That’s a wrap…goodbye Myrtle Beach!
Five days, 450 miles (9.9 miles to a gallon in the Silverado pulling the trailer, ugh!), 4 nights in a hotel (and not a very nice one), booth fee, extra parking passes, several restaurants to eat, 5+ hours to set up, 22 hours of selling, 3 hours to pack up, and never did we see the ocean or the sand. There’s a lot that goes into these road shows, and you just never know what the crowd is going to be. Will there be a lot of people? Just a few? Why would people come to this show when they could be on the beach? Is this the right market for us? Do we have items that will interest those that come? Will we sell anything? Is this our target market/demographic? Will the often repeated line of “they’re too pretty to cut on” lead to our doom?
If we truly step back and look at the numbers, given the investment of money, time, and travel - the ROI isn’t that great. So what positives can we find? We spoke with a lot of great people. We have one custom order we’re working on to fulfill (with the potential of a couple more). We met some new vendors on the circuit and shared some positives and opportunities we’ve all encountered. We distributed a lot of business cards and at least got the Design and Refine Woodworks name out there a bit more. But the best part of this trip was it was the first time both of our girls were with us on a road trip for most of the time - and that’s hard to put a dollar figure on.
Most of the vendors we spoke with had very nice, handcrafted and “professional” products for sale. I’m talking pottery individuals that have their own studios and kilns; artists with not only hand painted but also lithographs of their work for sale. We met an incredible glass artist that had some amazing talent, and several others which for them - this is their livelihood, not just a side job. All of us had struggles for the weekend. So much, we were all praying for rain Sunday hoping that would drive people to visit the indoor show! It wasn’t our products collectively, and, as artisans ourselves, products were priced very fair. Like most events, we had several people tell us our prices were too low for the work that goes into it. We agree, but the market yields what the market yields at times. There were several things that we and the other artisans picked up on, but here is what really is starting to hit home for us. Not only did we see this in Myrtle Beach, but we also saw it in Greensboro last November. There are 2 options for us - we can say that ROI and revenue generation is our prime focus, and lower the quality of our products and look more like a beach souvenir shop; or, we stay true to our name - Design and Refine Woodworks - and our branding. Almost every business major, entrepreneur, and successful business owner would overwhelming go for option one - degrade your product in return for more sales. John Deere did it - I mean you know the JD equipment you get at Home Depot is not the same quality you get from a JD dealer, right? FACT. Cub Cadet did it - same deal. FACT. You think businesses don’t sell out to Wal-Mart? FACT. Or, we continue to believe in what we do, continue to seek and find our target/core market, and provide the best product we can at the best possible price. Will we lose easy sales? Yep. But we’re not willing to lose our reputation. We may only be 5+ years old as an official company, but we’re 41 years in the making. Almost every week, someone stops in to see us at the Farmer’s Market to tell us how much they love something they purchased from us. Just a couple of weeks ago, an individual reached out - said someone told him they saw us at the market and our products looked great, and they want to do a custom piece - and they’ve never seen a single item of ours. We have several repeat customers, who will just stop by to say hello, and then start selling our products to customers for us - you can’t buy that publicity. If your products can speak for themselves, and your customers speak for you, then you better listen. There is only one options for us. We will never lessen our quality standards, because our customers deserve our best.
From here, it’s back to the Farmer’s market, Saturday mornings when we’re not traveling or bad weather occurs. We look forward to Roanoke, VA in October, Richmond, VA early November, and capping the year off Thanksgiving weekend in Greensboro. We’re thankful that we get to do something we enjoy, something that gives us a creative outlet, and something we get to control. Will we ever have an annual revenue of 6 figures? Sure, if you count the two numbers after the decimal point! That’s the beauty here - no shareholders to please - just a husband and wife doing it their way and trying to spread some joy to others along the way. If you’re purchased from us - thank you. If you’re a repeat customer - thank you. If you’ve seen us in person and gave a compliment on our products - thank you. If you’ve never bought anything from us - thank you because you’re on our website reading this and the shop tab is right there! If you’ve liked/shared our posts on Facebook or Instagram - thank you. If you’re a fellow small business and you’ve promoted us (Yeah Crooked Pine and Timber and Through the Looking Glass Photography to name a couple) - thank you. If you’ve served or are serving in the military - thank you - because you gave us the ability to live out a bit of a dream, and protected our freedom to do so. And finally, thank you Lord for the talents you have given us - may we use them to bless others.
