Archive for September, 2007
In all honestly, I don’t have all of our line sheets lined up right. I hate them and I hate doing them. As if I like any of the admin aspects of running the business. I think my problem is that I haven’t found a great template that I am happy with. I’ve had a couple of versions of a catalog, a look book, and previous line sheets – but I’m not satisfied with the look / feel of any of them. Now we have new styles and need new line sheets and I think I just don’t want to do them. I keep letting it fall farther down my to-do list and it’s so crucial for our sales. I can’t put them off any longer.
I’m working on the line sheet for our graphic tees and onesies. Not a big deal because all the images are finally done – including the new styles. I even started hashing out the layout for the line sheet. I’m going to be so happy when it’s done. Its getting to that point that annoys me right now.
A line sheet should be simple: technical sketches of the style, the fabrication, sizes available, colors available, and care instructions, pre-pack combinations. This is the main sales tool – the piece of paper that shows what you have, you could say they are as important as your samples, they are what prospective buyers can keep in their hands, what they can walk away with, what they can peruse and review at their will. Which reminds me that contact information needs to be on every line sheet.
I guess it’s making the line sheet look good that has me hung up right now. I do know, with 100% certainty that all of our line sheets and sales materials are going online to make sending them to people a lot easier. I need to simplify the wholesale inquiry process, so I need a simple link that I can email to potential clients.
Note that the line sheets do not have the prices on them. We maintain a separate price list. Create a pdf, upload it our site and send that link out like mad to wholesale prospects. It’s so easy Amber, just stop talking about it and do it already.
September 30th, 2007
I have to learn not to be so reactionary. I have to learn to implement some standard operating procedures and then follow them. We’re starting with standard status meetings. Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, what a relief that is. We’re all on the same page. I never realize how much I’m keeping in my head ALL THE TIME.
I kind of expect everybody else to just know what needs to get done because I do. I kind of expect everyone to hold everything as a high priority, because I do. But no one can read my mind. And if I’m keeping it all inside, I’m getting frustrated at what’s not getting done insted of just making it happen.
I catch myself thinking that just because I’ve mentioned something in passing at one point in time, the person I mentioned it to will know that means it’s now a to-do for them. Sounds totally ridiculous when I write it out, but it is something I’m recognizing.
We’re now documenting everything. So that all the to-do’s are visible to everyone and assigned to someone. We’re setting deadlines for all the little tasks. I can’t believe how big the big picture is, how important it is to sit down and re-visit everything you have on your plate. You’ll find out what is really a priority and what can maybe wait for the zillion other things in front of it.
We’re gearing up for the holidays, so we’re trying to add as much sanity as we can before the insanity slams us.
And concretely – we’ve planned a marketing / sales campaign that we’ll realistically be able to launch by the end of next week.
September 26th, 2007
I think I need to get serious about setting sales goals. I have no idea where to start with this. Like a bad New Year’s resolution, I’ve declared a few times that I would make x amount of wonderous contacts a day. It still seems like this is a good place to start, but how do I get that disciplined? What if I start scheduling my day better? It seems to me that setting aside the morning hour of 9 -to-10 is the most likely to be do-able every day.
How many contacts? I could do at least 10 in an hour if I was determined enough to do it. I’ve been saying that after the ABC show, I’d be settled enough in the product line to focus on sales. Sales, sales, sales. I love that wholesale requests are coming TO us on a more consistent basis, but we need more boutiques. We need to get more boutiques so that we can afford a reputable sales rep. So here I am, it’s after the show, and it’s time to focus.
Tomorrow, I’m supposed to be on the road at 9 – but there is no reason that I can’t make the calls I need to make from the car, my morning appointment is not slotted for a particular time. I’ve made a spreadsheet with prospects to call, so phone numbers shouldn’t be a problem at all.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Now, I have at least 7 other work hours which could be just as productive if Iactually have a plan. For now, if I make it out the door with the spreadsheet and my day planner, I’ll be off to a great start.
My next big “marketing” move is to get UPC codes. Because these are going to open up more sales channels for us. Yet another fee to pay. Hip hip hooray! But we’re cruising towards the holidays, which should bring a big increase in business.
September 24th, 2007
Now I’m going to talk about the incredibly dissappointing aspects of the trade show. Which, in my opinion, all stem from the size of the show. Let’s talk about the fact that since the show, I’ve received an uncountable number of emails from people all saying exactly the same thing: “I’m so sorry, I really wanted to see you at the show, but never made it to your booth”. The whole reason we pay a lot of money is for exposure, to get our products in front of people, to pick up new clients. Which absolutely can not happen if those buyers that ARE there can’t make it through the whole show.
The rumor was that when the JPMA show announced it was closing its doors, everyone flooded the ABC Show with requests to exhibit. So the ABC show just added more space. Gone was the “sold out” point, as if it had never exhisted.
I kid you not that if the buyers made it to our row, row 15, their eyes were so glazed over they just weren’t looking at things anymore. I even had people who were already my clients almost pass me up just because of sheer exhaustion. Not only was the bottom floor huge, there was a huge second floor also. Just a big blur of baby stuff.
Here’s how I feel about the amount of traffic they brought to the show: if I had just spent the same amount of time on direct sales & cold calls – the time I did preparing for the show, travelling to the show, setting up, showing, and tearing down the booth, – I would have picked up a hell of a lot more clients. I would have had more exposure walking into boutiques.
But I guess that’s worth a test, maybe next month, I’ll focus all that same energy and time on direct sales to boutiques and see what the outcome is.
I never even made it up to the second floor of the show. I called the last day of the show, a Monday, “exhibitor show and tell.” Buyers were outnumbered by bored and browsing exhibitors at least 8 to 1.
But never fear – they’ve promised to add even ANOTHER day onto the event next year. I guess they could make it family day.
This doesn’t even get into how the show was run. Messy bathrooms, no food or drink available after 4:00 pm (even vending machines at either end of the hall were either unplugged or broken). So right when you hit a wall, and need a beverage or a little boost, you have to exit completely. But, no worries, the show is open to 6:00 for those willing to suffer through it.
On the bright side, Pregnany magazine threw a wonderful dinner / cocktail party that was very enjoyable. I met incredible people at the show, so there is always good and bad. At the time that you are standing for hours in empty rows, it’s easy to get fired up about it. But you also have to take some responsibility for not drawing the traffic to your booth, and not doing enough of the pre-show work.
And numerous people have followed up, even those I didn’t get a chance to meet. I met press and made new industry contacts, met fellow entrepreneurs, and gained immeasurable experience just by going through that alone.
And I slept. I actually got some good nights of rest, which is a small miracle in itself.
September 23rd, 2007
Okay, here I am to talk about the dang trade show. I think I’ll start from the beginning so today is going to be about shipping and getting your product to the show. I live close enough to Vegas to drive. So, true to my nature, I work right up to the last minute. The show had a full 24-hour move-in, so I knew that whenever I got there in the evening, I’d have time to move in.
I went by myself. My husband was going to go, but we couldn’t take my daughter out of her kindergarten class the very first week of school. This is where we’re at, so off I went. The drive was fine. The move-in was a different nightmare all together.
Our booth was, in my opinion, a million miles away from the main entrance – the only entrance you’re allowed to hand move-in through. I about died when I walked in and saw how far I was going to have to “carry” everything. We were actually on row 15. Which wasn’t anywhere near as far back as we could have been – the size of the show is my next post.
I was moving stuff to our booth until 2:00 in the morning. The only thing that saved me was this old-school baby pram (buggy) we had purchased as a means of displaying our blankets. That thing became my dolly. But it took a lot of trips. And I still had to hand-carry the carpet – which I saved to last and I had to chant “that-the-that which don’t kill me, can only make me stronger” to myself the whole way to keep from crumbling to the floor in a ball of tears.
I got the booth setup by 3:30 in the morning. Well, I saved some of it for the morning, taking the risk and assuming that the first hour would be slow. Buyers wouldn’t even make it to row 15 in an hour. I also knew that there was no way in hell I was moving out the same way I moved in.
Turned out that most of the vendors around me also had various shipping issues to deal with. Some had shipped via UPS instead of the exhibition’s shipping services. This meant that they also had to deal with the hand-carry issue, because UPS was offsite shipping.
I signed up for the cartload program to get me out of there. They loaded my stuff on one cart and got it out to my car in about 5 minutes. Of course, that was after quite a wait because the line for the cartload program was huge (which goes back to the size of the show also).
So, many of you haven’t done your first trade show to know what a nightmare the logistics are. After the few I’ve done, I fully believe it is worth it to use the exhibition’s shipping services and just bite the bullet. Some savvy people only had to box their stuff and saran-wrap it. They dropped off the shipping labels early on the last day, vendors boxed up their stuff, stuck those labels on and walked away.
Far less painful and time consuming than getting your product out of the hall yourself. I paid $45 for them to load my stuff and tote it out – I can’t tell you how cheap that sounded after moving myself in.
September 20th, 2007
I’m back from the show and still going. There were so many things about the show that were great and there were so many things that were disappointing. Getting back in the middle of the week and keeping the momentum until the weekend was nuts. My daughter just started kindergarten, so that’s been a whole new schedule to get used to – flexibility is the motto of the business owner isn’t it?And I just LOVED missing most of her first week for business.
I had the wonderful experience of meeting a few of you at the show and over the next couple of weeks I’d like to take time to highlight your companies. I know that a few of you had really great experiences with press, exposure, and new clients.
I just want to say that all of us who exhibited (or attended, bless your hearts and feet) should be extremely proud of ourselves for growing our companies to the point where we’re exhibiting at shows, gaining press, meeting industry newbies and veterans, and really doing it. Congrats to all of you, you had wonderful booths and great product lines. We should appreciate all of these milestones on our way up…
I’ll be back with more useful info in the next few days. Happily, I’m still busy getting new accounts set up and running.
September 18th, 2007
We’ve been featured in Pregnancy Magazine! They selected two Baby Fabulous products for their 2007 Buyer’s Guide. Which, (((extra bonus))) stays on the shelf for three months. SUPER COOL. Click the links below to view the features:
Pregnancy Magazine Personalized Blankets feature
Pregnancy Magazine Graphic Tee feature
This comes at a time when things were feeling stagnant. Funny to say that when we’re cramming to prep for a show this week, but publicity-wize. We got a hard copy of the magazine in the mail yesterday and the pics look so much better in print. It is supposed to hit newstands on September 11.
***random side note on starting your own business: electricity. We lost power yesterday and oh my did that throw a kink into things. I had to decide whether it was more important to ship or have officially printed invoices. Even getting the correct addresses was difficult because when the power went down, it took down our internet. Luckily, I have a battery-powered laptop so I was able to access the customer files and get the addresses. Still, not my favorite to send out packages with hand-written addresses and packing slips. Delivering was the most important.
And for all of you who find it hard to find the good in the challenging, stressful, and difficult times, I’d like to share the good of the power going out. It forced me to stand in line at the post office to get our stuff shipped. Because I stood there they were able to bring to my attention that our PO box fees were due that day, or we’d be locked out and would have to pay extra fees. Not to mention the extra hassle.
The evening turned out wonderful. The electricity was out, so I couldn’t work. An amazing summer storm blew in and my kids got to shower in the summer rain – which was nice because the bathroom was pitch black. They were so incredibly happy splashing around like that, and I felt so relaxed because I didn’t even have the OPTION of working. Relaxing is next to impossible when you’re a business owner, there is always something hanging over your head. Thankfully, God works in mysterious ways.
September 1st, 2007
