I did not do this last year. This would have made this difference between an I-can’t-believe-I-made-it-through show and an AWESOME show. You have to look at this like cold calling, especially if you’re a first time exhibitor and you’re counting on this show to launch your product. You will be blown away by the number of vendors that they let exhibit there. The buyers will be absolutely exhausted and glossy-eyed by the time they hit the “first time exhibitors” area.

If you have appointments, you’ll keep your booth busy which will naturally peak the interest of passers by - increasing the flow of traffic at your booth. If you’ve made the calls, you’ll recognize company names on badges, and even if you didn’t snag an appointment on the phone, you have an opener “oh, I spoke with you briefly about the benefits…”

Perspective

Last year, there were 32+ rows of vendors on the bottom floor and I think about 20 on the top floor. 50+ rows of at least 20 vendors a row - how do you stand out? I’ve heard raves about doing the new product showcase, so I would jump on that opportunity if it’s still available. And of course, I’ve written a lot about the importance of an amazing display.

If this is your first trade show, here are some quick tips: don’t pitch buyers in the aisle, don’t jump out in front of them (you’ll get  a feel for when a step out is different than hoarding all of their attention down the aisle).  Only visit other vendors when there are no buyers present, and if you are visiting (there will be plenty of time for meeting your neighbors), step away when a buyer stops to view their products.

You can make the show a fantastic show, but you have to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Don’t rely on the show to bring everyone to you, get your name out there before the show. Work the phones, get as many appointments as you can. You’ll start a great amount of momentum now, and with two months behind it, you’ll blow yourself away at the show.

And HAVE FUN.

I buckle down and work under stress and I’ve finally buckled down and focused on crafting a couple of designs we love (oh wait until you see our little giraffe gift set) and selling them every single freaking day. I spend at least an  hour on sales and marketing every day now. At least. And the momentum is building and the sales are rolling in - but it’s still a battle. New orders inevitably mean new supplies are needed, so we have to be prepared for the constant flow of money going out. I’m learning to watch every penny. Basically, I’m gaining a broader understanding of “cash flow”.

Even as times are tighter, we’re bringing on more help and growing our product line. Our organic onesie sets sell like mad in the boutiques, which has helped me hone my sales pitch. Even today, I got an appointment with a local boutique I’d really like to be in - just because I pushed it. They “don’t do personalized” because they need fast baby shower gifts. Oh and btw, if she had thought that our product line was for her, she would have responded to my email. I didn’t skip a beat before saying “our organic onesie sets are great gift sets that sell like mad in that type of environment. They have photo-real graphics, tattoos on the back, and matching hats.” She wanted another email, I told her I’d rather stop in - she’d be happy to see me on Friday. I’m getting more confidence, we’ve been out long enough that I know what really sells, and I really know that if I can get our stuff in her hands, she’ll want it. Like I said, I’m gaining more confidence.

And praying every day too.

I felt really lucky to happen upon the Fabric Swatch Kit that is available at fashiondex.com. It comes as a workbook that you put together. The fabrics are divided by type in the 3-ring binder, and you start with a pile of tiny fabric swatches. As you put the kit together, you can touch and feel and really LEARN about the different types of fabrics that are available, what the common uses are, and all kinds of useful information!

I still use the kit as a reference tool and to keep additional swatches that I’ve found through my designing journeys.

The knowledge that this kit gives you, especially if you are completely new to the field, is invaluable. You will have a lot more confidence in your line and your fabric buying excursions if you take the time to learn about fabric.

I attended a Business Intensive Seminar on Sales last Friday. The seminar was put on by a business coach who had been referred to me by a friend. I’ll admit I was skeptical, and I battled back-n-forth in my head all morning about whether or not to go. I pretty much had myself convinced  to stay until I told myself “you are going. The only reason you don’t want to is because it’s outside of your comfort zone. So you are going.”

I am SO happy I went.

I really have a different perspective on sales. There were a lot of concepts that were thrown out as food for thought, as well as concrete ways to set sales goals and figure out both lead and sales conversion ratios. However, the main thing that struck a cord with me was the idea that, during any given sales pitch, you are focused on one of two things:

• Money
• How you’ll make a difference - meaning your service or your product

If you are focused on how you’ll make a difference to the person you are pitching, you will be far more successful in your pitch than if you are focused on money, or closing the deal. The more you are focused on the money, the more you decrease your chances of converting the sale.

Funnily enough, I can use said Business Coache’s pitch to me as a prime example. When he was pitching me, I felt strongly that he cared about making a difference in my business. He had me sold on his group coaching program and made it sound like he’d send me info and it was all easy-going. The next email I received jumped right into needing my payment for the group coaching, and needing immediately or I’d miss the boat (group). Well, that completely threw me off. I almost immediately backed out and said I would look into it for the next round. If he had stuck with the original approach and made it seem like getting my money wasn’t the MOST urgent part of the process, I would have been happy to stay on course. Instead, I decided to attend this one-time seminar at about 1/20th the cost of the group-coaching program.

I think this is important for all of us who don’t have a sales background. It’s hard not to focus on whether the prospect is going to say “yes” or “no” - which is focusing on the money. Focus on how you are helping them and they will feel lucky to be in business with you. You always want it to feel like a win-win, especially in our industry, where you are looking for long-term relationships.

Even if you aren’t the sales rep for your company, this concept should translate to all of the PR and marketing you do for your company as well.

In brief, from 5MinutesforMom.com job description:

If html, css, ftp and other techy stuff doesn’t scare you and you are a skilled writer, with solid grammar skills and the ability to quickly write creative product descriptions, you just might become our new team member. If you also know Photoshop and happen to be a whiz at isolating images (removing backgrounds), you’re getting closer.

We are work-at-home moms and we want to offer this position to another work-at-home mom. Our site is all about promoting moms and so we are excited to be able to share the opportunity to work at home.

Click on the following link to read more about this WAHM job opportunity:

http://www.5minutesformom.com/3502/ecommerce-job/

Good luck!!

So we’re just pushing on.  Is it perseverance or blind faith? I have no idea right now. I’m focusing on sales, sales, sales  - especially to wholesale accounts. As I mentioned previously, it’s hard for everyone right now. And we’re all staying positive, trying to stay positive.

I’m reading the Bhagavad Gita right now and one of the main (life) lessons in there is to just put your head down and work. So I’m trying to do this as much as possible during work hours. It’s when I try to focus that I realize how flighty I let myself be with my time - check this email, check the news, blah blah blah.

And on that note, I will be blogging more; we’re growing so much, my time has been consumed. I’m working on getting our sales kit to our sales rep in the southeast - who is ready to hit the road! I’m very excited and nervous about this new development.

PS. You can now email me at info@startupkidsline.com if you have any questions. I’m behind on emails, so I’m hoping this will keep me a little more organized so I can get to all of them. And please, let’s help each other on the forums too!!!

But if this last month of business is any indication of things, then I think things are finally taking a turn for the better. We had a heck of a great show at Baby Celebration, online sales are up, and the boutique’s sales are picking up too.

We’ve been careful to keep up the momentum as much as possible, focusing on driving traffic to the site and also on keeping in touch with prospective boutiques and current accounts. It’s true that your current customers are your best customers - it’s much easier to sell to someone that already likes you and trusts you. So I’m trying to get appointments with current accounts to get in and show them the new stuff. And I’m really really trying to focus on being optimistic and putting the hard work behind it.

Time management is always a challenge, but my partner is going to take on some new project management tasks, which will help a lot. Imagine if we actually created project schedules for the mountains we want to climb? Miracles might happen.

I hope that all of you are seeing a pick up in business too!! Anyone out there have big trade shows coming up soon? Dallas? Mom2B?

We’ve got Atlanta in 9 weeks because we’ve picked up a sales rep!!!!! Right now we’re in the contract phase and I’m working on getting the first official salesman’s kit together. I can’t believe how much stuff you always seem to need when RUNNING a business.

We signed up in about five minutes, to reserve our biz name as our username. You can do the same by following this link to twitter.com.

If you’re launching an online boutique, you’ll learn quickly that SEO is very important. It’s also an ongoing process. One of my friends at mompreneursonline.com posted a link to this great SEO cheat-sheet:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet

From personal experience, I’ve come to believe that two things are crucial in building your online boutique:

• Constant updating - whether it’s via blogging, new images, or constant little improvements to spacing, layout, content, colors, backgrounds, fonts, etc. - it’s important to always work on improving your site. We have an ongoing spreadsheet (which we actually need to revisit and update) that works to track all the changes we want to make to the site. We use google spreadsheets so that I can add to it from anywhere and web design can update it from anywhere.

• Perseverance and hard work - it takes time to build traffic, to get a good number of impressions, to build a valuable pr campaign, and on and on. It won’t happen over night, but it will happen if you I keep at it! ! ( I’m definitely writing this as more of a reminder to myself than anything!!)

Click here to view our latest (and only) twitter update!

I know that we need more help. We’re even picking up more help - especially with production and sales. But the worse part is that I keep talking myself into getting “just a few more” things ironed out perfect before I seek out the help. I have to get over this glitch or it’s going to kill me. I have to be ok with where we’re at and just ask for help. I am lining up the jobs that will be easy to train on and pass off and I’m lining up the next level of suppliers. So, see, I’m working through it - even though I feel like a deer in the headlights.

I let my stress get the better of me today and had a totally uncalled for outburst. Shame on me. Lame of me. I even thought I had prepped myself for the day - I certainly prepped my daughter when she got out of school: “Mommy has a shipping deadline today and I’m already behind, so I’m going to need your patience for just a little bit.”

I didn’t make the deadline. WHAT?? I always make it. Even if I’m flying out the door at the last minute - I make it. But not today. And it cost me a pretty penny b/c it was a rush order that we promised would be there. It will be there, it just cost us for express shipping. Oh, and side-tracked my daughter’s homework for the evening.

I’ve landed a guest blog column on a business magazine site (ha ha that won’t make me busier) and since I owe them content, my first column will be about the real effect having our own businesses have on our families. Believe me, everyone in the family sacrifices to make it happen - but everyone reaps incredible benefits too.

***Have you checked out the forums? Sometimes I’m not able to get around to answering emails as quickly as I’d like, but I’ve noticed some of you are helping each other and asking questions on the forum. This is fantastic!!!

Here’s what you need to be successful when walking into a boutique without an appointment:

• Your sales kit!!! - Your sales kit should consist of your samples, line sheets, PO forms, and terms & agreement forms (new account form).
• Brochures / Product Literature to leave behind

When I first walk in, I walk up to the register and ask the person in front of me if they are the owner or buyer (as I write this, it occurs to me that it might be better to first introduce myself): “Hello, (smile smile smile) - are you the owner or buyer by any chance?”

If the answer is yes, I introduce myself and ask if they have a minute for me to show them a few of our items - as I’m asking this, I’m already pulling out the first item. My thinking is to capture their interest.

If they seem hesitant about time, I keep talking and saying “we have really unique ______ that would be great fit in your boutique. Would it be more convenient for me to make an appointment”

By this time, they have the sample in their hands and 8 out of 10 times will say “that’s ok, I can take about 5 minutes to see what you have…”

From there, I handle it like a normal appointment, showing product and sharing the benefits of carrying our line in their store.

If the owner is not in, the sales rep will usually share the owner’s name and the day and time the owner will be in the store. I’ll make a note and try to return at that time for another cold call.

One thing that helped my confidence walking into the boutique was getting a sample bag that I love. Sounds silly, but it’s true.

Let me know if you have any questions.