I was actually charging people in Canada in the U. S. Currency, So I was swiping their cards. And so company. No, people don't really care that much, but a So you can imagine, The currency difference in Canada is different in America. So a $20 purchase in Canada when I when I actually purchase it in American dollars, it's more like, I think, 22 a half for $23 Canadian. So you're spending a little bit more. And so some people didn't most people didn't care of. There's a few that didn't so I had to refund the difference as like, oops and so be aware of that. When you are a setting up a square reader, make sure it's in the currency that you're in. Like, say, if you're in the UK, make sure it's in pounds or if you're in, you know, Europe. It's in the euro. Make sure that it's in the right currency for where you're going to be making the sale. The other thing you can actually do is to get a portable actual visa machine. These are a lot more expensive, but one of the brands that comes to mind is menorahs. monetarist is actually a credit card machine, like a portable machine you can carry with you. But I personally like the idea of just using my phone. That just my experience. Um, but you can definitely check that out as well as a portable visa are a debit machine. You can swipe payments that way, So having the ability to take payments that way is going to be your best bet. If you show up in an event you don't have any ability to take credit cards, you will lose sales. Okay, so don't do it. Please. For the sake of your success at the trade show, make sure you have the ability to take credit card sales that's going Teoh skyrocket your sales. Okay, if you're only taking cash and then used you switch over to taking credit, you're gonna see a huge spike because everybody has a credit card. Okay, Almost like I think, even like teenagers nowadays have credit cards. It's like it's crazy. So you want to make sure to have that available for your your booth, as well as a sign that says we take credit and debit. You want to make sure that you have a sign. You can even actually purchase one online and actually have a gorilla visa sign like of use that symbol. Or you could say we take all major credit cards and debit cards, something like that. So I encourage you to do that. And that will absolutely help you with your sales at your events. And it goes without saying, obviously, if you're going to take cash, make sure you have changed. Okay? You don't want to be the person that someone's giving you 20 and the cost is only $13 then you're like, Oh, I don't have change and it just looks kind of like What do you get out change? You need to have changed your actually selling products and make sure you have all the different types of change you're going to need. You may actually want to buy a portable box that's got the compartments for the different types of coins as well. A backspace that will also give you space for your cash to have a cash box is really important. Now, if you're nervous about having a cashbox, because somebody could just kind of swipe it when you're not looking at which I know it sounds kind of freaky, but it is a bit of an issue. You could always have a cash bag that you wrap around your body. That's actually kind of like it's almost like what waitresses wear, but it can actually hold your cash and has a separate the top of it. I've used those in the past. They work really well. You can use like a fanny pack. You can use a variety different on body holders for your cash, as long as they have different compartments. I find it helps, like you have a section for your cash and in a section for the different changes. Um, that's really great, too, but I would encourage you to have something on your physical body to hold your cash. It's something that people don't want to think about, but you never know. I would encourage you better be safe than sorry to have, like a cash box go walking when you're not looking. So definitely keep the cash on your physical body. Um, and obviously your phone. If you're taking payments in your phone, keep your phone physically on your body as well. Not that anyone's gonna take it, but you never know. Okay, maybe it's because I'm a city girl. I'm very aware of these things, but definitely be aware of keeping your belongings, especially anything to do with your sales close to your physical body.
9. Show Insurance: I want to take a quick sec to talk about insurance now. No insurance is not the most sexy thing to talk about or a creative thing. But oftentimes something we have to deal with at trade shows, especially larger corporate trade shows. And when it comes to light craft fairs, holiday markets, more smaller events where it's only like maybe 100 a few 100 or a few 1000 visitors, it's not usually as much of an issue. But if you're doing a large trade show where you have to say, pay for electricity, it's indoor event, it's very corporate. Oftentimes they're going to request that you have insurance on your booth. In other words, they want to make sure that if something happens where somebody I don't know slips inside of your booth and they, you know, break their arm, that obviously you're gonna be covered. And it sounds like such a random thing. But it even goes for things like fireproof like to make sure that your booth is not, you know, flammable or whatever, Um, or like a hazard to the rest of the event. I mean, God forbid, right? Like what if somebody's booth caught on fire. And I mean, that could be a big disaster, right? So things like that they have to think about they have to do that for their own records. They need to know that every single booth vendor has their own insurance, and so I shouldn't even be laughing at this was actually pretty serious topic, but I just find it so random, like as if, Like, I find it just so rare that something like that's gonna happen. But you never know. So a lot of times when you're actually applying and you've actually received on approval after being accepted into a trade show, the next kind of correspondence with the trade show producers will be for you to apply and show your proof of insurance. So you're gonna need to usually apply through there application process. You could even look up your own. Sometimes they might have an insurance company they want you work with, whereas other times they just say, you know, finding your own insurance company and just get event insurance and go ahead and do that. The event insurance pricing is going to depend on the price of the space that you are occupying at the event. You also have to verify that you are not You're not using flammable materials. So, in other words, you're not using a product. That is I mean, somebody could accidentally have something he did beside it, you know, sets on fire. For the most part, you're not gonna be using those materials anyway. But make sure that none your, um your products are your actual display is flammable. Um, so you want to be sure to use that A lot of times you could even get like, anti fungible retarded, like it's kind of retardant kind of sprays where you could actually use to minimize any concurrence of fire at these events. So things like that you want to be aware of, but you may have to actually apply for that and pay for that separately, depending on the size of the event as well as how long you're going to be there, because it's gonna be the actual cost for insurance is going to depend on the space you're occupying, not only the width and the length with the height of your booth space, as well as the endurance in the length of time. Your there so they need to know the start date and the end date as well as your like Lodin day. So they let they consider all of that included. When it comes to your insurance costs dependent where you go, the prices will vary, so shop around. But I want to make sure you're aware of that, because that is something that you're gonna have to probably provide with the larger scale corporate trade shows. A lot of these shows, they do require us to prove that we have insurance, So I just wanna make sure you guys are aware of that.
10. Email List: one of the best things that you can do for your online. Our business while you're at a trade show or craft fair or art market is to build your email list as a variety of ways that you can do that. I want to talk about those things in this video. Now. The first and most obvious way to build an email list is to actually have a physical sign up sheet on one of the tables in Orlando displays within your actual booth or table top display. So you could actually just invite people while you're chatting with them while you're talking with them, invite them. Hey, if you like to know more about my business, I would love to have you join. My email is would like to Germany Mehlis. Now I find people nowadays are not as intrigued to just hand over their email. When somebody gives you their email address, they know you're going to be emailing them and, like not stalking them. But people know you're going to be kind of hounding them on them, right? I personally don't like to give up my email very easily unless I love the business. I'm pretty like hardcore. I'm not giving up my email address, so a lot of times you need to entice them into wanting to give you their email address. There's a few ways that you can do that. Number one is with a free giveaway. So maybe you are giving away stickers that have your our business, like maybe an art piece on them or your logo on them. You could give away many prints. You could give away little flyers and just talk about your you know, your business. You could actually just give them something that's a little token of what your brand is all about, and you could be really creative with this. It doesn't have to be something that's expensive. It could even be something that you hand make. Um, that is a little giveaway that you're giving to people while they're actually just hanging out your boob checking out. I don't want you to get too carried away, though, with a giveaway at your table. That's why I encourage you to make it really small and maybe something that's kind of cute and sweet that represents your brand. But it's not going to replace the idea of them buying a product today at your at your booth . Like, for example, if you give away something that's too good at your booth, then they're going to like, Oh, sweet, Thanks. All right, my email down. I'm just gonna leave now. I'm not gonna buy anything. And that could be a bit of a mistake. Like I've seen that happen before. People gave away posters and sure, maybe the poster only cost a dollar each are, like 50 cents each or 25 cents. So the validation might be Well, I don't doesn't cost too much. And it's promotion. But if you give away 100 posters, right and all those 100 people walk away and they don't buy any products, then you just paid to be an event to give away 100 posters. And then you might validate saying, Well, at least I've got, you know, 100 emails, which, by the way, is good. I do want encourage you to build your email list. But ultimately you're there to make sales, too. It's not just a bit biliary. Mehlis email. This is actually a subsidiary part of being at a trade show. You're also there to make money. Okay, so I want to encourage you to think about that. So there's a couple other ways that you can actually get people to sign up in your email list, and one way that I love is to create a contest. Now, who doesn't like a contest, Right? Cause the reason why we love contests because there's a prize. So if you have a great thing that you can give away, maybe you've created a beautiful basket that's got a variety of your art products in the basket. Maybe you're giving away like, three or four items. You're giving away some art prints. You're giving away a booklet. Make note pad. You're giving away a couple greeting cards. Um, and I don't know some other arm if you're giving a tote bag inside of there as well. Or maybe the tote bag is holding all these items, and that's how your giving away your your prize and you actually haven't labeled prize and this is the give away. She might show what it is. I mean, it's a beautiful basket, whatever it might be, and then have the words sign up to join the contest or something along those lines and you have a little like maybe a jar or something where people can actually fill in little tickets, which would just be their name and their email, maybe their phone number as well. So those three items in order to join your contest, then what you do at the end of this event cause you're going to get loads of applicants you're gonna get about a napkin said contest joiners, doing it people to join this contest on. And then you could say, at the end of this event, on the last, you know, our I'll be drawing a name. And at the end of this event, I'm gonna be calling your emailing you to let know you that you've won. And so this is a great way to get excitement at your booth. But again, you want it while they're there. This is a way to draw people to your booth. But while they're there, you want to be selling on your products, to which I'm gonna talk to you about even more in the next section. Um, but most importantly, in this specific video, I want to talk to you about email list. So all the names that you get on your contest like little slips you're gonna then go home and enter them into your email address. Now, by the way, before I go any further, I forgot to mention something on the very bottom of that email contest. Sign up. Um, they have you should have a little box that says that you're Would you be allowing me to add you to my email list? Nowadays, it's really important to get permission before you just sign people up to email list. Um, oftentimes, like if you go on a website and you stamp on the email list, then you actually have usually click a boxing. I'm allowing you to send me content emails or, you know, sale emails and so forth. So I would encourage you to do that. And then if anyone asks, you say, Yeah, I just have to get your permission. I like to add these people to my email list. Most people are gonna have a problem with it. If they do, they just won't sign up for the contest. So be aware of that. Just want to respect people's privacy when it comes to their email. So I would encourage you to do that. But the great thing is, you could then take all these emails. And by the way, you're gonna get tons, OK? I always get a lot of emails to you this way. And then you can take those emails and apply them to your email software. Your management software, which might be male champ. You might have active campaign. I mean, there's a variety of different ones. Confusion soft. I believe there's a variety of different ones you can use for your business in order to send out mass emails so that you stay in touch with all these people because you're gonna gain a bunch of art fans at this event. But you don't just have them. Forget about you, right? You want to stand touches that it may be sending the emails once a week or some people send a few times a week. They kind of call them like Seinfeld emails, where you're actually just kind of talking to them about what you're working on and how excited you are, how much fun you have the event you were just at. But it's kind like a way of staying in connection with your ongoing potential customers in hopes that they will become ongoing customers and that actually purchased from you when it comes time for the holidays and the Thanksgiving gifts for their hosts, or for holiday gifts for their family or birthday gifts for their brother and sister like you want them to think of you. That's why it's important to stay in touch with them after the actual event. So email list is the way you do that. If you don't do an email list, you're literally leaving money on the table. A lot of money. You're leaving a lot of potential sales on the table, so I wanna make sure you are gathering emails every single event you do, whether it's just having an actual piece of paper on the table and asking people to sign up . Maybe you are giving a free giveaway, something small that's just cute and small. Maybe it's a sticker. Maybe it's like a little you know, Pin. I don't know what it could be, but just something that represents your brand. But it can't be big enough to replace what they would potentially by. And that as well as a contest you may want to offer a special contest for that event exclusively. You could also announce that contest over social media. So you get, say, hey, everyone who comes to see my booth, I'm Booth number 5 12 Come and see me at this event tomorrow, and I'm going to be doing a contest at this event specifically, if you come out to my event, I'm going to be offering you the opportunity to join this contest. Some having It's awesome. Giveaway. You talk about that on like a you know, Social Media could do like instagram live Facebook live. You could do post the photo posts or video posts. It's a great way to generate buzz that people come to your booth excited. They're already know your dear contest. That's also a great thing to do as well. So again, those are the three different ways that I've encouraged you to gather emails and again when you get home, put all those emails into your email software so you can send out messages on mass email form in order to stay in touch of your potential customers.
11. Talking To Customers: one of the things that could make US artists really nervous when we were setting up a trade show or craft fair on art market of some kind is the actual interaction with the customer. Now a lot of us are artists, and we make her art. But we're not necessarily like salespeople. And to feel like rock she's selling our own art could be a bit awkward, right? And so I want to encourage you in this video on ways that you can really just break the ice in order to just start conversations with people. Now, one of the ways I like to always introduce myself or just kind of, um, interact with my customers is just too casually say hello when they joined the booth or when they're walking in or when you're walking up to my table. I asked him how they're doing. Um, you know, if I could help them with anything, let me know stuff like that. Maybe that's all you say for now and then let them say something next. And then after that, you know, you may want to comment on what they have said to you, so they may be walking up with their A little puppy in their hand. A lot of people feel like they go to art events of dogs. Don't know what it is about that, but you may want to kind of interact with her dog. Ask what the dog's name is, what kind of a dog it is. Talk about them more than you talk about yourself. That makes sense. What I don't like is when I go into a store in general or when I go up to an event and someone's like on me, like I walk in and they're, like, pounce on you, you know, it's kind of like, really not cool. And it actually makes me feel like I want to leave, and I want to run away eso Maybe you've had the same experience you've gone into, like, a shoe store or something, and they're like and they see you and they, like, run towards you, right? And so I want to encourage you is actually really freaky, right? So don't be that person, okay? Promise me you're not gonna be that person. Keep it casual. Keep it cool. Kind of. Keep it. Hang back of it. I learned this actually for my husband when I did, my first show is actually unique. L a and, um, Everest, making sales pretty well. Like I thought I was doing pretty good. And I was pretty like, Hey, welcome to my booth. I'm so glad you're here. I was pretty excited. Is my first time ever event. And I'm pretty like a talker. My mum's Irish, I think, I think, the gift of gabber. Whatever. And so I was, like, kind of excited, our excitable. And I said, Okay, honey, I gotta run to get food. I'll be back and then remember coming back. And my husband was sitting in the back and he was kind of like hanging back use in the back corner. It was a 10 by 10 booth. So is large enough for people to walk in and out. And in this specific crowd, they were all comfortable doing that's there, walking in the booth and where I walked back over. And I kind of actually couldn't even get into the booth because there's so many people in there. And so I kind of hung outside the booth and I just watched, and I was kind of Tayback like pretending I was a customer and I was locking around and I was just observing, and I noticed my husband would kind of just, like, lift up. This had to be like, Hey, how's it going? And then he would kind of look back at this phone or he would, you know, pretend he was doing something off in the corner and I was watching him. And then all the people eventually kind of slowly left and they made purchases. And it was like, How did he just do that? You know? And I said, How did you just do that? How did you get almost people in the booth? And he's like, I kind of just got out of their way and made it more about them doing what they wanted in the booth. Rather me like jumping on them. And so if you're doing an actual three dimensional walk in Booth, I encourage you to do that. I learned a lesson that day, and it actually served me really well over the years. Is to actually you want to say hi, but then you kind of want to just introduce yourself or just make a bit of a connection. But then you kind of want to just hang back and let them look and let them have a moment with your products to even see what you do. Then if they come to you and they say so, are these like, recycled Or what kind of papers are these are like they might come to the question you Actually, yeah. This is what I do. And then you can start up more conversation. Um, and if they're looking at you like what? Are you talking to me, then? Obviously you're gonna strike up a conversation with them, but this is an art that you're going to develop them where you do shows. But I learned a lot from my husband that day because he was kind of hanging back and letting people do their thing. And then when people would come up to him with prints or whatever and ask questions and he didn't answer a question that he starts like swiping the cards and making sales. So that might be helpful to some of you who are a bit nervous. Um, And who are artists? Another great way to get over the awkward moment of people being in your booth is to actually be working on something in the corner or working on something on the side that people could be intrigued on. The fact that you're actually creating on the spot. I've seen artists do this where they actually on the corner and actually doing sketches of doing watercolor paintings, doing something all the time so that they don't look like they're just like, you know, awkwardly standing there, waiting for people to walk in the booth. When you walk by Booth and all the like, the booth vendors, like, have, like, the Bambi eyes and they're like, Please come in, please come into my booth. It actually totally freaks people out. So don't do that and just keep it really cool. Maybe be working on something That's a good way to kind of feel distracted Teoh, Um and then look up every once a while. Hey, how's it going? Come on in. If you want to check out stuff, let me know if I help you with anything that kind of stuff. I finally you're friendly and you're inviting, but you're not like on them. And I find that that's the best way to be at a lot of events now, that's what that just, you know, a general rule. It's not like, you know, it's not law. So obviously, depending on the event you're at, you got to feel it out, but be available and really just keep practicing. Keep the casual conversation going. And that's often the way that you work towards a sale rather than be like I do want to buy some prints. What? What kind of prince you want? We're looking for when you do that, it actually makes people feel really uncomfortable. And they kind of, like, just run. Okay, so don't do that. Um, um, what you do want to again is to say hello. Be friendly. Keep smile on your face and keep it going to be working on something in the background. Never did sketches. You're kind of looking up. How's it going? Keep it open. Um, so that they know that you are looking after them if they need to be looked after, but that you're not all up in their face. Okay, so I hope that helps when it comes to talking to potential customers.
12. Pricing and Packages: when it comes to pricing your products for your art pieces. Um, it really depends on the quality rather than just comparison with other artists. I find in the past that I've had a lot of people ask me about pricing. It's a really big deal, right? Cause we're still it's trying to, like figure out well where my starts for us pricing. Do I go with, like the lowest common denominator? Do I go and become the more expensive brand? Where do I start to? I stay right in the middle, so I kind of just fit in with everybody. And here's my answer. Yes, you do want to be comparable in a way, but that's a big, but you do definitely want to price your products based on what they are as far as quality . For example, my art prints cell generally for about $20 sometimes a cell for 25 depending. Now I print black ink on white paper so somebody might say, Well, that's just like a really inexpensive piece like, Why would it be so expensive? Some people might sell theirs for 10. However, my art prints are printed on fine recycled card stock paper. They're bright white. They come from actual paper mills. Okay, so not buying my paper at, like, Business Depot or at Staples or whatever. I'm buying my paper at paper mills that are actually FSC certified. Their Forestry Stewardship Council served five papers. No, why did I do that? Because that matters. To me, that's part of my brand values. And so for me, recycled papers is important. And so for that reason, my papers cost me more money. If it cost me more money than I have to obviously charge a little more for my customers. However, do my customers get upset at me about that? Not at all. They actually value what they're buying from me a little bit more because and they're OK with spending up 5 $10 more on my art prints because they know that they're getting equality piece of paper that's going to last a long time. It's eco friendly, and it lines up with their personal values, too. And so for that reason, I don't even flinch about selling my art prints for 20 or $25. And that's okay, so I want encourage you to pressure products based on the quality of them. I don't over price. You want to be outrageous and be like, completely out of reach. But it's okay to be the most expensive person in your genre. It's OK as long as there's quality to back it. Okay, you don't want to be the person that's just overpriced. Okay, so you have to be the judge of that. I can't look at everybody's products and help you price them if you really, really take me a long time to do that. But looking at your products sure compared them with other designers or creatives in your realm and what you make. I'm not necessarily talking about art style or designs. Tell, because that's very subjective that is going to depend on your customer who's going to decide whether they love that or not. I'm not talking about style here. I'm talking about quality of the actual physical item that you're selling people. Now. You need to decide our my products a little bit better quality. Are they a little bit less quality and then go go by that what is the sizing that I'm selling? If I'm selling large scale prints, they should be a little bit more money than if I was selling small prints. And this sounds like obviously not rocket science, right? So it's actually keep it really simple on Don't overstress it. Put a price tag on your products and go from there because once you actually set a price, you'll be able to test the market. If the markets responding really well, then you know you're in the right kind of sphere pricing. Now, if no one's buying and they're all every time they look at your proxy, Wow, that's way over price. If you're hearing that over and over again, you want to consider lowering your prices a little bit or up. Bring the quality, which is more of what I would prefer you to do because I want you to make more money, not less right. I don't want to be the lowest price denominator are common denominator. I want you to be the one who has the best quality products who could make the most income. So I encourage you to think about that. The other thing I want you to think about is packaging your products together to create higher sale price. So, for example, maybe you have art prints that sell for $20. But if you package three together instead of having them be $20 each in that being, then $60 maybe you do three for $40 you know something like that. So by two, you're getting the 3rd 1 free. And whenever you have the word free in an offer, people love that. So you could say, buy two, get one free, or you could say package price, special offer, you know, $40 for three I find if you say what they're getting and use the word free in the offer that helps a lot. So buy two. Get one free and you see that lot in fashion stores like when you go like I don't know different you know, mainstream big A department stores, for example, or like like H and M or Forever 21 or places like that where you actually get a lot of products for a good price. A lot of times, you'll see, you know, buy two. Get one free like, for example, at H and M. I was recently buying some stuff for my daughter there. There was have really cute clothes for kids, and that's what I did. I found a section of the store. That was how his green tags and it said, Buy two, get one free. And they were just such a great quality of the time that I decided to check that out into bison stuff and so that really in tight and enticed me and brought curiosity to me as a customer to be like, Wow, I want to look further into this section. Let's see what they even have. And so sometimes having those kind of packages will get people's attention long enough for them. Just look at your actual booth. So when you have the word free, somewhere on your actual signage, which will talk to you about sounded in a moment. But once you have that as an option than people know, they're getting more for what they spend when they buy more. So the more they buy, the better the prices are going to get for each product. That's the ultimate message when it comes to packages. Now again, when it comes to packages, I want to touch on this really quick because you want to create exclusive packages for every event you dio. Now that might mean you have to create a new sign for each event. Not a big deal. It could be simple as printing out a document on laminating it like it could be something really simple like that. But you want to create, like, say, for example, I did the one of a kind show in Toronto. I could do a one of a kind special, you know what I'm saying? And then that could be, you know, by two prints. Get the third free. That could be my one of a kind special or the woman show Ivan talking. But I could do International Woman's Show special where and then I could actually write what that is. So you guys say bye bye Three prints get get the fourth free or whatever, Um, now same thing with unique L. A. Or renegade craft fair or any of these events I could do the renegade Craft Fair Special Price package where I actually put together, say it's like a handful of cards for $10 like that. You want to create a special for each event and actually used the events name in your package name? I know, it sounds like funny to say that, but it actually makes a big difference psychologically within your customer. They like to know that they at that event are getting a special that's exclusive to them. Okay, so that I find works really well when it comes to packages. So that's gonna help you to get a bit of an idea on pricing as well as packages, because the pricing and packages can often really make or break, um, the performance or the sales that you're going to get at every event. So I hope that helps you, and let's go on to the next section.
13. Networking: I also want to talk to you briefly about networking with other artists and creatives at these events. Now, when you go to these kind of trade shows, craft fairs and markets, holiday markets, you're gonna be literally surrounded by other creative people Now, whether those people are artists in the same form, that you're an artist. So maybe you make art prints or maybe make watercolor paintings and illustrations or whatnot, maybe do posters, gig posters, cards, stationery. Now maybe you do all those kind of things. And but your next door neighbor sells jewelry. Maybe they do pillows. I mean, there's a variety of different types of people that you're gonna be surrounded by. But what I want to talk to you about in this quick video is how important it is to network and to just have connection and conversation with the people you're surrounded by. Especially for those of you who are just getting started who have never done events. Maybe it's your first or second event ever, and you know, you're trying to just get it right. The last thing you want to do is standard with the whole time and not talk to anybody So, number one, I always encourage you to bring a buddy like, bring somebody with you a friend, A spouse, BFF, um, business partner, somebody with you who can actually man the booth while you go around and mingle. OK, so maybe you're mingling than the other person's mingling around. Maybe on your way to get lunch, you kind of stop in a couple different places. You introduce yourself. Say hi. Check out what other people are creating. First of all, you're gonna get inspired. Clearly, you're gonna be so, so inspired. Number one, number two, you're gonna learn so much stuff that you never even thought to ask. There's so many things that come up in conversations at these events that I was like I never even would have thought to ask that question. I'm so that we had this conversation and it can completely change the way you do your business in a really, really big way. For example, when I didn't want my first events, I met um, a really, really cool couple. And they ran a design studio called Hero Design Studio and Mark Brickley and Bath Brickley . They are really, really cool people. Mirth Mark quickly. Actually. Now he heads up a really, really big podcast. Um, which I will actually put the name of it on the screen. I cant rember it right now, but he's very successful in the podcasting world and within design. Oh, it's called Adventures in design, I believe, um, and he is such a inspiring person. And I'm when I was at the first event ever, I was kind of like, Oh, my gosh, I hope this is the right decision. Like I'm paying money to get to this event and so on. Um, but I remember him kind of walking into my booth and he walked in and he just looked around . It was like, Wow, gosh, it's like you're the queen of black and white. I know what I'm saying. That and just him saying that really inspired me. And it was really a confidence builder for me because I knew that his booth was, like, incredible, like his art and his whole community that he has this, like, amazing community. And he's like hero design. Like in my mind. He was like this big, you know, design guy in the sign world. And so to have somebody actually come into my booth and mingle and say hi, and just, like, make a comment like that was so encouraging to me what I was working on, and we later me and my husband. I later became friends with them. We went over to their home at a cocktail party, were able to interact with a whole bunch of other designers that were also at the event. So I got to meet like D, K and G, which is a really big design studio. These two guys there like, brilliant. I got to meet us. Sean Moore was another amazing, amazing illustrator and designer, and a lot of these really cool paper, you know, poster screen printing kind of guys and girls that were just like I was like, Wow, I would have never even met any of these people if I hadn't gone this event. And so by meeting them at that event, I will. So I would see the other events. I would run into them. Um, I'd be able to grab lunch with them and have conversations, and the conversations I had with these people really shaped my business because they were so confident. What they were doing. They have already been doing it for years ahead of me. And so they had so much advice. They're like, Oh, gosh, look, let me tell you how that how to get that done. They were like talking about just the power of actually having our products for sale verse only working on client design services and how much of a head affected their businesses in a positive way. And so it just kind of brought a lot of confidence to what I was doing. So I encourage you again to when you go to these events, mingle, go around and say hi to people. Let people come into your booth. Ask them where they're Booth is. Oh, can I come and see your booth? What number are you and so on now? They don't have to. They don't have to necessarily only be in your craft. I learned so much from even the jewelry line that was to the left of me at that woman show . I was telling you about where I learned so much about Booth Booth design. In literally a matter of 10 minutes, I had to learn on the spot, and this lady beside news like this is what you need to do right now because you're not coming sales unless you do it. So I learned a lot in that moment, you know, and that's affected the way all a lot of my sales went. So I encourage you to keep your eyes open, your ears open. It could even be people that are, you know, selling food. Or if they're selling something that's completely nothing to do with an art product that you're selling, It doesn't matter unnecessarily what they're selling it just the conversations. It's a business conversation that you're gonna have with people. They're gonna help you to build your business. And remember, you know, being an entrepreneur and running your own business could be a bit lonely, right? And so a lot of times, especially work from home, you can feel like you're working on your own a lot, maybe work of your spouse or with your family members. Maybe work just by yourself, and you're kind of like, kind of feel a bit alone. Admit this is a great way to make friends, to make connections, to build community. You cannot hang out with them afterwards, you can go for dinners, go out and have a drink with them. Coffee, whatever. Just, like get connected, connected to other people. It's also a great way to know what other kind of events they dio on. And they can tell you all that event was in that great. Don't do that event, or you should do this event. Your stuff would go really, really well with that crowd. You know, they can give you ideas. And so I encourage you to make connections at these events, get their phone numbers or emails. Asked them if they would follow you on instagram social media intros, Facebook, all that kind of stuff. Stay in connection. Okay. Um, I've had even moments where other companies have actually contacted me later to do collaborations. I recently was contacted. Left. It was about well, about almost a year ago now, where a jewelry company that I really love actually contacted makes they wanted to feature me in their jewelry catalog, like not Kellogg, But looking a look book. They want to feature creative artists wearing their jewelry. So, like, how cool is that? Like I got a ton of exposure in there. Look book. And they did like a whole like, um, really cool film in it, too. So it was very artsy, Very cool. Actually. Came into my home into this room, actually, and they took photos and I was wearing these cool clothes as wearing their jewelry. Actually, this is one of the jewelry pieces. And, um, they were, like, taking photos of, you know, myself with my prints. And it is as if I was making them. And it's kind like a doc style film slash photo shoot where they're asking questions about my business. So it was a great way for emphasis ticket exposure to their audience, but they're like a jewelry line. So I thought it was so cool how that kind of interesting connection happened. But you don't have these things happen unless you're open. So be open to building relationships and connecting with people at these trade shows.
14. Final Thoughts: Hi guys. I want to thank you for taking this course on trade show success guide, and I hope it's really inspired you because I know sometimes as you are an artist, you might be working in your studio with maybe your team. Or maybe you have a business partner, creative partner. Or maybe you're working on your own, and sometimes it can be like a safe environment with in your studio. But to step out, it's actually partner with a live event, and to really step out into that can sometimes be a bit scary. So I hope that this courses really helped you to have some tips. A checklist, of course, which you can download and follow to really just have a framework to work on. But these are things I hope has helped you to feel more confident as you are going out and doing trade shows. Whether during a holiday market raising a craft fair, an art show, no matter what it is and what size it is, you can use his principles on any scale Now. Obviously not everything on the checklist is going to be applicable, like you may not need to think about insurance at a small craft fair. Or you may not need to think about lighting at an event that is, you know, only during the day outside. You know things like that, but just a have a framework in a structure. I hope it's to help you to kind of have some ground to run on in a way to build a successful event strategy. Now I want what I encourage you to do. It's actually to go through this course if you need to go through sections again, you can do that. But I really encourage you to actually use each of these sections to build up a successful practice for a live events because ultimately live events can truly make or break a business. And I really think that they have such a huge potential for income. And you could build your business to build a big awareness of your businesses Well, so I wish you much success as you were doing. Trade shows, craft fairs, holiday markets and art shows