# Adventures in Selling Soap



## cerelife (Mar 16, 2015)

I just wanted to share my adventures this weekend  
I took a weekend off from my hospital job to be a vendor at my hometown’s annual spring celebration - the town square where this is held is only two blocks from our house, and it’s usually a good time - PLUS it was only $30 for a 15X15 ft space for two days so I figured “Why not?” This event is a mixed bag of offerings, but predominantly yard-sales and food vendors. Oh my, all that grilling and slow smoked BBQ smelled sooo good!
I realized pretty quickly that this might not be the best venue for my products, LOL! However, I had a great spot next to a local Mennonite family who are famous in our area for their baked goods so I got a ton of foot traffic by my booth from all the people who came JUST to buy their cakes and pies!
BUT...my neighbor on the other side was a woman who was selling a children’s book she had written and she was super aggressive. And by this I mean that everyone who passed by (even across the street) she was like “Ma’am, ma’am, MA’AM!! (or sir) until they stopped to see what she wanted...everything but grabbing them by the arm and forcing them to look at her book! She told me the first day that I needed to be more aggressive with my product - “Honey, you need to sell yourself more.”
Umm, no. As a consumer, all I want is a polite “Hello” from a vendor to acknowledge my presence and then to be left alone to check out their stuff. If I linger, then I appreciate maybe a comment of “If you have any questions, please let me know.” So I try to be that vendor. I do LOVE when someone asks me questions...Heck yeah, let me tell you all about my stuff!!
But honestly, she really WAS a sweet lady, even if I didn’t agree with her tactics and she was a little odd (BTW, I did buy one of her books for our neighbors’ kids - I’m a sucker). 
So I had great foot traffic past my booth from people buying the bakery stuff on one side and folks literally fleeing past my booth to get away from the crazy woman on the other side!!
Did I make a lot of money at this event? Pshaw...I bet ya’ll have already figured out the answer to that question, LOL! I made a decent profit, but nothing to brag about. 
Was it worth it? Of course it was - I had a great time and met a lot of nice people. And I think I may have converted some folks to our addiction of only using handmade soap on our skin.
So in my estimation it was a total success. I had fun, I didn’t LOSE money, and I created some new soap addicts...win-win-win!!


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## KristaY (Mar 16, 2015)

Wow, cerelife, it sounds like you had a great time! Luckily the nice guys on one side helped balance out the crazy woman on the other side, lol. Every bit of exposure you get is just getting more people interested in your products. Eventually you'll be like the Mennonite family and people will come to the event just to buy your soap! Congrats on having a successful show and here's to many, many more! :clap:


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## navigator9 (Mar 16, 2015)

I'm glad you had an interesting time and made a decent profit. Even when the returns aren't great, it's a good thing to get your name out there! Small samples with your contact info on them are a good idea. If people don't buy at the fair, they may go home, try the sample, decide they love it, and call you to find out where they can get more. Best of luck!


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## dixiedragon (Mar 16, 2015)

I think it's a win just to get some soap out of the house and some $ for new soap supplies.


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