If you sell your handcrafted jewelry, or are considering doing so, you've probably thought about selling at shows. At first glance, the idea of operating your own vendor booth seems like fun. It's an opportunity to set up a mini-boutique displaying all of your beautiful creations, and a way to make more sales while developing new customer relationships.

But once you begin planning for your first show, things start to get complicated fast. You'll need to find the right show, apply to it, and identify and gather the supplies and equipment you'll need - on top of making jewelry day and night to build up your inventory for the big event. Important details you may not have considered before will start to present themselves. Do you have the right insurance and permits? Do you have tables, framing, a tent, or proper lighting? How will you pack and transport your equipment, supplies, and inventory? How much inventory do you need to bring, and how can you protect it from theft?

Traditionally it's been difficult to find solid information on doing shows. You could search internet forums for hours on end and pick up useful tips here and there, but it was time consuming to try to pull it all together on your own. Unless you had a mentor with a history of show experience, the prospect of starting out was intimidating.

Home jewelry business expert Rena Klingenberg has solved this problem by writing a detailed eBook called Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth. It contains just about all the tips you'll need to get started selling at shows, or to improve your existing jewelry booth plan.

I've been eagerly awaiting this book since Rena announced she was writing it, and I am not disappointed. All of its 176 pages contain helpful information that you would otherwise need to learn on your own by trial and error, and over a pretty long period of time. Especially if you're just starting out, you'll discover issues and potential pitfalls that you probably hadn't thought of, and Rena describes exactly how to deal with them.

The eBook is intended to be used as a reference (although I read it straight through for this review, and you might find yourself doing the same). The Table of Contents is nicely detailed with subcategories, making it easy to find the topic you're looking for. The beginning of the book offers three "Bonus Materials," which I found to be very useful. These include a Checklist for Jewelry Shows and a Timeline for Getting Ready for a Show, which are referenced throughout the rest of the book.

There are then eight chapters covering topics like paperwork, jewelry pricing, finding "good" shows and avoiding "bad" ones, booth management, and jewelry display. There's even an entire chapter on taking care of yourself at the booth and another with Rena's hard-learned secrets for increasing sales at shows.

One nice thing about this eBook is that it's geared specifically toward jewelry artisans. Security, transport, setup, lighting, display, and dealing with competition are all factors that need our special attention. Also, Rena's strong writing skills make the book easy to read and understand.

Be prepared for an eBoook that's pretty long. If your eyes get tired while reading on a computer screen (like mine do), consider printing it out and keeping it in a binder. As of this writing, the eBook is available for immediate download for $39.00 US. Many eBooks I've come across are less expensive, but this one contains more information than most. Additionally, I haven't found any other resource that serves this purpose. If you don't have a mentor to walk you through the jewelry show process in person, this eBook is definitely the next best thing.

Click here to visit the Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth order/download page.

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