Variables!
Good morning!
It's another lovely morning out there..Birds are singing and it's getting lighter
We had a good day getting things sorted after the British Motor Show. A few people commented about being a good show or not, for various reasons it wasn’t the success that we hoped for, however this is the thing with show life. They are a lottery, there are so many variables which can make for a good or bad show it's impossible to predict. I have personally been doing them for 12 years and they are still impossible to know what will happen. Even some shows which can be amazing year on year can suddenly fall off a cliff and there is nothing you can do about it. Obviously sometimes the weather can play a major role, either too hot or pouring with rain etc, but then also other factors like increased ticket prices, increased pitch fees, or a national event like Sunday, The world cup final can take place right in the middle of the show day. You can’t blame anyone for this, the moment you think you are entitled to a good show every show you are going to be very disappointed.
I was approached a few times at the show by people who liked what we do and wanted to almost franchise it and do shows for us etc. These were people that had never done a show before and were at a crossroads in their life and wanted to do something new. I explained to them that standing on your stand in the middle of the british motor show, surrounded by beautiful cars etc is the glamorous part, but its way more than that. Driving for hours early in the morning to get set up, standing on your feet all day, speaking to lovely people but also being ignored, or sometimes dealing with rude ignorant people. Packing up hours after everyone has gone home and then driving hours back. Sorting all your stuff out and then having a count up on sales to see if you have made a profit, broke even or even a loss. All of this happens, pretty much at every show. Some of the people who asked took our details and said they would be in touch, some just had a laugh with us and said thanks for the honesty. You might read this and think why on earth would you do it. Well, the simple answer is the good ones outweigh the bad ones and they can be great fun, profitable and you meet lots of great people and get your name out there.
It's important to not overly rely on them, that's one of the reasons we have our own shops including an online shop and other elements of our businesses. The shows are part of the business but not the be all and end all of what we do. We will continue to do them but our show planner constantly evolves, we do more and more smaller shows with the odd large one chucked in.
We have another busy day of running around, getting the shops restocked and general admin stuff!
Internet orders keep chipping away which is fantastic, so thank you for those.
Right off for a meeting, coffee in hand
Catch you later!
Ant x