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just seeing what happens...

an unlikely promotion

No matter what you think, not *everyone* knows about your business. I mean, at all. As in: they don’t even know your business exists.

That’s right—all that advertising you do, all the philanthropic efforts you make, all the networking in which you engage—and a lot of people in your town either don’t know who you are or what you do.

So, when an opportunity crossed my desk to have a booth for a day in the vestibule of the Bozeman Costco, I went for it. Every year, the Bozeman Costco raises funds for a children’s charity by selling booth space in their vestibule. For a small fee (slightly higher on the weekends), I have about 60 square feet I can call my own for the day, complete with three tables, a chair, and a much-appreciated heat dish for my tootsies.

In this space, one can sell items if they so choose, or one can do as I did, and just promote one’s business. Actually, I promoted a specific service by business offers: custom design. This is a service Costco does not offer, and it’s a service at which Alara Jewelry excels.

Regardless, people tend to be surprised that we do it at all, much less that it is a cornerstone of our business. Since nearly every woman has a little box or drawer of “don’t wear anymore” jewelry made of precious materials, my signage revolved around that, specifically.

Typical conversation at my booth: “You know, I have rings from my mother, my grandmother, and my husband’s mother. Can you do something with those?” Yes, ma’am!

Yes, there are plenty of shoppers with complete tunnel-vision that failed to see me, despite the vividly-colored, 16-square-foot poster and matching, vivid linens…but then there were all the people I thought didn’t see anything, but yet they stopped on their way out to ask about it. I would say, based on the number of business cards and promotional information I handed out (and the normal attrition rate thereof), that I have about 5 custom design appointments in my future. Add to that all the people that just simply smiled at me and said “hello,” and the nearly 8000 eyeballs that saw my logo, and I would say that this is one local business that was happy to bootstrap off the heavy foot traffic at Costco.

The people who walked through Costco yesterday are not only my neighbors and friends, but also visitors from pretty far away who don’t have a jeweler in their hometown that does custom jewelry design.

Happy camper.

my smart show experience

Two days ago, I “earned my keep” at the Smart Show in Chicago as a compensated speaker. The Smart Show is a national jewelry industry trade show with a heavy focus on education for retailers and designers. As such, it was certainly my honor to be asked to share whatever nuggets might benefit my colleagues.

I could not have been more flattered by the standing room only crowd, the thoughtful questions, and the enthusiastic audience members who approached me immediately after and also throughout the show.

Curtis Bennett of the legendary O.C. Tanner store in Salt Lake City, was particularly complimentary, and I assumed he had no idea exactly how far out of my league he is. He assured me that it’s really all the same: the big store that did the $25 million renovation of a historic building in order to make it a gift to the city of Salt Lake and the little store on the corner in Bozeman.

But, he’s right. We’re definitely in that same business, despite those differences. Our shared business goal is to make people happy as they seek out beautiful tokens to celebrate life’s amazing milestones and “just because” occasions, as well as creating tomorrow’s heirlooms and re-work ones from days past. It’s a wonderful business because of that. I imagine we get to know our customers on a much more intimate level than say, the average shoe seller does.

So I know it is out of that caring that a gentleman from Missouri approached me while I was on the exhibit floor, asking if I had suggestions for a new designer line to bring into his store. It was only because he knows his customers and wants to make them happy that he carefully described to me the demographic make-up of his area. To be asked to assist someone in their efforts to assist their clients is a very high compliment—-one I definitely don’t take lightly.

It’s nice to know that there’s a community of engineers in Missouri who will soon have a new collection of jewelry to appreciate at their local jewelry store, and a whole passel of women there who will suddenly find themselves bedecked in new jewels their men actually enjoyed selecting.