OK show peeps

[Scented]

How'd your weekend shows go?

Fabulous weather for us! Great two days for us. We had a story done on the company about two weeks ago and that really helped. Definitely want to thank that reporter

I really felt that the cool weather and lower gas prices ($2.39 was what we saw) were key to the weekend too.

Anything you guys noticed?

[RobinInOR]

Merged my thread with yours, we asked at the same time lol..

It was 100F every single day, very slow fair. No one shops when it's that hot. Flat sales all three days.

Funny though. For the lack of sales, I was still pleased. I still have $500 more than I started with, so I can buy some special holiday packaging. Almost all of my customers were return customers, many of whom came looking for me. That was gratifying. I got to spend 3 days with my mom, who flew up to help me. Customers asked for a couple of new products, some that are very easy for me to add. Some of those I was thinking of anyway, so that was good. And I got a wholesale account at the new yoga place in town. So it was a different kind of successful fair I guess.

Best sellers - honeysuckle, and sold out of my new face serum. This was the first time I had brought it. It was hard to give out samples - I was next to Mary Kay and they were snagging people for drawings, so customers were wary of being talked to.

How did you all do? Hope you were pleased with your results.

[mbrown]

Well Robin

Funny you should ask this question.

We did a show this holiday weekend and it was the worst. I blame myself for this because I did not do my research.

We were in a little country town and there were two different shows going on. One was very big with lots of advertising and LOTS OF PEOPLE. Guess which one we ended up at. We were at show right next to it and it was sicking. No traffic.

I pd $150 for the show and I made about $100 after being there Saturday and Sunday. It was so bad me and my DH decided not to go back on Monday. We were not alone .......there were peope packing Saturday evening saying that the crowd was terrible. We wanted to give it some more time so we went back Sunday and ....still no better.

I think what bothers me the most is that I was going to apply for the really busy show but I did not have any info on either show so I just picked one. There was a $25 difference in the cost for the two show so I picked the lesser expensive of the two and BOY DID I PAY FOR THIS MISTAKE. I know now not to ever, ever do that again.

Well, I am off again this weekend to another show and I am hoping this show will do a lot better. I have a friend that makes candles and she had been doing this show for 4 years now and she says it has been very good for her. So, I 'm not so worried about the crowd......I just want to make sure my booth looks goood and I have the right products and enough. The good thing about it is that it is about 2hrs away from my home and if I start to run out of anything I will have my dh bring it to my when he comes on saturday.

These shows are hard work. I didn't think they would be easy but GEEEEEEZ.

[KJohnson]

I am in the process of trying to resize pics so I can post them of my 3 day show.

But I had a really great weekend. The weather was the best! And my sales were great. I am very pleased.

Now I have the bug..and I have to find me a show for every weekend!

I would say my best sellers were my wickless candles first...then my 16oz wide mouth jars...and the my 8oz jj

I use both CB 4627wax and soy...I do not mix them. But I gotta tellyou my CB candles blew away my soy candles.. no one was even asking "Are these SOY"

I am going to do a spread sheet or something and see what the best selling scents were and jars.

I think over all my Harvest candle scent sold the best..along with Amish Harvest and Red clove.

Over all I am pleased and cant wait for the next show!

[Jane42]

I would say my best sellers were my wickless candles first...then my 16oz wide mouth jars...and the my 8oz jj

How do you "display" your wickless candles. We have the warmer crocks, but alot of people have no clue what these are?

[Scented]

Hey KJ no one was in the soy funk my way either. It was a relief lol, but since we've put out a facts about wax sheet, we just don't go through the crap we did last year.

Had several looking for wickless too. I would like to say we just didn't have a popular scent. We moved a little bit of everything and all the bears found homes. It's going to be a bear of a week getting ready for Sunday's shows

Hey Robin, sounds like you still had good results. Dang those MK people.

[kdmorgan]

Did anyone take pictures? I've been waiting all weekend to see everyone's displays.

[RobinInOR]

I've got some crummy ones here http://watersgulch.com/catalog/booth0906.php - the sun and the angle make the booth look really messy.

You can see all my booths for the last 3 years at http://watersgulch.com/catalog/news.php

I've got some new booth designs percolating in my head - Some extra shelving, doing away with the heavy green cloth and the bamboo walls, more wood.... I'm *so* close lol... Hard to design everything to fit inside a Cherokee

[Scented]

Did anyone take pictures? I've been waiting all weekend to see everyone's displays.

Uh ... no. Sorry! Maybe Sunday I will.

[kdmorgan]

Thanks for the fix Robin. I needed it.

Scented...Can't wait to see yours

[KJohnson]

You can see part of my set up in this section..I posted a few pictures but I had a hard time resizing them for some reason. you can see my wickless on one of my tables...I would like to make a display for them where they sit at a slight angle so that I can stock more of them.

Alot of people had never seen wickless candles...and I made sure to tell people about them.

My Olive oil soap really sold good too. the last day of the show my husband had the idea to cut a bunch of my

"mis-shaped soaps" and put on a business card and tie raffia around them and put them in a basket..we filled that basket 2 times that day...People just love free samples....so as they walked by they would pick up a sample and smell it them walk in and want to see and smell more...so I sold lots of soap!

[Fire and Ice]

Very small four hour show this weekend and did well for the first time at this show. It was a car show at a local Mcdonalds. Drew the car people in.

Other crafters didn't fair as well as I did but many knew who I was so they bought candles and clamshells. I was pleased to have made what I made, considering there were less than thirty women there and my first four sales were to men! The weather was okay but it was very cold and thunderstorms had just ceased when I pulled in to unload!

Fire

[Rockin]

Scented is correct in that we had very good week end. What she doesn't know....oops the secret is out now...is the positive attitude we had.

I got up at 5 AM for the first show and was there setting up by 6. It really helped that the organizers put us right next to the gate where EVERYBODY had to walk past us first to get to any other booth. It also helped that they allowed me to drive my vehicle up to the gate and unload. It is amazing how the organizers treat those that arrive very early. I noticed it last year and again so far this year. Makes for a great attitude. Early bird gets the worm so to speak. Anyway was doing OK and then when scented show up the sales really took off. When the ladies ask if we make these candles ourselves it really helps when I can say yes we do and there is the creative one that makes em...meaning aka scented.

2nd show I got up at 3:45 AM and left my house at 4:30 and was at the show site at 6:15. This time I was late getting there first...was the 3rd booth.... ....anyway I checked in and the 2 guys and 1 gal asked how I was doing and I said this "Today is gonna be a great day" they ALL laughed and asked what planet I was from...I said "IF my eyes open and I can get out of bed in the morning it is gonna be a great day". Talk about the service.... quick and I was on my way to the booth spot.

Since I was "first on our little side street" I got to watch or hear all the other vendors set up. Talk about negativity. You would have thought the world was coming to a end. Home Interiors showed up and was on one side of us. Then another candle maker showed up and complained about the booth space. They thought that there was gonna be open space between booths. Later on she came over and visited. I was nice but I sure wasn't gonna give out any trade secrets. You learn those from the school of hard knocks. LOL

The weather was nice and so were the "customers". Once again I had quite a few folks come in and tell me that they could smell "our" candles from down the street. No time did I hear them say that to the other 2 vendors on either side of us except towards the end when 1 elderly lady said that to the late showing up vendor and the vendor "HAD THE GALL TO SAY THANK-YOU". The elderly lady turned and saw us since she was probably 2 feet from our candles and suddenly realized that she had smelled "our candles" and not the competitor. We locked eyes and she knew that I wasn't gonna even respond to her. Sadly she walked away.

The show ended and as we were breaking down for the day... the late showing vendor complained that they only did about 3 times their booth fee. I knew how they felt but I smiled inside anyway as we did over 8 times our booth fee. I am sure there will be days when it may be slow but I don't care...for it was a "great day". I can't wait for next weekend to see if my eyes open and I can get out of bed.

Rockin

[KJohnson]

That is great Rockin!

I hear you location has alot to do with everything! I was in a great location too. people had to walk right past me when they walked in the door....I liked my location so much I already registered and put a deposit down so I can get my exact same booth for next year.

Kris