This past Saturday’s event was a craft show with food and a dj. We definitely made money over and above our booth fee and made money on each item we sold. One sale alone accounted for $144 which more than paid for our booth. We had several other sales as well and gave out a bunch of business cards and brochures about our products. The brochure is one I made up and printed on my computer and copied at our store. Low cost but it helps get the word out. I will work on tallying everything today … inventory and cash.
I will go over our remaining stock to see what we need to replenish for this week’s event. It is supposed to be a hugely attended event, even more than the last one. It has several band stages, a 5k race, a duck race on the bayou, a corvette show, and crafts of course. It is put on by the Chamber of Commerce of Thibodaux, LA, just a few miles from where I live. I have never been to this even as a visitor so I really don’t know what to expect. However, after church yesterday we drove over and drove down the street where my booth will be. I’ll be the 2nd booth over from one of the band stands. If any of you are in the area I hope you’ll come out and look for me. I’ll be in booth number 2 on 2nd street.
There is one thing that we do that goes against DR. I have a Square that works with our cell phones. If anyone asks if we have a payment preference we tell them we prefer cash but will take all forms of payment. It is a double-edges sword as the other business owners here know. The large ticket I had Saturday was on a cc. The up side is that I don’t have to worry about a check bouncing on a ticket like that. I received only one check, 2 cc transactions and the rest was cash.
I definitely see our business starting to recoup costs now. As many of you business owners know, sometimes you have to spend a lot before you get in the black. The best part of all this is that it has been cash flowed. No credit cards, loans or debt. We have begun to accumulate some cash and I will use it to pay back our savings and reserve some to replenish supplies. I’ll probably split it between the two in some percentage.
On the personal side I got our electric/gas bill paid and paid our cable bill early over the weekend. I still need to get our cash for envelopes though.