exposure

So the Brighton show has come to an end. Today was spent loading my pieces into the pick- up and storing them back at the workshop. Now ideally I would be delivering each piece to its new home and collecting a much needed cheque, but alas nothing sold. Some could say that for that reason the show was a failure, ever the optimist and a glass half full chap I don't see it that way. Apart from the fuel cost in travelling to and from the house, the show cost me nothing. Putting my stuff out there on display gave me the excuse to mail all of my clients and invite them to a great pre-show party, I also placed details on Facebook,Twitter and LinkedIn. Along with this the people counter we religiously used at the door showed a footfall of over a thousand people, each one a  potential new customer. The Encounters house was lucky enough due to Milady's hard work, to win first prize for best open house out of two hundred and fifty! This brought with it a lot of coverage in the press and festival linked websites. To get to my point, I didn't sell but I did get a hell of a lot of free exposure. You can be both highly skilled and totally original but if no one knows you are out there you won't get very far.

It is often the case that people who create find self promotion difficult, preferring to hide themselves away in a dark workshop hoping to be discovered. We must be brave, and grasp every opportunity that presents itself to get out there and show the masses what we are about and what we can do.