10/4/98
OK - Have to share the results that we had doing a small community fair this weekend. One
of my new consultants (that would be Mom - aka Karen!) did most of the work preparing
& manning the booth - it was very successful! Maybe it will help some of you as well.
First off - here is the email I had when I got home from the take-down of the booth last
night that initiated my response:
Belinda-
Hi! My name is Gerri, I'm part of the Happy Days Region and I'm in the Flames of Freedom
Unit. I was at the Holden Fair today and I saw your display and spoke briefly to your
mother. What I was interested in was this- How successful was your booth? Did you receive
any leads or bookings? I had thought of doing the same thing at Belton's Community Days,
but I honestly didn't know if it would be worth the cost of the booth space! So I am very
interested to know how well the booth and display was received. Thanks alot!
My reply:
Gee I wish I had seen you there! It was surprisingly worthwhile! Unfortunately, mom ended
up working most of it because my 6 year old really had very little interest in sitting in
a candle booth...not nearly as much fun as riding rides and winning over-priced plastic
blow-up toys...LOL!
The results were actually pretty staggering...we booked 9 shows solid - dated, hostess
coached, packets given out, etc. 7 of the 9 are before October 25. The other two are early
in November. We have over a hundred "surveys" to go through, all marked with
name, address, phone, favorite item on display, interest in booking or becoming a
consultant, and MANY referrals written on them! I have 6 names/numbers on my 2+2 chart to
call to set dates, they weren't ready to commit to a certain date at the fair. I gave out
3 very strong sponsor packets - 2 of which I feel extremely sure of...will follow up next
week to talk to them about the tote bag sponsor special this month...only one of those
three set firm dates for shows, and that one I feel about 95% sure will turn into a
starter show.
On the down side...when you do a public affair like this
you open yourself up to take responsibility for previous consultants irresponsibility...I
have three names of customers who had parties in the past 12 months with two different
consultants, who never received their merchandise and have been unable to contact the
consultant. Two of them even went home and brought back their receipts. So I made no
promises, but took their names & numbers, got as much info as I could, and gave them
my business card. I now need to follow up on these this week and see if anything can be
done. One came back today and booked a show for the 18th though!
MANY husbands came over to the booth dragging their wives...it was really amazing how
interested some of the men were in getting their wives to book a party. Two were
responsible for convincing the wives!
We held the two drawings at the grandstand around 9pm Saturday night, in front of a LARGE
crowd for the talent show...I got the microphone & everything, so got some great
advertisement for the
And more...
OK - you want MORE details? I can't take credit for all the work that went into this fair
booth - my mother, Karen (sponsor #3 - fully
qualified too yeah!), prepared the "surveys" and manned the booth many more
hours than I was able to.
As I am "cataloguing" the surveys in a database, I found that we have an
interesting number of potential sponsors...lots of phone follow up to do this week..
.
Anyway - Here is the way Karen prepared the surveys:
Name_______________________________________________________
Address_____________________________________________________
Phone_______________________________________________________
1. What if your favorite item(s) displayed?
2. What are your favorite candle scents?
3. Would you like to receive your favorite items FREE?
4. Do you have a friend who loves candles and would like to receive free candles?
You will receive a free gift from me when they book a party.
Name______________Name_______________Name___________________
Phone______________Phone_______________Phone___________________
5. Would you like to have fun & earn money at the same time?
6. Do you know anyone who is looking for an easy & fun way to earn money (full or
part-time). You will receive a very special gift from me if they become a consultant.
Name______________Name_______________Name___________________
Phone______________Phone_______________Phone___________________
Thank you for taking the time to answer our survey.
Out of 52 surveys;
7 wrote "me" under #6...(calls for an opportunity meeting don't you think?!)
14 referrals on #4
Overwhelming favorite item was the Lyrical Angel - this was the focal point of the display
all three days - (neither myself or mom have this year's angel yet...it's coming though!).
It was displayed on the Savoy Brass stand, in the middle of the Quartet, surrounded by the
new Pine 6" ring, with 4 Quilted Crystal Pair peglites in the Quartet. We burned
gardenia votives in the peglites - you cannot imagine how eye-catching this was at night
under a canopy on the street...the Quilted Crystal patterns "dance" upon the
angel - really a show-stopper.
Saturday we showed both sizes of the snowballs - very popular - as well as the Optic
Odyssey on the brass stand, in the middle of the Grand Royal Ring, with a bayberry votive
burning in it. We had most of the candles lit most of the time...even during the
rain...(buying a canopy was an excellent idea!!)
Good scents to burn outdoors...strawberry, honeydew (really strong!), gardenia, bayberry,
mulberry. As nice as the holiday spices is, it doesn't carry very well out in the open
like these other scents did, especially in a rainy, cold atmosphere (were you thinking we
had a nice weekend? wrong - it was about 55 degrees & rainy & windy the first two
days - Saturday was just gray, cool, & dreary - except in the
