# My first "real" show



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

This weekend I did a booth at the local railroad festival. I don't know how many people came to the festival, but it's a pretty big deal here, and there was probably several thousand visitors, tons of food, vendors, etc. I was set up in a row with other crafters, jewlery makers, etc. A lady two booths down from me was also selling soap, but it was M&P, and smaller than mine. I only generated $148 from both days, and I'm wondering what I can do to make it better next time? My soaps are made in the "Vickie" molds and are about 6 to 6.5 oz. They are shrink wrapped with one end open for sniffing and curing, and have a stick on label that looks nice. I had two sets of shelving, one for mens soaps and lotions, one for womens, or "unisex" soaps. We also did a little fall decorating and set out some gift baskets. I had enough soap to fill all the shelves and then some. I had 20 different varieties and 5 different lotions. My soaps were $5 or buy 4 and get one free. The lotions were $9, and they were 8oz. I had a display with some nice pictures of my goats, kids with goats and baby goats, milk, etc. The other vendor did not have milk soaps. Hers were under $2 each. I did have some bargain soaps that were $3 and I sold six of those. 

Are my prices too high for a festival like this, or was I just in the wrong area? Small town, not much money here. I'm considering doing a large farmers market in a big city about 1.5 hours away, and am wondering if you find that soap sells better at a market or at a festival? I am wanting to find the best outlet for my soaps. I do have a website, which needs some work. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to put a shopping cart on the site with quanities and shipping, etc. I do have the cart downloaded to my site, but nothing has been applied to it. Do you all do better at shows or online? My daughter and I handed out several hundred samples, and each sample had a small label with all my info on it. Should I expect to see sales generated from those? Everyone that has been buying my soap for the last year loves it and buys more, but most of the people at the festival were country people who do not see the point of spending $5 on a bar of soap. The booth fee was $75, so unless I generate sales with the samples I will not consider it a good investment of money. 

Thanks for any feedback or ideas.
Anita


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Glad you had some sales but for a 2 day show I know that was not what you would have liked. Any kind of show or market is a gamble in my opinion. I have done great at a show one year and bombed at the same show the next year. You never know how it is going to be. Prices are fine for soap. I make three kinds of goat milk lotion and my cheapest is 8 oz for $8.00 up to $14.00 for 8 oz. THe 4 oz for $8.00 was my best seller last Saturday. (Emu oil/goat milk lotion) You just never know.

Do you have a picture of your setup. I don't do real well visually with a written description. I use cardboard risers covered with fabric and they have three steps. I can put a lot of soap on those things. I put lotion in galvanized tubs. I have little bitty tubs up to a pretty big un. 

What about signage? Prices visible from a distance? Banner? My customers love to ask questions about goats so that is a good angle. My banner is large and has a picture of my herd queen Chloe on it. 

I don't know what a Vickie mold is but my soaps are mostly 5-6 oz in size and are logs or slab molds. I also use shrink wrap but wrap the label inside the shrink wrap.

I have had some sales from handing out samples. I handed out zillions for a couple of years and now I rarely do. Why? I cut everything up and make goat milk soap based sugar scrubs with them. No one has seemed to notice that I don't hand out smaples anymore. Plus it was time consuming to package the little samples in a little ziplock with a business card. And then I would get the picky types wanting a particular scent for their sample. Not worth it to me.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I don't give out many samples at shows because I figure I may never see those people again to sell soap to them. Doing so at my market, esp. at the beginning of the year, I feel paid off. I got lots of new, repeat customers once I got my soap in their hands.

Shows are such a gamble. Your prices are very reasonable but having another vendor selling at $2 a bar surely didn't help. Last show I did there was a melt and pour lady in the next row. She only had out maybe 8 different soaps. Her table was sparse with just each soap on a white dish. Yet from what I could see she was selling way more than me. I think the main thing they had going for them was how colorful their soaps were. They literally popped against those white plates and you couldn't help but stop to look at them. Then you were hooked because her and her assistant were great sales people (yeah, I spied and listened to their spiel while 'shopping' at a neighboring table...they were good!). Sometimes I think I have too many choices. And I am not a pushy salesperson (nor do I want to be). 

At the markets, I get people to try my soap and they see me week after week so they are comfortable buying from me. In the long run, I prefer the market and sometimes sell as much there in a few hours as I can at an all day craft show.

As for the internet, I don't know. We've been working on our website the last few weeks, getting it updated and nicer looking. Ds is doing it for me and he's working on the shopping cart this week. But I'm not expecting too much to start with. I know it takes a lot of work to get it noticed above the gazillion other sites out there.

My dd on the other hand has an etsy shop for dresses that she makes. She's done well there and has gotten quite a few wholesale accts from people who first found her there. When she sells things she sends her card which then drives people to her website. She just branched out from our farm website into her own and has already gotten orders and two new wholesale accounts. And she does not have a shopping cart yet.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We saw this at our last festival too- A bottom end line of soap selling bags full and a dear friend with original formulas and high quality infused oils and EOs and organic this and that....She did not even make expenses. You have to find an educated market. This person does fantastic on her own website as well as etsy and was just amazed at how the show bombed. 

Sales and engaging the public IS a huge part of it. We have a very elderly friend that is one of those ice to eskimo sales people and she can pull thousands out of a show while others are bombing because she does not let anyone escape without her sales talk! Hope you can get it rolling but we have found the festivals are accepting too many soapers into one event and setting people up for disaster. There were 4 at the last venue we did and they were all different but many people buy the cheapest thing they can find unless they are discerning about ingredients somehow. Maybe ask the promoter how many soap booths there will be? 

Yes- your prices are great. 
Lee


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## kidsngarden (Oct 28, 2007)

It's not your prices, but probably the market. 

I live in a small town, but it's right next to bigger areas. I only do the two biggest shows in my area with 100's of vendors and very well publicized. There are always a fair amount of soapers there. The draw to my booth is my bath bombs. Big, colorful, they beg to be picked up. It has made a huge difference in sales for me to have them and they sell like hotcakes.

You need to find something like that, something eye catching that makes people see you over the other folks. I don't even bother with lotions at shows (actually I don't sell them at all anymore). At shows in poorer areas like mine lotions just don't sell. Everything at my table this year will be $5 or less.


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I agree with Bethany about having something eye catching and different from the rest. I have 3 big shows before Christmas and the same two competitors will be at each of them. I am busily making up a large supply of whipped shea because it sells well for me in the winter plus neither of the other two soaps has whipped shea but one does have bath bombs. 
Since my booth is all right, signage is good and banner is fab I just need a hook like Bethany so I can compete. We all have soap so I need to get the customers into MY BOOTH.
And at my market I have the same repeat customers every month which I love but random shows are soooo different.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Read Lee's post again. It isn't about being a pushy salesman it's about being knowledgeable. And if the festival has a theme, rename your soaps to go with the theme. I do the Woman of the Word 3 day weekend, sales are huge, I certainly do not have an extravagant setup, but I talk non stop, we have religious soaps, we have anointing oils, we wash peoples feet. We are now asked to attend and don't even have to jury or products, we are a hoot and they love us. There should be no chairs in your booth, if you aren't standing and talking you aren't selling. Vicki


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

That is true of our Miss Nancy champion sales person of the world- 
She NEVER has a chair- she is elder and stands no matter the weather and the hours and works at it non stop.
Squidge is a terrific sales person because he gives everyone so much info they have to buy something so they can get away!
Perfect strategy....bore them into sales! Much better than washing feet!
Lee


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Another thing to consider: I think that the price of your soap is fine for the size, but if it's the price that is giving people pause, make the bars smaller and sell them for less. A 6 to 6.5 oz bar is pretty big and I'd be willing to bet that in that particular market, there are people out there who would pay for a smaller bar that was the same cost per ounce or even a little more expensive if the cost of the actual bar was something that they felt more reasonable.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Wow, you all have great suggestions! Vickie, I am not sure about washing people's feet! Changing the names of the soaps sounds okay. Never thought about that. Everybody stopped and ewed and ahhhed, but not too many bought. It was dissapointing. I'm trying to get a picture of my booth but my camera is not cooperating at the moment.


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## Samilyn1981 (Oct 6, 2009)

You all rock! You all have such great ideas, personailties and PASSION! Every posting here, shows what a great passion you all have for what you do. This passion has come to me as well, through my goats, that are my DD 4-H project, and I am just so excited to mave some soap...maybe someday I might even be able to try to sell it. Believe in what you sell, and share that passion with your buyers and you will Sell your soap!!!


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

I just finished last weekend a one day festival. Small booth.. 10x10.. and like Vicki says.. no chairs. 
I did what worked last year.. someone standing at the front of the booth offering free sample of lotion. There were many ''no.. I just had some'.. or no thank you.
But.. the ones that did.. came inside the booth and bought something... mostly what the free sample of lotion was. 
We completely sold out of 'Bee My Honey'.. (Honey L'Octaine) and almost of Pure Seduction (type) .. All the 'Doggie Shampoo' Bars.. and ALL the Deer Hunter and Fisherman soap. Hubby even sold the sample bottle of Honey.. lol
Like Vicki says.. talk about your soap.. talk about your farm. 
For a small festival in South MS.. one day.. I sold almost $1200.. and we sold almost nothing after 2 PM.. Football day ya know. 
It's the free sample of great smelling lotion that did it I am sure.. so if you do that.. make sure you have a lot of it.. cause that is what they want. 
Plus.. don't tell hubby.. but I think the ladies liked a man in the mist.
(I always said he was my best Salesman)


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

What a great story. The man in the mist...Congrats on your great day. 
And yes- what you flaunt up front will be the thing that sells. People don't spend time looking even tho they want a choice. I can't tell you how many times we hear- is this everything you have? and we have an inventory of like 15,000 in pottery staring them in the face. My tongue has some scars from that line. 
We have always put our 'common' stuff on the bottom shelves thinking people will find it-not so. We had almost given up making soup mugs because they were not selling. We hung them on a rack at eye level on the outside of the booth and now I cannot make them fast enough. You gotta slap em in the face with it. They get fatigued at these shows-eyes mind nose brain fatigue. 
We don't book the huge shows anymore. Used to think more people more money. Ain't necessarily so! They wear out after a pretty predictable time frame. Maybe 150 booths. Many of which they don't see because they are talking to friends while walking. 
Our repeats and regulars expect to get caught up on a year of activities and become like family- most of them ask first thing-How are the goats? Some even know their names!

I know this is not about soap but wanted to encourage you- there is money to be made you just have to snoop out where. We used to book 24 shows ayear because we did not know how much we could earn. We are down to 8 to 10 a year thank goodness. Just keep snooping even if it means some disappointing weekends you will get a loyal customer base and not have to go to shows after awhile unless you just want to pay for traveling somewhere. 
Lee


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I like the idea of giving out lotion samples. My booth was nice and pretty, but consisted of just one table at the front, among loads of other booths set up just the same. My next event is a large craft fair at a large church in Lynchburg. I plan to have lots of bags/gift sets available for that event. I know I need another table. Mine is a standard long folding table that I got at walmart. In a small booth spot, would I have room to set up another one that size, maybe make an L shape or would a smaller table be better? I might also try to get some bath bombs together before that event. Those sound cool. Vickie, how in the world did you get enough warm water to your booth to wash people's feet? I'm still stuck on that idea....I kept thinking how nice it would have been if I had had a portable sink of some type so people could wash their hands with the samples I was handing out, I haven't come up with anything workable for that yet. 

The upside is that I'm getting a large order together for a lady in La. who bought some of my soap in my friends flower shop before she closed it down and fell in love with it, and now is ordering more for christmas gifts and also has friends of hers that have gotten in on this big order, so I know people like my stuff...but now that I'm trying to figure out how to make at least half a living off of it, I'm worrying a little more about consistent selling. Thanks to everyone for your great ideas!
Anita


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## kidsngarden (Oct 28, 2007)

Anita,
I would not make your booth so people have to walk in. My experience is that people fell trapped with that. They don't go in. there's a reason why most people have the tables up front.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

I have to agree with Bethany on that. We did a show recently where we set up with a U and no one was walking in. I needed the extra table space so I couldn't go straight across the front. So what I did was scoot my tables together to form more of a V It made the stuff on the tables more visible from the front and helped get people to stop and look. Whenever possible I request a 'corner' spot so I can have two sides of table space.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Also think about how grocery stores are, the least expensive products are always on the very top or very bottom shelves, best sellers are always breast high and eye level, they are the two most expesive shelves to get into at stores. And always have your discount bars right next to the register for impulse purchases.

We use pitchers and bowls, they take seconds to heat up with....dang you hang them over your cup or bucket to instantly heat them??? I was going to say bucket heaters but they aren't that big. But we do use them to instantly heat buckets also.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Okay, the L shape is out. I hadn't thought about the bucket heaters. Course, I didn't have electricity anyway. Don't have a register. I do have quite a few boards left over that I could use to build a free standing shelf unit with multiple heights. Or something like that.


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## laughter777 (Jun 16, 2008)

I have no real knowledge on this, but is it rude to put your soap in the bathrooms at these places (like have samples in there) they use it...like it...find you! Is that something someone could do at a larger show...say like the stuff they do here in Houston at the George r Brown etc where they have indoor potties not porta cans


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Not sure how many people would try a used bar soap that way. I have seen liquid soap bottles and lotions done that way though.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

My daughter used to put samples in the bathrooms, with our business cards and booth number. We stopped that when we realized at every show somebody would take all of them and stick them in their pocket. We had several of our loyal customers tell us that they saw people do that.

We see lots of business from handing out samples. Definitely worth doing when you're breaking into a new market. We only hand out one type of sample. If somebody wants a particular scent, they're going to have to buy that bar. No taking a free sample of it and walking away. We do not bother bagging the samples. Just keep them in a basket, and hand people a card as we give them our 1 sentence short sell. I want everyone who leaves our booth to know 3 things: 1) we make the soap ourselves; 2) we use milk from our own dairy goats; 3) goat milk soap will moisturize their skin the way regular soap can't. If they are still around after that, then we start to engage them more.

I completely agree with Lee. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to determine which shows are the right ones for you. You can get suggestions from other vendors, but the only way to know is to find out for yourself. In our area, most vendors are reporting that their sales are down 30-50% from last year. We have our first repeat show coming up this weekend. I'm very curious to see whether we will make more or less than last year.

As for internet sales - you need to push people to your site, and the best way to do that is by getting your soap, your samples, and your business cards into people's hands at shows. Right now, if you type "goat milk soap" into google, we are in the number 3 spot. That's not our normal spot, we're usually number 5, but right now we've bumped up to number 3. I can tell you that we average ~1 internet order a day from google searches. That is the minority of our internet sales. The majority comes from craft show customers and customers that have gotten our soap from a friend. Keep soaping, keep getting your soap out there, and you will get loyal customers and they will get new customers for you.

I'm not negating google search engine. I'd love to be in the number one spot instead of Alabu. I'm extremely curious to know how many orders they get from being there. But I do not devote much time to our search engine ranking. I devote it to getting more of our great soap into the hands of our great soap customers. 

Anita - $148 is disappointing, but you've got to look at it as an advertising investment and not just profit. If you really want this to be a successful business, it really is true that it takes 1-2 years to turn a profit. We make more money than I ever thought possible. But it's just as true that we spend more money doing it than I ever thought possible.

PJ


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## laughter777 (Jun 16, 2008)

Have a basket of samples, kinda of use once size or something.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Thought of this thread this past weekend while at a festival in a hotel convention center.
One of the gals that makes body products put her things out for people to use WITH a beautiful poster that was laminated for waterproofing that listed her products and prices and booth number. People were very intrigued and she sold out! This was in a dream bathroom tho- unreal granite counters and all the latest. A perfect showcase place. 
It was a busy weekend for all so I guess we are back to stimulating the economy!
Thank goodness I can go buy more goat feed!
Lee


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

pj, how come your website is not listed? I'd like to see it!


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Yes it is, Anita. 
www.goatmilkstuff.com


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

We just had a show yesterday. For our Holistic Fair we had half the normal business. Ours being the only soaper booth we did well. But still not up to the normal flow. Our economy has gotten a bit more conservative. I am just glad we don't have a jewelry booth. Far too many of them and many didn't sell a thing.

I placed some soaps in certain places to see how well they would sell. Dragon's Wood went up front along with the new rose. Both did well, last year the Dragon's Wood didn't sell as well. I also placed the ones I didn't have alot of and knew certain patrons would want way in the back. I was right, they went looking

Lindsey did alot more of the sales this year, very good at it. I never knew simplicity sells :biggrin. Her slogan is "We own the goats, we milk the goats, we make the soap". It sold over and over!!! Love my sales person 

Color is another thing that I have found makes a difference. Keep your display in pastels or mellow colors. Very interesting to watch the crowds skirt around the vibrant bold oranges and yellows. And scent too We had Carters Health Foods set up next to us again this year making healthy muffins (Yummy by the way!). The crowds from there came over to our booth or vica versa. We like our corner
Tam


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## mamatomany (Aug 7, 2008)

Very interesting everyone  I think "shows" are a ton of work, but it gives me an opportunity to talk to adults! I have a very outgoing personality and can talk with anyone about anything, but I still have to "practice" you still have to have a few lines that you throw out. I have to re-memorize my lines before I present my stuff. This weekend I also am doing a Woman of The Word Conference. I'm excited, yet the word is tremendous...I have already blown a heat gun! I'm thankful for my children's help it is truly a family business. I have a very detail oriented 9 year old, he puts all my labels on...not one is off center. My 12 year old stuffs and mixes and squeezes and stirs...Fun...Although what they sell, they get to keep  so there is some good movitivaton there.


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