Surprising Outcomes: Never Assume How Your Show Will Turn Out!

[KHocutt]

I normally set a goal for myself at each one of my shows. I tend to base the goal on how excited the host is about the show, how many invitations were sent out and what I think her demographic will be at the show.
Normally I can get pretty close, I have had some with a high goal that ended very poorly. But I wanted to share a positive miscalculation.....

I had a show last night, the host was a friend (but dont know her very well), I had tried to get her to book a show back in the fall, but she had told me that she had already agreed to do a show for a family member who is a director in another part of our state. (She actually ended up doing a catalog show for him that did not do very well) She sent me her guest list and only had 26 invitations sent out. I tried to up that number but she insisted that she didnt have anyone else to invite. Each time I spoke with her during HC she seemed mid-line on the excitement scale. But the night before her party she called me and said "Well right now I have about 20 people coming" Which of course I interpreted as 10-12 maybe. And she said she had 3 outside orders.

Well, the night of the show arrived, I got to her house and she tells me that she's already had 4 people call and cancel. So now I'm thinking, okay maybe we will have 8-10. The show was to start at 7. By 7:15 there were 18 people there and by 7:30 there were 22! I was SOOOO glad I did tell her to double the ingredients (just in case). She wanted to close the show that night because her mom was ordering a gift for an upcoming wedding and wanted the products ASAP. Her show closed at $815! (One guest's order was $210) My goal for her show was only $500. I wish the bookings would have been better, got 2, but alot of guests were family/close friends that are loyal to her family member who is a Director. But I can only imagine how high her show may have been if she collected orders after the show.

The moral of this experience is NEVER assume that things will turn out one way or another...people will almost always surprise you. (Whether it's good or bad)

 

[BethCooks4U]

Often you know a show will be awesome or barely qualify but some of my best shows have been shows that I thought were barely going to qualify and some of the worse are shows that the host seems to have it together.

You are right! You never really know until you have the checks in hand.

 

[monica_sweetconsultant]

that is so motivating!! keep up the great work

 

[RachelNguyen]

I had the same experience last night! A friend offered to book a show. She is a really quiet, laid back kind of person and I frankly didn't really think it was going to be very big show. All told, only about 10 people showed up... 2 of whom where a past host couple who were only going to order the mixing bowls! LOL. HOWEVER, my host had a bunch of outside orders and two of the orders at the show last night were in the $100 range... so her show ended at over $700! I was thrilled. I am in SS 3 and with her show, I squeaked a third bank bonus. (with $8 to spare!!!!) So, in the mail this week, I am getting the mid season products, my SS#3 bonus, and TWO bank bonuses. WOW. And this was for a month I thought was going to really stink because I only had a couple of shows booked.

You just never know.

Love+
Rachel

 

[pampered1224]

Never judge a host by their lack of enthusiasm...You know, that is a great thing to have happen. I had the same thing happen last August. I was planning a Bridal Show when the host calls and tells me she has not even sent out the invites yet. This is a week before the show. So I am a little frustrated. Then, I can't reach her for almost the entire week. When she calls me the day before and cancels. No backup date or anything. By this time I am thinking I dodged a bullet. I had not done the shopping yet. Which I do for my hosts. Well, now I am just disappointed that the show is not taking place. Or so I thought. About a week goes by and my host calls me and says, how about three weeks from today. It turned out that she had booked for a Wednesday without remembering that the local school had PTA and other things that were always scheduled on Wednesday and the local church did it's Bible study on Wednesday's and, well, long story short, the party was on a Thursday. She never talked to me after that until two days before the show. I called numerous times because I had questions I needed to ask but never got calls back from her or anything. So, I did what I was planning whether she liked it or not. I had to have something going because I certainly could not arrange anything last minute.
Anyway, she tells me she has not heard from anyone except three people. UGH! Found out she never sent out the invites but made phone calls instead. I showed up at her home at 6 p.m. She still had no idea who was or was not coming. Well, at 7 p.m. there were 4 people there. By 7:15 there were 8. By 7:45 - 27! I almost wet myself when 15 people walked in at the same time at 7:40. We had already started, 30 minutes late I might add. Then the bride to be finally showed up at 8:00. She forgot to let the host know she had to work until 7:30. To funny. I made out like a bandit. We ended up splitting the show into two parts. We sent in all the orders from that night about a week later. This alone was $949. Then one smaller show for all the outside orders coming in from people out of state just kept coming. The grand total of the three shows was over $1700. So you just never know. I had one show where three people came. The show closed at over $1200. The host handed me $1000 plus in outside orders after I had completed entering the three orders fromt he ladies who did come. Now I know how it feels just before you faint!