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OVER THE
COUNTER
When you read this, the Spring Fair will be almost upon us, with two years of pent-up surprises and delights expected from the show. As always, we will descend on the halls with a touch of dread (long days, lots of walking, unmemorable food) mixed with enthusiasm to find something different; the next winners on the product front. A trade fair is of course all about decisions and the first major one is whether to attend, but that’s just the start… Last year there was no Spring Fair and this year we have seen various trade fairs cancelled or postponed in the UK and across Europe, so as I write this we all have our fingers crossed that this major event goes ahead as planned. Due to Covid, there has quite rightly been an element of doubt about getting a volume of people from all over the country into one place. And that’s before the handing and touching of product, which admittedly is a bit of a logistical quandary, but a necessary one for us to get back to business. Anyhow, my flight to Birmingham is booked.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
No Business, Like Show
business Above: There’s no business like show business…all the world’s a stage! Below left: David was delighted to discover newbie publisher, Popsy & Plum at last July’s PG Live show. Right: David likens making the most of trade fairs to pre-season football training.
The buying process is of course key. Our trade has always evolved with certain brands at times coming to the fore. However, what makes us indies survive is the new and quirky companies that we find which mix in with the established brands and make us different. My mum and I have had a few long discussions recently about the way we have bought in the last 18 months and in reality the results have been pretty good. The mix of sifting through brochures and catalogues, logging on to Zoom or Teams meetings, catching up with agents as well as some great sharing of ideas and experiences with our peers resulted in decent sales. Yes, there have been a few blunders. Yes, there were things we wouldn’t have bought if we had seen the actual size or quality of the products, but there are also many ranges we would have bought more of, though with stock issues it became more of a ‘one chance thing’. All this in some ways focused our minds. As we all know trade fairs are an expense, both in terms of time and money, but almost everyone I know
appreciates the importance of the physical hands-on product experience that exhibitions provide. The secret of trade fairs is a bit like pre-season training in football. No one particularly likes it, but you need to put in the hard yards, do the graft and usually it will pay dividends in the long run. The buzz of a trade fair is heightened by the need to make lots of decisions. Decision making is without doubt one of the
key elements in business. Every day we are faced with all kinds of decisions, from the pricing of a product to handling a staff situation. Being your own boss, whether of a small store with maybe just yourself or a larger organisation with multiple sites hinges on the ability to set a course and continue to make strong decisions along the way. Never has this been tested as much as it has in these Covid times as we are making decisions based on a situation none of us have experienced.