I went out to work a show yesterday in my New town of St. Petersburg, FL. It was a “Fall” show, but of course in Florida it was about 87 degrees. I sat under my tent from 8 am until 4 pm, and I still got a serious suntan. It was hard labor y’all, and I didn’t make very much money at all. There wasn’t a crowd. Fortunately, the morning of the show, I got a download from Spirit that told me to make $5.00 earrings while sitting at my table. I did just that. I made about 20 pair of earrings while I was out there. I sold in about 6 earrings @ $5.00. I almost sold a $12.00 pair, but my credit card processing gave me some trouble. I’ll check on that before the next show.

Although I didn’t make too much money, I do count the experience as a positive. I hadn’t been out since early in my pregnancy, and my baby is almost a year old. I haven’t made any jewelry either, so my inventory looked pretty bare. Getting back out there gave me some perspective. When I do shows I hardly ever just go out with jewelry alone. I make bath and body products too, so I usually go out with bath salts, scrubs, and soap, and sometimes lip balm. I didn’t have any of that stuff. It was a lesson learned.

When working shows it’s important to diversify. Gotta be able to reach all audiences or else you might walk away with a goose egg or even worse a negative. The $5.00 earrings were my saving grace yesterday, but then I always wonder if they would have bought more expensive items if I hadn’t given them the $5.00 out. What do you think? Is the economy ready for women to start buying luxuries again, like $20.00 earrings or should I stick to having three-bead $5.00 earrings around?