cmydesigns, on 06 November 2009 - 05:58 AM, said:
It's an interesting idea, but I cringe at the thought of having a $220-500 loss for every show, no matter how much is coming in. That on top of a hefty show fee (those trade shows are expensive)...there's no way to justify it, IMO.
It's strange, but at that level (and for the much large craft shows), it really makes sense. The Union Shows can rack up the costs... I love Unions, but anyone who has done a Trade Show in a Union town understands. A trade show takes a lot of gear, and every box a union worker handles costs you $15-50 except the Ikea shipment is done in a pallet, so there is a one-time charge. Traditional, professional booth backgrounds come in two-six cases. There are a lot more details, but my expenses for a major show run $4,600--$8,000. It really does save me money to have these displays, which is good because my show margins can be thin. Not to mention that a good professional booth starts at about $4,000 with design and graphics and you can't resell that to anybody, so that's $400 per show when you do 10 a year.
My margins are skewed: I may make only $50,000 in sales at a show (now this is a wholesale show, so this would be only 25 orders for an average of $2,000 each-- which is really 3 orders for $5000-10000 and more smaller orders.) I only make 20% commission on the sales I make. So writing up $50,000 in orders means I make $10,000. That means I barely made it worth my time to be there and that's if all the checks clear. But these are wholesale orders. The relationship with the store continues after the show. Not everyone continues to buy from me directly (and some of the big buyers continue to buy but directly from the artisan). But I follow up with every store that made a purchase, and I have secondary sales... and I do try and follow up with the looky-loos as well, but I have only about a 10% closing ratio with those. (I don't rent the scanner from the show. I collect the business cards--and I write notes on the back of those so I know what they liked-- but the best sales tool to buy from the show is the full list of attendees afterwards). But back to my margins... If I write up $75,000 or more at a show, that's much better. But even better to me is turning 10 of the 25 new stores into high volume stores, so they buy $1,000 or more a month. That's $120,000 a year in sales (which is $22,500 in commission) and *that* makes a show worthwhile.
Here's three other things I look at:
---Every show, I have fresh crisp new booths. We look good. And in sales, that's important.
---I have a value to my time. And after a show, when I've had two-five days in pantyhose, and noise and order-taking and being "on", I want to go home... that time becomes more valuable to me. Although, time is valuable, period. If you have a $200 dollar display that you spend 2 hours more with 10 times a year, that's 20 hours a year that you don't get back. Your time has value.
-I love that at the end of a show, I send the displays home with some lucky human, I pack up my three cases (I love HPRC 2800w cases) strap them together and with my personal suitcase in hand, get into a taxi and get to the airport that night. I get home. I don't have another night of a $150 hotel. I don't have outside meals to pay for. I have one less night of airport parking on the other side... And more importantly, that night I have my bathtub and my bed waiting for me. It may be midnight when I get home, but I'm home, and I'm home with $300 less in expenses than if I had to stay an extra day... and I get a jump on getting those orders processed (there are some buyers who will write 25 orders at show, but somohow after 20, they decide they didn't really have that much to spend... so it's good to get your invoices to them immediately) and I get more time to contact everyone else.
Alison
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While I'd like your input, I'd also love to see a thread where everyone can brainstorm and discuss their table setup for the season.
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