Trade Show Magic – Get the Best Bang out of YOUR Trade Shows

Do you spend thousands of dollars attending trade shows, only to get poor results.  You start out with the best of intentions, great enthusiasm and even create a great exhibit to attract visitors.  Yet, when the results are tabulated, the financial rewards are difficult to calculate.  

Some companies justify the disappointing results by saying, their ultimate goal is to broaden exposure to new customers – and you can’t expect a trade show to deliver too much…..does this sound like you?  Perhaps you did have lofty expectations….what's wrong?  What is wrong, isn’t the goal or expectation – it usually is the plan that is put in place to reach the goal, that needs to be revamped.  In this blog, you will find several things: tips to make your next trade show better, links to articles that can add more insight into what to do to improve the profitability of your next trade show, and connections to software that could help you with your marketing strategy for your next trade show.  The marketing material is a huge expense and can be ‘cut down to size’ if you know how to do it.

Four Simple tips:

1. Have people go to trade shows that ‘want to be there’.
2. If you are assigned to work the booth for a period of time – be friendly, be polite – show that you are interested in what you do, and the customers you help
3. If you have a front table, stand on the ‘outside’ of the table greeting passerbys.  Don’t let the table serve as a barrier to conversation. 
4. A better way to set up your booth is to put the “information table” at the rear of the booth.  Encourage people to walk in, and visit with you and your company to talk about your product or service.

More tips can be found at: http://dld.bz/aufng.

Following are several suggestions that will help you improve the time spent at a trade show, so you are more successful:

1. Prior to the show get the list of other attendees (either other booths or  registered guests)
2. Prior to the show schedule breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings with those people who you feel you should meet, that could either need your service directly or introduce you to someone who could
3. Reach out to existing customers who will be at the trade show and ask each of them to introduce you to someone they may know who will be there, that you don’t know.
4. Create special marketing material that talks about the problems you solve, so that when they read it at a later time, they will have a better idea of what your company is all about.

More suggestions can be found at: http://dld.bz/auQgF.

Give yourself an edge when it comes to creating your marketing material and setting up your trade show collateral material.  You don’t have to spend a million to have your booth look like a million, find out more at: http://dld.bz/aXhpw.

Time Management -- Accomplishing the Most with the Time you Have

Do you get frustrated when you have had a project to complete, yet it never seems to move forward as quickly as it should?  Have you wondered if there were better ways to use your time to complete the project?  Business projects are organized better when management uses software to help guide the project.  

Everyone has 168 hours in the week.  In that time, you need to sleep, eat, have fun and yes, even work.  Do you find your self running out of time to accomplish everything you want to do?  Or is it that you are ineffective using your time?  Are you spending (wasting) time re-creating documentation, that could be found in a template, requiring very little work on your part. This is a dilemma people face everyday.

Time management is the skill of using your time effectively, yet many people misunderstand what that means. It means planning what needs to be done, scheduling a realistic amount of time to accomplish the task, and then working on the project in the time allotted.  

Business leaders know that if you do not give a project a deadline, the project will lag on and on.  The lament will be, “It is not finished yet”.  If there is a deadline, the project will be completed.  Companies often use project management software to assist in creating the documents they need along with the timelines required to keep a project on time.  One such software is Project Management Templates.  Deadlines for projects need to be realistic.  When projects are given unrealistic deadlines everyone on the project knows that it can not be met.

Learning how to use a Daily Planner to schedule time is another important tool for busy people.  Scheduling the activities in your day, week or month is more than just writing down what you want to do.  It means prioritizing your activities into three (3) categories: what must get done, what needs to be done, and what you would like to do.  Schedule the ‘must get done’ items first, assigning to them a realistic amount of time to be completed. Then add the ‘needs to be done’ items, finally adding to your calendar “what you would like to do’ in the time you have left.

Don't over schedule your day or week. Be able to be a little flexible.  Allow for unexpected things to occur that need attention. Because they surely will. 

Resources for you to look at are:

Tools to Use to Improve Project Management

How to Prioritize Your Daily Activities to Improve Your TimeManagement

Now watch how you accomplish more and feel better about what you do. 

Facebook and Your Business -- a Marketing Partnership

The rage of being connected to family and friends has taken over.  Social media marketing is everywhere.  How can it help you and your business reach out to your prospective clients.

A business Facebook Profile can be set up easily connected to your personal profile.
You can let people know what you do. Even your friends and family probably don't know everything that you and your business does.
You can advertise promotions  and special offers you are having -- but its' power is in driving more traffic to your website.
 
You can learn by trial and error what will work for you, or you can learn from experts who have created an easy to follow guide to make it easier to be successful using Facebook.

You can learn the secrets that others have found to make Facebook more successful.  

Learn how to Drive More Traffic to Your Business Using FB -- http://dld.bz/aUU7n

Expanding Your Business -- Using the Internet and Social Media

Everyday businesses know that it takes more than creative marketing materials to develop clients.

Things that worked in the past such as mail and telephone campaigns, can still be effective but costly. The addition of email broadcasts, podcasts, webinars and using all aspects of Social Media to reach potential clients have enabled companies to reach a broader market, if they know how.

The large company has a wealth of resources at their fingertips.  If one fails, they will just use another one.
A small business owner doesn't have the luxury of trial and error.  They do need to use the newest methods to available to reach prospective clients.

For the business owner it takes constantly learning about what is new, and then how to use it in their business.

If you don't understand how Social Media can have a positive impact on your business, find out with "Understanding Social Media and the Business World Today" at http://dld.bz/aHfeh.

Online marketing can be a great way to expand market reach; it takes knowing how to do it right - Find out with "Online Marketing Plan" at  http://dld.bz/aJdqa.

Entrepreneurial Madness

With the downsizing of corporate America, people have looked to being in their own business.  The entrepreneurial spirit is alive for sure. Sometimes it is a part-time venture, sometimes a full-time venture. They may have decided to take the skills they used in corporate America and start a business, providing the sames services, just as an 'entrepreneur'. Other people take their hobby, and try to turn it into a 'revenue producing operation'.  If it succeeds, they will never again feel like they are 'going to work' -- yet they will be.

What you will find here are things to help you in your journey to be the success you want to be. 

Did you know, that more women start businesses each year than men? More than 51% of businesses will be started by women; some statistics say that more than 80% many will fail in the first few years.  It isn't because of they lacked the desire to succeed -- they did not plan to fail, but too many do.

Get the professional help you need from an attorney and accountant. 


Start with a good strategic plan, learn how to build it.
From Day 1 -- Use Contact Management Software -- make sure every person you meet in put into your contact management database, so you don't have to worry about losing their information.
Learn how to effectively manage and control your expenses.  Quickbooks is a great tool, use a Quickbooks tutorial to use it properly. 


Keep coming back for more.

Business Improvement Takes Time

There are no easy answers to improving a business.  Just like professional athletes, they work at their craft and get better and better.  Business owners need to invest in themselves and their team of people all the time.

Whether a start up enterprise or a long time established business, you need to always have working on building confidence.  Having product knowledge will give people confidence, but a belief in themselves goes a long way to help them overcome a question or two that a prospective customer brings up. Developing confidence is key and help is available.


With the large volume of reading that often has to get done in business, it is important to have good reading skills.  No matter what business or industry, more and more is being written and needs to be internalized.  Speed reading skills are more important than ever before.  Make sure you and your team has the ability they need to absorb the information quickly they need.

As a business grows it needs good management skills to assure the company continues to succeed.
If you choose to promote someone from within your organization, make sure they have the management skills they need as well. You can't want until you hire people to learn how to manage them.  Invest the time, so that when the time is right you and the company are ready.

Keep returning to read more of what we share from our experiences.