Pampered Shopping Boutique

This is kinda late in coming because I only just uploaded the pictures. I hosted the Pampered Shopping Boutique on Nov 11th and in total there were 11 of us (I forgot to get a pic of C.A. doing his chair massages). Our venue was a clubhouse at a condo complex in Scottsdale. The pic at right is Vicklet Creations...

...and Gurrlie Girl Fashion Jewelry & Accessories

This was the first time for me, so I had high expectations. We didn't have a lot of foot traffic, although we had some people come thru. We did everything we could to advertise:

~ sent out emails to friends and family
~ posted the event on Craigslist and other online newspaper event calendars
~ posted an annoucement on my blog, my monthly newsletter and in the Calendar sections of my websites.
~ left flyers all over the place.
~ handed out flyers while I was doing a booksigning event the week before
~ supplied the vendors with flyers so that they could pass them out to friends, family and co-workers.
~ posted a couple of flyers near the mailboxes at the complex.

And still one vendor--I'm not going to say who because I'm above all that--was ticked because she "paid all this money and nobody came."

Point One: The vendor fee was only $15.

Point Two: A few people came thru. Whether they bought anything or not, I don't know. I didn't make any sales and apparently, neither did she.

She left two hours later.

6 of us stayed later, ordered pizza, hung out and talked. During the course of our meal, it was revealed that the unhappy vendor had made some other pithy comments.

"You need to get your customers weeks in advance."

"She's the one who planned this whole thing. She should've taken care of all the advertising. We shouldn't be responsible for that." I'm sure this was in response to when I said:

"Did you not get the flyer I had included with the Vendor App?"

"We were supposed to pass those out? I never got one," she says in feigned innocence.

I know damn well everyone got one because anyone that showed an interest in being a vendor rec'd a Vendor Application and a flyer for the event. And when we re-did the flyer three times, I sent everyone an updated version to "distribute to friends, family and co-workers."

I politely--and professionally--thanked her for coming out and the only response I got was "Okay." As in, I-can't-believe-I-wasted-my-time-doing-this type of "okay." What. Ever. Take your negative vibes and be gone, please.

Needless to say, I will never be calling her again on a professional level. The one thing I've learned about being a business owner is that even though you may be part of an event--and the sponsor is taking care of the brunt of the advertising--you still need to do some on your own. Even if I get a big publishing house to buy my series, I know that I'm going to have to do some marketing of my own to get it noticed. I'm not sure how this woman sells her merchandise, but I guarantee she's not going to get any customers by just sitting on her ass and waiting for them to come to her.

For about 10 minutes it bothered me that we had this kind of negative energy at my event. And then I just let it go. Forcibly. Thankfully, not everyone felt the same:

Nikki from Soia Candles saw it as "getting the business name out there".

Erica is a Consultant for Gurrlie Girl Fashion Jewelry & Accessories (picture above). This shopping boutique was her first event and she liked that fact that she'd made other business connections.

Victoria from Vicklet Creations (top picture) would be willing to do it again.

One bad apple didn't spoil the bunch after all. It's just too bad that this person saw this experience as a failure instead of a success. I think it would've been a total loss if no one had showed up.

Then I would've proceeded to slit my wrists until I bled out. Kidding. Just kidding.

Next time, I'll know what to do better. To see more pictures from this event, go HERE.


If you want more info about the vendors in Flickr, let me know.

Labels: Calendar of Events