Now, in my world, I can’t count the number of times I’ve learned a hard lesson. Sometimes it’s painful financially, sometimes it’s a loss of time, and sometimes it’s just a bruised ego. But so many times I’ve walked away with the “consolation” statement of “at least I learned not to do that again”. But, at the end of the day, how many of us really learn that lesson?
Let me give you some examples from my business adventures. Let’s start with the obscene amount of money I’ve spent to be a vendor at several tradeshows. My first “real” show cost somewhere in the ballpark of $18k. Luckily, I had a partner at the time to split the expense, but it doesn’t make it any cheaper. We decided to do a trade show, having never attended it, didn’t have any prospects at the time to talk to, and knew nothing about what we were getting into. We had our little table, and no trinkets to give away except some pens and notepads. We walked away with practically no leads, and a big wad of cash missing from our pockets. Now, if we had really learned anything from that experience, we would’ve realized that you can often get as much out of attending a show as you do being a vendor. Instead, our take away was that we needed to “look bigger”. So we went back the next year, spent even more money, bought a fancy booth, give away slinkies and got some interest (leads) for our stuff. We walked away feeling this would be much better. After all, people stopped by, they seemed genuinely interested… but at the end of the day, none of those leads ever panned out.
Again, should’ve learned that we aren’t ready for the big shows yet. But instead of focusing on smaller shows, I decided to go even bigger and be a vendor at SAPPHIRE. After all, that is the show that attracts the people that can sign the checks, right?!? Surely, this was the mistake all along =)
so, without having attended a SAPPHIRE ever, I laid down the cash again, and got few leads, little traffic, and big disappointment. Only now, am I finally looking at the “real” lessons I should’ve learned.
1. never present at a show that you haven’t attended first.
2. Don’t bother with a huge show unless you have someone to close the deal with.
3. If you aren’t presenting at a show, what’s the point? The presentation is your infomercial that people voluntarily (or at some smaller shows have no choice) hear all about your best features.
4. When you’re just starting out, spend your money wisely. Until you have a solid name out there, don’t think that showing up for 3 days at a show will instantly give you credibility.
Now, this is just one small area. Now, think about your past. How many times have you paid a high price in $$$ or time, and said, well, at least I learned something from it. The important question you have to ask yourself is why didn’t I think it through in the first place. Take it from me, try to plan ahead instead of paying for a lesson like I did 🙂
thanks for reading,
Mike