Liza Taylor of Liza Taylor Handmade is a talented, modern pattern designer and online fabric shop owner. She shares with us how selling your product at trade shows, conferences and craft shows can be beneficial to widening your audience and growing your business. In Why You Should Go To Trade Shows with Liza Taylor, Liza shares insight and tips on preparing for trade shows, what you should have in your booth and how you can gain customers and grow your email list.
Get your PDF download with all the things to keep in mind as you prepare to sell at a craft fair. As you heard on the Craft to Career Podcast episode 98 with Liza Taylor this is a great way to grow your business.
Why You Should Go To Trade Shows With Liza Taylor
In this episode, Liza shares:
- How they met, what Eliza does and what she has niched down on.
- Eliza shares how she has grown her audience on Instagram. She shares the 2 things she feels were instrumental in Instagram and business growth.
- Have you sold your products in person? Eliza shares how she attended a conference for teachers as a vendor and shared a booth with a friend. This has opened her eyes to another area that has been beneficial to her business. Sometimes we assume our ideal customers are all on social media, but we do not realize that there are untouched areas where your ideal customer may not be aware of what you have to offer. She talks about this being an area of marketing that she had not touched.
liza's Experience, Advice and Why you Should Go to Trade Shows
- She shares her insight on being a vendor. How to prepare, what to bring to sell and display and how to present your booth, what you want your potential customers to walk away with and how to get them on your email list are all topics that come up.
- Growing your email list is really important for your business. She shares how she grew her email list through this conference. Liza will also share ideas on how to collect emails and incentive ideas for joining the email list and buying your products.
- We talk about layers in your booth, what is going to draw in your customers, add ons and give aways and what will help you make your booth inviting!
- Eliza talks about the logistics of taking payments at your show. What about sales tax? How to label and price items for show and it all ready to go!
- She shares her 3 big takeaways she’s learned from being a part of trade shows.
- Conversation starters and how to introduce your booth and what you do. We talk about origin stories. She shares how being able to watch what people gravitate toward and the human interaction is invaluable.
Show Notes
Where can you find patterns and fabric and all that Liza has to offer?
Check out her website
Follow her on Instagram and YouTube @lizataylorhandmade
Don’t miss out on all the highlights and notes from this podcast! Grab your free PDF download with all the things to keep in mind when you prepare to sell your products at a trade show.
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Transcription
[Music] welcome to the craft to Career podcast with Elizabeth Chappell or every week we
dive into how you can turn your craft into a successful career get ready to have the career you’ve always dreamed of
[Music] hello and welcome to episode 98 of the
craft to Career podcast I am Elizabeth Chapel of Quilters candy and I’m the
host of The Craft a career podcast this week I invited my friend Liza
Taylor to come and talk about something that she had just mentioned in passing and I was like whoa whoa whoa this is
really good can we do a podcast episode about this and so it is
having your products and you yourself going and attending a craft show or a
trade show or a fair like being in person and selling your stuff in person
which I have not done yet I yeah I just don’t have experience with that and
after talking with her I’m like well I need to get on that that’s something I need to do so I’m really excited to have
Liza here she is just very talented she’s someone who I admire both for her
work and as a person for who she is the things that we talk about today on
the podcast I have a PDF summary of the highlights of all of the things that we
talk about things to remember to bring if you do go to a trade show or a fair uh the things that Liza touches on all
of that is written on a PDF and you can get that by going to quilterscandy.com
forward slash 98 because this is episode 98 and you can get the show notes but
also the PDF with all of the notes and highlights and everything from this episode before we dive in and I
introduce you to Liza if you have not left a review for craft a career podcast please do I do not have ads for my
podcast but I do try to bring you the most value possible I bring on guests
who I think have a really interesting or unique perspective and a lot of times
you’re able to get guests based on your podcast reviews so the more reviews that
I have the more more likely I am to get these awesome people to come onto the podcast to share free information with
you it also really helps my podcast to survive to help other people to find the
podcast and likely if you’re a listener to the podcast somebody mentioned the craft a career podcast to you and if you
can pay that forward if you have someone you know who is a creative entrepreneur and is trying to grow their business
then go ahead and take a screenshot or share the link and share this podcast with someone who can benefit from it
so again if you haven’t left a review that would mean the world to me if you did and now let’s jump in and meet Liza
Taylor of Liza Taylor handmade [Music]
Liza thank you so much for being here yeah thank you for having me
yeah of course so let’s see remind me what year when did I first meet you
um you reached out you messaged me a few years ago maybe in 2019 and then we met
and I took your course and then we met in person and was it 21
just last or 20. I think so yeah or no 22. number 22 yeah no time is a weird
thing it was 22. yes it was just last year so okay and I think remind me if
I’m wrong but I initially reached out to you and this is like a marketing strategy I share with people but I loved
your work like the Fabrics that you chose the photos that you took and did I
I reached out to you and was like if I send you this pattern would you just be willing to make it was that what happened yeah definitely and it was just
like so thrilling to me and you were the very very first person who’d ever done that I had like I don’t even know maybe
500 followers or something and I was like she because I made some of your patterns and then I was like She
Believes In Me like she thinks what I make is cool and that really just was like a turning point in my mind that
like I could do something with this and I could make something more than just you know making quilts for myself so I’m
eternally grateful you did that and it’s something I would like to do in the future because it’s such a great idea it
gets people making your patterns and um just spreads the love yeah and it’s cool because you’re
selecting people who you know that you’re gonna like what they make because you’ve liked what they’ve made so you
know you’re like okay yeah you’re gonna do a good job with this yeah and you can trust you know that it’s a good hands
and you have made a name for yourself um I would love to hear your journey
like okay recently you’ve come out with these little I think it’s Epp or Foundation paper piecing which
Foundation okay what’s the difference between those two yes I’m asking that yeah so um
Foundation paper piecing is your stitching on paper and then um Epp is all hand stitching
um yes okay I knew that yeah thank you for the refresher yeah uh clearly I don’t do a lot of those but
I love the blocks that you’ve come out with I love your patterns you had the Dresden like you just add some unique
elements to what you do has that been intentional or is that like as you move
forward you’ve kind of realized you like that yeah I think that’s um just more getting into more of my
Niche and what I enjoy making um which has been awesome so not typical block based quilts I like
um just kind of you know mix and match and you know kind of random assortment I guess but
yeah that’s definitely more the niche I’m heading towards yeah I love it and that’s just been a
self-discovery as you’ve moved forward like oh I like this yeah so getting more into the fpp smaller blocks is mainly
because of the phase of life I’m in with two little girls they don’t have any time to be making full quilts really so
I was like well what can I work on that’s like super satisfying to me I can you know make it quickly it can turn
into a pillow or a bag or a wall hanging that’s just like it’s nice to do a quick
finish you know um so that led me to the fpp and then designing the patterns
um but it’s just turned into this huge love that I didn’t know I had so it’s kind of funny how the time restraints
have pushed me into a new Direction that’s really cool and we’re gonna
eventually get to trade shows but even before that how have you grown your audience because
you’ve done a good job of that you know you started off with 500 followers when I first met you and now you have what
looks like a very thriving business so what have you done up to this point to grow that audience on Instagram I would
say there’s two things that have really um propelled me in gaining an audience
and then in my business so the first thing was being a tester before I started writing my own patterns I was a
tester um and I would just reach out to designers and ask if I could test for
them I don’t think besides like you reaching out that one time I’m pretty sure I did all the reaching out
um to other people you know I didn’t care if they said no or you know if I wasn’t their style that didn’t upset me
or anything um so being a tester and making all those patterns really helped me as a
pattern designer but also helped me get my name out of there out there because they would share my patterns or sorry
share my makes of their pattern and that was great exposure for me
um eventually I got into kidding the um the versions that I made
so that was great for starting my business as a fabric shop and that
helped grow it really well um and then for my business the main thing that’s helped grow it is
collaborations so um just reaching out to people seeing if
they want to do different you know free offers free patterns or paid patterns
um you know I’ll make this of yours if you want to make this of mine and we can share it together
um but yeah collaborations have definitely been the absolute best thing
and you are I really appreciate that about you like I mean we’re hosting the retreat for
alumni in September and it’s because you reached out and you were like hey do you want to do this thing I’m like actually
yes I’ve been thinking about doing that this was the push that I needed you know and plus you brought a lot to the table
as well but um yeah and you do you just reach I’m really proud of you and to hear that
you’re like I don’t care if they don’t want me that’s fine I’m not deterred I’m gonna keep going so that’s awesome well
done thank you I think that’s gonna um like one of my strengths is I don’t
care if people say no it does not upset me or hurt my feelings at all and like I
guess it’s just because I get it you know sometimes I’m not the right fit for people or my aesthetic isn’t the same as theirs and I totally understand and it’s
no big deal so the worst people can say is no and there’s no harm to me you know
to just ask because if they do say yes then there’s this incredible thing that you’ve gained so
yeah well and one thing that I’ve enjoyed learning about you as a person
you at face value you’re very sweet and like so you know accommodating but when
you really get to know Liza you have strong opinions that you’re not just based on nothing like you you’re a deep
thinker and you you’re not gonna take crap for people you know like you you have your values
and your standards and like and like this like you’re very friendly and approachable but if you don’t like me that’s fine
like you’re just very confident I guess is what I’m trying to get at in in yourself so I really like that oh that’s
so sweet thank you for saying that well so the reason that I reached out to have
you on this episode you had shared that you went to a craft show is that right
is that what you call it it was a conference for teachers okay so a conference for teachers and
you just were like oh FYI this is something to think about because
I thought I was reaching everyone that I could you know on social media but it
turns out there’s this whole lot of who there they are your ideal customer but they may not be on Instagram or they may
not have found you yet on Instagram so I’d love for you to just share first of all what this conference looked like and
what your setup was like let’s start with that yeah so it was a conference for family and consumer Sciences
teachers here in Utah um my friend Caitlin from not in thread invited me to be a vendor with her so um
it was great we shared a booth and we each sold stuff from our shops and
um it was just the best experience and something that I’ll definitely be implementing in my business now because
it was just something I had I’d done a trade show before when my business was
Tiny um but nothing like this and it just like opened my eyes to so many things
and I’ll definitely be continuing it with it yeah I I I want to try now I’ve never
done a trade show or anything like that so if so first of all the people at this particular conference they were all
teachers right yeah so they were teachers um part of that Division and then people
could have booths and so lots of the booths and tables were
um like not necessarily selling anything but they’d maybe be like agriculture
companies OR tech companies trying to like you know share what they do for
like to you and you know try and get you to sign up or whatever they do I wasn’t too familiar with theirs but then there
were some like handmade businesses and just like finding Caitlyn’s and so it was a very diverse crowd because it was
you know sewing teachers um nutrition teachers then there was
agriculture teachers or technology teachers and um so yeah very diverse and it was just
a crowd that I would never have thought to go be a vendor at this conference but it was so beneficial and I’m grateful
that Caitlyn invited me to do it with her well and that’s interesting because as I’m sitting here thinking about what
kind of trade shows would I want to go to I’m thinking well it’d make the most sense to go to like quillcon where all
the people are going to be Quilters and I probably would have written off something like this because like what
are the odds that I’d find someone so can you explain why you felt like it was
a success yeah absolutely and I was there with you I was like well what really is this conference you know why
would they want to see what I’m selling like um but there was a whole crowd of my
ideal customers that I’m guilty of assuming you know everyone’s on Instagram or you know most people have
seen my brand whether they follow me or not you know maybe they’ve seen my fabric shop in some way or my pattern
shop um which is so not the case not a single person there knew who I was or knew had
seen my shop ever um so and they were all not all of them all of my cous all of the customers
there were Avid Quilters or Avid seamstresses that you know they buy fabric regularly they buy patterns
regularly so definitely my ideal customer that had never seen me before so it was just the best way to get in
front of a new crowd a new audience um and yeah just get in front of more
people because up until now my main source of marketing has been Instagram that’s it so I definitely have learned
through this experience that I need to Branch out it makes me want to like clone myself
times a million and go to all the trade shows so everyone can see who I am and
why business is yeah so what did you bring to this particular conference yeah
so um it was great doing it with Caitlyn because I brought Fabric and my patterns
um and then she brought her patterns in in her bag patterns her quilt patterns
then she bought Notions and supplies to make her bag patterns and then I had the fabric to make her bag patterns as well
so we were a good team um but yeah I brought my fabric from my shop and my patterns
okay and I kind of like that so you’re providing all the steps that people need
I guess if you’re gonna go a step further you could have like the Notions that you might need or cutting mat or whatever but to have
the supplies to make something um and then I’d love to hear what
insights you had from doing this this was your first ever what kinds of things were you like okay now that I’ve done
this I want to be sure to remember blah blah blah yeah so just what you said um
I think bringing a variety of items to appeal to as many people as possible
um is such a great idea and if you have patterns you know sell kits full kits for those patterns or the full notion
bundle for the bag patterns um just so to make it as easy for people to shop as possible
um and then also bring samples of your work of your patterns because people
love seeing the actual finished product that definitely helped me help my
patterns because I had the quilts all made okay yeah so they they would see
the quilts draped over my table they’d come look and look at it oh do you sell this pattern you know it was a great
conversation starter okay fun now that I mean that’s a tangent there but did you feel burnt out at all I know
like I can handle a little bit of that but sometimes all that conversation and I’m like whoo I’m kind of burnt out yeah
absolutely it was kind of nice at this conference because they would go to classes
um so there were lulls which was nice to kind of regroup um and it was cool because Caitlyn
taught a few of the classes there so that was great marketing for you know her bag her bag patterns and also our
booth so we would always have people come to our booth after her classes which was super nice so if you get the
opportunity to teach at a conference like that that’s also a great idea to get more exposure
oh I like that so did you sell any of your patterns
that were not um being ex what sort of looking for that she didn’t have like a real sample
to show people yeah so um the definite definite bestsellers
were the ones that had samples there but I also made um business cards specifically for this
event that had a QR code on it um and you can get QR codes for free
which is super handy and then I just made the business card on canva so you know it was really quick and easy
um but that had a QR code that linked directly to the rest of my patterns because I don’t have all of my patterns
printed um so I made a few sales off that too which was super nice and that kind of
this is kind of a tangent but just pass out your business cards to everybody and anybody who wants one especially people
that buy from you um because several times I’ve been at
you know markets and fairs and I’ve bought from somebody and then I come home and I’m like oh I’d love to check
out their shop more and I have nothing to see where I got it from you know maybe not even a name of the shop so
just pass out your business cards like candy because people keep them and save them and they pay off in the end
it’s true I remember back in the day when I had my
subscription box and I was going to Quilt Market to look for you know to buy instead of sell and I would go and see
different displays and it’s such an overwhelm of all the things so I would come home and I would go through and
look at all the Flyers that I got and be like oh yeah that product that product if they didn’t have a flyer or a
business card I was not gonna remember that you know so that is really good
advice yeah absolutely and there’s so like I said they’re so easy to make if you want to make custom ones for
specific events you know um it’s just really really quick and canvas free and the QR codes are free so
besides printing them in your time it’s an easy thing to do yeah that’s awesome
um and then I wanted to touch on growing your email list were you able to grow your email list because if you know me
you know I preach like that’s really going to be how you keep in touch with these people afterwards rather than
hoping that they reach out to you if you can make sure to reach out to them so how did that look for you yeah
absolutely so um Caitlyn actually printed out this printable for both of us to display on our tables
um it just had their email and their name and they could sign up um so I got like a couple sheets of
emails from that which was super helpful um and I wish I would have done this and
I will do this at my next one is maybe offer like an incentive for them to sign
up on your email list um so maybe a giveaway that’s just specific to that event or you could send
out a discount code you know a week later specifically to those that signed up um just to really incentivize people to
um sign up for your list and that can go to your products as well you could offer a special special market pricing
um I know Caitlyn I think she did you know a discount on her patterns or maybe it was like buy three patterns and give
the second fourth one discounted but um I will definitely do that next time to help incentivize people to purchase
as well I like that um which I’m thinking just off the cuff
if I were at a show and I saw there’s going to be a discount if you sign up I
might be motivated to wait and buy later to get the discount so I like the giveaway idea because then I’m like oh
well you’re motivated to sign up for the email list but and then especially that
buy three get the fourth free You’re motivated to buy there at the place so I like
I like my marketing wheels are going I’m thinking what would work the best so
then yeah have you reached out to them I mean it’s a pretty warm audience meeting
someone face to face is way better than like oh I saw this real on Instagram yeah so I need to that’s something I
should have done earlier and the the show was a few weeks ago now um I should have sent a follow-up email
to those specific people um maybe just saying it was nice to meet you or
um thanks for stopping by or something but yeah they’re added to my email list now so hopefully they’re getting my
emails but I definitely should have reached out and we’ll do that next time and I’m just I’m thinking right now
because in the crafted career course this month we’re talking about email sequences now I’m like I could create a welcome
email sequence and have it all set up and anytime I go to a show I just come in and enter those email addresses and
they automatically go through that welcome sequence you know yeah my brain is going and now I can’t turn it off and
now I need to find a show to go to yeah no that’s such a good idea I love that so what okay I was going to
go to quilt con this year I ended up not going but I was going to have a booth
and I think I had like a 10 by 40 inch Booth which once I really measured it I was like holy cow what am I gonna fill
it with but what what’s I mean that’s like 10 by 20 10 by 30 10 by 40 I want
to say what would you now having done that because again I’ve never done a show what would you logistically think
about like what to put on the walls how to actually present this booth you know
yeah so you definitely want to make your booth as aesthetically pleasing as possible and as welcoming as possible
um you only have people’s attention for a few seconds before they decide whether they want to come into your booth or not
so make it as welcoming and as warm as possible um
just displaying as much as you can as many samples as you can I learned next
time that I’d like to have more layers um and it’s always good to put your best
sellers at eye level so they’re super catchy and like I said bring people in
but yeah just having lots of layers keeping it interesting you know if you have a quilt ladder or
um different ways to display your quilts but definitely also have a sign with
your company name I’ve gone into so many booths that have no branding or anything
so you just I don’t know it just feels different when you go into a place and you’re like oh like this is a shop this
is a Cool vibe like I want to be here you know so definitely include as many marketing
um things as you can with signs and like I said business cards maybe if you want
you know t-shirts or aprons that you and your employees will wear if you have employees there
um but yeah just different layers is key and
make it as aesthetic as possible so can I ask when you say I have lots of
layers what does what do you mean what does that look like so I’m sure you’ve seen setups where it’s just like flat on
a table you know maybe some patterns or some supplies here and there’s not much
interest to it but if you bring you know hanging baskets or um like tiered shelving that just kind
of moves the person’s eye around your booth easier um and keeps their interest so you know
if you had a huge booth that was like 10 by 40 feet or you know the quilt con standards you know you could have
multiple tables multiple racks multiple shelves and you know fill it with whatever you want but just keep it
interesting yeah and I wonder again I I’ve not done
like a ton of research on this but I’m just thinking two years ago when I went to quilt con
um Kylie of modest quilter they had like a couch in their booth now granted I
know Kylie so I feel comfortable with her but whenever I was there was a lull or I was tired I would find my way to
her booth and go sit down because it was comfortable is that I mean I’m assuming that’s I
don’t know is that a good practice to have like a place where people can get comfy in your booth or I guess you need to have the room I don’t know yeah
absolutely I think that’s awesome because I saw some a few people this year at quilts con I didn’t go but
online I saw them doing this a similar thing and I was like gosh that would be so lovely like to go sit down and just
relax so it’s lovely for the consumer but then also as a business owner like whether you make a sale from them or not
you’re making a connection you’re getting to know somebody making a friend so
um I think it’s a win-win for sure and then a lot of places have like candy
you know where you can grab is that is there a science behind that yeah yeah so
lots of people did have candy or stickers or you know whatever like little freebies to get
people into their Booth which is awesome I didn’t do that um but I definitely would maybe bring
like a bowl of candy or something um I did when I went to a market a few years ago a lady this is before covet
but she had a plate of cookies and if you’re following her on Instagram she would give you a cookie and I was like oh that’s not a bad idea
um but yeah just having if you want to do those freebies that’s great and also like
just having little add-on items like that for people’s orders like if you do stickers or pins
um I think Caitlyn had those and I thought that was such a great idea and I think every single order of hers had a sticker with it because it was just a
quick add-on and um you know just a little bit more money to each sale and then also they were
branded so because people leave with the Branded sticker of hers that’s smart and like what kind of price
point are we talking for a quick add-on item like an upsell I think her stickers
were like four dollars and then pins maybe were like 10 or 12. um but people love stickers I mean you
put them on your laptops or your um drinks or whatever so it’s such a
good way because then that’s marketing for you anytime somebody sees their drink bottle you know with their sticker
it’s just it’s such a good idea I like that very very smart
so okay off I like the layers idea because I’m just even thinking anything
in this world if fabric design a quilt pattern and we like to have Dimension to
it something that just is exciting for the eye to look at but especially if you’re in real life I have seen those
booths where you’re like and then others where you have to go in just because it’s so beautiful you’re like let me see
that up close you know yeah and eye level your best sellers okay I am
curious to chat about best sellers did you find that the things that sold best online also sold the best at this
conference yeah absolutely my best selling pattern was the best selling pattern there as well which is super
interesting I guess yeah there’s a reason it’s a bestseller online it translates well which is nice yeah so
which is your best seller it’s my cottonwoods quilt pattern so it’s got that we’ll put a link to
that oh thank you yeah it’s got the Epp in it and also the big panel Patchwork
um so it’s it’s a quick make besides the EPP was that your first pattern where you
did this like other element type of a thing yeah so that was my second pattern and then the first that I that wasn’t
block based so um it definitely shows my audience liked
that and so it’s been something I’ve used moving forward and now I’m excited to offer another element of it is I’m
going to make my fpp patterns the same size block as the Epps so they’re all interchangeable so you can kind of make
it your own and um I just think that’ll be cool that is cool and
well I think too I mean I could be wrong but it’s also really unique like I talk
a lot to my students about like find a niche find a niche find a unique area that isn’t being served and I feel like
this design idea is it’s new you know the elements of it are not but the way you combined it and put it together it’s
a very fresh Liza Taylor look you know and it’s cool that you have your own look like I can look at something and be
like that has Liza’s name on it you know um which do people ever reach out to you
for help with photos or fabric selection or I don’t know oh that’s so kind of you to say
that’s definitely what we’re all aiming for right it’s just that individuality so thank you
um but yeah lots of times people ask you know how do you get into finding that specific Niche or you know how do you
choose out the Fabrics you do or um how do you get inspiration for the
patterns you make and it’s honestly just I’m using stuff that I like and it’s
been a process to get here it didn’t happen overnight so um yeah just keep following your gut and
your instincts and following what you like and you’ll eventually get to that position
but you also do have an eye I mean this is all true but I do think you have a talented eye for beauty like have you
been into interested in home decor or stuff like that yeah so
um before I did quilting my account is so funny if you go way back way way back it was a home decor account so
um and then I do like it yeah yeah I love it and I yet always did the interior
design classes and the art classes so it’s definitely been something that’s been in my wheelhouse for a while but
I’ve finally found something that sticks with quilting and something that just is
you know such a love in my life so yeah that’s awesome okay and then I
guess the well these are my last questions and then if you have other things you want to share on the topic of the craft show I’d love to hear it but
the logistics of paying so I my patterns are carried on Shopify
I’ve never done in person how do people pay yeah so there’s several different
um platforms I guess for um payments taking payments and they’re
all pretty comparable price range uh price points what they charge and per
transaction and stuff so um I personally went with square because
I’d heard great things about it but definitely do your research and find which one appeals to you most in the
type of show you’re doing in the type of things you sell um it was important for me that I had
one that didn’t necessarily need Wi-Fi um because Wi-Fi is kind of you know
can’t always be the most reliable source so having one that didn’t need Wi-Fi was
important to me having one that I could easily link to my Shopify and easily link to my items that I sell was
important so yeah there’s tons and then in that you can buy all the gadgets all
the technology you need right so you can buy a Tapper or I just bought the little
swipe thing um the app does come with a tap built in
so that was super nice but definitely offer multiple ways people can pay too
so you know bring some cash or if you want to do venmo make sure you know you
know what’s what to charge for sales tax um so that you can have every customer come
shop with you and you don’t turn anybody away that’s true you do not want to turn
someone away who wants to buy your thing um so did people pay you cash as well there
um I actually didn’t have anybody do cash which was interesting to me I thought I would but everybody did majority did credit cards
okay so okay then when you mentioned the sales tax
before you go did you how do you figure like let’s say I had gone to quilt Con in Atlanta Georgia not that your sales
tax expert but like I’d probably reach out to my CPA ahead of time but how did you figure out sales tax I guess you
were in Utah and you are in Utah but yeah so that makes it super easy I actually knew the sales tax only when
only because I was setting up my Square account um they were like what do you want to
charge you know typical Utah sales tax and I was like oh yes I guess I do
but okay yeah something to research for sure well that’s nice to know so you’re in
Shopify as well yeah and they just said do you want to charge sales tax and you just click yes yeah
nice okay I like that that’s the way I like to go like yes please take care of it for me yeah so then um
when you say you can buy all the add-ons what about a scanner how do you type in
like did you have a UPC code or how do you know what to charge for each thing yes so since I I’ve only brought fabric
bundles and then pre-cut fabric by the yard and then my patterns my paper patterns which are all twelve dollars
so it wasn’t too hard to keep a list of price points and items that I was bringing but if you
if you have a ton that you’re bringing you can put them into the square app and
um it makes it super easy to charge people you just search you know Cottonwood School pattern added to cart
um you know fabric bundle added to cart and then it puts their total with the tax and then you can just hit check out
um but yeah you could also bring a list of things or I’m wondering I didn’t use it
but I do think the square app has a scanner if you have my qpc code
to make it easy and fast but um I just pre-loaded everything before
the event okay so you literally just went in on the app and it would still work even if
you didn’t have Wi-Fi yeah wow that’s cool okay I cannot rep I feel
like where have I been with technology you can do that without Wi-Fi yeah it just worked off my my data plan you know
okay gotcha yeah so okay my questions are answered are there any other things
that you’re like oh I need to be sure to share XYZ yeah so I think my three big
takeaways from the event were of course sales you want sales um and then marketing it’s just a great
way to meet a different audience or a broader audience um but something that equally was just
as important that surprised me was the amount of market research I was able to do and how much I learned about my own
brand um it was super surprising to me because having an online business and working
out of my home I don’t ever usually have to talk about my brand or myself or what
I sell um but having people come up that not weren’t necessarily Quilters or sewers
saying what do you sell or what are you doing like that was invaluable to be able to practice like you know speaking
about my brand and giving insight and representing my brand and in a way that I never had before
so did you think ahead of time about your outfit and like should I wear something that’s on brand or yeah
um I didn’t I wish I maybe next time would have like you know my logo or my company name on my t-shirt but
um yeah I wish I would have maybe thought more about that but yeah it was just a strange new thing having to talk
about my brand more than I ever have to do and also it’s just amazing the market research because
I put out what I think people will like but having actual people come and me watching what they gravitate towards
what they’re buying what they’re looking at what they’re not looking at was just so invaluable so now I know going
forward oh maybe that pattern you know but nobody really looked at that one and
people gravitated towards this one let’s continue in that direction and you know what did they want to see more of or
what did they just glance over really quick it was just a huge it was just
very eye-opening and a great experience for that that is invaluable holy cow that’s like
amazing so can I put you on the spot and have you reenact a little bit let’s say I’m a stranger and I come into your
booth I’m like hi so what do you do how would you answer that yeah so in the past I guess like
um I would maybe just have said oh I’m a quilt pattern designer and I own a fabric shop you know and that was kind
of it um because I didn’t really know how to speak about my brand but um you know I would say I’m a fabric
shop that specializes in these Fabrics you know I’m really drawn to these colors and these Graphics this company
um these manufacturers I’m also quilt pattern designer specializing in these
type of quilt patterns um I’ve had my brand for or my business for you know x amount of years and
um you know it really brings me a lot of joy and I love seeing what other people make with the fabric they buy for me or
the patterns they buy from me um it’s just a super fulfilling thing so
it kind of brings more like personality and more like um
experience like my personal experience with my business into it which people resonate with and kind of ask more
questions about after absolutely in fact I’m thinking now
Spanx a brand that I love um Sarah Blakely tells her origin story
a lot and I love it like five thousand dollars and her red backpack if you
don’t know her story you can go and find it but um but I resonate with that and then Chicken Salad Chick is another
restaurant around here and I’ve noticed every Chicken Salad Chick restaurant you go into it has her origin story of like
she was in a hard spot she came up with this people loved it now there’s this restaurant but I think it’s cool people
resonate with stories we love stories to meet you face to face and hear a little bit of your story and how you got
started it’s just way more natural when you’re face to face like that and they’re asking you like so what do you
do you know and you can tell them that it’s pretty cool yeah and it’s like I
said a great conversation starter and leads into you know more Dynamic relationships or more in-depth
conversations which are super great now I’m wondering if I ever do have a
booth if I have my origin story kind of written down where people can read that and like hmm I kind of like that it’s
interesting yeah absolutely big things he said you uh obviously you get a whole
new perspective of like what people are gravitating towards which is so huge I
want a booth right now and I want to see like what are people you know looking at and I wonder if it matters based on
where it’s placed anyhow I want to try all the things now um and then getting brand recognition
for yourself you’re getting Clarity of like what what I offer what I do and was
there a third one that I’m missing things that you were takeaways um just the sales side so honestly you
pay your booth fee and as long as you’re you know breaking even with that fee I
think it’s a win so whether you have tons of sales or not I think it’s a huge invaluable experience because
you are getting so much more out of it like I was saying the market research you know meeting customers getting new
customers maybe they’ll be a customer later um just yes there’s so much more to it than
just sales yes awesome so I heard you mention you
didn’t go to quilt con this year what shows are you planning on doing in the
future yeah so I mean quiltcon would be like the most amazing show to do right
but I think I won’t do that for a little bit but um I would like to do there’s a big
event that’s across the whole state it’s called Vintage Market Days um and I’ve been I’ve attended for years
and years now and it’s just like one of my favorite events to go to they have a whole area for vintage
um things and then they have a whole handmade area so small businesses and
handmade items so I think I would fit in really well there so that would be the ideal thing to do
that’s awesome and okay how come you say you wouldn’t go to quilt con for a couple years I guess it’s just I mean as a booth yeah
I guess it’s just daunting to me now like I I need I would love to do it I
would do it if I if the opportunity presented itself but um that just seems like the mecca of
markets but no that would be an amazing thing too to be a vendor app for sure
no it does actually seem daunting like I had paid for a booth and it just turned out I couldn’t go because now I can say
it my husband left Merrill Lynch and they started their own company so it happened during quilt con I was like I
need to be here for that um but while I was home and it was getting
close to quilt con I’m not gonna lie I was like I’m so relieved I do not need to get that ready right now like oh it
feels like it’s a lot of work you know so and now that it’s passing on I’m like
I don’t know so hearing this is good because honestly I’m like will I ever do that it’s so much work but it is very valuable so
yeah and the thing with quilt con is that whole audience everybody attending is your ideal customer right so like
it’s it’s the best Market to go to because they’re all somebody who would shop from you you know probably so it
would definitely be the best one I think to go to yeah yeah that is true
well very cool so for our listeners who want to find you where can they find you yes so on all social media I am Liza
Taylor handmade and then my website is Liza Taylor handmade.com awesome well thank you so much for
sharing about this and for our listeners they also don’t know this is our second time recording this because I’ll go into
more detail later so thank you times two for doing this and being a guest on the crafted career podcast no problem thank
you for having me of course [Music]
Liza thank you so much for being here on the podcast it was a pleasure to have you and honestly it just leaves me with
this feeling of like oh my goodness I have got to go and be at one of these shows I I want that market research I I
mean besides the overwhelm of like what what will I bring how will I set up my booth the information the human
connections it’s really invaluable so thank you so much for sharing about that
Liza and I’ll have to follow up and hear how it goes when you go to the Vintage days I think it’s called Vintage Market
and hopefully we’ll see you at quillcon at a booth one of these years you and me both next week on the podcast I have a
special episode that is me I am going to share with you I know I’ve talked before
about what success is but I have really had a very eye-opening experience this
last weekend it will impact not only your business but your joy in how you
show up it will affect your marketing it will affect every aspect of your business as it has for mine so I’m
really excited about that episode that I will have for you next week right here on the craft a career podcast until then
have a wonderful week and I will see you next Friday [Music]