When managing the advantages of internationalizing your brand, you come to an inevitable stage where you ask: is it time to begin exhibiting your work at trade shows in order to get your art into more shops and galleries? You will get an answer if you ask yourself a few simple questions.
Does each of your pieces require significant hands-on time and do they have to be your own two hands or can you get help with some of the process? For example, you design and create all the components for your line of furniture but you pay someone to do your soldering.
Do you handcraft the original and then make reproductions such as art prints or metal casting?
Are you ready to seriously gear up your production when you receive a lot of orders?
How quickly can you fill those orders?
Do you have access to someone to handle the administrative tasks such as billing, shipping, receivables, ordering supplies and tracking inventory?
The idea of picking up several new accounts and writing huge orders may sound appealing but you have to be ready to gear up your business rapidly. The costs involved in exhibiting at a major trade show are significant and you have to sell several times the amount of your expenses and be ready to rapidly transition from cottage craft business to serious enterprise.
In order to fulfill mega orders and satisfy your new big customers, you are going to have to purchase supplies in much larger quantities and hire staff or outsource some of the administrative tasks. Do you have the cash flow to purchase those supplies and hire the helpers you will need? Or will you be floating on credit cards and soliciting labor from friends and family in the early stages? Will you require a larger workspace?
You can thrive by building your business a few loyal accounts at a time. When you are ready to take the leap, go ahead with the participation in the tradeshows, by choosing each one wisely.
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