Mishaps of A Mommy Prenuer

Hi! This is a new blog for me to share my mistakes, blunders, and "not so good ideas" with my fellow Mommy 'Prenuer's out there! We are all trying to find ways that we can stay home and still bring in the income, but that is not as easy as some of the advertisements out there lead you to believe!

I started my own business from home: Mommy Tyme Bath and Unique Gifts. I have always created things- if you have junk, I will make into something. I then began an obsession with skin care, good for your skin and body ingredients, custom blending, and creating all kinds of great bar soaps, bubble baths, lotions and more. This led me to think I could sell my products wide scale and bring in some income, eventually quitting my full time job. The dream has always been to open my own little boutique or store somewhere, do consignment items and my bath and gift items. I really thought this might be just a year or so away... I just needed to hit the marketing and promotion hard!

So, I have done that. Recently I have begun to sell at venues like flea markets and "Indoor Garage Sales". Reason I have done that is because locally there are not a lot of "craft sales" in the Decatur area. We are a very blue collar area with high unemployment rates, and flea markets, garage sales, indoor rummage sales, etc are a big event. I thought I could sell a little, pass out my card, get some addresses for my marketing letters, etc.

So, these next few blogs outline the recent flea market experiences for me and what I have learned....

You can visit my former blog: http:mommytymeswordsofwisdom.blogspot.com for my last flea market experience!

Saturday I was scheduled to participate in the flea market/indoor rummage sale at our local civic center. Set up times were 5-7pm on the Friday night before, or 6-7am on Saturday with doors opening at 8am! I was pumped. New ideas from my last flea market led me to gathering up several baskets, dividing my soaps into categories and setting "deals" for each of these categories! So in one basket I had herbal blend soaps, then fragrance soaps, then my extra large bath bars. I was selling them at 2.50 per bar, 2 for 4.00, 3 for 5.00 etc. I thought, "Hell that has got to sell". So, I stayed up until midnight on Friday prepping everything, organizing, decorating baskets and boxes....

Saturday morning the alarm goes off... I get up and shut it off! I had it set for 4 am so I had plenty of time to load the truck and get myself looking "HOT". When selling beauty products, skin care, hair care, etc. I thought that I am my own walking promotion and I should look good if I want others to believe my products work! (which they do). Well, at 6am my husband says "Hey you getting up?". I looked at the clock and almost cried. I jumped out of bed, got in the tub, hurried up and threw on some clothes, and loaded the truck. I tried to put on make up while I was driving, but the air in my husbands truck wasn't working and it was close to 92 degrees. So, I was melting, my hair wasn't drying, I looked a "Hot mess!"

When I arrived, I was asked to park in the parking lot across the street. Now, understand I have 5 totes. Each tote weighing in at about 80 pounds! So, in high heel black shoes, I carried each tote across the street one by one. So, at this point I have sweat rings under my arms, my hair is flat! and my make up has ran! I was just about ready to give up!

I set my table up and muddled through the day. Dead tired, hot, and looking my worst. I did sell a few here and a few there, but my heart was not in it. I had basically took on the attitude "Everything has gone wrong, so this is not going to be any better" and I was right. I came home and cried, then I took a shower and a nap!

Now, what I have learned after looking back on this mess of a day is:
1. Don't stay up until midnight the night before. Don't wait until the last minute to get your items ready. As a mother and full time worker, that is hard to do at times, but 30 minutes every night is better in the long run than 4 hours the night before.
2. Get up early enough to get ready so you feel good and are on top of your game!

3. Even if everything has gone wrong, put a smile on, buck up, and sell. You never know when you are going to get that one big sale that makes the difference. If you just sit there with a bad attitude, who wants to approach you?

So, I am not giving up! I also had a stroke of brilliance the other day! I thought a great idea would be to set up a table of samples that customers can actually try the products like the sugar scrubs, the lotions, the lip balms (with disposable cotton swabs), and a few soaps that they can touch and smell. As the seller, I need to stand at the end of my booth and ask people if they would like to try it...Not just sit and wait for someone to approach me...

So, I have another selling venture coming soon! I will tell you all about that next time!


Visit my site Mommy's Tyme at http://www.mommytyme.org

Visit my shops at:

http://www.MommyTyme.etsy.com
http://www.MommyTyme.winkelf.com
http://BFuzz.com/MommyTyme

I would love to hear your ideas and ventures, too! Please comment