Bisous Artist & Owner Suzanne Carillo & All That It's About

Great FUN at Great Lakes Mega Meet!

Well I'm just back from my "whirlwind" tour of Novi Michigan and the Great Lakes Mega Meet Show.  It's the first time I've even been.  The show was interesting since I was able to connect with many different levels of scrapbookers and see what they thought of the new PDQ line.  It was difficult for some of them to understand the concept, but once they did they were so amazed about how much time and money they'd be saving they went and brought their friends back to the booth to explain the whole concept to them.  It was great since it saved me having to go through the whole sales speech again, after doing it for the 100th time in a day, believe me, you're more than happy when someone else can step in and do it for you!

I shared booth space with 6 other wonderful manufacturers at the show.  We had such a good time together and learned so much from each other.  I laughed so hard I cried on more than one occasion.  If that isn't a great stress reliever I don't know what is.  It was hard to leave them all after forming such tight bonds at the show.  Each one of them had a unique perspective and informative ideas and solutions for small businesses. It was wonderful to speak to people experiencing the same challenges I experience daily and sharing different strategies to overcome these challenges. I hope we're able to get together again in the future.  In the competitive world of scrapbooking it was so refreshing to be in a group of women who worked so well together to a common goal.  If only the rest of the industry could be so cooperative, I think we'd all profit.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank again all the people who showed up and purchased products at our booth and especially the members of manufacturers in my group, www.artdeclassified.com , (Vanessa and Karen and Sarah their fab designer who is the demo QUEEN)  www.croppincompanion.com   (Cheryl and her wonderful friend, Amy...the clowns of the group), www.memoriesinuniform.com  (Amy the heart of the group)  www.timelesstouches.net   (Janis the organizer)   www.same-differences.com  (Kim, Becky and Nicky)  www.grassrootscreative.com (Neille the calming force of reason who was also my roomie and made the whole experience truly memorable on a more personal level than just simply a business venture).  Thanks for the good times girls!

Now back to work...my husband is gone for a week to France to visit his family so I am going to finish playing catch up from my time away and hopefully get the store locator updated from the CHA orders.

Off to sneak in a run first before the rest of the day starts.

Quick Update

Well I'm happy to say that most orders have now been shipped leaving us only a handful of orders to still get out.  I am finding that since we offered the PDQ in kits that has slowed down our ability to fulfill the orders quickly as kits must be collated and packaged prior to shipping.  Next time I will be getting the kits pre-made...hours and hours of collating is not a good use of time, oh, and can someone say BORING!!!!

PDQ has moved so quickly that we are concerned that some of the stock will be gone very soon.  Now I am faced with the dilema of producing new designs or reprinting the same since most of the editorials and advertising for the line and designs we have now won't be out until the Fall.  This is a good problem to have though.

We are having such a beautiful spring and it is the first time I am in my own house, with a garden and backyard and all and I'm feeling very torn between trying to enjoy some of it and getting all this work done.  I want to plant a vegetable garden and that takes time and energy, both of which I seem to be running low on lately.

Next week I leave for a week in Novi, just outside of Michigan for the Great Lakes Mega Meet.  Bisous will be exhibiting with some other manufacturers under the name "Scrap Basics".  I'm a little anxious about it since this will be my first US consumer show and also the first time I drive by myself down to Detroit.  I'm hoping it will be a great show and make it all worthwhile. 

Well, back to collating....