Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

First off, I want to thank everyone here at SuN for helping us make our show so successful!  We took all the advice that was offered in my Trade Show advice topic, and now you can see how it turned out.

We constructed portable "walls" to create a homey space for our vignettes.  We decided to change it twice throughout the show to illustrate the versitility of staging and our ability to adapt to the market demographic. We had a poster made of the "before" shot of our space to show an average area in an average home, and held a contest to guess the cost of the transformation for each vignette. This was to draw hits to our website (where the winners will be announced and the costs revealed) and to make the realtors aware of how inexpensive staging can be.  One of the biggest hits was the little give-away we devised.  We ordered masses of mini compressed towels and those little plastic bubbles you get from bubblegum machines that hold trinkets.  We put 4 of the towels and a little instruction sheet inside with our company name.  They were the most sought after give-away at the show! 

The turnout was fabulous, and we left totally exhausted but it was well worth the work.  We have dozens of new leads and several individuals interested in franchises, which is exactly the direction we were hoping to head in.  It was so successful that we are going to do it again in Houston next month!

Here is a link to the photo show...

http://www.realestateshows.com/206906  (corrected from original post)

Once again, thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions.  We couldn`t have done it without you!

-------------------------

First impressions are everything in real estate. Staging should be your first step in the home selling process. Make sure your home is in top condition before showings commence, and then Prepare Yourself for all of the benefits of staging your home!
Entrances Website

Hi Kathy!

Yes, you and Craig gave me lots of great ideas, especially the walls.  We painted them with textured paint so they looked just like actual walls in a home, but they were actually rigid foam insulation boards, very lightweight and easy to work with.  We framed them and used the cross bracing to attach our wall hangings, pictures and mirrors.  It worked perfectly.

Let me try posting another link.

http://www.realestateshows.com/206906

Let me know if this one works.  Thanks for all your support!

Nancy

-------------------------

First impressions are everything in real estate. Staging should be your first step in the home selling process. Make sure your home is in top condition before showings commence, and then Prepare Yourself for all of the benefits of staging your home!
Entrances Website

Nancy -

Thanks for sharing your success.  Congratulations!

- J.




-------------------------

Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

How cool is that!! :-) I`m really pleased to hear the results, especially to see the nice video. We don`t often get to hear what happened after a problem is solved. I`ll have to let our friends Ken & Mary know that their portable walls work as well in Texas as in Illinois. LOL!! They`re totally creative type people...!

When you get super rich, will you buy us each a cadillac?

Thanks Jeff!  It`s really because of all the great feedback we got.

Craig, but of course, yours is already on order!!  

-------------------------

First impressions are everything in real estate. Staging should be your first step in the home selling process. Make sure your home is in top condition before showings commence, and then Prepare Yourself for all of the benefits of staging your home!
Entrances Website

I`ll take a `59 Coupe d`Ville convertable (The ones with the fins).

Glad to hear it worked so well.  Now, keep up posted on the # leads generated/# sales and $$$ volume generated vs cost to produce the show.  That`d be some valuable information. 

No problem BurninGreen!! Give me a little time to find just the perfect one.  My mom had a `65 Coupe deVille when I was growing up.  What a cool car that was!

We have been SO busy since we attended the trade show that we haven`t even had time to calculate.  We just finished a big job yesterday staging a $600k home, what fun it was!  We`ll have a photo show of it on our website by the weekend.  BUT, as soon as I have the opportunity to do the math, I`ll post back.

-------------------------

First impressions are everything in real estate. Staging should be your first step in the home selling process. Make sure your home is in top condition before showings commence, and then Prepare Yourself for all of the benefits of staging your home!
Entrances Website

Wow I just followed the July thread to this one. A great learning tool!
Congrats Nancy for the great success.

Our company is going to a "Museum Store Association Expo" in FL next
April. I have learned a lot from the thread. One questions though, where
did you get the compressed towel and how much do they cost?

Also if you ever need Asian decor accents, visit our site
http://www.galleriapangea.com Contact me, I can give you some wholesale
price.

-------------------------

Quality Creations by Hand: Artisan Jewelry, Wooden Mask, Handmade Sculpture, Antique Reproduction, Chinese Scroll Paintings and More

http://www.GalleriaPangea.com

Thanks Jason!  I know I have learned alot from the people here at SuN.

I purchase the towels from a site called www.minitissue.com.  I buy them in the largest quantity which makes the cost about 6 cents a piece, and put 4 of them in the plastic bubble with an instruction with our logo on it, so even with the cost of the plastic bubble it comes to about 30 cents per handout.  Pretty darned cheap, and everybody loved them!

Best of luck at your trade show...we`ve got another one coming up in about 2 weeks and are really looking forward to it!

-------------------------

First impressions are everything in real estate. Staging should be your first step in the home selling process. Make sure your home is in top condition before showings commence, and then Prepare Yourself for all of the benefits of staging your home!
Entrances Website