Wow! What a year!
So many exciting things happened this year that I feel like it should really be 2 years, or at least much more than only 365 days. There's no way for me to pack the entire year into one post, but I would like to share a few pictures from my last show of the year. This was at the Women's Art Festival in Minneapolis on Sat.
As usual, my Mom and I had a blast together!
At 4 am when we were driving into the cities (in a thick blanket of fog) I was contemplating making this my last show ever. But my Mom talked me out of it. It's a lot of fun for us to spend 8 hours of uninterrupted time together. When and where else do you get to do that?!
So I will be applying to shows for 2015.
Maybe not quite as many shows....but we'll see what happens in 2015. Last year I never would have guessed the leaps and bounds that my little business would make one year, so you just never know what will happen!
With every show that I did this year, I felt more prepared and it was less work and more fun.
At this last show, I added little toothpick signs to each of the soaps. The signs helped customers to see at a (quick) glance which soaps were made with Minnesota goat milk, MN beer or vegan. We still explained the products to the customers, but this way, if we were helping a customer, people could still shop and have some idea of which type of soaps they were looking at.
I need to remember that not everyone can look at a bar of soap and know what I put into it! I made them all, so that's why I know each of them - like they were my babies!
This is the first time (this year) that we brought the shelving unit to a show. This little shelf has been hanging out in storage since 2013 when I used it at the farmer's market. I stopped using it there, because of the wind and its propensity for tipping over!
It was AMAZING at the show on Sat. Worked great! People could see all the lotions and easily access them. My Mom loves to talk about the lotions, so she was able to stand behind the little shelf and answer any questions or offer lotion samples to anyone walking by.
I sold out of almost all of my lotion! I brought home a lot of empty boxes. Yay!
One of our best sales 'tricks' for the lotion is to offer a sample and tell the customer to walk around the show. We tell them if they walk around and they think the lotion feels good, then they should come back. Almost 100% come back to buy and they bring their friends. Of the percentage that don't come back, some of them will message me the day after the sale and ask where they can get that wonderful lotion! LOL!
I really like the lotion recipe that I have created, so of course I'm a fan of my lotion, but it sure is fun to see that other people like it too :)
This year I made over 100 different type of soap. This meant that at all the shows I did this year, I was able to bring a few new soaps to every show. I think it's important to always be developing something new. Not only for the customer, but I do it for myself too. I didn't start making soap to be UN-creative. I want to BE creative and have fun. If I just make the same thing over and over again, I will very quickly lose my joy and interest in my products. If you don't love your own products, how can you expect other people to love them?
So I make crazy soaps and stay happy!
This is our booth after the show. Clean up time!
Thank you to all of the wonderful people I have met this year through my little business!!!
All my fun customers!
And all the amazing other crafts people!
Thank you for a perfect year!
Can't wait to see what happens in 2015!
