Spring Into Style (Appel and Frank Show)
On Saturday, I participated in my first shopping event, Appel and Frank's "Spring Into Style." I had attended these shows in the past as a shopper, and it was a great learning experience to be at the show as a vendor. Getting ready for the show started weeks before, but nevertheless, I found myself working furiously on Friday to get ready. My list of things to do included getting all product together, filling out and attaching hangtags, making signage, and putting together my list of supplies. Fortunately, Tim came home early to help me. Without his help, I never would have gotten ready in time (and gotten any sleep). As it was, we got to bed late, but I felt ready to go on Saturday morning! It reminded me of every show prep that I've ever done in the past.
(One of my jobs in the past was selling and training people to use computer software. Part of my responsibilities included going to several trade shows a year, and all involved a mad dash to get ready hours before we had to go, regardless of how well prepared we were.)
I was very lucky in that I had a friend who had agreed to help me. Jen arrived on schedule at 9am, and once we had the call loaded, it was into the city to get set up. Everything went smoothly, and we spent the next couple of hours getting the booth set up and getting ourselves familiarized with procedures for taking credit cards and checks (I am set up to take Visa and MC now). The nice people at Appel and Frank had provided bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, which was great.
After that, it was just manning the booth, answering questions, and making sales! It was very exciting to see people respond to the bags and to get feedback about what they liked. I recieved many positive comments about the designs. It was very fun and rewarding to actually sell my bags to people. Several friends turned out to support me at the show, which was really great as well.
This was the first time that I'd attended a show during the day (the previous Appel and Frank shows that I'd been to had been in the evening), and the traffic for the show was lighter than I'd experienced at previous shows. Still, there were still quite a few people there, and I was really excited to see my friend Saralynn at the show. She was a sponsor, and was there selling her beautiful and delicious cupcakes. The name of her company is That Takes the Cake. I think I was her first customer that day... yum!I also met some really nice people towards the end of the day that I'm looking forward to getting to know better. Joy, of Joy O jewelry designs was not selling at this event, but will be at the next Appel and Frank Show. Kelly introduced herself, and I'm looking forward to checking out her store, Relish at Home.
All in all, I would say that it was a success, and I'm looking forward to the next one (whatever that may be)!
posted by Natalie at 8:47 AM
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