Wednesday, November 3, 2010

One Table, No Problem!

Designed by Audrey will have a booth on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at the Holiday Food and Fitness Expo which will take place at the Prince Georges County Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, MD from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Up until this event, I have done only outdoor events in a 10 x 10 space with two to three tables and a couple of racks – space to spread out.  This time out I will be doing it all on one table.  I did a dry run which I will share.

 
Since I can't spread out without doubling my expense, I had to come up with a way to expand the display space on the standard 6' table that is being supplied.  I normally use risers for height and interest, but this time they will perform double duty.  To accomplish this I purchased a plain white 24" x 12" shoe rack that has one shelf.  The rack gives me the height and interest I need in the middle of the table and an added bonus of two additional display areas below.  With this set up, I am able to beautifully display 30 necklace and earring sets, 75 pairs of earrings, 6 eyeglass holders, 18 bracelet and earring sets, 12 key rings, 16 rings and 6 bookmarks with quite a bit of room left in the front of the table for my business cards and holiday gift idea brochures.  I found the shoe rack at Target for less than $10.  I purchased a few battery operated lights that swivel that I will use to highlight specific items.


As usual, I will have two TV tables on hand – one for my laptop and paper work and the other to be used to make adjustments to earrings.  I sell a lot of earrings at these types of events because I am set up to make earrings on the spot (if it is not too busy) or to change out the ear wire on all of the earrings (except kidney wire) to clip on.  And for an additional fee I change out the silver and gold plated metals for silver and gold-filled wire.  I keep all other supplies under the table in binds.

 

In the pass I missed out on sales because I was not set up to accept credit cards.  However, I am all set with my new Propay account and card reader!  For vendors who have shops on Etsy, the costs for an account is $29.00 – half the price of the basic account.  


Well that's all for now for there is lots more to do – I have to tweak the table a bit more, then I will be printing inventory lists, business cards, the various labels for my gift boxes, bags and receipts and finally packing up everything for transporting. 

If you live in the Washington, DC metro area, come out and support this wonderful event.  All items displayed in this blog and many more are all for sale in my on-line shops on Artfire at www.DesignedbyAudrey.Artfire.com  or on Esty at  www.DesignedbyAudrey.Etsy.com.