Bye Bye Freight

This is an exciting picture of what the back of my car currently looks like. Riviting isn't it? But to me it's pretty exciting because it's all the boxes that are going to the two Fall tradeshows. Later this morning I'm taking them to a friend's warehouse and we'll be packing up a pallet for freight shipment. Again, riviting isn't it!

This is actually a pretty decent size step for my little company though. The first tradeshow I ever went to I shipped three or four boxes to friends who happened to live in the same city as the tradeshow. I also crashed on their couch for the week because I was broke and cheap. Then last year I handcarried everything down to the first tradeshow (this was before airlines were charging your first born for any luggage you may want to bring) and then handcarried it home. Unfortunately the boxes were just heavy enough that they were awkward to carry and helped lead to a slew of rude words while trying to manuveur a cart that weighed more than me through the airport. Fun times!

Even though my booth space size has stayed the same, I've now actually gotten to the point where there's just too much stuff to carry. Part of this is due to the fact that I've realized it's cheaper to buy some items - like floor tiles - and bring them to the show rather than pay the exhorbinant fee charged by the exhibition hall for carpeting (and of course you are required to have some sort of floor covering or you're fined). As you can tell from the picture though, I still don't have a tremendous amount of material which is why I partnered up with another small manufacturer who is also going to the fall tradeshows and she and I are going to split a pallet...and split the cost of the shipment. In addition to the boxes already being in our booths when we get down to the first tradeshow, they will also go automatically to the second tradeshow four weeks later, and then automatically come back home to us. If it all works seamlessly it will be a dream come true.

For the record though, I am still broke and cheap but unfortunately the friends I mentioned earlier have moved so I'll be staying in hotels this time round.