Christmas Open House - Is This One Worth My Time?

[krackley]

I'd like to say all opportunities are good ones. . . but here's the deal.

I have a friend who wants me to participate in an open house - free of charge - with Mary Kay, Creative Memories, and a jewelry lady.

I was thinking of doing some microwave recipes (it's 4 hours long), every hour on the hour so that people could see me prepare something really quick, then come take a taste of whatever I made after they've looked at everyone's other things. . .

I was going to make it a Mystery Host type show - with a drawing and tickets for different things, like bringing a friend, buying products, booking shows, becoming a consultant, etc.

The lady in charge (the creative memories lady), wants everyone to bring their own food, and me not do any recipes, because she's afraid it would take away all the customers. Also, she wants me to donate just one door prize and after the event, everyone will get a list of everyone's names.

No, these things aren't bad - but is it really worth my time? She was all excited because she "already has two people coming - there might be a lot there!" - I'm thinking if there's only 30 or 40 people there, I would need to do some recipes to show off some stoneware, cookware, etc, to make it worth my four hours. . .

What do you think? I'm talking to her more about it at 1:30 today. . .

 

[cookjs]

I did one of these last Saturday with Creative Memories, Scentsy, Southern Living and a jewelry lady. Most of the customers were from the Creative Memories lady and so she got a lot of business. There were probably 30 people who showed up during the day and I sold $200 and booked 3 shows. I did not cook during the day, it would have been too confusing. I made a few things in stones and talked about them. Most people were more interested in just looking through the catalog though. Ours wasn't set up where you could do any kind of show. I thought it was worth it because of the bookings I received.

 

[krackley]

So do you think it would be worth my time to maybe get some new contacts from everyone else's contacts, or to just have my own Mystery Host holiday show where I can really bring my A game?

 

[pattikake]

I've done 3 of these this year and a 4th one coming up in 2 weeks. I usually get a booking, sell lots of cash & carry and gather new contacts each time. It is definitely worth it for me.

 

[cheflorraine]

I did an open house like this two Saturdays ago with Creative Memories, about Mary Kay, Tupperware, and Norwex. The others brought snacks as well, and I brought a few. My one 'interactive' was brownie bites in the mini-muffin pan with a cream cheese filling - I showed people individually how to use the garlic slicer to grate chocolate on top, and the microplan grater to add orange zest.
Otherwise I just had a number of products displayed, and as people came by, I talked to them about my 'favorite' products and why they needed them in their kitchen!
It was an awesome sales day for me - my largest party yet at over $1400 by the time it was all over. BUT this is unusual - we probably had such high sales because it was primarily ladies from our church, who were coming with the intent of buying something already.
But in any case, I would say you should go for it and have fun doing it!

 

[pampchefsarah]

I did one this past Sunday, which cost me $40, and I sold one thing, for which I'm paying shipping. It was a total loss for me (I also brought snacks, so that cost me money. Everyone loved the samples, but no bookings, and no other orders). Tupperware, Tastefully Simple, Premier Jewelry, and Mary Kay all had cash-and-carry, which I didn't, and they all had good sales.

On the other hand, I did another vendor sale a couple of weeks ago which turned out to be at $500 show for me (including over $300 online). The guests at this event, just as in Lorraine's case, were of the mindset to spend money. That makes a difference, I think.

Since it's free for you, I say go for it, but don't spend much on taste samples and demos. Concentrate on helping people pick out great Christmas presents, instead.

 

[krackley]

Wow thanks for the advice - I'm going to do it, and just hope for the best. . . I'm kinda treating it like a regular show - I'm even using the host planning guide to keep me focused on inviting people and following up on invites, etc. .. it's not until Dec. 1 and I already have one booking, one possible booking, and an order.. . so maybe it'll turn out well!

 

[leslieprichett]

Go for it. These things never seem to make sense when I do them. I did one at the local fire house (my friend is a female fire fighter there and also sells Scentsy, so she did a little Christmas shopping bazaar with her, me and a longaberger lady). We only had like a dozen people come through. I had $450 in sales from only 3 order.
The next weekend I did a Christmas bazaar (that has been around for like 10 years), got no booking, and only $200 in orders.
But every bit counts as far as I'm concerned

 

[ChefMichele1]

I have a question along the lines of this and Black Friday sale. I was going to send out a Black Friday sale, but have a similar vendor event on December 6th and don't want to shoot myself in the foot. I want my customers to attend the event on the 6th to fulfill my part of the obligation to bring in my customers to the event. My customers are all over the place so I know many won't drive in for the event and may take advantage of Black Friday specials. Does anyone have a good way of "combining" this type of sale. Maybe offer the Black Friday as a smaller discount, then those who come to the vendor event and additional discount. Turn the entire thing into a "mystery show"??? My brain hurts trying to think up the math of it all. Please help

 

[Suzballard]

I have a grade school PTO Art & Holiday Shop show that I am doing on Dec 1. I have no idea what to expect but this is the 3rd year they are doing it so I am hoping it has been successful in the past. I am going to bring spritz cookies on the Snowman Platter & show the Snowman Appetizer plates with cookies & vellum wrapping to give an example of a great teacher gift. Other than that, any suggestions on food or snacks? It is from 5:30-7:30 and I was really wanting to show off the DCB. Should I make a cake ahead of time in it and serve that as well? I don't want to invest too much in case it is a bust, and it is already costing me $20 to participate.

 

[krackley]

Well, my open house was a HUGE success! I wasn't even trying to sell stuff, but I still ended up with $440 in orders and FIVE BOOKINGS! (Four cooking shows, and one wedding shower!) - so, January is booked solid now! I think I might do the mystery host show, too, since that seems to be doing so well for so many people. . . but I think I'll hold off for a low month. . .

 

[Chef Kearns]

I'm glad you decided to do it Krackley!! With those type of vendor events you just never know. Some are huge and some are duds. You just have to be aware of keeping your costs down so if it is a dud you aren't worse off. However, I always try to connect with the other vendors to find out about other events and to become the PC lady for their group. Those contacts are priceless in my opinion. I've gotten tons of residual leads from events that way. Congratulations on a successful event!

 

[mrshamel3808]

I did an open house at a Cookie Lee lady's house. She had her stuff, me, a Mary Kay lady, handmade greeting cards and her sister in law's hawaiian blankets there. I invited my whole customer base but it wasn't really local to me so it was only her customers. We had 20 max and I brought a pre made appetizer thing. (it was the cool vegge tree, you can find it here in the files). I sold over $600, and have 3 potential bookings. I'd say it's worth it!

 

[krackley]

Yeah, Elise, I'm with you! It didn't cost me anything except the ingredients for a couple of recipes ($10 max), so even if I didn't sell a thing, and just got bookings, it would have been worth it. I'm really excited about my January now!

Thanks, Chef Kearns - I appreciate the encouragement from such a vet!