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Plan Your First Big Sales Event

Hello everyone welcome teo lesson sixteen plan your first big sales event so our goal for today is to define the details and create an action plan for your test market event, right? So in the last lesson we talked about this idea of test markets event test market events and we declared yours we figured out what was going to be your first event so that you can enter the market with a bang and stop dripping products in and hoping people notice right we went boom with a bang right in there all right, so we are on a session to generate revenue quickly we're going to make that money and lesson sixteen plan your first big sales event so the goal of your test market that is to get your products in front of customers to quickly get feedback and generate revenue right? We talked about how speed to market matters right? I don't want you to keep waiting and hoping that people are going to buy your product we want to get it out there in front of people so that they can buy your product and if they...

don't buy your product, we're going to figure out why and we're going to move on right? So when planning your test market event, I want you to keep the focus on connecting with customers every decision in every detail should get your products closer to your customer straight if you're having to justify certain expenditures over others, whatever connects you to the customer is where you spend the money, right? That is our number one focus, so when you're planning figure out, does this help me get my products in front of my more of my ideal customer, right? How can I reach more of them? Does this help me get there? And then the other thing is will this decision matter to my ideal customer because you're working three year event as you're planning it's really easy to get bogged down in those stupid details right there actually distraction techniques because it can be kind of scary the launch, right? It's kind of scary to put products out there, and maybe people are going to buy right that's scary so could be really easy just to get bogged out in these little details like, oh, should the carpet in my trade show booth be blue or pink, right? Does that matter to your customer? Do they care? Are they even going to notice? I figure if they're looking at my florence when they're not looking my product and that's a problem, right? So does the decision matter to my ideal customer? If it doesn't let it go, you may have to make the decision, but flip a coin, pick whatever you like, it doesn't matter, right? Will it matter to my ideal customer and that's what you want to focus on when you're making these planning decisions and that's gonna look different for every type of that and every type of customer? All right, let's, dive into exercise one. We're going to plan your test market event and there is plenty of space in your workbook for you guys to work through this. So first of all, we did part of this last time. What is the event? Is it online? Is it in person? Where is it? At wright? What? See that? And what products will you sell or feature? So this seems like an obvious question, but it might not be right. Are you going to bring the whole line? Are you just gonna bring certain things? Are you focusing on something? That's new? Are you trying to generate revenue with what's already been around? Right? Sometimes the sale could be a test market event, it's. Not where I would start, but if you've got a lot of stuff that's kicking around, you could kind of use the same strategy, right? But what products really will you sell your trying to highlight something really? Get specific on that, right, then I want you to figure out where the event iss, if it's online, what platform now? You're gonna have kind of two things in its online one is going to be the final selling platform right where you actually selling the product then you also have all of the places that your marketing and we're going to talk about that in the next lesson, so you want actually the final sale maybe on your website or in your shop, but you'll use other platforms in the promotion, but at the end of the day, where you setting traffic when they finally are able to buy what's that platform? And if it's in person, what location, what venue? What show is it or what story going to use? And then one is the event does this date give you enough time to prepare or can you buckle down and get it done right? Because I don't you be like, well, I could be ready six months from now, no it's always six months from now, right? It's really easy to say that I want you to do something and you could do in two to six weeks if you're working toward something bigger that's in the future picking event that's gonna happen in the meantime, right? But be realistic, doesn't fit with your schedule, right? Doesn't make sense, I don't feel like I'm going to do an online launch two days after I get back from vacation, right? Or I'm going to go do a trade show two weeks up two days after I get back from vacation right that's really hard I do it all the time now but it's only because I'm a vet right? I can handle it I've been around the block right uh but like your first trade show don't go out of town for the week great beforehand with a lot of stress right? And then you also want to think about if it's not something we're it's something where you can control the data trade show to trade show you can't decide a craft shows a crash all right, we'll stay during our online lawn you're planning a trunk show think about if it conflicts with any major holidays events etcetera right? You're trying to do an online launch summer holiday weekend not the time to do it right I don't care how much marketing and how much strategic anticipation it's gonna be crickets that weekend, right? And one wants to be online they want me on their phones right there actually out in the air, right? But if you're doing a trunk show in a tourist location summer holiday weekend could actually work right? So you have to kind of think about that you know christine thing about these workshops you know you want to steer away from any other holiday weekends people probably are going to take a workshop then right so making sure it doesn't conflict with anything or, you know, there's a big event, maybe you live in a town where every sunday everybody watches the local football team right a network or you may be targeting all those people who don't want to deal with that, in which case they could write. So again, it all comes back to what's important to your ideal customer, but make sure you really haley look at that calendar, the one that actually has the holidays on it, I make that mistake all the time, I'm like, oh, that's a great date and I'm like, oh, like three days after this holiday, why don't think about that right? So really, look at that calendar, and if the one of your event involves coordinating with other people like a trunk show where you have to work with the store, pick a date range or a few options, you have some flexibility, you know, kind of one you wanna have it, but obviously you're gonna have to coordinate with them to really get it done, so I kind of have your ideal but a few more options and go from there you also want a plan for what is the budget for the event, right? This is actually really important, we want to just spend willy nilly, right? We talked about analyzing opportunity and return on investment and a really good way to kind of blow that out of the water it's to not have a budget right? So we want to make sure you have a budget. How much do you need to spend in order to make the event a success? Right? If it's something in person is their event, you are an exhibit c is there a travel? Maybe do you have to invest in some new display pieces? What do you need to spend to do that online? Don't pretend that because it's online you don't have to spend any money to make your event a success genius. Which two new online platform? Maybe you need to pay for some photography, right? You're doing an online event photography is going to make or break your event, right it's going to make or break your online business if you are even on ly mediocre with your product shots, hire someone, just hire someone or, you know, to vote a couple days to hanging out on the photo channel of creative life. I could be really going to write, but really, if it's not your skill set, hire someone and be honest, right? Have someone else look att tthe, um, because I think we always think, oh, it's okay, it's, okay, it'll get by and for something that might but if your goal is to sell online and have that be your primary market all rights not going to cut it there are too many all right okay kind of crappy product photos out there years have to be spectacular right in order to make that work so that might be a big piece of budget for you right? Maybe it's web design maybe you just it's not your skill set maybe something the budget for so figure out all all of those things and then marketing right so again we kind of have this myth on the internet that all marketing is free that's not always the case and it's definitely not always the case if you have a very small audience right your audience is small you probably have to pay for marketing you won't have to buy some facebook ads maybe for you in trade show you're buying an ad in the trade catalog whatever it is put some money in there for marketing right? Give yourself a little bit of a budget for that even if it's just one hundred bucks trying facebook ads right? Because that again could be the difference between success or failure of your event don't rely on your existing audience there's probably not enough of them right if there are already enough people in your existing audience we wouldn't have to do all this right so we want to put some money in there in our marketing budget that we want to figure out why should people care about your event? This is what people forget to dio right marketing is not hey look at me it's this is what's in it for you right that's what a customer cares about they care about within it for them so why should they care what are they gonna get out of it right what's the hook or the angle what makes a relevant to your customer isn't important to their life right? All right, so after we worked on all of these details now I want you to create an action plan for your test market event, right? I want you to go through all of that details of your event and I want you to determine the exact steps you need to make to make it happen so I don't just mean like new product photographs, right? That's not an action step all right, can I can't newport doesn't tell me anything, right it's hire a photographer maybe you have to work that down ask so and so for photographer recommendation right plan photoshoot pick model buy clothes for model right pick her nail polish color whatever that is. You know I mean break that down into every detail if it's a trump show know what store how am I going to reach out? You know what's my backup plan if they don't respond right away right what do I need to do to get a display ready every single detail break it down into those action steps because I want you to have a really clear map of what you're doing now we're going to talk about marketing in its own lesson, so we'll create your marketing action plan separately but that's something else that you're also going to want to break down in detail again post on instagram not an action plan right post this type of picture at two p m on thursday that's an action step right so think about that level of detail because it's going to take a lot of stress out because the other thing we have to keep in mind is that depending on your type of event part of your job is to make product right I gave you that I should you guys the kind of the case study of my contra collection I was doing all that marking itself but really and the and the model photography and planning the shoes and all that stuff but I also still to make the pieces because I have actually made anything yet, right? So we have to budget that in this well so you have to determine if it's something where you are just bringing some samples whether you have to have a lot of product that's something else we want to look at in your action plan as well so what I want to do now is do some hot seat so that we can plan out the details of your event and then we can actually create an action plan so it's got to do some hot seats and kind of map out the action plan so who wants to go first oh, we got so many volunteers all right joint words are with you and then we're going toe to try again I thought three hands first we're going to try to get through all of you all right, so let's get up some sorrel cheats you here? Okay, so what does your bet a trunk show with a local store right? And what products we're gonna sell scarves and and where I think I have to places that I think will be great one stories in boston and then another one is in salem which is a pretty touristy place outside of boston. So I think in this case this is perfect because this requires reaching out tio and talking to someone else so we'll keep both of these on yeah, what kind of backup plan if one of them project exactly that's a good place to start when you're thinking about a trunk show all right when what's your I know this is one where you can't set a specific but what's your target date range probably four weeks from when I get home so that's gonna be some time we're in july right and be in august so you're thinking you know sometimes I like mid august yeah okay all right so that is your target date all right what's the budget what do you need to buy displays some pieces pierre display pieces well I just for some of the materials ok some of our necklaces need be restrung okay so you need some materials because you probably have to redo some product okay displays I guess there's a basic oh just travel depending on if it's in boston right okay what else right? That's perfect promotional materials right? You have a very major these cards or business cards you're going to buy that uh do you um I already have a system in place for email capture you have like an ipad you're gonna bring in something like that okay, what about marketing before the show as part of your budget I was thinking oh put four yeah harv you budget part of the budget I probably do so you can put in a little bit for advertising and I think that's a really good idea you know, the advantage of a trunk show is that they have you know you're working with a store so they won't have an existing network but I would never rely solely on exactly like a little bit of advertising and the other thing is you know it's a store it's a local event depending on their customer base they may still do this crazy thing like read the newspaper right right because you're in a pretty high price points you must use a little older yeah so they made me do that so you wouldn't want to talk to the store about me some collaborative advertising maybe you're running so I think facebook is a good way to target but you might run a newspaper ad or you know the digital version of that so whatever the local things but I still think you might have some customers and for a you're right yeah that's a customer that like to sit down with our company coffee on a sunday morning and read the paper right and I'm guessing that these stores that you're working with probably are already doing some targeted advertising in the area so again you may be able to split some of that but you want to put that into your budget for shuras well all right so why should people care about this event what isn't anything about uh since we're jumping our prices so high I didn't know it would be a good time to go before we change your prices were having a trunk show where these prices are a lot lower and then after the trunk show we'll raise all our prices I would not okay for two reasons number one is that you're jumping your price is so high that it's not going to be true feedback for you right nature. Although you're not going to get a sense of whether or not that customer is the customer at that price points that's the first thing the second thing is because it is a trunk show, you are splitting with a store, you're doing the authority or seven. Thirty right, so I would not do that. So I would think about what is it, dan? And yes, there is obviously a time sensitivity like here we're here for such a short amount of time. But I think you have to give people a reason. A ruin sent a real incentive. So what do you think that could be? I think maybe something about your product, right? You know, it is about your product that they're going. Why should they come and see your product in person? I think that is it. Maybe the question. Yeah, because very text. Okay, so right. So like, you're gonna want to come, touch, feel, try on, yeah, that's, a good reason, right, getting to do that in person. So that's, maybe the hooker angle is, you know, feel touch, try. That could be a really good one right really get to experience our thing and then this could be a good opportunity for you as well to kind of feed out parts of that story you know, we talked about this idea of you were like I have to educate was like well we don't really educate we want to kind of share that story and if we're going to do that you can kind of figure out how much of that story is of interest to customer and you play with that a little bit as well yeah all right so now we have this figured out let's make your action plan okay, so what do your steps first thing you have to do right? Contact the stores right see if you contact the store and how are you gonna do that thinking it probably invested in person no, I probably would not at least not go in person to make the ask okay? Because that is not what's on their mind right now, right? So what you may want to dio is go in person just to scope it out right you go if you can't have a have a calm certainly where your product have a conversation with the store owner but don't go in there with the angle of like, pitching the trunk show just go in there to kind of see connect whatever then I would probably recommend sending email next day I was in your store if you met them say that and I'm like oh so lovely you know whatever it is and say you know I'm a new designer I wonder if you'd be interested in a partner with me in a trunk show so it's gonna be your next step and then if you don't hear from them I would follow up with a phone call right? I would give him about a week uh but then I would follow up by phone a lot of times especially if it's an older store buyer they don't always love this right they like the phone so weird also if you're going to make that phone call I know so we're here wants to talk on the phone right? I would do this before or after the store actually is open right? So maybe make that phone call like an hour before opening time because if you're trying to do that while customers are in the store they really need to be talking to customers right? So just like we talked about you guys having to prioritize revenue generation store when it's open they have to sell the customers right we never want to interrupt that process so we want to try tio reach them in the best way possible but never interrupt a sales opportunity for them that's a really good way to sour you on a store right so that's your first up, what else you need to dio what do you have? Um, I'm megan displays. So, do you have a plan for that, or do you have to research first research? Okay, so you need to maybe do some visual research, and this is another one two or you probably want to talk to the store, you know, what's there kind of standard thing. Are they going to get you a table or they got what exactly do you need? Right? You don't talk to the story about that, and then you actually have tio purchaser made right? What else is on your action plan and then buying the promotional materials. So what do you think that looks like for you? Is that postcard is the brochure is a scarred and you already have those designed no twenty of this. Design them right? And then are you doing yourself? Are you hiring someone or you have something else in your family? I know you've got, like, a million teo designer right way we don't, but we have one site that we go out, we can design our own person. And do you have a product photography that you can use are you to argue, don't say probably what you said to design, design them here and then order right? All right? And then even though it's not a huge step, I wantto always put this on here making sure that you've got your methods for email, capture, whatever that is. Get that ready. Anything else on dh then just promoted on social media, and we're going to talk about the marketing plan separately in the next lesson. Do you have to make product or had already done it's already done. Okay, saw your product is done. And you have an idea of how much you're planning on bringing. I see you're doing having backup collections, but just starting with maybe one or two collected so it's not over least perfect. Yeah. So then so you might just want oh, like inventory your product. Make sure. Yes. Good. Teo. All right, so and really for you, a lot of it hinges on what happens here, but that kind of gives you the main things very achievable, right? Awesome. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah, just a long line of that. What if she was making her product? How twitchy, determined how to make that something that again? I would probably talk to the store about on and see if they have a sense with something like a trunk show, you probably don't need that much and here's the other thing that I use is kind of a secret. See things. So one of the reasons I stopped doing retail shows because I hated estimating that product used to stress me out like crazy, right? So if you on ly have a few of something and you get down to the last one, just take orders, right? Just say this is my last sample. I mean, you guys are a little different because some of your stuff is one of a kind. But even then you consent. You know, if you're down like your last couple scarves, okay, that's it. The thing is, with the trunk show it's only a couple hours you're probably going to sell through a ton of product, but what you I would say is maybe a good rule of thumb with with that is enough. Teo, fill your table. Probably getting us a table. And then I would say, replying to be able to replenish one two times after that is probably a good place to start. But the other thing that you could dio is set your revenue will and work backwards. Right? So if you would like to make to k your trunk show, you need to have more than two k worth of product, right, I would say at least double that. But don't again, especially being don't go crazy, right? You don't spend too much time making because you can always take those orders if you get down to the last piece, right? How I want you to come here and we'll talk about your test market event for hypothetical, but I was trying to think of something fast I'm trying to decide what? Because I'm an embellished sure of right furniture and it but I know that, uh, burning man is coming up. Oh, and I know that everybody likes their costumes in their camps. Also, I was wondering if I could somehow come up offer custom embroidery for your camp, okay, so so you're so what's the actual thing that it's just you are going to reach out to people somehow. I have the list of designs that I used, urban threads designs because they're pretty cool and funky, so I have I don't have a website that I have a pinterest page in the casebook, and those do show the designs that I have, and you can go to urban threats and see something maybe that I don't have so that's already kind out there for me, okay, so this is what you're trying to do that so, yeah, so how would this work you would get this done? For they go to burning now ready to be done before so I would have to sew the called actually be you'd have to get me or tell me what if you need by about this state okay so you basically want people to place a custom order yeah okay so let's go back to that's all right that's your bet so you're not selling a product you're selling the sorters and right and so you are saying I could do this custom embroidery on anything right you pretty much got s o the progess really talented but I wouldn't ask you do you have samples and things that you can showcase to give people an idea of what they might want yeah right I've done some pieces for them last year so right so the products really anything it's this service accounts so where are you doing this is going online thing are you going to meet with people in person how are you going to get this done? I would think that's that I guess my question comes from all brand new right whole idea so I was thinking on linus hi a broader is it might be easier for many things you were people because there's no other than until you actually get to burning man yeah you can't it's going to be hard to do that but I think there's like a burning man fights and right from previous so are there also though like bernie man meet ups before yeah, so which one plays to your strengths better trying to do online or actually trying to network with people much better in person okay, so I think for you then your thing might be finding maybe some meet ups of people who are going to burning man beforehand and networking there, right? So that's, what we're gonna do, we're gonna say is your where is burning man networking event? And I actually think this is probably a better way to go because if you can find one, then really what it becomes for you is going with examples of what you could dio but in a way that doesn't feel like so over like, hey, I just walked into a networking event wearing a sandwich billboard that so get your custom burning man for me, right? But what you want to do is go there wearing or holding or using like your coolest examples of that so that you could network and have conversations and what's great about this is this idea that this is a test market event, right? Yeah, because it's a really short period of time and it's a very specific right and you don't actually know how much of a neither is for this that you have no idea, right? So I think going to a networking event is kind of a great way to do it with a really low cost investment right because if you're going to do it online you probably not targeted as you know there's a lot that you could do here you could kind of show up network and even see if there's an interest in it right uh so what's your budget are you gonna have to spend any money on this do you have to make any stuff in advance or you all ready to go on product pretty ready to go okay, so it may just be fighting the event like travel too which could be as much as you know driving your car couple miles whatever they might not be that big of a deal but it could be that postcards of promotional pieces you have those already made okay so you're going to need some kind of postcard biz card something that you could hand out you may be better off sticking with something smaller if you're in something where people are kind of their network and hang out whatever I have sometimes found cause I was like only a business card so you take a postcard and people like you the business card like now I have a postcard nor like really in my wallet right? I'm always torn between this like I see the fun little new cards like a little tiny square cards and then I see like the really big ones and it seems like it half and half like he went to visual big picture cool stuff you make are right remind I think in this case like a square move card is perfect on the other thing is that you khun dio is if you're kind of interacting with people take their business card so you can follow up right so that's really think the other he for you there and then are you going to do any pre marketing you might maybe want to kind of connect with people so people online too do you think I'd like it's all brand it's already rodeo you know this is kind of your target event you might runs and facebook as and it's probably pretty easy to target people who are interested in burning and on facebook I think that's probably pretty easy to find right so you might want to maybe also budget for a little bit of that just to see you know if you can't find one of these or if that doesn't work this may be another way to reach out right uh and why should people care um I know it's an event that they're usually passionate oh god about and they wanna have the fun individual things so I can work with them individually and they can have the colors they want in the science they want and right so where the government's taking care because they invest a lot and their costume right so really the reason that they should care is because you can help them create a more distinctive style, right? Something along those lines that's probably not quite the burning manly right whatever that is right, like you could help them be more special do whatever it is but the idea is that when you talk about why they should care it's what they get out of it now what? You d'oh right? So it's not like I can help you it's like you will have this use and they're usually always haven't like their secret pockets in their furry writing like it's a very right very sleepy think right, right so you can kind of see and then is this something I only kind of questions about all of this is like a price point thing, right? What do you charging it? It would be unhappy on how big the design is that works down to how many stitches? Okay, but what's it really like approximate what's arranged like you should at least have an idea based on like the types of products you think people are gonna get you um I would think it would depend I would have one price further if I'm having to deal with for or write but never released because I honestly have no idea what you cost custom embroider anything so like approximately approximately I would say from twenty five to fifty dollars okay, so it's not it's, not a high budget paper, huh? Right? I think that's just important to understand kind of what the price ranges because that shifts the marketing all of it right? And you're trying to someone to spend five hundred dollars with you it's very different than you're showing it now twenty five. Fifty so kind of understanding kind of where you are. Yeah, excuse some of that as well. So let's create your action plan, right? So what do you need to dio you find to find anything right? You have to find some kind of media call it a free don't call us. We'll call like a pre burning man gathering that's really? Probably or what they become blythe steel meal where they built the things that's really close to me so there's got to be off in a huge, huge thing where they're right it's, huge community, the pre camp parties all right, perfect right now and shopping event they actually have pre camp shopping event owes that where you could just have your products there and they've done the marketing community is all engaged. They know they're looking for bernie man stuff well, that's even better because then people are there in the mood to buy dear online they're probably everybody you know already awesome. Perfect. Okay, so that's your first step? What else do you have to do? Um, post harder. So you have teo, you have to design that. Yeah. Okay, so you have to design and I always think, teo, you know, depending on what you're doing like it never hurts, just have both of these things, right? Promotion materials are not that expensive. I usually keep both in my purse so I can kind of gauge the room, right? Like a postcard crowd. Who's gonna want the pretty picture or these people that just want my business card and they can stick it in your wallet. There's also no reason. Got on a great little square move card. You also can't put a picture, right? Right. All right. Actually, they do some really cool stuff, sometimes almost do the ones that are my instagram feed. So it's got lots of picture options and that's always fun to because you let people pick, right? So you have to do that, and then you should order it. What else? Uh, do you have some product samples made that you can where to? Wherever you're going, our carrier use or whatever do you mean to make a couple I want you to make a couple, you wanna make some product samples? Apparently want to write everything without bells all right so make some product sample anything else that you need teo you're going to run some ads right? Yeah so maybe look into from target and facebook ads and yours is very, very like preliminary test market right? You're really weird even feeling out if this is what I came up with the idea while I'm sitting on the chair like it's a viable and the best way to know if something is viable is just to get out there and do it right but at least I know it's seasonal so I could try again right exactly if it works next year you can go ahead and try that and anything else on your action plan um maybe just press a better source um sails on either the stabilizer or the threats so that I'm not paying like you might have to source some specific materials and I think you're right in thinking like source but don't order so you don't die if you don't know there's demand but if you do get people asking for it you won't be able to fulfill right away see that source figured out perfect anything else? Maybe since this is your first event figuring out what kind of system you're going to sign up florida do your transaction tio okay so do you have a square reader? Okay, so you have to get a square thanks monica that's perfect all right, I'm gonna get a square or whatever other version of that you want there's a million down right? And then I guess I would want to save their emails for next year, right? You would want a system for email capture? Awesome great. So one more hand who was that? Monica, how about you're welcome we'll do yours too all right? And this is the example to whereas you guys are planning these events jump into our facebook group share because it's great to have this brain power like great, we didn't think about that one on the list, right? Jump into that facebook group for yu guys who aren't in our in studio audience and connect to be like, hey, am I missing anything? What am I not getting in there? Because that can really help you out too, so all right, so what's your men so we're going to the trade show you the trade show where is that it's in seattle trade show in seattle and I believe in september, but we're going to just call it that in september, all right? And what products will bring the whole line? So we'll have the diaper clutch, the nursing a scarf in the bag scarf bag okay? And are you coming in with new fabric choices? New options? Are you selling kind of what's already been made yeah, we'll bring in a new scarf and diaper okay, so you're going to bring in new fabrics of those that you could take orders all right? Awesome what's your budget I know that's the big one for you, right? What's your budget on we've kind of been talking about some hypotheticals but I might make you nail this one down a little bit more. What do you think for bussi? I think that a booth feed probably is going to be around fifteen hundred based on what I've seen in the sky original shows I feel that feels about right. All right, what else? And then ramped oh, figure and probably another grand and travel and I tell will call that all in one because you're probably bringing my people but you have to travel together right? Uh what else have to fly so long? One right? So now then here's the question we have to free all our story are you right? And you don't necessarily have tio if you you could go the buy things there or rent fixtures option as well. All right, so that's something you have to figure out is what's the budget kind of for display and do you want to do a whole display that you shit and keep forever since it's your first one? Would you rather do something that's a little more temporary but saves you the freight of shipping probably something that's more temporary that way. If we have any weeks down the road, we're not committed to something. Okay, but I think in your case, you still have to think about can you keep it looking more upscale, right? Right, right. So I would say you're probably going to spend. What do you think on display? It's? A number that feels good. Teo, maybe three hundred. I think you have to go a little higher, I think just to be safe, I would at least give yourself five hundred, and you may need more depending on what the show provides, right. They provide flooring, the right lighting. So I would even maybe give yourself up to a grand. And what what you could do is you can go to the show's website. They have all their pictures. You can see if those pictures right from you or if you want to do something like, go to ikea, buy things and then just leave them there. A nice thing about that is that because what he will do that most shows you can arrange for a charity or somebody to pick them up. But if you're buying furnishings, because sometimes it's cheaper just to go to baekje than it is to actually run the show's fixtures insane, but it's true so they might have a cherry that can actually come and pick me up so that your you feel guilty about like buying nice picture on driving them away three days later so give yourself a budget so that you can really do that nice because that is going to be really critical for your products now we talked about that video right part of your display budget it's going to be a tv you don't have to be a tv I would say that's probably a rental people something into that is something you can usually rent from the show so I would look into a tv rental but then the other thing that you want to find out is it your booth fee includes electricity right? Because if it doesn't, you're not you can't get away without it right if we're right getting and wifi all right what's your city wifi lighting so those air once that they're having another grand I'm sure right? So depending on you know right could be like three to a grand anywhere. I have no idea what a tv reynolds show costs never done it, but I think you're going to want something like that so what else uh then we're going to dio need some food you have to eat somewhere in there tio tio right like ice chips after this because that's all of the budget on yeah I'm a big fan of oatmeal packets in the hotel room for breakfast one year on a show about right I have so we'll have to put on there like five hundred kids it's my mom because of you right exactly e delivery service yeah what else on don't have to do some promotional stuff because I'll need tio reach out to people beforehand to let them know that we're going to be there um so what kind of marketing are you thinking you're going to dio in advance right? So I'll probably do like in depth research of all the specialty stores that will be attending and then also I want to do like a newsletter to them without ripping and then also send them a postcard to the postcard mailing yeah so what do you think you're probably looking at at least a couple hundred bucks they're you know, since it's a regional show you don't have to send me more than a couple hundred postcards and I mean two hundred bucks right now so I think about two hundred two to three is probably a pretty good estimate on that you keep raising the cost of postage d'oh on and then do you have any promotional materials that you're going to give away at the show as well so that's any part of your budget as well right which may or may not be the same as the postcard you know you guys have so many things that you may need to be more brochure catalog right line sheet, right. And your line. She and you may just go straight for something that's a little more like lifestyle catalog as opposed to straight line. She because they think it highlights your products better. So I would say I would probably do a catalogue. And then the nice thing was something like this. You know, if you're going it's, you're gonna spend a little more thing that's. A little more catalog. But then when this show is over, you can take what's left and you can mail it to stores out side of this geographic region. You can use it to continue marketing later, right? So I would say, depending on how many you print your probably another, like, three to six hundred dollars for that's. Exactly. Yes. So, what else? Anything else? Uh, your budget. We got travel, your goofy. We got all that other good stuff. Yep. I think that that's all that I actually have. All right, so I'm not going to tell that album. Eladio later. Yeah, but it's, not totally unreasonable, right? Something you can, you can make work, think, and then do you need to fill my blood from all those funny way yes so you say you've got your budget and then do you have to make any new product before the show? Um yeah, we will see you on the new product samples yeah, well actually just for the samples. No way will you also want a production after yeah, I'll just be production so that you don't really have to worry about that in terms of that budget yeah, thank you. Wow. You really doable all right, so what are your steps? Um book the make sure that there's availability but so call the show yeah, get a booth. What else? Um put together all of the material that we discuss off to do the video so right cards do you have any other the video for tv which you also have to rent right? Right right here's around that tv so then postcards do you are you have something or do you have to design it? I'm gonna have to design it that you have to design a postcard ing it printed do you have to do any new product photography first? No. Okay. And then the same thing design catalogue print yep. Uh what else you gotta deal with that display piece, right, right. So you are definitely need to come up with some kind of overall display vision I know we were talking about this in the last is it better to hire someone just help you put together that big picture vision, right? Yeah or maybe yeah, so that means they have to come into the budget I don't think it's going to cost a lot because it's not like you're having someone redesign your house, right? You're just asking someone to really come up with a visual plan for you that you can execute right? Or I'm we've been wondering if I could, like get enough inspiration from like instagram if I did enough hashtags like other shows me what other people have done? Absolutely so yes so you're gonna have to dio maybe some visual research for the and pinterest to is another tracy on administration individual research for the booth and then you're going to have to design the booth and then you're gonna have to order or by your pictures and you know, if you decide that you're going to go like that by the I ke a route when you get there usually check store availability, maybe be able to get them to hold it you don't just waiting, huh? Oh, that it's there. All right, you want to go to plan for that in advance? What else do you have to do? Um, figure out how we're gonna ship everything so ship the other one of the things that you guys could docs to book your travel all right? Steven travels so flight and health. One of the advantages that you also have is that if you are buying or renting the big pictures and there's two of you going and you knew to check suitcases per person and put his much of your wardrobe in your carry on is already pregnant. That's an option as well. So, like you can. What can you fly with? Right? Uh, if you're up for it. But there's also a train when you have a lot of luggage trains or tricky, right? So it was worth it to just pay for the extra bag, right? Exactly right. You made your banks where you have a right there, right? Right. And if you know that that's, how you're going to go pick an airline that lets you take two for free, right? Right when I have to fly to a show and I wait my bags I had, like, plant. I mean, I spend much longer packing for a show that I fly to the one where I can ship my great climb. I can show my crate. It just goes right there's some strategy involved in the suitcase. But it is doable, especially if you're running some of the bigger fixtures, so I would say this can be a really overwhelming peace for your first show. So let's take that out and plan on social because there's two of you going that makes life so much easier to write and a lot of times even just paying for that if you have take a third bag that's still probably cheaper cheaper than shipping freight right right especially if the show charges dredge what they might right dre ages the fee to get it from the doc to your booth and sometimes that's worse than shipping itself but it doesn't make it right right yeah I wouldn't especially for one that's more local I think this is your better option so then just figure out if you have to rent or buy any of those bigger pictures because you are I would not advocate for you like tables draping fabric because you're trying to go for more upscale look right so you're going to have to run a few things but or or by when you get there but I think in the long run that's probably your better option great okay uh what else you're going to have to do your your pre show marketing e I won't make you break down because we're gonna talk about that plan in the next lesson but you want to have that as well right? Yes so for you this is this is the biggest pieces is designing that booth but this is another one of those situations where it's better to force yourself into the event because then you have to get it done right I know you don't have a choice you have to you have to make it work and while it's important it's not something you have to get perfect your first trade show you've seen that awful image of my booth that like the glowing green looks like someone threw up basically the color palette of that booth right so we want to get it as close as possible but don't sweat it in your case just kind of look for things that make you feel more upscale and worst case scenario you pick a couple of nice faces and you go get some fresh flowers in the morning right? Dress it up, dress it up just make it look a little nicer and the other thing is you know you also have you so you're going to dress more upscale you're also going to communicate that right and so that's something else that really does contribute to the overall brand in the booth is what you wear this is a case worth actually okay to spend some time planning your outfits and think about it as a necessary step of your business now you know why I like trade shows so why like children creative live part of the job is just to play my wardrobe opportunity a perfect so this feels doable teo feels very overwhelming doable but it's you and I think the other thing is this is your first step because once you've committed and send them money then you just a shift from like um I don't know like let's just get it done elocution yeah yeah awesome thank you all right so we just plant a couple of really different events and then the necklace and we're going to create that marketing plan so we'll come back to that because that is as important if not way more important than all these other details but I do want to talk about something else that may come up is you're planning your test market event which is handling rejection right now I don't scare you guys off because rejection is part of the game right the store you want may not want you right the show may be really hard to get into and you may not get in right so first of all planned for backups right if I don't get that storing the retouch another one if I don't get that one on me reach out to another one right always have those backup plans you know if a trade show you can get in the section you want maybe you you actually show whatever it is it's right plan for those backups you know when I was doing the retail craft show circuit I applied to way more shows every season that I could have possibly done you were probably wasn't gonna get into all of them right and I wanted to make sure that I had enough to hit my targets, right? But if you do get that rejection and happens happens to all of us how you got rejected from a really big opportunity I was super excited about what happens at every stage in your career, right? You know, is it really the right fit? Right? Sometimes we try for opportunities that just aren't right for us and you kind of think that is a blessing, right? Okay, that one's not right you know you really asked for feedback if the store says like, no, you know, I'm not interested in trunk show you can say, is that my products or is it that you guys just haven't had a lot of success with a trunk shows it's usually not personal right? And then also just making sure is your product really ready? Right? So let's say that your goal is to dio you maybe renegade or maybe some shows like that it may be that you think your product is great but it's not quite ready yet the people who judge those shows have a lot of experience kind of looking at what works and what doesn't so you may need a little bit of time and you may have to look for a different type of test market event so certainly aim high but have a backup plan or two right know what your other options are in case the first one falls through, especially as you're generating momentum, I want you to start getting into this and I'm like, well, that one fell through snow I've done that's it no next one just move on move on think that's the secret to business that people don't talk about right it's just that perseverance factor you do it and then you again and he did it against your against you yet right? It's not one big thing that makes or breaks you it's perseverance and if this opportunity doesn't work, I'm going to try for that one if this opportunity doesn't happen for me going to create a plan to do this instead, right? So that's really what the secret is so and don't take it personally that's the other secret right ninety nine point nine percent of the time it's not you ninety seven percent of the time it's probably even your product, right? But there's so many other factors that go into everything, so don't take it personally just pick the next target and keep moving forward it's where I perceived their customer to be my customer and they absolutely knew that my product was not going to sell to their customers that happens all the time store so show when you're working with stores they know their audience so and it's against even just taking the chance to reach out to a store could be a really valuable way to learn who is the right fit for you, so always just look at those rejections as a learning opportunity and refining your market. We're fighting your ideal customer rather than a reflection on you as a person or even your products, right? Awesome. So in the next lesson, we're going to plan the marketing for your test market event, right? So not just enough to plan the event we have to plan the marketing, create that strategic anticipation get people excited to buy before they could actually buy right that's the real secret. But before we do that let's, take a look at your homework so I want you to plan the details of your test market event and set a budget set a budget that what you know, a front now, you know, if you have to go back so things we talked about in less than twelve and find some funding, right? That what you know right off the bat and then I want you to create an action plan for your test market event with deadlines. We didn't do deadlines here with the group because none of us have our calendars out, but I want you to put deadlines to it I want to make all of our in studio audience to do that is their homework anyway, right so put the deadlines to it, and then I want you to post a teaser on social media with the one on one of your test market event. I know this was your homework in the last lesson, to do it again, right? It's, not a one and done kind of thing. He would want either do another one. I bet you can't guess what's gonna be a no mark for the right to put that out there on social media. I make sure you use the hashtag make love cell, and I'll see you guys in the next lesson.