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Create
Your Own Conference
a humble suggestion from Kate
NARTS Conference:
where you can experience the
thrill of being with over 200 like-minded business people who
are renowned for being welcoming and friendly.
Casual and planned get-togethers, "field trips", workshops,
speakers, and a trade mart are designed specifically for
resale, consignment, and thrift shop owners and operators. You'll meet
wonderful peers, and some of my fondest memories in
the industry are of the Conferences I helped plan,
participated in, and attended.
If you can afford to, GO! I recommend it, especially for
those who need a kick in the pants once a year (personally, I could
use one once a month or so!). If you hesitate to go, check out my
thoughts on "excuses" here.
Problem is, not every resaler can
go to Conference. With that
in mind, let's look at how you can craft "your own
conference". Let's see if we can make it less intrusive on family
and business life, less time-consuming, and most of all, less
expensive. Can we do it? Sure we can: after all, we're entrepreneurs,
right?
Now, I do not want to discourage those of you who can,
from going to NARTS Conference. But face it: we can't all
manage to be in one place on one particular weekend in June.
Maybe we have other obligations, maybe we have other calls on our
expenses, maybe we are leery of the investment. So therefore, I
present
Kate's Plan for Tailoring
your Own Conference: Here's the costs of going to Conference.
-
Registration, member: $435
-
Optional Bus Tour Friday: $55
-
Membership in NARTS, Year 1: $145
(after Year One, membership is $120)
-
Airfare (varies obviously) say $250
-
Hotel room: Thurs-Sun, 4 nights,
at $170ish: $680
-
Incidentals: Let's be really
frugal and say $100
-
Other: New duds? Taxi? Parking? A drink in the bar? Extra help
in the shop (or loss of profit if you close)? Let's
be downright cheap: $400.
Total of the above: A tad over $2000.
Now, let's see if we can tailor our own "conference" and learn
as much on our own.
Now this is NOT to
dissuade you from going to Conference! It's a wonderful time, a true
"working vacation", you WILL come home with good ideas that
can make your shop's income and profits soar many multiples of the money
Conference cost you, and it's tax-deductible! This
is simply a substitute plan of action for those who truly cannot afford,
money-, time-, or effort-wise, to attend Conference.
Let's take it chronologically:
Thursday:
Before Conference starts, the Sharers'
get-together, a non-NARTS-sponsored event, 6 to 8 pm: The
Sharers of TGtbT get together in the hotel's lobby bar. A
chance to put faces to names you know from our Sharing
discussion board. A perennial favorite among Conference goers.
TGtbT
Resource: There's really no substitute for this in my Products, but of
course, you can "meet" several Sharers in Sarah Deveau's Grabbing
their Attention: How to Make the Media Love You and Cynthia
Broockman's Hot Tips and Tricks, where they
share their specific expertise with you. Thursday:
Meet-n-Mingle. A get-together with fellow attendees, some of
whom bring their shop scrapbooks. What could you do
instead at home? Invite resalers in your area to a
get-together in your shop? Well, it might not be as "open",
because there probably will be some folks who think they're "giving
away their secrets", but say you get to talk with a dozen
resalers. And they get to see your shop. If you host such a
get-together, you
might spend $65. TGtbT Resource: Learn how
to work with your resale peers in Creating a
Local Brochure.
Friday: Bus Tour. Poke into 5-9 shops' sales floor, back
rooms, ask questions, and the host shops offer great
refreshments. On the bus, there's a box lunch and the chance to chat
with your seat-mate. (Oh yes and shop. To do instead: Invite those folks from your Thursday night
get-together on your own mini-tour. Get a husband to drive. Call ahead to the shops you're planning to visit.
Chances are they'll be delighted to see you. Plan on lunch
somewhere. No one to travel with? Do it on your own, taking notes
after each visit. You can cover a lot of ground if you're not waiting
for other people. Let's say, what with gas and food and bribing hubby
with pizza afterwards, $40. Less
if your companions chip in for the gas. TGtbT
Resource: Get 100's of ideas to sharpen up your store with Shop
Sizzle from our Products for the Professional Resaler. Friday
Evening: Cocktail Party and Auction. I won't even
attempt to duplicate this. The party is truly festive, the buffet
scrumptious, the finery on your fellow resalers jaw-dropping. Instead,
stay home and play with the kids. Or go vacuum the store. Boring, I
know. Cost, $0. Oh no, I know! Read The Picker Who Perished and
eat Godiva chocolates in your PJs. Cost, $9.95.
[Godivas courtesy of hubby, see above.] Saturday:
Keynote.
Workshops and lunch. Inspiring. Every speaker has valuable
lessons to impart in their 45 minutes. Since you won't be there,
schedule that time for a serious session with your choice of our Products
for the Professional Resaler. Get out your marker and
index cards to take notes and concentrate. Inspire yourself! Cost: Let's say
$50 for a selection of Products for the Professional Resaler that you've been meaning to
order.
Then take yourself to lunch as a break, before hitting the
books again for the afternoon. Saturday
evening: Conference free time. Join fellow
resalers for dinner and more.
No substitute at home, unless you have really hit it off with your local
peers from the Thursday night get-together. But try a nice glass of your
favorite beverage and a cruise through Too Good to be Threw, using our Site
Map to make sure you don't miss a single tip or idea. Net cost $0,
since TGtbT is a free resource put up on the web for you by Kate Holmes,
author of TGtbT The Complete Operations Manual for
Resale & Consignment Shops. Sunday:
Networking, a workshop, brunch buffet, Sourcemart. More learning opportunities and a chance to connect with vendors, perhaps meet your software people for
the first time. Again, hard to do at home. But think of the visits,
the study, the research you could do (check out ALL those links on Kate's
Links Page and really read all the free info on TGtbT.com. Take one uninterrupted day and really set some goals. You're going to work so hard, take yourself out for
Sunday brunch first. (No champagne, you have work to do.) Cost, $35. Sunday
night: Party with your newfound best buds. A
unique location every Conference.
And once again, no substitute at home, unless you have some best buds
there. After all, Sunday night's for letting your hair down, not talking
shop. Cost? $0 to $50, if you go out
to your favorite local honky-tonk or cafe. Monday
morning: Up early to pack, and if your schedule allows, a
stop for one last NARTS event. At home, spend the morning (since you
don't have to pack) going over all the notes you've taken from your own
personal "Conference" this past weekend. Plan your attack.
Create a do-able to-do list. Cost? Time and concentration. Okay,
your own personal Conference is at an end. Sure, you're still at home,
ho-hum. On the other hand, thing of the time you've saved getting to and
from airports, packing, ironing, reassuring your staff they can manage
without you. Not to mention spouse and dependents. Now:
Set a budget to use to accomplish your goals. After all, with the
suggestions above, you've saved about $1500 over traveling to
Conference. Think of it: you could buy every Product
for the Professional Resaler and STILL have money left over for
(choose one or more) a TV commercial blitz for fall, a professional web
design, direct mail to thousands of your customers... And
let me reiterate... this
plan is only if you cannot, for whatever reason, attend NARTS
Conference. If you can, DO. And, just like your shop, this plan
only works if you work at it. But you already know that, or you wouldn't
be here, on Too Good to be Threw, the Premiere
Site for Resalers!
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