Vagabond Bags & Gifts

A lot to catch up on! That's what happens when Christmas, shopping, parties, and a trip to Montreal all combine to get me away from the computer for a month. To begin with, I was at the Bell building downtown, with Bruce and Peggy for four days in December. It was not a bad place to sell but as we learned, two days early in the month would have been sufficient. The last few days we were there wasn't worthwhile for sales.

We were open Dec. 23 at the Market for "Christmas in the Village". It was promoted in two newspaper ads leading up to the day, and on four radio stations, and got– not great– but respectable traffic. I had a good day with sales but other vendors did little or nothing. I was really "on" with my best sales presence all day, being informative, persuasive, and negotiable. A good sales attitude really is necessary for results. The days when I'm feeling slow, inarticulate, and just plain "leave me alone" translate into exactly that.

Right after Christmas weekend, on the 28th, we headed out to Montreal and did not get buried in a blizzard as I was expecting. I wanted to check out Galérie Indra, a wholesaler of crafts from India but they were closed and never answered the messages I left them. On the drive home, we did manage to stop in at Bayshore Imports, a neat wholesaler of crafts from Indonesia I'd found on the internet, and crammed in all of the order I'd placed for carved mirrors, garden pots, Haitian oil drum art, mosaic bowls, etc.

What a great warehouse! I would love to go back and spend a few hours going through all their stuff but there wasn't time. At least I saved on the shipping charges this time.

Back home I finally prevailed upon Martin to build me that back wall for my booth at the Market. He hit upon the idea of using Brian and Dorothea's wooden doors they'd given him when they changed all their interior doors, and the solid wall of natural wood looks just fabulous in my booth! There were enough doors to creat an "L", so I've got my square worktable in the corner, and together with the new wall space and the three shelving units I got from Ikea, I reduced my display tables from three to one.

The space looks so much bigger, better organized, and professional now. I also installed clip on lamps above the back wall, and small clip on lights on each of the shelf units. Lighting makes a huge difference in showcasing products well, and making the space look bright, attractive, and inviting. It's funny how easy all this was but it took me so long to realize I needed to do all this. Now that it's done, I'm like "Why didn't I do all of this sooner?"

I was supposed to have two booths after December, absorbing the one next door, but Ruth-Ann decided at the last minute she didn't want to move. This turned out to be a blessing, as with all the reorganization, I didn't need the extra space (and extra cost) after all. Bonus was that Ruth-Ann admitted that the divider fence between her booth and mine was in the wrong place and let Martin move it to the middle of our booths. I gained 11" more along the length of my booth. I'd say that fence was in the wrong place!

The first Saturday we were back (Jan. 2) was full of compliments for me on my "Grand Reopening"! The shoppers all liked it too, with more of them actually walking into the booth to look at my stuff instead of skirting around the periphery. Now that I look great, my products have taken a quantum leap up in their "perceived value." That's a term I learned which means the value an item is perceived to be worth in a shopper's eyes. You want to price things according to their perceived value, and the value definitely looks greater in an attractive, well-lit, well-displayed space. Tablecloth-covered tables are definitely "flea market" and while my last one looks alright for now, I plan to make a display out of old apple boxes in the future and get rid of it too.

Dave held a meeting after the day was over and announced we would be open on Wednesdays as well, starting March 1st. I have the feeling we're moving towards the Market being open all week long. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I can work around being open Weds. as well, with my part-time work but Vagabond definitely has to pull its weight and become profitable as a business.

I'm sure the additional Wednesdays will winnow some dilettantes from actual businesses. Already I've heard grumbles from some vendors that they'll have to leave. For myself, even though its scary, its forced a good change in my mindset from running a "hobby business", I have to get serious about turning Vagabond into a paying proposition.

In the meantime I'm finishing up my freelance work for EQAO, and looking for regular part-time work at Sun Media in Woodstock. Being self-employed means never being at a standstill!