The the show begin!

As a child I remember going with my parents to the Pretoria Show, an annual celebration marked by halls of displays and stalls and amusement rides! I remember walking through the halls and seeing the displays but my fondest memories are of the rides. As a young adult I lost any desire to be pushed around by crowds at shows and haven’t been to one in years.

A few months ago a fellow entrepreneur mentioned that she was part of an exhibition that was planned for the upcoming George Show. I thought it would be a great place to showcase our new baby food products and as it turned out we chose to launch our products at the show. We were hoped that many farmers and their families from the neighbouring districts would also attend the show and our products would be advertised far and wide.

In preparation we spent weeks preparing food from early till late each day and were helped on the sidelines with our stall décor by Ouma, who sewed up the beige sides for the gazebo someone from church lent us, and a friend from our homegroup who made curtains of circles for us from coloured fibre optic cables – both of which took lots of time that we definitely didn’t have to spare. The gazebo we were lent was an aquamarine blue and the bright coloured circles against the beige side drops looked great. (The coloured circles were a huge hit with children and they assumed we were selling toys!) The 2+ meter pull-up banner we had made was a perfect attention-getter and looked great outside our stall.

We spent Wednesday morning and an hour or so in the afternoon putting it all together and after a potjie dinner for exhibitors on Wednesday night we were rearing to go. We arrived just before 8am and spent most of the day getting to know fellow exhibitors in our passage while waiting for show visitors. It was a loooong day, a boring day! I don’t think we saw more than 50 visitors the entire day but we hoped it would get busier as the weekend arrived. The weather didn’t really help either – it was windy and bitterly cold outdoors, I’d have also been home if I’d chosen otherwise! Dieter and I decided that, given the quietness, we didn’t both need to be at the stall so we took turns to have a break. Dieter went home for an afternoon nap and I had a break over dinnertime to fetch the boys from football and put the little ones to bed. When I got back to the stall with some warm dinner for Dieter he was the 2^nd last person left at the stalls and was packed and ready to head home.

Friday was almost just as quiet and while there were a few younger visitors and the odd family or two, we didn’t notice any moms with prams. I realised how specific our target market is. We needed to wait for moms with babies. I took some time out in the afternoon and Dieter took some time off over dinner time, but 8pm couldn’t have come soon enough, it was the end of another loooong quiet day.

The sun shone beautifully on Saturday and the car park was almost full, but the traffic indoors was only slightly better. Lots of people were outdoors enjoying the rides, agricultural activities and foodstalls. We did see many more families with prams and although we only sold 11 meals in the 3 days (most of them on the Saturday!), we were able to hand out about 200 flyers to prospective customers. Quite a few exhibitors around us began packing up from lunch time on Saturday, forfeiting their R200-00 deposits by leaving before 8pm. The standing around waiting for nothing just wasn’t worth it to them. We started packing up just after 6pm when Dieter arrived with the trailer and were done by 8pm when we could collect our deposits.

While we didn’t sell much of the stock that is filling nearly 2 and a half freezers we did manage to get our brand ‘out there’ and people are aware we’re around! One lady actually admitted to starting something very similar to what we’re doing about 8 years ago but she didn’t continue with the concept for some reason. A lot of people were very chuffed to see us and hear about what we’re doing, the response from almost everyone was very positive.

We worked with some wonderful people at the show, all with very interesting stories and have learnt a few lessons already! Not sure that we’ll be rushing off to another show to soon, we now need to go chase our target market in their comfort zones. We aren’t discouraged, we’re taking time to regroup and strategise about the next step!

Its been 2 days since the George Agricultural Show ended and I still need another early night. And I’m listening to my body! I’ve been in bed before 8pm for 3 nights in a row now! Standing for long hours wasn’t that easy and I’m so grateful I can blog from the comfort of my bed! As I’ve said before ….. watch this space!