I just completed my 1st home show of 2009 & I am happy to say it was a success in many ways. In order to market my wares, I have retailers that carry my jewelry line & I also participate in a number of juried art shows. At some point I will also sell on-line but there are many mental hoops I need to jump thru before I am ready to do so. If a customer emails me directly I will work with them to find them the perfect piece of jewelry. For now, that has worked just fine.
However, since I began this business, I have also marketed my jewelry thru doing home shows. I always find them to be fun, relatively stress-free events. Set-up is minimal compared to setting up a booth for a show, and the risk of shoplifting is extremely low. Plus, there is always a friendly crowd, most of whom are in the buying mood.
But most of all I enjoy doing home shows because most hostesses opt to donate their cut of the sales to a worthy cause. Some, of course, want to use their credit toward merchandise & that is just fine by me. However, many choose to donate their portion of the sales to a worthy charity, such as an American Cancer Society Relay for Life team.
I always leave these shows feeling like a win-win. I have made some sales, people have walked away with new jewelry either for themselves or for a gift, and a worthy organization has just been helped as well.