Lessons I learned from my first trade show

Does your market niche gather at a trade show?   

My niche market definitely did and going there was a great move for my business.  However, here are some critical lessons I learned from my first experience that will make yours go smoothly. 

Trade shows are a VERY effective way to reach connectors in certain markets.    Still, trade shows are exhausting ways to make money.

Here are 5 tips for making your money go the furthest so that investment  boosts your business up! 

1) You need a system to keep track of and follow-up with all the contacts that you'll get. 

 Believe me, even if you don't ask for them (and you should) you'll still get tons of cards.

You need a system, set up AND communicated to everyone working the booth beforehand to remember key points about each person so you can make the most of these contacts later.

• Was this person a potential distributor? 
• An end user who loved the product and gave you a testimonial? 

You need to keep these straight.

 2) There are peaks and valleys in foot traffic - treat the show as a marathon and NOT a sprint. 

The hours of these trade shows vary, but they are all exhausting.

Tip: Take plenty of water and quick snacks you can eat between potential contacts so you stay energized.

Whatever you do, wear very comfortable shoes that won't give you blisters on day one.  You don't want to be miserable for the remaining 2-4 days of the conference!

 3) Booth location matters... a lot. 

You may have paid full price for your booth, but if they put you in a corner out of the main walkway, you will NOT sell as much or meet as many people.  Usually a map is provided so ask who is close by your desired spot before you sign on the dotted line.

We were back-to-back with a speaker company once.  We had to yell over their music all weekend.  I will not be in that position again if I can help it, so I always check who our neighbors will be and ask to be moved if there is someone objectionable.

Tip: Pick a booth location that people can see when they enter the room.  Ideally, your booth will be in the direction people will be walking when they enter the room.

Make sure you are marketing ideally for the space you have. If you need banner stands so they can SEE your fabulous banners and signs from where they're coming from, buy them and make sure you have ones that turn/raise up if your customers won't be looking at your booth straight on. 

4) If you are selling items at your booth, us a tablet and/or smart phone and data plan to make transactions cheaper and easier. 

I have found that using an application like SquareUp, Intuit's Go Payment, or Paypal's PayUp where you can scan customer's credit cards and send automatic emailed receipts to be so much less expensive than traditional methods of taking cards. (Believe me, people don't usually want to pay cash, so be ready)

** Caution: most of these applications will not give you access to these customer's email addresses in the future.  If you intend to build your email list, you will have to add another process, like a email sign up form on the table** 

Save $: Using an IPad's data plan is often much cheaper than paying for a dedicated power and phone line to be put in your booth.

Make sure to have a couple of these devices in your booth so multiple transactions can be processed at once.  You want a small line, but not a HUGE line of people just waiting to use their cards.

5)  Small crowds draw more people because of the element of social proof.  

Use small crowds to your advantage!  If you can work an area into your booth that will cause people to crowd/hang around just a few moments instead of staying on the other side of the table and walking on past, other attendees will notice and will come by just to see what everyone else is looking at.

The result is that getting the first person into your empty booth is the hardest so try not to let your booth seem empty.

Trade shows are an essential part of launching a successful business in many industries.   For my first business, Slip-On Dancers^TM, it was a proving ground that launched  into licensing deals, distributorships, and testimonials let alone giving me the cash to really get the business rolling. 

Goodness knows these aren't all the tips you need to guarantee success at your first trade show, but hopefully these will help you avoid the major pitfalls that I found myself in when I started.

Comments? Questions?  Talk to me.

Welcome to TheTimeItTakes.Me!

When was the last time that you looked (really looked) at how you used your time, either in your job or maybe just around the house? 

For me , I try to take a hard look at this very unfun subject pretty often.  

I'm not sure about you, but I find it incredibly easy to attach deadlines that really are just there because I falsely put value on work for works sake.  The urgency is sometimes totally legitimate.  For example, yesterday, if my assistant is out, someone needs to answer customer emails. 

The important thing is that I realize answering customer emails is not where I really add value.  

I add much more value to my company (and I have a lot fewer urgent tasks) when I ask other people to help.

When I started my first business, I actually wasn't too savy about how to do successfully get tasks off my plate. What I did was take a very scientific and analytical approach to solving that problem.   

The result is that I developed a system for looking at small business processes that allows me to identify steps that can be systematized and automated to free up your time as the owner. 

In this blog, I talk a lot about systems and how to systematize and simplify processes, but I also try to bring you information that I personally have found helpful that will help you run your life as smoothly as possible.  

Please reach out and connect with me if you want help, or to be featured as a case study. 

Cheers to your happiness!

Katie

Mastermind groups - it's all about accountability and new ideas

Entrepreneurs should belong to a mastermind group

I have been a full-time entrepreneur almost 2 years at this point, and I love what I do.  A large part of my love for this job js that I can set my own schedule, make my own decisions, and strategize at my leisure about my company selling Slip-On Dancers.

While that's nice and all....

I realize the power of having accountability in my business life.   

I'm NOT talking about my own self-imposed accountability to my customers, I'm talking about how I go about holding myself accountable to achieve business objectives I have set forth for company.  Sometimes, it is really easy to just get yourself lost in the weeds of your company, take back tasks you've delegated already, or just let the company coast for a while, taking care of things as they come up instead of trying to be ahead of the curve.

What I needed was a buddy to whom I was accountable for taking business actions

For me this came in the form of group business coaching, through People Biz courtesy of Count Me In and American Express Open.   Everyone assigned to our group declared what their goals were and then, over the next months, we slowly checked off the boxes, doing the hard work to move our respective businesses forward.  The disappointment factor weighs heavily here in that, if you told a friend you WOULD have something done, aren't you more likely to actually make the time to get it done?  Procrastination all of a sudden has a backstop. 

It's nice to have a network, but your business will probably perform better if you have a network to whom you are accountable

There are lots of mastermind groups out there that cost lots of money, but I believe you can get most of the benefits just by reaching out to a few other entrepreneurs who you trust and start one yourself.  

Get help when you need it

In addition to the accountability benefits, you also can get other people's input on problems you're having in your own business.  I like this quote from Henry Ford taken when he realized he could not accurately answer the attorney's questions because of his lack of formal education. 

“If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

In many ways, I feel like my mastermind experience has given me a similar feeling that, should I need to know something I don't, I CAN get the answer pretty quickly by relying on my network and largely my mastermind group.


In short, entrepreneurs are headstrong, like to do their own thing, and feel like they can take on the world, BUT they'll do better if they leverage the psychological power of being accountable to friends for goals they want to achieve.


Do you belong to a mastermind group? What have you gotten out of it?  Leave a note in the comments.