It's almost Expo Mom!!! Nope we are not joining this time. But I am sharing this post because I owe one mompreneur.
At the very last minute, we joined Mommy Mundo's Expo Kid event last March in Rockwell. The first thing I did after confirming our slot was google up " bazaar 101, bazaar for dummies, bazaar tips, etc." but nothing substantial showed up.
Sharing with you some practical notes I gained during the activity:
1. Get a booth early. Simple. So you can choose your spot well.
2. BARYA. Pambalot. Calling cards. Flyers. Thanks for this tip, Love and William!
Prepare lots of change and make sure you have packaging materials. Be eco-friendly. Get paper bags or reusable bags if possible. And always ask buyers if they need one. Many would decline anyway. You can never have enough flyers and calling cards! Bazaars, beyond the sales, are a good venue to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and new markets :)
3. Know in advance what to expect of your booth. I was shocked to find out that it was a bare space we were renting!! Good
thing, we were adjacent to Stork Studio's nice sturdy wall, and the wooden toy stalls
somehow "framed" everything well. Take this into consideration, so that your
display would be nice :)
4. Plan your store layout properly. I had tons of stuff barely able to fit in the little space. Twenty minutes before opening, my booth was still a complete chaos! I have to credit my suppliers for helping me out before I froze in panic.
I was hoping buyers would come in to see more stuff inside my booth. But most didn't!! So display all your stuff well and don't expect people to really come in. They have a very short attention span too. So display your best in front!
5. Make sure that your brand is visible so that people can easily identify you. But because I didn't know #5, I wasn't even able to make use of my standee.
6. BE ORGANIZED. In our case, it's just 2 people allowed to man the booth because the space was limited. It was me, my husband and my sister rotating and taking turns with Caleb. There were times when foot traffic was overwhelming and it got a little bit confusing.
Suggestions: Keep an area or a box for essential items (like ORs, packaging materials, pens, inventory lists) so you won't need to scurry for their whereabouts. Prepare an easy system to track down your sales. My supplier suggested to list down all the items in stock and tick beside it for every item sold. This worked for us. The person who received the money did the ticking so that there's no duplication.
7. I suggest you keep the cash close to you by all means. It may not be the most fashion-forward thing to do, but a belt bag or something like it is convenient.
8. If you are a breastfeeding mom, it may be convenient to pump ahead (I didn't! Didn't expect to be busy the whole day!). Isotonic drinks, granola bars and wipes for freshening up would also be great. The Expo Kid bazaar was such a hit that I was only able to step out of the booth to breastfeed and change my baby's cloth diapers. We also just took turns eating our lunch. I didn't even pee the whole day!! (oops, too much disclosure)
9. Document. If we had good photos, this article could have been more interesting. Haha! Don't forget to take pictures, and grab photo ops that would boost your credibility.
10. Have FUN!! Don't be shy to talk talk talk! And don't feel bad if the sales doesn't turn out as well as you have expected. My suppliers cautioned me on dull moments - that the ROI will come in later, especially if the bazaar organizer is really good in promoting the event! (THIS IS SO TRUE!) Don't be overly concerned about the sales, but try to sincerely connect and share, and the sales will follow. Thanks Mommy Mundo!!
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Ok no pictures and no linkies because this was written in haste. Apologies for that. If I have not put you to sleep and have come this far , you probably need this for your first bazaar. Go and have fun!!
OR you're a professional mompreneur!! Any tips to add for the rookies ? :)
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