Hi everyone! I'm back with the third installment of this NSS re-cap series. It's been fun putting our experience into words and photos and hearing back from those of you who have been following along. Today we'll go over what can be a scary aspect of exhibiting, the budget! Don't let the numbers intimidate you too much though. Keep in mind that this show is an investment and may be some of the best marketing dollars you'll spend. Hopefully you'll leave with much more than simply marketing, but as mentioned in parts ONE and TWO you can't come in expecting to make it all back in one show. If you do, then awesome!

In lieu of writing out another word-heavy post like part TWO I decided to put the data into a little infographic complete with pie chart (I've always wanted to make one and have never needed to) alongside the overall budget percentages and what those represent. I've heard that first time exhibitors spend anywhere from $7k- $12k their first year. I've gathered this from webinars from the TradeShow Camp along with talking to other exhibitors. Well, how much did you guys spend you ask? Let's just say we fell somewhere in the middle, toward the lower end. 

Some other things to keep in mind as you process the info below:

1. We travelled to the show from California, so we had to account for flights for two people and accommodations. We crashed with a friend for a few nights during setup, but then stayed in a hotel for the actual show, hence the hotel for 4 nights. If you're driving in or staying with friends or family the entire time, your percentages may be vastly different from ours when it comes to travel and lodging.

2. This chart does NOT take into consideration the costs to produce your products and samples for the show. That can be a huge chunk, especially due to minimums if you outsource, so keep that all in mind when it comes to your total spending.

3. We "rented" foam walls from a third party company and had them installed. In terms of dollar signs, this falls squarely in the middle with two dollar signs, $$. You'll pay much more to rent their hardwood walls, $$$. If you are able to arrange for your own foam walls or use lightweight coverings you're looking at spending less, $. Keep in mind you'll have to install your wall coverings or boards if you don't elect to use a third party and there are those crazy union labor rules. Another option is to build your own walls, which is an initial investment that can be re-used in the long run, but you'll have to ship them (or drive them in) so you should expect to see your shipping percentage increase quite a bit. The only items we shipped were our floor tiles (heavy box), our shelves (long box), and then a few USPS boxes (priority mail) of booth supplies, tools, and some heavier marketing items like catalogs and press kits.

4. Since we showed both of our brands at our very first tradeshow, sass&peril and The Paper Cub Co., we had two catalogs, two sets of business cards, and two set of vinyl signs. This increased our marketing materials percentage a bit.

Ok, I think that is enough explaining! I hope this chart will be useful for you and give you a real picture of what goes into these types of shows from a financial standpoint. I will be back next week with the fourth and final installment covering our final thoughts on the show and if we met our goals and expectations. 

I am back today with Part TWO of our NSS coverage. I’ll be sharing our experiences during the show itself so make sure you go check out Part ONE if you haven’t yet. Get ready...it’s about to get wordy! 

The show officially runs Sunday-Tuesday from 9-6 and on Wednesday from 9-12. I assume it starts on a Sunday to include a weekend day for those who cannot make it during the week? From what we had heard, many non-corporate retailers and smaller shops walked the show on Sunday, and more corporate shops or bigger shops come on the weekdays. Before I get into the breakdown of each day, let me first say that prior to the show we sent out pre-show mailers to shops and bloggers inviting them to visit our booth and check out the line. 

We ended up mailing out around 135 of these to various levels of retailers and a few of our favorite bloggers and media. Not only does this let them know where you’ll be at the show and gives them a glimpse of your line, but it allows them to do some research on your products and brand prior to the show. I had mine digitally printed so I could showcase photos of the products, and then I screenprinted a polka dot design in mint and a "hello" script in black. The entire spread was scored to z-fold down to an A2 size so that it looked like a greeting card. You want to be sure to capture the recipient's attention and show what you do, but forst and foremost include your booth number and contact info.

Sunday morning was off to a bit of a slow start and then out of nowhere buyers and members of the media began to fill up the aisles. Our first few visitors to the booth happened to be recipients of our pre-show mailers! We could tell that they had done their homework because many of them were ready to write orders right away once they had an opportunity to see and feel our products. So why go all the way to New York if they were planning on ordering anyway you ask? Sure, buyers could just view a PDF of your collection online and place an order, but the reason we as exhibitors and they as attendees travel to the show is to have not only face time and to market yourself, but for products to be touched and seen in person. It really makes a difference especially with items that involve screenprinting, letterpress, and embellishments. Plus it shows you’re legit and professional enough to take such a huge step. A few questions that many buyers had for us were the following:

• What is your opening order amount?

• What is your turnaround?

• Where are you based out of?

We found it helpful to be prepared for such questions and more. It is also helpful to have a pitch ready as many times those buyers walking in were not on your mailing list and/or may have not heard of you before. We definitely gave them space to look around but always greeted them and let them know what printing methods we use (screenprinting) as this set us apart from other brands at the show. Some buyers are chatty, some are not. Some just want to look and take your card, some look and want a catalog, some will sit and write orders. I found that you can’t be offended if they look and walk away because many come back the next day! This is a HUGE show with hundreds of booths and if it felt massive to me, it must be overwhelming to buyers. I noticed many people making lists and then going back to those booths they jotted down once they walked the entire show. If they don’t come back or walk by without stopping in your booth then you can’t dwell on it. Not every shop is going to be a good fit. And your goal should be to establish accounts that you can continue to work with, not just taking one order. Also keep in mind shops have a budget and limited shelf space. And who is to say they won’t place an order with you after the show? Give them a card or a catalog and stay positive and open-minded. Another thing we kept in mind as first time exhibitors is that some shops are wary of taking on newer lines and instead they opt for brands that have been at the show before. It’s nothing personal, it is a business and they may not want to risk an order with a brand that may not be around the following year. We found it helpful that we were also showing not only The Paper Cub Co., our greetings line, but also our gift line, sass&peril, because we have been wholesaling those products for a few years now. So we were new to the show, but not new to wholesaling. There is no magic number for the amount of orders you should write at the show. As a first timer you may not, and probably won’t, make your investment back at the show itself so keep that in mind as you set your budget. The real work begins after the show, making sure to follow up on leads, continuing to market yourself, and first and foremost attending to your accounts you established at the show. Eventually, those numbers start to even out as you grow. There is a reason that brands continue to do this show every year, right? At some point you start to recoup those expenses.

Going back to the topic of questions, there will always be some questions that you just were not prepared for. We got a lot of licensing inquires for sass&peril, and honestly, I didn’t really have a solid answer prepared in that moment. Best thing to do is take a business card and follow up after the show that way you have time to think and discuss these types of things. Another point of hesitation for us was boxed sets for our TPC cards. This was something we had thought about but didn’t have a structure in place for. But hey, it is a great opportunity to get opinions of people who run shops and have first hand experience of buying them! Take advantage of their knowledge, being respectful of their time, of course.

Sunday went well overall, being the first day of our first ever tradeshow I’d say it was a smashing success! We started off a bit nervous but as the hours passed and we talked and wrote orders more we were able to shake that off. It was fun talking about our line, I mean why not!? We were proud of what we did and were happy to share it with visitors to our booth. Many were shocked that it was our first year, which we took as a huge compliment. I owe that to being prepared and doing the proper research prior to the show. (And TSBC!) 

Monday and Tuesday were a blur. A good blur, but exhausting nonetheless. These days were jam packed with not only buyers (that's Ami and Liz from Mac & Murphy and Danni from Oh, Hello Friend above), but also bloggers, suppliers, and even prospective exhibitors and students walking the show. We did the bulk of our order writing on these two days. I heard from some exhibitors that Tuesday was slow for them, but I think it is because the crowds made their way from one section of booths to another each day. These must have been the days that these crowds occupied our section of the show! There were some lulls as most of the attendees came in waves, picture 5-10 people in your booth all at once, then none. On that note, I am glad that Cesar was as adept at taking orders as I was because we both were filling our order forms with different buyers simultaneously at one point. Over these two days we got orders, media coverage, licensing inquiries, requests for info from some big box stores, connected with fellow printers and designers, and much more. Exactly why we were at the show to begin with! Check out Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper and Kelly from Studio DIY doing their thing below :)

To say we were utterly wiped after each day of the show would be an understatement. I am so glad we chose to stay in a hotel within walking distance of Javits during the show because all we wanted to do was go back to our room, put our feet up, and relax. At least until we got our second wind and went adventuring, mainly to find food and libations :) The hotel was not cheap, this is NYC people, but we figured we’d be saving on transportation to and from our friend’s place in Brooklyn. Also it is nice to have a quiet, private place to unwind after each day. We booked it through the show managment so I'd like to think we got a deal. It was so worth it, really.

Tuesday evening we had the pleasure of attending a get together hosted by Etsy and also the Paper Party hosted by Oh So Beautiful Paper! That was a fun night just networking, letting loose, and hanging out with our new paper pals :)

Wednesday was the last day at the show, which was from 9-12 Noon, just a mere 3 hours worth of show time. It sounds odd, but there are last minute catalog and business card grabs for those who didn’t have enough time to fully see your booth and collections. Plus you never know who might walk in 10 minutes until noon. You've got to be on your A-game during those short hours!

Tear down begins promptly at noon, and boy do those booths come down faster than they were put up! It is quite hilarious. For the most part everyone is exhausted, looking forward to getting home, and ready to start fulfilling those orders! I think we were done at around 2:30, but that is also due in part to not having any walls to ship back. If you ship your own walls or use a crate you've got to stick around and wait until the Javits workers bring it to your booth. So with suitcases stuffed, we dropped off some of our boxes to the Fed Ex kiosk that we needed to ship back home, then we were off to the airport. Just like that!

Part THREE will be coming up next with the financial breakdown of the show and a few thoughts on budgeting. I’ll also discuss our goals going into the show and if we met them. I hope you’re enjoying this series of posts! If you have any questions or comments on things I covered or didn't cover, feel free to leave them below.

I'm taking a short break from printing (ok, truth is I actually ran out of paper) so I wanted to dive into my coverage from NSS! I know many of you are wondering how it all went down so I decided to spread the knowledge and do a series of posts from my experience at the show. I've even given it a handy-dandy little tag so you can pull up all the posts at once when I am done. 

So here we go!

Part ONE will cover our arrival, some shots from around NYC, and our booth images, along with a few points on getting here and setting up. My goal is that I will be able to shed some light on our experience as first time exhibitors. You might hear me mention this a lot but without a doubt the Tradeshow Bootcamp courses were instrumental in our success at this show. I highly recommend signing up for their webinar series, which should roll around again in the Fall. If you are looking to get into tradeshows, I cannot recommend their services enough!

We arrived in NYC on a Wednesday before the show, which ran Sunday-Wednesday. This gave us plenty of time to get acclimated, explore the city with friends, and have some time to get all of our ducks in a row before the set up days. I've been to NYC a handful of times so I didn't take as many pictures of sights and scenes as I did in years past, but we always make it a point to visit Central Park. It is so breathtaking and feels like you are miles from the city, when in fact you are smack dab in the middle of it! This year the weather actually was on our side and we enjoyed California-like temps as we walked through the park.

We had been walking for a bit so we decided to stop and have a rest on a little grassy patch near the lake, it was so peaceful! I even managed to get somewhat close to a mama bird sitting on her nest in a nearby tree.

We literally just laid on the grass and I nearly fell asleep when we heard a bit of a commotion down by the water. Apparently, a couple that rented a row boat had flipped their's over and were just floating in the water!

The odd thing is they were in the water for what seemed like 20 minutes and weren't trying to get into other people's boats and no one was really trying to get them out. I assumed they were trying to recover their belongings from the lake? Well, then out of nowhere a cop in a boat came speeding toward them, full on row team style, and then a helicopter appeared, and ambulances and fire trucks came...it was nuts! The funniest part was while the boat cop was rowing toward the scene another cop on land was suiting up in a full wetsuit tied to a line and he flew into the water and started speed swimming toward the people in the water. I honestly couldn't believe that these people who were just sitting there bobbing in the water for 20 minutes had caused such a commotion! Other boaters were paddling by and taking pics of them and they weren't yelling for help or anything like that. People who had just walked up were asking us what happened and really it was nothing! Or so we thought. We found out from someone a little later walking away from the lake area that the man they "rescued" was naked!? Weird. So there was that moment of peace and then the craziness of the city reminded us where we were! Ah...New York.

It was nice to enjoy a couple days of hanging out with friends in Brooklyn and Manhattan before setup day for the show, which was Friday for us. We chose not to have a crate or palette shipped, but instead we opted to ship a few boxes to our friend's place and then take advantage of our checked bags for free deal with Jet Blue. Since we went with pre-installed walls, we didn't really need to worry with freight, but wrangling all those boxes and suitcases and getting them to the Javits Center definitely took a bit of planning.

When you arrive, if you did not arrange to have walls installed by a third party company like we did above, you walk into a space outfitted with pipe and drape, that's it! It is up to you to build it out and decorate it as you see fit. So now you can see how much work goes into all those incredible booths! We opted to use a company called Manny Stone for our walls. They do all the foamcore and some of the hardwood walls for this show. Our walls were 1/2" thick flame resistant foam core walls in white that they installed for us. As you can see they were up when we arrived with our stuff. Done! As a first time exhibitor this felt like the right choice for us. They are not cheap, but it was one less thing for us to worry about. I definitely see the advantages of building your own hardwood walls that you can re-use, you just have to ship them, install them yourself, and be good with measuring as you are essentially putting a box inside of a box. Oh, and you must build them so you won't need power tools to install them at Javits, not an easy task. A note on installation at the Javits Center, they use union labor so the list of things you as a non-union worker are not allowed to do far out lists the number of tasks you are allowed do. We were not allowed to hammer, stand on ladders or chairs of any kind, and we could not use any power tools. They are crazy about enforcing this stuff so we took heed, although we did stand on a chair to clip on our lights and even this was risky! If they catch you they could invoice you for the work they would have done had you hired them. Yikes!

Once we pieced together our faux wood floors (from company Soft Tiles that were a savior on our feet from standing for 3.5 days) we started hanging our shelving. We had purchased them, cut them to size, clear coated them, and attached the brackets at home before we shipped them out to NY. Again, the more you can do ahead of time, especially when it involves power tools, the better. We had tested this shelving setup using a store-bought piece of 1/2" thick foamcore and a couple of shelves under different types of lighting environments (think heat from the lamps) so we knew what type of screws we'd need for them to be secure in our walls. We essentially screwed them into the foam and they stayed put! Keep in mind, we only had lightweight cards on them. Obviously heavier items may cause the shelves to be less stable. I created a diagram on the computer of how I wanted everything in the booth to look and where I wanted it to go, and then I forgot it! No one will know but you so you have to just press on.

It is also helpful to have help! Cesar and I greatly appreciated the assistance from our friend Mike. He also let us crash at his apartment for a few nights prior to the show, and offered to let us ship packages to his place in advance. Also, helpful...ship a box of tools and hardware. Our level came in quite handy when installing the shelves. Pack all types of adhesives and attachment hardware. One of our rails for our tea towels was so much heavier than we anticipated so we had to use copious amounts of velcro and adhesives to help it stay up! There is a Home Depot on 23rd, but each little trip takes time and cab fare so the more you plan in advance and have on you, the better. Also, your neighbors will probably be amazing folks like ours were (shout out to Parrott Design, Letter and Lark, and ThimblePress!) and they'll help you out with things you might have forgotten or lend a helping hand. It is an incredibly amazing community. In terms of lighting, we were under the "low ceiling area" so with the lights being closer to our booth we opted for clamp on lights that we outfitted with halogen flood bulbs. There are a plethora of lighting options out there and Javits offers many to rent for the show, but they come with a hefty price tag. It is up to you, your budget, and your design, but overall I'm pretty happy with how the lighting turned out and we didn't spend a ton. Again, being under the lower ceiling helped us in the lighting department. See Cesar putting together that Ikea cabinet? We put together a wish-list from Ikea and had the furniture we wanted for our booth bought and delivered to Javits for us. We got together with a few exhibitors prior to the show to organize the service, and we were all able to split the delivery fee saving time and money. Another bonus of Tradeshow Bootcamp, the private Facebook group where you can converse with other exhibitors!

So all in all, we spent the two full days allotted for setup getting our booth together and completed, and we needed every bit of that time to complete our booth vision. I thought we could finish in a day, but give yourself time as there will always be issues you didn't expect. One of our issues was that the laborers did not run our power cord behind our foam walls so it was just sticking out in our booth, not pretty. We had to have a separate outlet configured right behind the top mid section of our booth and since the walls were already up, we were stuck with that cord all during the show. You can see it in the photo below although we tried to conceal it as best we could, but what are you going to do? Some things are just out of your control. Main lesson learned on that note is be flexible and roll with it.

I leave you with some images of the finished booth with both our brands on display and all ready for visitors on day one of the show! We are pretty pleased with how it all turned out :)

I love that panorama shot Cesar got on his phone, mine's a 4 and is not that fancy ;)

Coming up in Part TWO of this series will be our experience at the actual show itself and more. Part THREE I will dive into the financial cost of the show and a breakdown of how our money was spent.

Thanks for following along thus far and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below!

image of our California postcard available in The Paper Cub shop

I felt it necessary to write a post about the USPS postal increases set to take place here on the 27th of January. While the price of a stamp and most domestic bound rates are only going up slightly, First Class International packages, now called Package Service, will be seeing the biggest increase. And it's a big jump with 100% or more in some cases. This really bums me out because it will now cost more than the price of an item, in some cases, to ship it. Take our greeting cards, for example, it used to cost $4.56 to ship a card to the UK and Australia. We package them in flat rigid mailers with reinforcement, which makes them over .25" thick and is thus considered a "package". If we were to chuck it in a flat envelope that card would no doubt get damaged and bent. Now that same card weighing in at just 3 oz will cost $8.88 to ship. Insane, yes, but these are the times we live in. I just wanted to make sure that I gave all of you a fair warning. You've still got a few days to get your orders in before the prices skyrocket! More info here at the USPS site but it is vague at best. Etsy has put out a nice, readable chart with side by side comparisons of some of the new prices here although it only gives certain prices as examples. I will release more info when the prices go live so check the policies page for the new rates on the 27th.

I've got some exciting news to announce today! As mentioned before we've been working away at our new sister brand, The Paper Cub Co., which will be the new home for our greeting cards and stationery-type goods. Well, today we opened up for business on Etsy with the 2013 screenprinted Valentine's Day card collection! Eventually all of our greeting cards (besides those that match back to our animal screenprints) will be under The Paper Cub and moved over to the new shop, so make note. Our e-commerce site is still in the works but you can reach the shop by simply clicking "SHOP NOW" on The Paper Cub's website. 

There will be much, much more to come to please bookmark the new site and follow along on Twitter! 

sass&peril is searching for a Marketing Intern!

Overview:

We are looking for a creative and driven individual who wants to develop their marketing skills working for a small but growing product and design studio. For this internship, we are focusing on social media and online marketing. We’ve got some really exciting things in store for the 2012-2013 year and we are searching for some talent to help us spread the word! Best of all, you can work from home. We only ask that you attend a bi-weekly (or monthly, to be determined) meeting where we will sit down and create a plan for the coming months. 

Details:

The ideal candidate should be familiar with social media platforms, have an interest in design, be informed of current trends, and possess great writing skills. This position will require someone who is highly organized, outgoing, creative, and professional. Typical tasks will include the use of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, and regular posting to our blog. Knowledge of Adobe applications (Photoshop + Illustrator) is also a plus!

Please note that this is an internship preferably for those enrolled in college and who are earning college credit. This is an unpaid position. Hours are negotiable with a minimum of 10 hours a week and a 3-6 month commitment. Upon completion of the internship, a paid position will be considered.

How To Apply:

To be considered please email your cover letter explaining why you’d be a good candidate, your resume, and a link to or PDF (no larger than 8mb) of your work to jobs@sassandperil.com. IMPORTANT- Please use the subject line “Marketing Intern Position”.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!

So exactly one year ago today I wrote this post about taking the leap into self-employment. Has it been a YEAR already!? Well I am happy to be writing a follow up post to commemorate the day I jumped off of a sinking ship and onto a smaller, less stable but promising little boat. And by boat I am referring to sass&peril and that makes today a milestone, folks! One year ago I left the comfort and stability of my fulltime job to pursue a freelance career and focus more on my business. It has been a most wonderful year full of amazing experiences and rewarding moments. It has also been a year of lessons learned and while it has had many highs, there were inevitably a few lows. Let’s focus first on the highs, shall we?

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to thank everyone who has purchased something from my shop or at a show. I would also like to thank the shops that I work with and blogs, sites, (and TV shows!) that’ve featured my products for believing in what I do enough to support my work. Without everyone’s encouragement my success would not be possible. So thank you! I would consider this past year to be a huge success because I now head up a creative business where I get to make things I love. What’s even better is that you guys seem to like it too. Looking back to the very first Etsy sale I made, I was creating little felt items like keychains and pincushions and now three years later I have a growing line of screenprinted paper + textile goods. It's proven important to have a cohesive line of goods with a clear focus and to let those products develop organically. What’s also been important is that I’ve taken the time to educate myself on the business side of things in addition to honing my skills as a maker. This has proven vital to me in more ways than just getting organized for tax season. I’ve saturated myself with books on small businesses, read blog articles on staying organized, had conversations with small business owners about future growth and set some pretty great goals. I think I could honestly spend full days just working on the business side of things so it is important to strike a balance so that I can also get products designed and made! Not easy, let me tell you. On top of all this I am still working as a freelance Graphic Designer. I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a range of projects such as logos, patterns for apparel and décor, graphics for tee shirts, and even some blog and website work. I’m thankful for a great client base and for the opportunity to work with some wonderful companies and people. Of course as time goes on and the business grows I won’t be able to take on as many of these types of design jobs without help, but this was all part of my “master plan” when I left my fulltime job. It was crucial to have other stream of revenue available as I invested in and grew the business.

I made some mistakes, too, and have had to deal with the repercussions of them. I have done some not so great retail shows, have participated in promotions that were not good for my business, and made the unfortunate error of not copyrighting my work and having it infringed upon. But as with any experience good or bad you take something away from it and prevent the unsavory incidents from occurring again. It may seem like things are all rainbows and unicorns in the life of a business owner, but trust me there are periods of rejection and disappointment, feelings of inadequacy, creative blocks, financial concerns, and general feelings of unease. But you suck it up and move on because you want to succeed and you love what you do!

I have some amazing things planned for the rest of the year and on into 2013. I’m working on a new website and shop. I am also working on some new designs and different products to screenprint on. I am visiting a trade show in May with the hope of exhibiting at it  and other wholesale events the in the 2013 year. I’ve been in touch with some great media outlets and am also toying with the idea of opening a second division within sass&peril where I can take on more design projects as well as possibly hiring some help! While I still have many more things to learn and mistakes to make (and to thus grow from) I am delighted to be where I am at today. I’m not saying that I have it all figured out but I feel like I am on a great path and am excited to revisit this post this time next year. I'd love to share the knowledge I have in order to help others along their paths as well. If you have any questions for me please leave them in the comments section and I will try and answer them for you.

Thank you for reading and for taking part in this journey with me!

*edit*- There will be a new monthly series discussing business topics on this blog. I've even added a link icon over there in the sidebar so I am committed :)

Photo Credit- OMFGCO.- www.omfgco.com

Exciting news....I am now officially working for myself! Monday was my last day at my former employer, Vans, and I am now freelancing and working on my business, sass&peril, full-time! I am thrilled to have been able to be in the position to make this decision but it has certainly come with a lot of careful planning and research. What I would like to do is start a weekly post series giving others advice and insights on the self-employed life as well as chronicling my journey as an independent artist. I'd love it to be an open forum for discussion and questions. I'm not saying I have it all figured out, and I'm sure I will make mistakes along the way, but this is a very exciting time and I want others to be inspired to be able to take the leap as well. I'm still trying to decide what exactly to call the series, any suggestions are welcome!

And by the way, this blog post is heavily inspired by Etsy's very own feature series- Quit Your Day Job. I have been reading these articles for the past 2 years and they never fail to inspire and motivate me.

So I'm raising my coffee cup and saying "here's to a very productive, profitable, and promising future!"

CHEERS!

*EDIT*- So just as soon as I left the full-time scene I was offered an in-house part-time freelance contract that I just could not pass up! It's a great arrangement where I work 3-4 days a week and then have the other days to focus on the business. I feel this is a nice transition into full-on self-employment and will better prepare me for what lies ahead. I'm going to hold off on the business posts until my contract is up but there shall certainly be more to come!

*Edit numero dos!* - Business posts will resume in 2012! I've kicked it off with a reflection post and will continue to write business-related entries each month. I've even added a little link icon over there in the sidebar so I'm committing ;)