TYED ART, INC - HISTORY VIII

The Art of the Tradeshow:

In November of 2004, my family and I attended an event at the Orleans Hotel & Casino called the LDS Festival, here in Vegas. It was the first of it’s kind. It was an assembly of small and large LDS businesses in a miniature tradeshow, wrapped (literally and figuratively) around an LDS concert. The concert hall itself was in the center and the huge exterior hallways were full of LDS venders, and professionals. It was a really fun event. Seeing this from a businessman’s’ perspective, I naturally wanted to know more. How had the venders been notified about the event beforehand? How much did it cost to host a booth? I wondered what kind of money this type of event might generate, and even MORE importantly, what kinds of buzz it must start about each company. THIS would be a GREAT way to introduce LittleLDS!! I sought out to find those in charge and was very pleased to discover that I knew several of them! Adam Dawson, who was the guy in charge, was a member of my own ward!! Khoren Ouzounian, another member of my ward was also one of the guys in charge of this production. I was very excited and started asking questions. I got some GREAT feedback. They told me that this was, in fact, the first show of it’s kind and that they were hoping and planning on doing subsequent shows in future years. For the rest of that day, I watched the venders and the buyers very carefully. I studied the different booths, comparing what they had to what I might have at my own booth.

I was prepared and informed for the next show. On November 12th, 2005, LittleLDS officially debuted at the 2nd-Annual LDS Music Festival and Expo. The cost to enter was quite large for a beginning sole proprietor like me. I invited Oak, my best friend, to come down from Salt Lake City and help me man the booth. Having done tradeshows before with previous companies, his input was very much appreciated. I had new t-shirts printed for Oak and me so that we looked like a team. I had business/pass-along cards made just for this event. I had a tri-fold display with my CDs and coloring pages on it. I had a large 6’x 3’ vinyl banner made for the booth too. I even ordered three hundred copies of the LittleLDS CDs for my inventory!!! One hundred of each title!! It represented a fairly large investment, but I was READY for business. I was able rationalized all the purchases because I knew this would definitely NOT be the last tradeshow I would ever do.

Call it inexperience, call it ignorance, call it whatever you like…. but when I closed the booth down at the end of the event, I was elated with the overwhelming success of my little company! We hadn’t sold out, by any means. As a matter of fact, we hadn’t even recouped our cost of entering the tradeshow, but we had a lot of GREAT exposure. After all, this was our debut. This event was merely our foot in the door, our introduction. That was the ultimate goal I was shooting for from the beginning. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t shooting for more, but certainly didn’t expect anything more. By the time the show was over I was totally sick with stomach pains and a migraine, but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything! Even better than the outcome of the sales and exposure, was the experience I gained. I learned a LOT about different types of displays, giveaways, raffles, booth set-up, and salesmanship techniques.

Through another friend of mine, I was introduced to a group of LDS businesses who subscribed to a particular website organization. Building the Kingdom was the name of it. They offered a network of LDS business that you could work with. They even had a bartering service set up so that you could exchange professional business services and products. I signed up, paid my dues, but didn’t see much come from it at first. In the first year, I only had one logo design contract come from it, which was nice. Through a mutual contact, I also met a local non-LDS couple that had started their own t-shirt printing business here in Vegas. They were a funny couple from England who I enjoyed working with very much. They were VERY hospitable, and had wonderful intentions and aspirations. I had them do a couple of Tyed Art and LittleLDS t-shirts for me, but in the end I had to cease my business with them because their prices were too high for the quality they offered. They were just starting out and didn’t have the capability to do muti-colored gradient designs.

About a year and a half after originally signing up with BuildingTheKindom.com, and having not been involved with it for over 6 months, I received an email that interested me VERY much. The email had a subject line that said, “Your listing on Building The Kingdom.” Normally an email with a subject like that would have gone directly into my spam bin, but because I knew that BTK didn’t sell their members’ email addresses to third-parties, I decided to open it and check it out. I’m REALLY glad I did! It turned out to be from a man named Coz Green of USA Expos, who was inviting companies and individuals to participate in the first annual LDS Family Expo held in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. I was really excited about this tradeshow because, not only was it going to be IN Salt Lake City, but also it was going to be over conference weekend! This would mean it would be a great place for people to go between sessions of conference while already in the downtown area! Not to mention the fact that I would have national exposure with all the different travelers coming to be a part of the overall conference experience! The event was being sponsored by some of the biggest names in that Salt Lake area, namely Channel 5 KSL TV, FM 100 Radio, KSL Newsradio 102,7FM & 1160AM, RootsMagic (a software company), and Liken The Scriptures.

Once again the cost to enter was a heavy burden for me, but totally worth it. I already had an inventory from the last show and booth display equipment in which I had previously invested. The LDS Music Festival and Expo that I did a few months earlier was nothing in comparison to this one. The last show was anticipated to have a turn out of about 2,000 to 3,000 visitors…this one was touting between 10,000 and 15,000 visitors! Excited, I ordered the necessary new equipment (floor covering, electricity, curtains, etc…) and was, once again, on my way!

This event was WAY better than the first! For starters, my genius brother, “Snott”, helped to simplify my buyer’s purchasing experience by helping me to create some spreadsheet automations in Excel. Now, when a customer wanted to purchase with a credit card, all I had to do was enter their information and a receipt was generated automatically WHILE creating an order that I could refer to and process after the show was over. Brilliant! He even helped me set up my booth the day before the show. It was fun working with him. My display was MUCH more approachable this time. Because the booth locations were first come first served, I jumped early to get a good spot. I got the very location I wanted! I was near a stage where artists would be performing, and where I knew there would be a lot of traffic. Not only did we choose a better location this time, but, instead of sitting behind a table, Oak and I had out tables lining the walls, while we stood out in the walkways and front of our booth actively meeting people. Shaking hands, passing out the pass-along cards I had prepared in GREAT number, and approaching young families that make up our main demographic. Kim even came for a few hours on one of the three days to help me man the booth. She was a natural, and even got a taste of the excitement by selling several of the CDs! Working with her was the best. Side by side…my real partner and me.

That show, was better in every sense. We sold more CDs, met more people, generated more leads, gained more experience and had much more exposure. We met folks from across the country and even some from other countries. All had the same reaction to our products, “Where have you been?” and, “This would be so great for my nursery classes!” We had a lot of Primary presidencies praising the idea, and many people interested in the up-coming CDs that we have planned. Since then, I’ve sold LittleLDS CDs in several different states here in the United States, as well as in England and Australia as a direct result of the tradeshow. The very best payoff, however, I have to say is when I’ve had sales for which I cannot find a link. In other words, they’re sales that seem to be generated from a referral or some other method of word-of-mouth advertising! Those sales are the best, because they tell me that the word is spreading! It means that talk of my product is being passed along and that there is real genuine interested in LittleLDS independent of my own personal salesmanship! It’s like planting a tree, watering it for a while, and then realizing that you don’t HAVE to keep watering it in order for it to keep growing! What a rush!

For the past few months now, good, bad, or indifferent, I’ve been inundated by logo design work. 2006 had proven to be the most productive for logo designs, by far. I’ve averaged about 4 logos per month for nearly 3 months now. Things are just now starting to settle down in that department, and I’m actually really relieved because I can turn my attention back to LittleLDS once again. I’ve been eager to get back to work on CD#4…. which pretty much brings this history to the present…

…Whew!