Taking Care of Business

If you’ve known me for a while, then you know I owned another business prior to With a Little Luxe. I ran an interior design and home staging business for three years. I walked away from that business because I needed to help with financially supporting my family and what I was doing wasn’t paying the bills. 

I returned to working in higher education, a career path I enjoyed and at a school I absolutely loved. Health issues got in the way, and I made the difficult decision to leave. While recovering from hysterectomy surgery, I had A LOT of time to think about my next move. 

I knew that because of my health issues, it would be next to impossible to work a regular 9-to-5 job. All my PTO (and then some) would go to doctor’s appointments and/or days in bed because of flare-ups. Long story short, I used that time to be incredibly intentional in building With a Little Luxe. 

I will say that running a product-based business like WLL is a whole different animal than running a service-based business. In the almost 6 months since my launch, I’ve learned so much. Here are my top takeaways:

Running a business is not for the faint of heart. Sure, I already knew this from my prior business, but it’s a very different feeling when you go from chasing individual people down via email/phone/Zoom to do a project vs. being a vendor at a market with tons of potential customers at your fingertips. You can literally go from one minute feeling like a market was a total bust and worrying about making back your vendor fee, to the next minute having a big sale that puts you over the hump. 

Case in point, a recent event. We crushed it at a similar event the weekend prior, so we went into the day with high hopes. But, my husband (aka Mr. WLL) and I had already been outside in the cold for a couple of hours and sales were minimal (as in not even close to half the vendor fee). Then, all of a sudden, three friends who we chatted with for a few minutes ended up getting us above and beyond our vendor fee and we were off to the races. 

I’m not a big fan of actual roller coasters because of the physical feeling of your stomach leaping into your throat when you go down fast, but I guess I’m here for the ride! 

Community Over Competition - ALWAYS. Again, I already knew this from my prior business, but this mantra is further ingrained with WLL. You are always going to have something that sets you apart from others that create the same things you do. I have done plenty of markets and pop-ups with other vendors who do watercolor art and/or sell greeting cards, stickers, and/or bookmarks. 

Here’s the thing. I’m not a gatekeeper, so someone else (in theory) could easily copy everything I do, down to the exact watercolor pencils I use to start most of my designs (Derwent or bust). But they’re not me and I’ll never try to be them.  I’ve talked with other artists who do watercolor about my methods and they’ve shared theirs. I’m always happy to lend a hand at an event if my neighbor needs their booth watched for a bathroom break or help with pickup if a display goes awry because of the wind outside (which it will, it’s happened to me plenty!). It’s so much better to build community with your fellow artists and creatives instead of trying to compete with them. You learn so much from each other and it’s always great to see a friendly face at a new event...which leads me to my next point.   

Not all events are created equal. I’ve had A LOT of experience with hosting events. Anything from a holiday gathering for family, to a birthday party for my son, to corporate workshops to college career fairs. I know that it takes a lot of time, preparation,  and organization for an event to run smoothly. And that sometimes, there are factors that are going to be out of your control…like a Nor’Easter coming through the day of your scheduled event. 

What I don't have much experience with is being on the other side as an attendee who paid money to be a vendor at an event and promote said event to their network. With that being said, I’ve experienced the gamut in the short time I’ve been an event vendor, from event organizers that I’m ride or die for, to those that I’ll tell other vendors to avoid like the plague. 

So what makes an event organizer a ride or die? The biggest thing for me is communication. Let me break down what I mean:

1. I hear back from them within a week or so as to whether or not I’ve been accepted to be part of their event. (Versus being “accepted” to an event I applied to months ago, haven’t heard a peep from since, and it’s 2 weeks before the event and I already have a completely different event lined up. Yup, that’s happened to me.)

2. Email communication regarding day-of logistics is sent in a timely manner and if I have questions, I can get an answer relatively quickly. For a recent event, I got an email with logistics that included my check-in time. I knew that I didn’t need that much time for setup, so I emailed them proposing a later time. They got back to me later that day agreeing to my new check-in time. (Side note: events with assigned, staggered check-ins are so freaking efficient!)

3. The event organizer is incredibly active on social media advertising the event. Not only that, but they take it a step further and do posts to promote/spotlight their vendors. 

4. They check in with you throughout the event to see how things are going and/or if you need anything. 

5. They say thank you either during the event or afterward, and ask for feedback about the event. (And they encourage you to be honest.) 

6. If something goes wrong (even if it’s something completely out of their control), they are up front about it and offer alternatives for next time. 

And what makes an event organizer one to stay away from? In short, not carrying out the types of communication I shared above. But I’d also add:

1. Trying multiple methods to get in touch with the event organizer and not hearing back from them.

2. The event organizer only promotes certain vendors and not others.

3. The event organizer does not check  in with you at all. In fact, they walk past your booth several times throughout the event without acknowledging you. 

I've had these three things happen with a singular event organizer who I’ve participated in multiple events with. I did this because I wanted to give them a chance. But, suffice to say, I will no longer be participating in any of their events, and have lost a significant amount of money by trying to give them that chance. Maybe that’s on me for being too nice of a person. And yes, I’m too nice of a person to put them on blast by specifically calling them out by name in this post. But….if you really want to know, and you’re a fellow vendor, message me. I’ll give you the full lowdown. Because, again, I’m not a gatekeeper and I want small businesses to succeed. 

So, there you have it. If you’ve been a vendor at events, do you agree with my observations? Is there anything you would add? Let me know!