Business

Vendor Events: Tips to Set Up a Booth that Rocks

August 14, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

Have you ever been to vendor events and noticed that a lot of vendors simply lay their products on a table and sit behind it? They may have great products, but the booth set up just doesn’t catch your attention and welcome you in. Now, have you seen a both that made you say, “Wow!” That’s probably one booth you want to visit again.

One. Consider your product.

What is your product and main focus? Small items that need to sit on tables? Clothes that need to hang on racks? Food that must be individually wrapped and/or kept warm? Craft demos that require space to work? This will dictate what fixtures you need and how to set them up.

Two. Choose your fixtures.

If you need tables, find out if the venue supplies them, or if you need to and then make sure you have enough. For hanging clothes, you can buy or make racks to hold your clothes, but make sure you have some mannequins to style some outfits and grab the attention of the potential customers walking by your booth. For small items or food, you’ll need tables of course, but baskets and pretty boxes to hold items will keep your display from being boring. If you will be giving demos or will have customers doing “make and takes,” make sure you have enough chairs, and that those chairs are not horribly uncomfortable.

Three. Remember that details matter.

Vendor events are like a collection of mini boutiques. This is the feeling you want to give potential customers when they’re walking by, so pay attention to the details.

Put some thought into your decorations and color scheme. Don’t just throw any old tablecloths on your tables. Make sure they’re clean (of course), and that they coordinate with the booth decor and/or your branding. Tablecloths should also be long enough to cover anything you have stashed under the tables as well as ugly legs (table legs, not people legs). Branding on your tablecloths is also a good idea.

Place your items on your tables in groupings and at different heights. You can place wooden blocks or packing boxes under your table cloth as risers to set your items on. Or you can use scarves, quilts, burlap or some other fabric pieces to lay over the risers. Just ensure everything is coordinated and presents a unified picture.

Style your mannequins with a complete outfit by including jewelry and other accessories if possible. Use scarves or fabric pieces to drape over the ends of racks, and find ways to hang items separately from the racks in order to catch the customer’s eye.

Wrap your food items in pretty coordinating packaging, such as cute branded bags or boxes. Make sure any samples are distributed in a way that keeps fingers off of the remainder of the product, but also make sure those containers are pretty and pleasing to the eye.

Four. Don’t forget your signage.

Use cute wooden chalk signs to announce sales, designate sizes, or identify flavors or colors, or print your signs on card stock in a pretty font and laminate them. Make sure that you’re consistent in the presentation by using all the same style, colors and fonts.

Five. Where’s the cash register?

Many people at vendor events put their cash register, or check out area if you don’t have a register, at the back of the booth. This is perfectly fine, but then you’re stuck at the back if you have several people. If you’re working the booth alone, who is watching the front and thus ensuring any questions can be quickly answered? You can also place your register at the front to one side of the booth. This allows you to keep an eye on the booth, and answer questions even when you are checking out customers.

Six. Follow the rules.

Many vendor events have specific rules regarding sales, signage, how the booth must be set up or even how to handle theft. Be sure that you know the rules and follow them to the letter. You certainly want to be invited back in the future, and being a good vendor who follows the rules is a good way to ensure you will be.

Seven. Vendor events are a lot of work, but can be lots of fun too.

There is a ton of work that goes into preparing for, setting up, and working vendor events. However, it can be a fun and profitable experience.

Contact me or leave a comment if you have any other tips for vendor events you’d like to share.

Check out my Pinterest boards for lots of ideas.

Give Great Swag to Promote Your Brand

August 14, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

Everyone loves swag, or those promotional items you receive at an event or from a business. Usually the item is printed with the company’s name and logo, or the name of the event and date. The purpose of swag for a business is to get your attention and be a positive reminder of that company. Next time you need the type of product or service offered by that company, the hope is that you will remember them and contact them first.

So what is good swag?

Good swag is something that the recipient keeps and uses. Not so good swag is something that the recipient throws away or leaves behind. That might get your brand in their hands, but why bother if it’s not going to stay there? Your promotional items say a lot about you. Buy cheap plastic crap (official promotional product industry term) and you won’t impress your customer. Don’t get me wrong, they won’t think badly about you because everyone loves free stuff. But they won’t be wowed by your gift either. And swag with the wow factor doesn’t have to be expensive.

What’s in a pen?

Let’s take pens for example. Everybody uses pens. Many people steal pens. If you’re promoting your business using pens, choose a really cool pen that your customer will want to steal, and then let them. Encourage them to. Choose a pen that writes well, is comfortable to hold and has an eye-catching design in a color that matches your branding, or a color that catches their attention. And put your logo and contact info or website on it.

Way back when I became a consultant for my first direct sales company, I was taught to buy red pens for customers to use when filling out their order forms at home parties. The reasoning was that they would be less likely to steal the pens if they wrote in red ink, and that made sense back then. Replacing the pens is an expense. However, now I know that’s crazy talk! Choose good pens with your info on them. Allow and encourage your customers to take them. Keep those pens in their hands and they’ll be reminded of you every time they use them. And when they are ready to buy again, they’ll think of you first.

So many products, so little time.

The promotional products industry is huge. HUGE. There are a lot of products. And when I say a lot, I do mean a lot. If you want a number, we’ll say it’s over 800,000 specific promotional products. But I think that’s low. Really, anything can be a promotional product if you put your logo on it and give it to someone. It can be overwhelming to find just the right product to fit your requirement just right. But that perfect product is out there. Do you need a hot pink travel mug with glitter? It not only exists, but there are choices. The trick is to find the right one and keep it within your budget, but that can be done with the help of a promotional products professional.

Contact me for some great swag ideas for your business. I can help you wow your customer within your budget.

Check out my latest pins here.

Work from Home Tips to Help You Get Stuff Done

August 13, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

When you own your own business, or otherwise work from home, it is sometimes difficult to stay on task. There’s always something in the house to do, someone to feed or a television to watch. I am certainly good at procrastination and distraction. You can just look at my blog title (Flighty and Creative) and know that. But I have some tricks that help me concentrate and focus on my list of tasks.

Work from home tips to improve focus

We have owned a business for almost ten years, but were working at other jobs until about six years ago. Now we run our businesses (there are now three) from home as well as attend graduate school full time, and take care of our menagerie of crazy animals.

Get ready for work.

Get up in the morning and get ready like you’re going to work. This is actually one I don’t always follow, but I get a lot more done when I do. You don’t have to dress up, but at least look presentable. It helps put you in the right mindset for work. Plus, if you do have to go somewhere unexpectedly, you’re ready and don’t have to get ready to go.

Set small goals for each day.

Make a list of things you need to accomplish the next day, and then check them off as you complete them. When there are a million things to do, it’s easier to remember the most important or urgent ones you must do first. It also breaks up the overwhelmingly large list into small bite-sized pieces.

Minimize distractions.

I’ve found that if I leave the television off in the morning, it doesn’t distract me at all. But if I turn it on in the morning, forget the day. Something will distract me and I’ll sit down for just a few minutes (which never only lasts a few minutes). But the television is not the only distraction.

I don’t have kids, so I can’t tell you how to minimize that particular distraction. However, I do have a husband who likes to pop in and say, “Hey do you want to go to (insert fun work-avoiding place here) with me right quick?” Again, right quick is never right quick. It’s a day wasted. I also have three dogs and two cats who seem to want to go out and come back in or be fed right when I am on a roll or knee deep in a project. I try to let them out or feed them and get them settled before I start a task.

Music helps me concentrate.

This may not work for everyone, but if I put my headphones in and listen to music, I tend to zone out from the rest of the world and am completely focused on what I’m working on. For some reason it doesn’t work to turn on the stereo. It only works with headphones. I guess I’m weird like that.

Schedule time for work and for fun.

Set a time that you will go to work, and one that work will end. Schedule time to do things with your family. When you work from home it’s tempting to just keep working past normal working hours, especially when you own your own business. There’s always so much to do, and you may be the only one who will do it. But you can’t do it all without taking some time for yourself and scheduling some time for your family. You won’t be good to you, to the family or to the business.

Contact me with your favorite work from home tips or just leave them in the comments.

Check out my Pinterest boards for lots of great pins!

Time Management Tips for Fitting Graduate School into Your Schedule

August 13, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

Are you considering going back to graduate school? Do you have an already busy schedule? Go for it. You CAN do it, especially with a few time management tips and tricks.

Are we crazy? Probably. But these time management tips have helped.

After we left the life of an active duty Army family, we moved our house, pets, and business all the way across Texas (about eleven hours away) and started our new adventure. In the middle of growing our new farm, remodeling our house and establishing our business in this new place, we both went back to school full time. In the last three years, George and I have both completed our Bachelors Degrees, and MBAs. We are in our last class for an MS in Business Analytics for each of us. I’m also finishing up an MS in Management and an MS in Finance. Four masters degrees is a bit of overkill, I must admit, but there’s so much I want to learn. None of these can hurt us in our business.

So how did we do it? Hell if I know. (Just kidding). Seriously, there are a few common sense tips that can help.

Tip #1: Write everything down.

At the beginning of each semester, I go through all my classes and build a spreadsheet with every assignment, test and due date for every class. Then I sort them all by date and make it easy to read. Once each item is done, I highlight it in green. I love having lots of green on my spreadsheet. And actually since both my husband and I are full time students, I add his classes to the spreadsheet as well. This way we can both check it and remind each other that a due date is looming. And we can check it before scheduling work or life activities that will conflict.

Tip #2: Buy your books on Kindle whenever possible.

This might not seem like it fits in a list of time management tips, but stick with me and I’ll explain. When you need to research topics, or look up something quickly, the e-book is much faster. Also, online classes frequently have open book tests. It’s much faster to go directly to the information that you need in an e-book format and can help you finish your tests within the time limit. And a bonus is that you don’t have to carry heavy books. The Kindle version is usually cheaper to buy or rent. And if you rent, you don’t have to return the e-book. It is automatically deleted off of your device when your time is finished. That’s another time saver.

Tip #3: Wall calendars are awesome.

In addition to the spreadsheet, a large wall calendar is helpful to put in important due dates, schedule study time, and integrate your work and life events onto the schedule. Color coding helps as well. We have a great chalkboard calendar that has been great (and it’s pretty too). Click here for a link to one on Amazon that is similar to the one we have, only better because it is magnetic. I forget where we bought ours, but it’s not magnetic.

Tip #4: Don’t binge watch TV shows during the semester – in other words, prioritize.

This seems like common sense, but I’m an expert procrastinator. I know from experience that binge watching every season of VEEP will put you far behind in your homework. Homework first. Game of Thrones will still be there between semesters. I promise.

Tip #5: Read assignment requirements thoroughly and carefully as soon as you get them.

I have dropped a couple of classes whose assignment writing requirements were not something I could (or was willing to) do within the short time allotted. Most were short summer classes with many multiple-page written research assignments and were at a time when I had a very busy non-school schedule. Make sure you can meet the requirements, or don’t take the class. It is better to change to a different class than receive a low grade. When the class is a requirement for your degree, be sure to plan for the amount of time you need to complete it.

And here’s a bonus tip that is not related to time management. Find a friend who is good at editing to check over your papers. There will be a lot of writing in graduate school, and another set of eyes can help ensure your papers are the best they can be.

I hope these time management tips are helpful. Contact me or post in the comments if you have more great time management tips for going back to school.

Become a Blogger and Learn WordPress

August 13, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

First of all, let me just tell you right up front that I am no expert how to become a blogger. However, they tell me that if you have a blog, and you write posts, you’re a blogger. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m just muddling my way through this process and learning as I go. The reality is that I’m learning it as I screw stuff up and have to learn to fix it. Let’s call me a wannabe blogger – for now anyway.

Become a blogger with this secret weapon.

I do however, know a secret weapon in the process, and it’s the only reason that I know anything about it at all. It’s called Blogging Boot Camp and it has been invaluable to me, and I’m sure to a lot of other people learning this craziness as we go. Don’t worry, I will give directions at the end of this post so you can find this sanity-saving tool that will teach you the basics. But I have a few things to say about it first. Read if you want, or skip to the bottom. I’ll be okay either way.

When this session of Blogging Boot Camp (BBC for laziness) was announced, I was determined that I was going to sign up and attend. But yikes that price tag seemed steep, not only to me but also to the other person who would definitely notice that dip in the bank balance. Oh, but neither of us realized the true value of what we were purchasing. There’s a saying that you get what you pay for. Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don’t. And then sometimes you get much, much more than you pay for. This is one of those times.

Holy crap, I didn’t know anything about SEO or slugs or alt text or graphic sizes. Links can be pretty?? WordPress would have given me fits if I didn’t have someone holding my hand and telling me exactly where to put these crazy puzzle pieces, and how to make them fit into place. Well, to be honest, it still kind of did give me fits, and will likely continue to do so. But now I have a foundation to build on. And confidence that I didn’t have before. It’s not quite so intimidating anymore.

So what the heck is Blogging Boot Camp (otherwise nicknamed Bootleg Boxcar by my husband)?

BBC (Blogging Boot Camp, remember?) is an awesome class that can be found over at the Sassy Suite. BBC is only offered every few months, but there are other great social media classes available all the time. When you sign up for BBC, the awesome camp staff set up your blog foundation for you, but then they spend the next couple of months teaching you how to do all the other set up tasks. They don’t just build it and turn it over to you and say, “See you later.” I’m certainly better at learning as I’m doing, especially if I have detailed instructions. I can’t recommend this course enough if you want to learn how to become a blogger.

Throughout this process, there have been many things pulling me away from the blog such as graduate school, an ongoing house remodel, a family emergency, and our day-to-day business tasks. I must not forget the animals who like to be fed on a daily basis. Spoiled, I tell you. But not only have the BBC camp counselors been encouraging and helpful, all the other participants turn out to be your cheerleaders and your friends. You become a blogger at the same time they do.

Contact me if you have a question about Blogging Boot Camp.

This post contains an affiliate link. I honestly loved these classes (not just BBC) so much that I signed myself up to be an affiliate!

Promotional Product “Company Stores” for Direct Sellers

August 11, 2017 By Jennifer Evanko

What is a Company Store?

A company store is a site you set up with a promotional product company and choose logo items for your team or your customers to order and have shipped directly to them. You choose the products and imprint, and the vendor manages the site. You do not need to buy a collection of merchandise, store it and then ship it to your team or your customers. There is little to no investment involved in setting up a company store.

A Promotional Product Company Store Example

Let’s say you’re a consultant for a direct sales company, and you have built a team of consultants under you. You want to encourage team unity and excitement to keep them motivated. T-shirts are a great place to start to build your team brand, but you can also add jackets, caps, bags, writing instruments, lapel pins, lanyards, and an almost infinite number of other promotional products. Set up a company store, and select the t-shirts or other items you want to make available to your team. You can choose one style and color, or you can have several choices for them.

Everyone has different tastes and preferences, and needs different sizes or styles for their own best fit. You certainly don’t want to have to predict what each team member will choose and order a few of each size/style/color combination, then wait for them to send you payment before sending them the shirt. That would be a huge investment.

The promotional product company does not print the items until your team member or customer orders it, therefore there is no initial investment in quantities of products you aren’t sure you will need. You send the team member or customer the link, and they place their order. The company prints the item and sends it directly to them. You can change promotional products to keep the selection fresh, and add a variety of products that present a unified theme.

Team Incentives

You can use your company store to send incentives or gifts directly to your team members. Did someone promote or have exceptionally high sales one month? Your store can include specially selected promotional products designated for a specified occasion. You can order the product for your team member, or give them a code to order the item themselves. This will save you time and money, especially if you have a large team. No more going to the store or shopping online to find the right gift at an affordable price. And best of all, these items will be personalized with your team branding.

Customer Perks

Company stores are a great tool for sending your customers appreciation items or loyalty perks. For example, you may have a customer who orders from you on a regular basis, and you want to send them a small gift just to say thank you. Some great examples of thank you items include pens or reusable shopping bags. You may have specified products that you order and send directly to them, with a note to say, “Thank you for your business. We appreciate you!” Doesn’t everyone love a surprise gift they weren’t expecting? And with your contact information printed right on the item as a constant reminder of you and your business, your customers will think of you first.

Contact me to discuss the possibilities. We can design a company store program that will save you time and money.

Check out my Pinterest boards here.