EkaBlog - Site Blog for Ekaweeka the Small Business Community

Once your business is up and running it could be to your benefit to re-evaluate the structure and ongoing elements of the business. Things never turn out as you expect them to so it can only be to your benefit to take a step back. Look at how you thought things would be, then look at how they have actually turned out, and make some adjustments. You may have budgeted some money for certain expenses and you will need more then originally anticipated. Other operating expenses could turn out to be less necessary. It is these expenses - the superfluous ones which you should debate, it might behoove you to cut down on those costs as the money going into them might go to better use elsewhere. For us, we have a special line for phone calls from Ekaweeka users, as it turned out we already had enough phone lines and most users didn't bother with calling us since they knew email worked just as well. So we killed one of the phone lines. We were advertising with Google Adwords, this has worked with other businesses in the past but in our particular sector our word of mouth and viral marketing worked dramatically better then the pay per click advertising. Things like the Adwords and Phone lines can be over looked they don't cost a whole lot on their own after-all but when you start to put them together you realize there is a considerable amount of money going to them.

So make a point to analyze your expenses, figure out what is working best, what isn't getting enough funding, and figure out where you're money is not being used properly. This is where many businesses make or break themselves, with smart budgeting you can weather tough times, in others you will have extra profit simply because you were careful.

The Summer is here and the Art's and Craft Festivals are back! Just last weekend alone there was the: Union Street Festival (San Francisco), Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit (New York City), Pike Place Market Street Fair (Seattle), AVA Arts Fest (Santa Clara, CA), and here in LA was the Los Feliz Village Street Fair to name just a few.

I spoke with some of the vendors at these events. I've always been curious if having a booth at one of these would help drum up some business. I discovered there a few things worth considering before choosing a festival to buy into. For example: know the demographic, the people at your festival should be the people who will be interested in what you have to sell. Also there are the expenses to consider, a booth at these events tends to run anywhere from $150 - $400 (generally $300), on top of that you'll want a way to charge credit cards, and you'll need a pop up tent if one is not provided (many fairs do provide the tent - but be sure if they do). So with all these costs to consider it might help to find another vendor that will share a booth with you.

No matter what - I learned it still clearly pays off to participate. Having a presence at an all day event opens up doors for meeting all sorts of potential customers, local buyers and distributors, and other vendors. Without making one sale these connections alone can do wonders for your business. That being said, if you have priced your items well and brought enough product for the right crowd you are bound to do sales. One vendor I spoke with at the Los Feliz Village Street Fair said he had done around $1000 each day of the two day fest, the booth cost him $300 - so even if he bought a pop up tent and rented the credit card machine he easily made a profit and probably made a new batch of devoted customers and buyers.

As for credit card sales: if you have a wireless aircard - just bring your laptop to the event and you can sell your items directly through Ekaweeka. We are also working on two other methods of credit card charging solutions like a virtual terminal where you could charge any credit card from your Ekaweeka account, and a phone number to call for charging a card over the phone with Ekaweeka.

Either way, like I said the summer is just getting started and, here's a list of festivals coming up in Los Angeles. Many festivals have openings up to the week before they happen and when you're that close to the line many of them will give you a discount since they need to sell as many spaces as possible so don't be afraid to ask for a deal - it never hurts and all that can happen is you might save some costs!

We'll keep you posted on all the events this summer, and don't forget to tell us about your experience. :-)