One Dollar Longneck Night
A week ago, on my way home from work, I stopped by a neighborhood bar close to midnight to see the owner. We've talked business before with other ventures, so I wanted to show her the lotion bars. At that time, I only had one lotion bar, the Peach Mango Lotion Bar I bought the week before.She smelled it, and liked it, "but," she said, "I don't own the bar anymore. I sold it a couple of months ago." She's always been nice to me, though, so she directed me to the current manager and said, "Show them to her. She'll let you sell them."
That sounded good to me. So, I walked over to the new manager and opened up the tin containing the Peach Mango Lotion Bar. She liked it. So did her girlfriend who was with her.
She said, "Come back on a night when there are more people here. Come back on a Tuesday when we have dollar longneck beers." I asked, "How many should I bring?" She said, "Fifty."
Well, I wasn't that brave. I only bought 5 or 6 of the Peach Mango Lotion bars. And, I bought that many of the Oatmeal Milk and Honey Lotion Bars. They both smell wonderful, but in totally different ways. Obvious ways. One is peachy and mango-y. The other has a very pleasing sweet smell that one friend thinks is an almond smell. That could be, since sweet almond oil is one of the ingredients.
I went back to the bar tonight. I left my house about 11pm. I should have been in bed, because I have class at 8am. But, I had told them I'd come back tonight. There wasn't a huge crowd, but they were pretty mellow and willing to let me show them the lotion bars.
It was kind of cool, actually. The manager bought two. Then, two women who work at a hair salon for men bought one. And, they said I can come by the salon to show the Country Bunny Bath and Body products to the other people who work there.
Next, some guys smelled the lotion bars. One said he's interested, but he'd like to check out the other fragrances. I told him I'll come back another week.
It's a small bar, and there weren't a lot of people, so I just moved from group to group and they passed the tins around and commented on which they liked better, Peach Mango or Oatmeal Milk and Honey.
One woman said, "This needs to be rubbed on some boobies," as she slid her hands down over her own. She bought two of the Peach Mango Lotion Bars. Another is a bartender at another bar. She tried the Oatmeal Milk and Honey on her hands and loved it. She said to come by her bar on Friday night and she'll buy two of the Oatmeal Milk and Honey Lotion Bars.
Several other people said they were interested, but they didn't have money tonight. That's understandable.
I gave a small sample packet of Shea Butter (a thick lotion) in the Oatmeal Milk and Honey fragrance to all who bought something. I also gave one to those who seemed interested but said they didn't have the money tonight.
On the way home from the bar, I stopped by the video store and let the sales person there check out the Peach Mango and Oatmeal Milk and Honey Lotion Bars while I shopped. She seemed interested in maybe buying a lotion bar at some future date, so I left a card with her on my way out.
Now, my great dilemma is whether to invest more money on speculative purchases in the expectation that I can walk into places and sell them. Or, just wait until people actually order and pay me ahead of time.
The entrepreneur in me wants to push ahead full-steam and have the products in my hand and available when people want them. The person who spent too much on her credit card last month says I need to wait until I have orders before I buy more.
What do you think I should do? Offer advice, please! ;)
posted by jordanrep.com/10522 @ 12:08 AM
1 Comments:
Several people emailed with their thoughts about this. Thank you. :)
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