Should I Open Craft Fair Participation to My Team in Orlando?

[Bill Faber]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question. Please tell me what you think. I did research and found a craft fair. Found out that they had space and rate was reasonable( 125) It is one day. Traffic is 50,000 people. It is outdoors. Well advertised event and one of the largest her in the Orlando area.

I told my director who is also my recruiter about it. I intended on doing it myself with some help from a couple of friends. Did not orginially know the size of it. She proceeded to tell me how she for years had wanted to get into this event and that she did not know it was available. She thought I should open it up to the team and that is much to big for me to do on my own. Now mind you I am so stressed that I am not getting bookings and leads that I have gone beyond frustration. I told her I would think about it and let her know about that. I discussed with with my S.O. and decided that we would allow her to join us if she wishes but I am going to work it with friends like we had planned from the get go.

Well at the cluster meeting, she again approached me about opening it to the team because my friends would not be personally invested in my business and they would not be able to handle the business. Now I feel that I would be able to train them to assist me. The fair does not allow you to per se sell anything, so essentially all I am doing is getting names for leads and trying to get firm bookings. I will have them have anyone interested in booking talk to me immediately and if they want to order, I will contact them after the event and we can do that via the phone so that I am not breaking the rules of the event. I want to be able to come back every year.

What are your thoughts on this?

Bill

 

[chefcharity]

I think if you are willing to pay the $125 and have some help lined up - go for it! I like to do booths by myself. I would just tell your director that you have thought about it and think this is how you will do it this year. If it doesn't work out then you will consider opening it up to the cluster next year. If your friends are like mine, then my business IS their business and they will break their necks to make sure I'm successful. Just be VERY prepared for the day. Lots of mini catalogs or old catalogs, lots of recipe cards, then take all your business cards too - in case you run out of other material you will at least have those to fall back on!
Good Luck! I think with the help of good friends you can pull this off on your own! Get the Booths Build Business Training CDs if you don't already have them. This will help you and your friends.

 

[Ginger428]

I totally agree. If you want to do it alone, then by all means do so. When you do them with other people, then everyone has to have their own catalogs,flyers,recipe cards etc....If you are talking with someone you have to make sure they took your info & not someone elses. Everyone has their own speil (sp?) & set up. It just seems when I do them alone, I leave feeling I did my best. Also when I'm alone I can say or do things where If someone else was with me I might not have done....HTH

 

[kdangel518]

Personally, I see where your director is coming from. When anyone in my cluster does booths or events we often open it up to others in the team to split the cost and do shifts. For 50,000 people and a $125 fee I think you could very well share that with 2-3 other people on your team and you could all have plenty of leads.My team, however, is very close and we are always sharing opportunities like this with each other. I'm not sure if your team dynamic is like this as well. If I heard that someone on my team was asking non-PC friends to help them with a 50,000 person event for the manpower and not opening it up to the cluster I'd be a little surprised and put off, and I don't think I'd be as likely to open up my future events to that person in the future. JMO, good luck!

 

[Trish in Texas]

Your business is YOUR business! Run it the way you want to. Of course, your director may be disappointed not to be part of this great opportunity...but, you know, she could have been the one that showed the iniitiaive to get the event...Instead, you did it.

Trish in Texas
Independent Consultant

 

[NooraK]

50,000 people is a lot of people. It means you'll have several people at your booth at one time. If your friends are really willing to "go all in" and let you train them to handle anything they might come across, then go for it. While you're at it, since you're putting so much effort into it, sign these friends up as consultants, then you really will be sharing with your cluster

 

[ShellBeach]

You'll be fine. I've done 3-day fairs with just my husband helping me! A one-day event is very easy & fun. Get lots of contacts and grow your business! As mentioned, take lots of business cards, old catalogs if you've got them, maybe the minis, too. Also take a few replacement parts forms.When you get contact info from people, jot a note down about what they seemed most interested in, so it will jog your memory when you call after the event.Although I think you want & can do it by yourself, if you do decide to open it up to your cluster, have a firm scheme for how you are going to divide the contacts & orders from it.
Good luck with it!

 

[pckellyd]

I can give you my recent experience if it will help. I did a fair w/ 1000 expected attendees on Thursday night. My director and i each had about 250 business cards, mini cats we also included a recipe card in the attendee bag that everyone got that I had found here on CS. We were slammed with people for the whole 2 hours. I got 1 solid booking (3 weeks out), 4 distant bookings (about 6-8 weeks out), 1 recruit lead and at least 1 order. we probably only gave out 100 items each.

The booth cost each of us $75. I will tell you when we were done after just 2 hours we were both exhausted. If you plan on utilizing friends you may want to consider having them come in shifts so that you have lots of fresh people.

We're doing another booth in 2 weeks that is 8 hours long, well over 10,000 expected attendees and there are 3 of us splitting it up. (2 of us will be there for the whole day, the 3rd possibly only for 1/2 the day) Our Thursday night booth, most people were only hitting one side of the table, so my director took my paperwork and put it on top of hers, so that we were getting an even amt of leads. If you're going to do a booth with other consultants you have to be prepared to share.

 

[cindylpal]

Order recipe cards from our Supple Order and hand out those...I've attached a label like below...

How may I be of service to you?
Individual/Online Orders…Cooking & Catalog Shows…Bridal Showers & Wedding Registry… Business Opportunity…Fundraiser...YOUR Event
www.pamperedchef.xxxxxxxxxxx
847-658-xxxx [email protected]

I also read somewhere (maybe even here)...can't seem to locate it right now...but something about a sticker asking for the guest to contact you through email (then you'd have their contact information) and they'd receive a gift (????)...place an order online through the event and receive _______ !

 

[esavvymom]

Cindy - I like that label idea for the recipe cards, versus just the name/phone/email/web *yawn!* sticker.

 

[Nanisu]

I personally like doing booths by myself--no competition, sometimes it gets crowded in the booth with more than one, no hassles about sales (I usually have a lot of cash and carry at booths)--I just like it better that way. If you paid for it, you should decide.

 

[Jules711]

I can understand your director's disappointed and frustrated if she's wanted into that venue. With 50,000 attendees, I'm surprised that they don't allow 2 PC booths! However, YOU were the one that contacted them. I had a fair I wanted into and I contacted her EVERY time it happened and let her know I wanted on the backup list even if she didn't officially keep one. It's an 8 hour 1-day event and is exhausting. I did the first one alone and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had a friend come the next couple of times and now have added another friend for the busiest time of the day. It's FUN! I can't imagine doing it with anyone else. We have fun, are silly (so people have fun with us) and it's the busiest booth usually. And yes, I like that I get all of the business. Is that selfish? NO. I'm working hard, plus getting to spend time with a friend I don't see enough.

If I were with other consultants, I would have to worry about who I was talking to, who gets what sales (since customers may chat with you, then look, then chat, then buy...they aren't thinking of each consultant doing their own thing). Also, my personality would be a little different and it probably wouldn't be as much fun. There is scheduling issues, set up differences and just more stress. I LOVE my cluster, but I worked one booth with another consultant and it drove me nutty. She just stood and chatted with another consultant (diff booth) and I was helping people and SHE actually got a huge order from talking to the right person, I guess. I was a little annoyed since I was really running the booth on my own and she swooped in for that. It's kind of like living together. Love spending time with lots of people, but wouldn't want to live with them .

Do it on your own. If you can't handle it, you know better next year and you will STILL have more leads that the day before. Good luck!!

 

[Fluffy215]

I have ALMOST always done fairs on my own. My DH has helped me if it is a big fair. I did do one women's expo that was shared by my clustermates and felt me and another consultant got a raw deal. The fair ran from 4-8 and we got the last hour, no problem we paid our share and showed up early even. Then a consultant didn't show up to work the 6-7 shift so that ones from the last hour kept that hour (didn't offer to share since we were both there early) Then at 7 we took over and the fair started having their "raffle drawings" at 7:10...hence by then no one was even walking the floor and after the drawings everyone left. So we paid as much as the couple before us who got double time and we ended up with only 10 workable minutes. Needless to say we got nothing out of it. And had to pack everything up and take back to director. Since then me and this same clustermate have done a few small booths together, nothing nearly as big though. I like working with her because we have similar approach styles But if the date doesn't work out for her I would much rather work it myself.

 

[kdangel518]

When I have done booths with other consultants it has never been an issue as to who gets what leads, etc. We have two consultants at the booth at one time- no more than two- one takes one side, the other takes the other side (left vs. right) The people you speak with are your leads. You have them fill out a drawing slip of sorts and put your initals on the back of it. Very simple and fair. Just info for those of you who could use it!

 

[Sheila]

Um, did she ask you at the cluster meeting in front of the other cluster mates? If so, that's a little pushy and puts you on the spot! If you had already expressed that you wanted to do it with your friends & your way, then she certainly shouldn't push you to include others especially in front of the others!I do invite my downline to come join me at booths to help build their business. I would NEVER expect them to share their booths with me just to be nice. If they felt like they needed help & called, I'd go help ... but I'd push the bookings & sales their way to help their business. Their success means MY success too! Trying to take bookings and/or sales from them would not benefit them OR me in the long run.50,000 is a LOT and may be overwhelming if your friends are not trained in advance to answer questions. Just make sure that you all have some time to sit down & go over the most common questions. If you can get them to watch a few of the training videos, it might help them to be more productive at collecting contacts and/or bookings! I have a new approach at working my booths where I don't try to hit up every person that walks by. I concentrate on just the ones who stop to look. So far, those have been GREAT leads. A few quality leads and bookings are much more important to me than a handful of dead leads. I've just started offering to customers the option of being on my monthly e-mail newsletter. The ones who are interested, fill out a form. I've had a couple say "no thanks", and I respect that! But when about 9 out of the 10 that stop get excited about signing up for my newsletter ... that's all worth it to me!

 

[Ginger428]

When I have done booths with other consultants it has never been an issue as to who gets what leads, etc. We have two consultants at the booth at one time- no more than two- one takes one side, the other takes the other side (left vs. right) The people you speak with are your leads. You have them fill out a drawing slip of sorts and put your initals on the back of it. Very simple and fair. Just info for those of you who could use it!

It seems fair, but if you think about it....you might have 5 people in a row that want to have shows/the business etc...where I might have 5 people just asking about returns,broken items etc....

 

[kdangel518]

It seems fair, but if you think about it....you might have 5 people in a row that want to have shows/the business etc...where I might have 5 people just asking about returns,broken items etc....

Ginger, I can honestly say that it's never been an issue. Maybe we are lucky!

 

[kam]

We do a 2-day fair around here - and the booths are VERY expensive. Without the Director's getting re-imbursed this year, I think it was $36/hour when all was said and done. That is why we break it up between consultants and we staff 2 at a time (the cost of the hour goes down).

The only reason I would expect a cluster-mate or Director to open an event to others in the cluster is price or if they didn't want all the hours (for whatever reason). I would never expect it out of the goodness of their heart. Many of my cluster-mates have gotten into booths/fairs that are reasonable $ and they handle it themselves. I have never thought they should open it to the rest of us.

So, I guess I think that was kind of pushy of her to keep bugging you about letting her do it with you.

If you can swing the price - and have help lined up (YOU get ALL the leads) then I say GO FOR IT!

BUT - if you decide to split hours (however) - then my suggestion would be to keep YOUR name as the contact person so you can get the booth again next year - if that's what you want. And then you can split it (or not).

 

[kam]

Hi Everyone,
...
Well at the cluster meeting, she again approached me about opening it to the team because my friends would not be personally invested in my business and they would not be able to handle the business. ...

Bill

The other consultants wouldn't personally invested in YOUR business, either. They would be interested in THEIR OWN! (And rightfully so).

Just my 2 cents.

 

[pcchefjane]

I just did a 2-day booth last weekend. We kept 3 consultants at the booth. On Sunday between us, we gave out 1,000+ recipe cards! I had $180 in sales plus a few "on the spot" purchases out of my "goodie basket". I had 8 people sign up to book a Show and have one of them with a confirmed date so far. I think it would be worth it to have TRAINED PC Consultants with you at your booth. $125 seems VERY expensive to me! We paid $65 for 8 hours Saturday and 5 hours Sunday. I split the cost between the other ladies at my booth. Since none of the other 3 had ever done a booth, I was the "go to consultant" for questions but otherwise, we "took turns" handed out info. BTW, I have heard venues quote numbers before and they GREATLY exaggerate! We were told at least 5,000 at a Formal Event Fair back in March and it was more like 1500 and very few were interested in Wedding Registries. We were also promised weekly engagement announcements from the sponsoring paper. Most announcements I have gotten are either within a month of the wedding or several weeks after which do me no good! I paid $65 for the one hour I worked the booth because of the "numbers" that were quoted! Never again!

 

[Chef Bobby]

Last year I did a large 1 day fair of mostly Christmas shoppers and because of the cost it was split into 2 person shifts, 2 hours each. I didn't like it because one of the people that relieved me showed up 45 minutes early and sort of took over taking customers from my partner and I. I happened to be there when they asked for deposits for the next year so I paid it. My Director told me I could schedule it any way I wanted so this year I'll be working with one other person all day.

 

[Bill Faber]

Thanks everyone for the input. I apppreciate your input and can I say you all are the best and I dont know what I would do without you.

I have decided to go it alone. She is busy that day and I had decided to allow her to come. She has now said that I should ask someone else and I am not sure I want to move to that. I am not sure what hours I want to do and I think after reading what you all have to say that trying it this year on my own is the way to go. I will post again because I have another question to ask but will save that for another day. Thanks for the advice. You all have helped and I think it is going to be great. I need to get some more supplies more recipe cards and mini catalogs. I am going to get the Xmas ones.

Thanks Bill:sing:

 

[Becca_in_MD]

Last year I did a large 1 day fair of mostly Christmas shoppers and because of the cost it was split into 2 person shifts, 2 hours each. I didn't like it because one of the people that relieved me showed up 45 minutes early and sort of took over taking customers from my partner and I. I happened to be there when they asked for deposits for the next year so I paid it. My Director told me I could schedule it any way I wanted so this year I'll be working with one other person all day.

I recently organized a 3-day booth with 2-hour time slots. I made clear in my e-mail to everyone that they were not to start making contacts until their time started as other people had paid for their own 2 hours. I also made clear that they were not to step outside the booth area into the aisle to make contacts. I know from past experience how one of the team members is with her aggressiveness. And I told them not to solicit leads in the rest of the show area when they were checking out the other booths. You really cannot assume people will behave the way you will.

 

[Chef Bobby]

I recently organized a 3-day booth with 2-hour time slots. I made clear in my e-mail to everyone that they were not to start making contacts until their time started as other people had paid for their own 2 hours. I also made clear that they were not to step outside the booth area into the aisle to make contacts. I know from past experience how one of the team members is with her aggressiveness. And I told them not to solicit leads in the rest of the show area when they were checking out the other booths. You really cannot assume people will behave the way you will.

I never thought of talking to other vendors as wrong. Some never have time to get out of their booth to shop. I don't talk to shoppers if I'm shopping unless they approach me. I've gotten a lot of good orders from other vendors and even my last recruit. I've also traded products with other vendors to save money on Christmas shopping. I also share orders/sales and leads with others working with me.

 

[Becca_in_MD]

I didn't mean they couldn't talk to other vendors. There's one person on our team who is very "outgoing" and can easily cross the line as to what other people on the team consider appropriate. I had visions of her standing in the food court area soliciting people. I hadn't really thought about anyone going around to the other vendors. I certainly had a few vendors come up to me about their businesses, esp. since it was so slow, and wouldn't have minded someone going around to the other vendors during their booth time. But that's their booth time, not time when they're just visiting the rest of the show with their spouse, etc.

 

[Ginger428]

I also did a fair last year where the organizer let ALL the vendors "shop" before the customers came in, which I thought was pretty cool. We got to know one another & shared business cards & i mad some nice sales!!

 

[Chef Bobby]

I also did a fair last year where the organizer let ALL the vendors "shop" before the customers came in, which I thought was pretty cool. We got to know one another & shared business cards & i mad some nice sales!!

They are supposed to let us shop with each other the day before it opens after we are set up. They suggested some sort of a vendor discount which I don't mind if it will get us new customers and leads. They also offered a vendor goodie bag. If we paid $25 they would put anything we wanted in a bag and each vendor will get one. I'm not going to do that. They also offered a first 1000 customer bag that we could do the same thing with for $50. I'm not doing that either.

 

[Chef Bobby]

I didn't mean they couldn't talk to other vendors. There's one person on our team who is very "outgoing" and can easily cross the line as to what other people on the team consider appropriate. I had visions of her standing in the food court area soliciting people. I hadn't really thought about anyone going around to the other vendors. I certainly had a few vendors come up to me about their businesses, esp. since it was so slow, and wouldn't have minded someone going around to the other vendors during their booth time. But that's their booth time, not time when they're just visiting the rest of the show with their spouse, etc.

I know what you meant and I've been guilty of that before. I worked a bridal fair that went by fast and furious with constant visitors. After it was over I asked if the other consultant wanted to share leads. She had 4 and I had about 25. I didn't even realize that I was being that aggressive. I will greet people walking by if they don't look our way. Sometimes people don't realize what they are passing up because the booths are on both sides.