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I do a lot of trade shows in the course of a year.  I meet a lot of people and one of the most often asked questions is “You’ll be back next year, won’t you?”  or some variation on that theme.  I will usually smile and say “Yes, “or “Hope to,” or something similar.   But, depending on the sales of the day or the show, what I’m really thinking is “Only if you buy something.”

Here is the unpublished truth.  If a vendor doesn’t have a good show this year, they won’t be back next year. There’s no money in it.  The cold, hard truth is that for most vendors this is how they make their living.  They have bills to pay and just breaking even isn’t good enough.  They have to make money.

Trade shows are not for the squeamish.  It’s a big gamble where lots of factors, that you have no control over, come together.  You have to hope that the organizer promoted the show so that people show up.  You have to hope that the weather is good.  That parking doesn’t suck.  That the local economy is sufficient to support a show.  That a previous show didn’t wipe out your potential customers’ funds.   That a “headliner” is really a good draw.  That their won’t be too much competition…etc..etc..etc.

Now, a vendor can research a lot of these things.  But when you are booking a show as much as a year in advance, some of those facts are just hard to come by.  Who knows if a freak snow storm will dump inches of the white stuff on Tucson and collapse all the show tents  trapping your product underneath the soggy mess (yup, this really happened).  Or that the town fathers didn’t decide to tear up the freeway at your particular exit.  Or that every one of your competitors are at the same show.

Show producers will lie to your face in order to sell another booth, so while they may have told you ‘no’ when you booked, it doesn’t keep them from booking after the fact.   And the costs for a show are far from obvious.  Most people don’t know what drayage is, but it can cost real money.  Drayage is what you pay to have your product moved from the loading dock to your booth.  Now some shows let you do it yourself and that is great.  But a lot of shows, especially ones where the “house” is unionized, charge by the hundredweight.  $75.00 per hundredweight with a 200 pound minimum is not uncommon.  And woe to the unsavvy vendor who has a 10 pound UPS box shipped to the convention center.  Drayage on that box would be $150.00.  First, because it’s considered a ‘load’ unto itself and second because of the 200 pound minimum.  These charges are on top of the charge for the booth, the separate charge for the table, the chair, the electricity, even having your trash picked up.  In essence it’s like moving into a very small apartment.   Ah, yes, let’s not forget the hotel, the food, the gas, the car and the separate show insurance that many shows now require.

By the time the door opens to the public the smallest of vendors could be out  several thousand dollars (yup, I said thousands!!)  So asking if we’re going to be back next year and then walking on without buying anything is a sure way to make sure that they don’t come back to the show.  If you want to see your favorite vendor again, buy something! Money speaks louder than words.

Karen at the Grand Canyon

I have been driving to the Best Bead Show in Tucson for about 5 years.  Recently it has been twice a year.  Both going and coming I see this exit sign that says “Grand Canyon.”   Last time I saw the Grand Canyon I was a teenager.  I didn’t really expect it to change much, but that sign kept talking to me.  The last time I went past it my son, Matt, was with me.  He was driving and saw the sign.  He looked over at me and said “Wanna go?” It was tempting, but there really wasn’t time.  So we drove past.

This year, Matt was going to help with the drive back from Tucson.  To sweeten the deal (and since it is terribly boring driving the same route over and over again, I needed a deal sweetener) I offered him a side trip to the Grand Canyon.    Off we went.

The drive to the South Rim should be done during the daytime.  We ended up doing the last 75 miles after dark and it is so far off the beaten track, it was spooky.    But there were a few humorous moments.  Notice this sign taken while buying gas in Flagstaff (or what we thought was Flagstaff).  It is totally for real.  No photo doctoring done here.  Now, I can appreciate that if it was light enough to know that there were railroad tracks nearby, knowing that there was no train noise might be helpful.  But we didn’t see any railroad tracks.  Nor did we see any Martians.  I keep thinking that maybe the local high school football team was “The Mighty Mighty Martians.”  Or maybe this area was known for UFOs.  A typo maybe?  But at 7PM in the evening this just struck me as hilarious.  And as a side note, gas is cheaper in Arizona than in California.

We stayed at a Best Western outside the front gate of the Grand Canyon National Park.  It was fabulous!  Lovely room and a full hot breakfast included!  Perfect.  Then we looked out the window and gasped.  It snowed during the night!  Not a lot, but enough that you couldn’t ignore it.  Full kudos to the Best Western again.  Complimentary snow scrapers for those of us who didn’t come prepared.

Poor snow covered van

For those of you who save your adventures for summertime and saner weather, you’re really missing out.  The Grand Canyon is besieged by visitors during the traditional vacation months.  But it is open 12 months of the year and I have to tell you it is fabulous to park in the parking spot nearest the Visitors Center.  Splendid to walk out to the vista point without roving bands of tourists swarming around you.  The day was cool, the weather clear as can be and the moment perfect.  We walked through the pines and it isn’t until the last minute that the trees part and the canyon just spreads out in front of you from horizon to horizon.  It was great to watch Matt’s face.  Pictures don’t do it justice.  It was fabulous.

Then Matt started in on the facts.  He’d studied the brochure the night before.  He knew them all.  The layers.  The years.  They type of rock and animals.  Did you know the Colorado River runs 277 miles through the Grand Canyon and is over a mile deep in spots?  Still, my favorite is “you can see it from space.”  Wow.

Grand Canyon

Occasionally someone will come up to me at a show and we’ll hit it off right away. Kindred spirits from the get go. That is how it was with Judy Gaffney and I. I introduced her to kumihimo at a trade show several years ago. She took to it with a passion! Since then we meet at trade shows regularly. She helps her daughter at the shows so we bump into each other often. While at the Best Bead Show in Tucson we bumped again. This time she said she had been making braids without a starting knot. “Oh” I said “I bet you’re folding the cord in half to make a finished end! Doesn’t that turn out neat?”

She shook her head no and said “I’m using an electrical tie.”

“Wow” I said enthusiastically, then thought about it for a second and said “How does that work?” And she showed me.

Instead of losing what might be around 24″ of cord in that beginning knot, she uses an electrical tie (used by law enforcement instead of hand cuffs) and holds the ends together with that. When a tie is pulled tight it is hard to get anything to pull through it.

Judy also likes to use an industrial clip (Home Depot here I come) to add a little weight at the bottom. Now Judy and I have had several discussions about whether to “weight” or not to “weight.” But she likes using it and so might you.  Big thanks to Judy Gaffney!

New decade… new website.

Accent Bead Design has been growing over the past years.  Last year saw the largest increase in sales and new users since we started the website.  We sell our products internationally.  We have a network of distributors and a great team of store owners who carry our products.  So it seemed like a good time to step up the website, become spider friendly (not the insect kind, but the search engine kind) and embrace the whole new e-commerce mentality.

I’ve never blogged before, so keep your expectations low.  This is a VERY small business.  Anything having to do with web presence and (oh,no!) social networking, falls to me.  Anyone who has met me knows that I’m a fairly social person with a little chatty cathy thrown in.  I’m passionate about what I do and I like to share it.  But formalized “social networking” just adds another big item to my already overloaded “To Do” list.   When people have asked, I said this blog should probably be named a rant.  At least, then, I might get some psychological benefit from venting my stress.   But we’ll try to stay positive.  It’s early still.