It was a week ago that I was in LA at the Gift Show. I’ve had every intention of posting a blog update since I returned to SF (at midnight on Monday after driving 7 hours). Tuesday came and went. I was fairly exhausted and took a nap mid day then went for a hike up the hills of John McClaren Park (one of my favorites) in order to get reconnected with Nature after 4 days of being in the LA Convention Center. Wednesday came and I made some headway on things but still didn’t make it to the blog. Thursday was a Weight Watcher day (I’m a leader of 2 “at work” meetings) with St. Francis in the morning and PWC at noon. Then Corina, bookkeeper, helped me again in the afternoon as she is whipping my Quick Books (and me) into shape. Friday was yoga, stop by printer for press check, pick up envelopes at Kelly Paper, pick up new glasses (they look mahvelous!) home for a bite to eat then downtown to meet with Charles of the SF SBDC (San Francisco Small Business Develpment Center). By the time I arrived home it was nearly 3, Mark was here and we chatted. Again, I got a little bit of work accomplished but not nearly what I had hoped to and no postings on the blog. Yesterday afternoon I finally got to entering all the orders from the LA Gift show into Quick Books and printed out invoices. Now to get all the orders out by the time I leave for Seattle on Friday. Whoo!!
I do want to say that attending the LA Gift Show reiterated, like SF Show did, that I’m on the right track. As one woman commented as she was drawn into my booth, looking at various cards hanging on their colorful ribbons, “these are talking to me!”. She did come back the next day and place an order. All in all, I got the same number of orders as I did in SF though the revenue was not as good because I didn’t have the huge Symphony order. I did make a very good connection with Marshall Kline, who has a “buying service” and looks for unique products for Bloomingdales. He came by my booth early Sunday morning. I couldn’t believe it when I heard him say he thought these would be perfect in Bloomingdales! “You bet!” I thought. We chatted a bit and I asked if he wanted a sample card, in addition to the catalogs he had picked up. I tried to give him a few (the more the better right?) but he was content with the one “Anytime” card I had given him. Tuesday morning I checked my fax and was thrilled to see a handwritten note he had sent to 2 buyers at Bloomingdales introducing me with my catalogs and card he was enclosing suggesting that they do a “test market” in their downtown SF store of my cards. What a perfect affirmation of my work as he described the line as “elegant” (underlined in the note) and people with taste would choose these cards! I called and talked to him this Friday. He gave me the buyer’s phone number so I could follow up myself this coming week. He also suggested I check out the cards they carry in the SF store prior to calling her. Good idea, I thought. So Mark and I decided to go see a movie Friday night (The Dilemma) and went to Westfield Mall so we could check out Bloomingdale’s before the movie. We couldn’t believe it when we asked the concierge where their cards were located and he replied with “we no longer carry greeting cards”. Seems as if they eliminated that department recently. Damn. Oh well, I have the fax with the glowing compliments on it that I can hang on my wall!
This week will pass by quickly again, I have no doubt, as I work on getting all the orders boxed up and shipped out, try to make appts for when I’m in Seattle and attempt to make some headway on other marketing ideas. I’m very grateful to be so busy and so involved in my new world. Clearly the world of Office Furniture and Commercial Carpet sales are well behind me!