Bracelet Makers Charm Customers at L.A. Gift Show
When Gina Eckstein and her sister, Ivette Helfend, started their customized charm-bracelet business two years ago, their sales were local: The two young mothers would link bracelets together for friends during a moms’ night out or a toddler play date. They then expanded to charity boutiques and hired sales representatives. But it was only this year that they ventured into the world of trade shows, buying a booth at the L.A. Gift Show. Though the expense and time involved were considerable, Eckstein said, the exposure and contacts they gained were worth it. She was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.
My sister and I owned a gift-basket company together that we sold five years ago, when both of us got married and had children. Then two years ago, Ivette was on a trip to Italy and she noticed that all the chic women were wearing these personalized link bracelets. She called me up and said she had found our next business, and she made an import deal with the Italian link manufacturer before she left.
Since between us we have five children under the age of 5, Ivette and I started connecting with our perfect clientele--mothers who want to wear jewelry with their children’s names on it--at parties and play groups. Some friends started taking kits around in their diaper bags to make bracelets for their friends, so we had multilevel marketing going. Then we set up at charity boutiques and holiday bazaars, and we picked up some sales reps who sold the kits to gift stores.
When we had the gift-basket business, we had always exhibited at the L.A. Gift Show, so we thought that this year’s show would be the next logical step in our marketing plan. You don’t want to exhibit at a trade show too early because if your company is not prepared to meet the orders you get and conduct the follow-up you need to, it can be a disaster. The gift business is a small world, and the buyers talk to one another. If you aren’t ready for such a big endeavor, and you end up not delivering on what you’ve promised, you can burn a lot of bridges in a short time.
We reserved the smallest-size booth in the “cash and carry” section of the show so we could make contacts, write orders and sell bracelets to go. The total expense--for the booth, the linens, the lighting, the credit card processing machines, the signage, and other items--came to about $5,000. It’s not cheap, so you have to be really confident that your product is going to sell before you exhibit.
We brought along a couple of our reps, and we all wore black-and-white matching shirts with the bracelets pinned down the sleeves. We also made a videotape showing how we put the links together, and we ran that in the booth every six minutes, like an infomercial, to get people’s attention. A lot of times, you see exhibitors just standing in the back of their booths, waiting for people to stop, but we stood right up in front and tried to engage people as they passed by.
The time commitment was about five days between setup and tear-down, and it was grueling. After the third day, your voice gives out because you’ve been talking and promoting so much. One of the great things about having our reps with us was that they were able to watch us and pick up ways to make a sale, or to make a sale bigger by showing the customer how adorable it looks if they add a couple of extra links. It was a great learning opportunity for them.
Over the course of the show, opportunities came at us from all sides, and thousands of people saw our product for the first time. We picked up sales reps and opened new accounts in Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey and all over the country. A lot of stores we would never have thought about marketing to, such as pet shops and spiritual stores, placed orders with us because we can personalize the bracelets with charms that appeal to their clientele. Customers from Las Vegas wanted bracelets with lucky numbers or favorite cards, for instance. We had never thought of that as a possibility, but now we’re planning to attend a gift show there because the bracelets were so popular.
In the days after a show, business goes crazy, so you can’t decide to rest right away. People who didn’t buy at the time regret it, and they call and want to order. New customers have to be followed up on, product has to be shipped, questions have to be answered. Our Web site immediately experienced a significant increase in “hits” and online orders as well. We found that business gets back to normal after a week or two.
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At a Glance
* Company: Linx Bracelets Inc.
* Owners: Gina Eckstein and Ivette Helfend
* Nature of business: Sales of personalized charm bracelets
* Location: 23705 Vanowen St., No. 201, West Hills, CA 91307
* Founded: 1999
* E-mail: ginalinx@aol.com
* Web site: www.linxbracelets.com
* Employees: 0
* Annual revenue: $376,000
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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016 or kklein6349@aol.com. Include name, address and telephone number.
