Lessons from Seasonal Boutiques

I just finished my second seasonal boutique tonight for my kids’ retail business, sweet & charming and I’m exhausted. (If you want to see boutique experience #1 click here.) Honestly setting up/taking down a temporary boutique is enough work to never do it again. I made some money, but the hassle of it makes me wonder…should I do this again? Or should I do it better/smarter?

Here is what I learned:

• Always bring someone with you to help set up/take down your booth. For various reasons I had to set up and take down the booth by myself and I don’t care if you are taller than me and stronger than me, you should bring someone to help set up a booth. Even though there were men willing to help me out, I would have felt better if I didn’t feel that I was taking them away from their own booth set up/take down
• Always bring proper tools and equipment I lucked out because I was able to borrow wire cutters, scissors, and an electric screw driver, but next time I will bring my own
• Always bring a dolly cart I brought one for set up but forgot it for take down and it made a huge difference
• Don’t attach your booth to another vendor’s booth Unfortunately my booth fell down twice during set up and I was really lucky not to get hurt (although it scared me!) I was fortunate that we were able to attach the booth to some other booths to strengthen it for the duration of the show, but in the end I wouldn’t do that again, one of the vendor’s booth got slightly damaged because of the screw attaching our booths
• Return to the show as often as possible to restock; I was out of town for 2 days of the 4 day event and I may have missed some sales because my booth inventory sold out of several items
• Always check your family calendar before committing to an event as well as your own; My husband went out of town for 3 of the days and it make the experience more challenging

Here is what I felt went well:

• Increased inventory to meet the demand for boys; the previous boutique had an over abundance of girl-related products and my boy items did well because there wasn’t anything for grandmas to buy grandsons and for boys shopping with their allowance money to buy anything…so I purchased plenty of boy-related product priced $11 and under and it all sold out.
• Gave low cost product as a thank you to older kids who helped me carry boxes and set up my booth; I only gave away $3 in product, but they loved their “tips”
• Traded product with other vendors who I wanted to buy from; this was great because we both enjoyed the benefits
• Left Kids at Home during set up/take down times some vendors had kids who were old enough to help, but my kids are not old enough to help, so it was wise that they stayed home
• Listened to what vendors and customers said about our product and display I learned that I should have even more boy products available and
• Talked to the Pros I spoke with one vendor who does many shows and has her systems in place, she gave me some great ideas and advice about other shows to participate in, she made $70,000 in 2 days at “Swiss Days” last year and bought a BMW in cash after! WOW>

I’m doubtful that I’ll do another show in the Summer or Fall because I want to put my efforts here now and build Start Up Princess, but I’m glad I got to participate in the show this Spring twice. Anyone want to buy my booth grid? I’ll help you move it out of my garage!