JEWELRY DESIGNER TRAVELING ON A BUDGET

Dear friends, I am writing this email from the Boston Gift Show. I wish I could have read suggestions on how to travel as a jewelry entrepreneur on a budget; especially when you are doing those so called wholesale shows.

We are ALL living though times in is economy and we certainly have to watch every penny we spend, right?. And especially if you are doing a show far away from home. In this case I had to consider not only the booth fee, electricity, gas & parking but I also had to include airfare, hotel & meals and transportation.

So I search my hotel on Priceline and I also made a few calls/emails to my friend who work at different hotels to see if I could get a friends & family discount but their rates were higher than the one I found. In this opportunity the Boston Gift Show had special hotel rates if you booked directly with them, so I found a fairly decent hotel 6 miles away from the Convention Center for about $80, pretty descent huh?!

Don’t forget that when you travel you need to arrange pick up/drop off from the airport, too. Thank GOD I have SO MANY friends & family spread all over so luckily there is always someone living wherever I go. Although in the beginning I was thinking I don’t have anybody in Boston and it ended up that one of my good friends from high school lives only 15 minutes from the airport. We probably haven’t seen each other since high school but once we saw us it was like the time never passed and we reconnected very easily.

She picked me up from the airport and took me back to the airport. That saved me like $40  each way. The Best Western Adams INN in Quincy Massachusetts where I stayed, offered complimentary breakfast and complimentary shuttle service to and from the Boston Convention Center. Right there I saved $35 cab ride for each they of the show, and it was a four day show. So you can imagine how much I would have spend in just cab rides.

Anyways, another advice if you are trying to eat at the convention center – NEVER DO IT – How can you save money and help in this economy charging $3.50 for a bottle of coke or $3.25 for a cup of tea or coffee!!!? I think that is outrageous. The 1st day of the show I had to pay but then I saw my neighbors who brought chips, nuts, crackers, cookies, sandwiches for launch so they did not have to buy lunch. So lesson learned next time I plan on coming ready, right?

I look forward to come back to The Boston Gift Show in 2013

Hasta la proxima!

Evelyn Brooks

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Celebrate Women's History Month with Evelyn Brooks Designs. This Sunday March 18th (12n-5p) http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Join-ME-to-Celebrate-WOMEN-S-HISTORY-MONTH---ON-SUNDAY-MARCH-18TH.html?soid=1101757815098&aid=oJaBFItIix0

EBD to the Boston Gift Show…

Evelyn Brooks Designs began showcasing at wholesale shows about two years ago. And little by little I have discover that a jewelry entrepreneur in order to bring its brand to other markets you have to travel and showcase your products to different markets. The 1st  show was in Baltimore and then Philadelphia through the Buyer’s Market of American Craft. We are in the process to apply to the Atlanta and the New York Summer shows, too. But in the meantime I began my research about the well known Boston Gift Show. It only happens once a year in Boston(of course)and it opens the opportunity for your products to be seeing by buyers predominantly from Canada, Upstate New York and New England. Which in all honesty is a total new market for us.

  

I first call the organizer Erica Davidson and after a few questions, she asked me that she needed to see my work and if I had a website. I said: of course. After she looked at my website she said I have never seeing anything like this before. That was an honor cause trust me getting in to these wholesale shows it isn’t easy. The rest was paperwork and getting my final approval. I recently booked my tickets with JetBlue and did not even know they had lots of flights from DC to Boston so that allows me to leave to Boston the day before the show, set up on-time and come back home the day it ends on March 23rd at around 8p…isn’t that great?

So I can be with my little one to say good night, and my big one (hubby), too.

Let me share this with you, too. I booked my hotel through the Boston Gift Show site. They have a corporate rate with great prices for exhibitors and I will pay less than if I get a friends & family discount which I always try to get through my hotel friends & family contacts.

I am truly excited to be part of the Boston Gift Show!  I have never being to Boston but since I love traveling I am not afraid of going to a new city, meeting some new faces and showcasing my jewelry designs to a whole new market, I know it will be another jewelry adventure where I will gain experience regardless if we have a good or bad show.

Hopefully next thing you know is that we hit the Canada market 

Send me all your good energy for that to happen

I will continue posting about the show during & after the show

Hasta la proxima,

Evelyn Brooks