Introducing Jeanette

Let me introduce you to our newest sales person - Jeanette.

But first some backstory so you can truly understand how insane I really am.

Several years ago while working in a job I absolutely detested, I started making up different personalities for myself while on plane rides. Essentially, if the person seated next to me struck up a conversation rather than telling him/her what I actually did for a living (and hated with a deep passion) I would make up another career entirely. Sort of like trying on a career for an hour or two and then I'd discard it later. It was fun and better then talking about a job I hated.

Even though I love what I'm doing now, as my last post shows, I'm terribly emotionally (and financially) invested in this business and it's hard for me to have people walk by our booth and disregard it. So I've decided that rather than being "Founder" this weekend at the trade show I'm going to be Jeanette - a happy (perhaps even perky?) sales person who doesn't really have too much invested in the business. Granted, Jeanette obviously believes in the product and wants the business to succeed but if someone walks by and says something negative she doesn't take it personally because it's not her baby. Instead, like a good sales person, she'll shrug it off and look forward to the next person to talk to.

Yes, I know it sounds insane but I'm going to see how it works this weekend.

In other news - the trade show booth is all set up and ready to go first thing tomorrow morning. I'm a bit nervous about the fact that I'm literally in a back corner (this is one of the shows I don't get a say in where I'm placed) but I had some new professional photography blown up and put it up in the booth and had a fair amount of vendors today stop and check out the booth simply based on the photos. So we'll see...

Hopefully Jeanette will be a killer salesperson. Though if she is, does she get commission?

The Usual Course of Action

It's 48 hours before the tradeshow season officially begins and I'm doing my usual stress-out routine. For the record, in the last year of operation I've done a grand total of 2 trade shows. In the next two months I have four shows and the Emmy Awards so I'm feeling totally overwhelmed and just doing everything I can to keep my head above water.

A huge part of the stress is sitting here worrying that in the upcoming shows my product is going to be ignored - or worse - seen and then disregarded - and that just kills me. It's so hard to stand there for days on end feeling like you're being judged. Yes, I realize that it's not judgement but the opinion of each retailer as to whether the product fits into their store, their store design, and what their customers will purchase. But still, it feels like judgement.

I've been working like a dog to get ready for the shows (two of which start this weekend) which is serving as a very good lesson that should things go well, in 2008 I really need to hire at least one person to help me with production.

Course I'm terrified that these shows won't go well and...well...at what point do you stop throwing good money after bad.

Just frightened...and nervous...and stressed.

Big Accomplishment

Very proud of myself for today's big accomplishment. After weeks of working on it in bits and pieces (and, truthfully, procrastinating) I finally got our online store up and running. The good news is that it's live and appears to be working and doesn't necessarily look "cheap" despite the fact that it was put together on a very cheap budget. The bad news is that technically it's a subdomain of my web site so I have to have my web friend get it linked into the main site correctly since that's beyond my grasp of limited web knowledge - which means I have to wait until he has time in his schedule. So while the site may actually be live, no one going to my main web site can yet see it. If you want the shop address email me and I'll send it your way. :)

So very happy with today's accomplishment - despite the fact it took far longer then anticipated and kept me from doing 101 other things this afternoon - that I'm taking the dogs for a bath. They, as you might imagine, are now not as excited by today's accomplishment.

Online store and a bath - good work for a Friday.

Foiled...

by math. Yes, it's sad but true and those who know me well will agree. I am horrible at math. Lord only knows how I actually got into business school - aside of course from my good looks, witty humor, and the fact that there was no one else from my career path applying to school and they figured why not, it'll make for an interesting addition if nothing else.

Up until now I've been thinking that I had to support four trade shows in the next three months. I realized today that it's four in the next eight weeks. Ah - so not good at math.

Interestingly enough I was only going to be supporting three trade shows in the next eight weeks until the other day. I had planned to go to a trade show that was just outside my industry niche but from which there's been increasing interest in products like mine from retailers and consumers. It's in my home city so easy to get to and I've heard great things about it. Then I had also planned to go to a show in Vegas in September which will hopefully bring in a lot of southern california buyers who should, in theory, be interested in my products. And lastly we were headed to one of the biggest industry trade shows in Chicago in October.

Of course there are others that I've had my eye on but finances being - as always - tight - I figured that we'd see how this year goes (in truth, our first full calendar year of operation) and then reevaluate for 2008. The other day I got a call from one of my sales reps who wants to have our product in her booth at one of the biggest and most well-known luxury trade shows within our industry. The luxury market - for which we were created - is growing in leaps and bounds (hoping the economy doesn't collapse) and we had wanted to attend the show so now we've got a very cheap way to get in and see if it works. I'm a little hesitant about the fact that for the first time someone else will be representing our product but she promised me I can send her some cheat sheets to help keep the marketing message the same everywhere.

So we'll see...

And There It Goes

It's that time of year again - there's just so much money going out right now and not too much coming in as we prepare for what we hope will be a really busy trade show season, holiday season, Emmy Awards Show Season, etc etc etc. Essentially everything that could potentially bring in a good deal of money is hitting in the next three to four months which means we're doing everything possible to prep in advance and that's a lot of money going out. Money for trade show booths - trade show furniture (did you know that with your 10x10 booth space you have to "rent" carpet?) - travel expenses for those trade shows - marketing material that has to be printed in advance of the trade shows - product that has to be made and packaged in advance of trade shows, emmy awards, etc. Honestly the list is never ending and it's freaking me out. I'm just hoping that everything will go well over the next few months or we'll be tapping out of cash.

One of the biggest expenses I'm struggling with lately is for PR. I know that one needs PR but I'm just having a hard time swallowing the amount that's being spent on PR and when I think of all the other things that money could be spent on it makes me want to cry (I've wanted - heck, NEEDED, to get a new printer for about a year now and never seem to have enough "untouched" cash to draw from to go out and get it!). It's not that I don't think PR is valuable - it's just that I'm not wholly convinced that the professionals are worth the price they're being paid.

Now I know that PR is one of those tough things to measure and that if it works a lot of it is going to come down the line later - right now we're essentially laying the groundwork. But still...I'm just not sure I couldn't do an equally good job for a fraction of the price. And yes, I realize that it's insane to think that I can be doing everything. But really - compare the amount I've committed to PR for this year versus what it could cost me to get a ProfNet subscription and do it on my own...that's more then enough for that new printer. That'd be enough to perhaps even pay me a small salary!

I'm pretty committed to seeing 2007 through as planned with the PR plan in place. But I have to admit that I need to see some pretty significant results to make it worth it for 2008.

Talking to a Real Person

I imagine this is a pet peeve most people can relate to - you call up a company and end up either getting an automated message or going through a list of choices and never actually talking to a live person. Now, for a small business like mine I don't have to worry about dealing with massive call volume, but since I am going into a very busy season (I hope!) that will have me on the road a fair amount, I was very concerned with the fact that retailers and vendors who called our "office" number would get dumped into voicemail.

Thanks to the New York Times Small Business Section (my new favorite section of the paper), I am in the process of hiring an answering service that my office number will forward to when I'm not around to take it. They can either take a message for me or forward the call directly to my cell phone. Even though in the end a person may end up getting dumped into my voicemail, my hope is that talking to a person at the beginning of the conversation they get the sense that 1. We are bigger than a single gal (and two dogs) organization and 2. A real person knows they called so they have more confidence that they'll actually get their message returned quickly.

I was happy to find a small local company that can work with me and they always have a live person - no machines - answering the phones. I figure I'll give it a try through the end of the year (the busiest time for me and I'll be away for a good portion of it) and see how it all works out.

To Oprah or Not To Oprah

I've been away from blogging for a little while it seems. That doesn't mean a lot of stuff hasn't been going on. I've got three tradeshows coming up back to back to back in the next few months so I've been really busy preparing for those...and yeah, and I went and got married! So things have been busy to say the least.

One thing that has been on my mind lately is the whole PR push that we're in the midst of doing. I'm meeting with the PR company tomorrow morning so I should have a better idea of where things currently lie and where they think we should head versus where I think we should head. One point that I'm going back and forth on is whether or not to send samples and a pitch to Oprah.

Why Oprah - well even though it's a long shot (very very long shot) - if you manage to get mentioned on Oprah (ideally on the Christmas show) it can blow your product/company out of the water. The revenue and the branding opportunity would be huge and would definitely put me on the map. Plus I'm worried that at some point a direct competitor is going to come along and all of the sudden I'm going to have to do more work to differentiate myself - and what if Oprah features that competitor?

On the other hand - as is argued by my PR folks (I should mention - PR folks with many many many years in the field and far more experience with this then me) and my business partner - you really only get one solid shot at an Oprah or the like and it's better to wait until you have a little more buzz built up around your product and know that you can handle the potential increase in production that would be required.

I can't say that I totally disagree with them - but I'm impatient. So do you go with your gut or trust the voice(s) of experience?