Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 11,678
For 53 years, on a weekend in mid August, there has been the Tehachapi Mountain Rodeo. The rodeo is part of a larger festival that is city wide. Parade's, arts and crafts fairs, car shows, beauty contests, dances, concerts etc. Local events have never been super great for us but we thought we'd give this a try. We'd had a booth at the rodeo a couple of years ago and done a little better than breaking even so we were kinda jaded on the deal. We have several friends on the rodeo comittee and they kept telling us you need to go to the Sponsor dinner too. Thats where the money is we were told. The Sponsor dinner was on Thursday night and the rodeo performances were on Friday and Saturday evenings followed by a dance Saturday. The Sponsor dinner is where the Rodeo comittee thanks the sponsors for all the donations that make this event possible. During the dinner there is a silent auction and a live auction to raise more money. They auction off everything from a horse to a weeklong vacation. Ya have to wonder how nice a dinner could you have in the dirt of a rodeo arena but hats off to these guys they really pulled it off. It was really nice, a great BBQ and open bar.
We were told to set up next to the arena in an area that is normally the box seats during a rodeo performance. At most shows you are limited to a10' by 10' booth space but here were told that we could use as much space as we wanted. There was only one other vendor there that night. As this location was temporary and we'd be moving to the regular vendor's area for Fri and Sat we decided not to set up a whole booth but just to do a couple tables. Our friends were right, the Sponsor dinner was the place to be.
So this was our area and Nichole is helping a cutomer. We've found that its important to be at a show and set up, ready to go sometime before they open. So not a lot of people here yet but we're ready to go and made some sales befor the dinner opened and the crowd got there. The stuff set up beyond us is the silent auction and the other vendor is behind the camera.
Some of Nichole's purses and a pair of chinks I'd made up. That stand also displays one of Nichole's wool vests that she makes. Its one of my own personal ones that can get dusty from the show. Those that we have for sale we keep wrapped in plastic to keep them nice. we've found it important to have a wide variety of items to sell, you have to try and anticipate your crowd so to speak. At a rodeo you'll have a lot of people that are only "cowboy" for that weekend. So realistically I didn't expect to sell those chinks and didn't. But they will sell the next time we do a cowboy show.
The knife table. Again following our idea of having as wide a variety as possible we had knives (all my knves come with sheaths), Leatherman sheaths and a couple of holsters. With the knives we try to have several handle, blade, sheath and price options there . Even had a Santuko as can be seen in the pic. Its also importatn to have lots of business cards to hand out and maybe a brochure which is what is in that box.
The other table and Nichole sporting her beltless sheath. We'd hung those headstalls there on the fence. We'd had them on the table and noticed that nobody was looking at them. Hung them on the fence and everybody started looking at them , from both sides of the fence. Importantly it brought people in from the other side too. I've found it important when trying to sell your stuff how its displayed but also where. So that corner of this table where the tally books and the spurstraps are that was the hot spot. Just the way that traffic flowed by. Sold a handful of those tallybooks and some spur straps. We make two types of the Tallybooks, one at of a soft chap leather and the other tooled out of veggie tan.
Nichole visiting with a friend and customer. Fri we had to be set up by 4:30 as the gates opened at 5 for the 7 performance. This time we took our EZE Up shelter and another table. The EzE up is great because providing shade etc it really defines your booth area particularly like now when you were more limited to the actual 10x10' space.
This shot pretty much shows how we looked Fri and Sat. Doc and Audrey stopped by. More good friends and customers. Doc has one of my belts on andAudrey has one of Nichole's carved ones but ya can't see it cause she has her shirt untucked. Doc is the official Vet for the rodeo so they were working. Our friend Asia is sitting in the chair. Thats our ranch in the background of all these pics. Fri we were able to watch most of the cattle and the 3 retired horses that are out there come down to water. Sat never saw a one.
Sales have been taking a toll on stock but that is ok in fact thats great. Isn't that why we are here? I once read an article by an MBA leathersmith that did alot of shows. He felt that a show was a success if he sold 10 percent of his stock. Tell ya what I don't have an MBA but selling 10 percent of your stock is a terrible failure in my book. We've done shows where we didn't bring 10 percent back home.
Our wide variety tactic paid off. When the show was all said and done Sat evening the only thing we hadn't sold any of was the headstalls and those chinks, we sold one or more of everything else. Only brought home two knives, Nichole sold a lot of her purses. The important thing to remember that a show like this can do for you is to make some contatcts. The local gun store owner got hooked up with Nichole for her to make him a line of CCW purses to carry in his store. A lady that bought a knife and ordered a beltess sheath for it went on line and ordered another knife. Even a guy I knew (roped with him several times at local brandings) said "I knew you made knives but had no idea you made belts too". And while he's looking at one of the bridle leather belts: "you can't find leather this good in a store or this kind of craftsmanship". "Can I pay you now to make me one of these belts, this one is a little big for me". You bet Harvey, took four orders total. Even the local Tractor Supply manager came in. " I know you he said and I see your knives and sheaths come into the store all the time, I never knew it was you making em". Kinda cool. Good weekend. Another thought always use quality stuff. That comment about not being able to find this kind of leather and craftsmanship we heard many times during the weekend. And our friends were right. The Sponsor dinner Thurs was about half the sales and the other two days were the other half.
We were told to set up next to the arena in an area that is normally the box seats during a rodeo performance. At most shows you are limited to a10' by 10' booth space but here were told that we could use as much space as we wanted. There was only one other vendor there that night. As this location was temporary and we'd be moving to the regular vendor's area for Fri and Sat we decided not to set up a whole booth but just to do a couple tables. Our friends were right, the Sponsor dinner was the place to be.
So this was our area and Nichole is helping a cutomer. We've found that its important to be at a show and set up, ready to go sometime before they open. So not a lot of people here yet but we're ready to go and made some sales befor the dinner opened and the crowd got there. The stuff set up beyond us is the silent auction and the other vendor is behind the camera.
Some of Nichole's purses and a pair of chinks I'd made up. That stand also displays one of Nichole's wool vests that she makes. Its one of my own personal ones that can get dusty from the show. Those that we have for sale we keep wrapped in plastic to keep them nice. we've found it important to have a wide variety of items to sell, you have to try and anticipate your crowd so to speak. At a rodeo you'll have a lot of people that are only "cowboy" for that weekend. So realistically I didn't expect to sell those chinks and didn't. But they will sell the next time we do a cowboy show.
The knife table. Again following our idea of having as wide a variety as possible we had knives (all my knves come with sheaths), Leatherman sheaths and a couple of holsters. With the knives we try to have several handle, blade, sheath and price options there . Even had a Santuko as can be seen in the pic. Its also importatn to have lots of business cards to hand out and maybe a brochure which is what is in that box.
The other table and Nichole sporting her beltless sheath. We'd hung those headstalls there on the fence. We'd had them on the table and noticed that nobody was looking at them. Hung them on the fence and everybody started looking at them , from both sides of the fence. Importantly it brought people in from the other side too. I've found it important when trying to sell your stuff how its displayed but also where. So that corner of this table where the tally books and the spurstraps are that was the hot spot. Just the way that traffic flowed by. Sold a handful of those tallybooks and some spur straps. We make two types of the Tallybooks, one at of a soft chap leather and the other tooled out of veggie tan.
Nichole visiting with a friend and customer. Fri we had to be set up by 4:30 as the gates opened at 5 for the 7 performance. This time we took our EZE Up shelter and another table. The EzE up is great because providing shade etc it really defines your booth area particularly like now when you were more limited to the actual 10x10' space.
This shot pretty much shows how we looked Fri and Sat. Doc and Audrey stopped by. More good friends and customers. Doc has one of my belts on andAudrey has one of Nichole's carved ones but ya can't see it cause she has her shirt untucked. Doc is the official Vet for the rodeo so they were working. Our friend Asia is sitting in the chair. Thats our ranch in the background of all these pics. Fri we were able to watch most of the cattle and the 3 retired horses that are out there come down to water. Sat never saw a one.
Sales have been taking a toll on stock but that is ok in fact thats great. Isn't that why we are here? I once read an article by an MBA leathersmith that did alot of shows. He felt that a show was a success if he sold 10 percent of his stock. Tell ya what I don't have an MBA but selling 10 percent of your stock is a terrible failure in my book. We've done shows where we didn't bring 10 percent back home.
Our wide variety tactic paid off. When the show was all said and done Sat evening the only thing we hadn't sold any of was the headstalls and those chinks, we sold one or more of everything else. Only brought home two knives, Nichole sold a lot of her purses. The important thing to remember that a show like this can do for you is to make some contatcts. The local gun store owner got hooked up with Nichole for her to make him a line of CCW purses to carry in his store. A lady that bought a knife and ordered a beltess sheath for it went on line and ordered another knife. Even a guy I knew (roped with him several times at local brandings) said "I knew you made knives but had no idea you made belts too". And while he's looking at one of the bridle leather belts: "you can't find leather this good in a store or this kind of craftsmanship". "Can I pay you now to make me one of these belts, this one is a little big for me". You bet Harvey, took four orders total. Even the local Tractor Supply manager came in. " I know you he said and I see your knives and sheaths come into the store all the time, I never knew it was you making em". Kinda cool. Good weekend. Another thought always use quality stuff. That comment about not being able to find this kind of leather and craftsmanship we heard many times during the weekend. And our friends were right. The Sponsor dinner Thurs was about half the sales and the other two days were the other half.
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