Having an Expo Thrown at You!
Published On: 11-22-2011 09:49am
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Category: Adventures...
My husband first approached me with this event to help him with his company, Integrity Home Theater. He had needed some help running his booth at the Expo Center. He offered me a small square on his table for my Jewelry design company. I thought that was well worth the time donated to help considering the booth price was almost $1000, so I began putting together some special designs and updating my picture portfolio for downloading into a digital picture frame. This, of course was a little more time consuming than I had figured and took me about a week to accomplish with little time to spare. Home duties went by the wayside and the kids complained alot about not having anything to do. But we got through it. I had no extra funds to spend on the event and paychecks hadn't come in yet, so we really couldn't afford a babysitter for the kids. Finally, I came up with getting the three of them to a friends house overnight. With only one running vehicle, we had to work out help with getting both of us over to the Expo Center. He got a ride so I could drop the kids off at their friends house and drive over to join him. I was so very tired, but pulled all the kid's stuff together, my stuff, myself and dinner and we loaded the car.
Keys, in our house, usually go on a special hook in the kitchen, but the car keys were missing. I knew where they were, and called Michael to confirm my suspicion. Sure enough, he had stuck them in his pocket and took them with him by accident to the Expo Center. The kids were so upset, there was no way to get them to their friends house. Michael, of course, felt like a big heel. He sent the keys to our house with a friend who was out helping to set up. Thirty five minutes later, he shows up, we all crawl into the car and drive into town to drop the kids off.
I finally make it to the Expo center just after they closed the gate and all the people had left. Vendors have just a few minutes to finish up and leave before they lock up the warehouse. Michael gave me a big hug and introduced me to the guy running the entire show, Scott. When Scott found out what I do, he offered me my own booth, in which the jewelry merchant canceled but paid in full for the booth. WOW! You just can't turn that down! $800 booth at one of the biggest Home and Landscaping shows in the area. I had exactly 12 hours to pull everything together for my booth! YIKES! I was suddenly very overwhelmed!
My husband and I ran to Walmart to brainstorm on how to make table clothes and a banner on $10. Finally, I came up with fabric paint in two contrasting colors and materials I had at home.
I sewed pieces of bedsheets together and cut one out for a banner. Note: Make sure you use something under the banner to absorb the bleed through from the fabric paint and remove it before it dries to the banner. Mistake learned!
Using the ceiling fan, I was able to dry the banner in 2 hours and we were off. Sleep deprived, all dressed up, and high on 5 hour energy drinks, I got to work putting up my booth. My heels did not serve me when moving items from the car to the booth. Just as soon as I was set up, I sold 1/3 of my jewelry. I had no credit card processing options but I had my little lock box and a big smile.
I set up a two part drawing for a $100 gift cerficate toward My Father's Gifts store or Custom design, and a Sterling 925 and Swarovski crystal heart bracelet. Most folks didn't want to risk giving any personal information away for fear of email spam, and that was OK. But I tried hard to reassure them there would be no third parties involved.
All in all, I learned so much, made some new friends and made my brand known in a big community. Would I do it again? Blood, sweat and tears? Absolutely!
