Adventures in Homefront Team Promotion

I had so much fun yesterday debuting the Homefront Team at the Ft. Rucker Spouses' Club Luncheon. As many of you know the Homefront Team is comprised of spouses of military members that sell handmade goods on Etsy. I purchased a vendor slot and was able to represent seven of our team members. It was pretty easy since five of us live right here. My thanks to Well of Creations (Arizona) and One Stop Crochet (Idaho) for mailing me items to share.

The Ft Rucker Spouses Club is a bunch of (really awesome) spouses that get together monthly for lunch and an activity. Lunch is always preceded by shopping. Our members were delighted by the abundance of handmade goods at the Homefront Table. A few purchases were made and a lot of business cards were handed out. I also printed copies of the Homefront Flier. Thanks to Katie, from Knackatorium for passing fliers out too. She did a great job of engaging our audience. They couldn't wait to tell another family member (military and non) about us. I'm really happy with the results.

The following is a list of artisans represented yesterday.

http://www.etsy.com/people/AvaTateCreations?show_panel=true

http://www.etsy.com/people/theKnackatorium

http://www.etsy.com/shop/latinartjewelry?ref=pr_shop_more

http://www.etsy.com/people/OneStopCrochet

http://www.etsy.com/people/Wellofcreations

frame by cheryl Frank allendesign2009@gmail.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/scgeraci

I encourage everyone to find artisans on your posts (or for non-military "in your neighborhoods") and do the same. Here are a couple of tips on how to make it easier on yourself.
Gather up items to be sold a week in advance. This way you can price and inventory everything prior to the day of the event.
Make signs and fliers describing the team, as well as your vendors. It needs to be easy for shoppers to understand what is going on at the table. There will be a lot of items all over and it can be over-stimulating visually speaking.
Merchandise items from an individual seller together and keep their business cards close. Cross-merchandising may seem like a good idea, but it's just confusing in this setting. If you know your inventory you can always suggest paired items later.
Don't do it alone. This is probably the most important. If Katie, from Knackatoirum, and Holly, from Ava Tate Designs, hadn't help me set up I wouldn't have been ready. Also, it is easier to enage customers if there is more than one seller behind the table to chat.

I'll be doing this again at our next luncheon in May. If anyone would like to participate please contact me. sarah@floridascarf.com
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