So You Want to Bring Your Business to the Fair? An Insider’s Perspective on Vendor Life at The Great Minnesota Get-Together®

It’s the day after Labor Day, and we’ve just wrapped up our second year of business at the Minnesota State Fair in what seems likely to be a record-breaking year for attendance. Our St. Croix Saddlery booth had a successful run with a decent increase in sales over last year, attributable to the combination of more educated buying, an improved setup, a strong sales team, and fantastic weather. We learned a lot in our first year that made this year easier, but the Fair is still a big deal with its own challenges. I know many other entrepreneurs dream of joining the Fair as a vendor, and I thought I would share just a handful of truths that I’ve learned in my experience.

• It’s not a bonanza. We’ve all heard tales of the business owners who work two weeks at the Fair and get to retire the other 50 weeks of the year. Perhaps this is true for some of the most popular food vendors, but it’s certainly not the case for me or most other vendors. Our sales over 15 days at the Fair are roughly equivalent to one average month’s sales in our store, but there are a lot of expenses that go with that (see the next paragraph).
• It’s expensive. In addition to paying a relatively high booth fee (it varies depending on your vendor category, location, and sometimes your total front footage), you also pay a significant assessment for utilities that is split among all vendors. On top of that, you have your own booth costs (for us, tents, lighting, and fixtures), huge inventory costs, admission for all of your employees (the Fair requires this, and the vendor ticket discount is the same as the early-bird discount at Cub Foods), parking if necessary, and of course wages for all the extra staff you bring aboard.

Summertime is a Great Time to Check Up on Your Business

This time of year, we get to dig deep into storage and pull out the summer lake toys, dust off the lawnmower, and laze in the sun, which appears to have finally come out of hibernation. But it’s also a great time to run a quick check-up on our businesses, and make sure they’re fresh and ready to go for the busy seasons ahead. I’ve put together a short list of the most common “forgotten items” I find in discussions with clients and friends. How are you doing on this list?

1. Annual Renewals. In Minnesota, if you filed a Certificate of Assumed Name, Minnesota Business Corporation, Foreign Business, Non-Profit Corporation, Cooperative, Limited Liability Company, Limited Liability Partnership, or Limited Partnership with the Secretary of State, you must file an annual renewal, beginning the year after your original filing, or else risk being “statutorily dissolved” (no longer be recognized as existing in Minnesota). If your entity has been statutorily dissolved, you can usually have it retroactively reinstated, but you will pay a fee for this, so don’t be late! Annual renewals, which also are usually filed along with a corporate tax return, are easy and free on the Secretary of State's website. 
2. Annual Elections and Actions. If your entity is governed by a board or managers, and if your entity has officers, it’s a good idea to hold regular “elections” for those people (or entities) in accordance with your governing documents and applicable. This helps prove the legitimacy of your entity (one important factor when it comes to protecting personal assets from corporate obligations), and keeps your paperwork in order in case you need to prove anyone’s position (for example, if you apply for a loan or engage in a transaction later in the year). Depending on your governance structure, you may also need to keep up on at least annual written actions to ratify your previous acts and attend to other required business.
3. Insurance. Even if you keep the same insurers and policies, it’s smart to meet with your insurance agent and go over your coverage. Have you acquired any new assets and forgotten to notify your insurer? Has the number or status of your employees changed? You could save yourself money by reporting changes, and most importantly, ensure that you are properly covered.
4. Agreements. Are you familiar with any expirations or renewal options that may be coming up in your leases, vendor contracts, licenses, or other agreements? Even if an agreement doesn’t expire for another six months or even a year, deadlines for exercising renewal options can sneak up on you. You don’t want to miss these if they mean more favorable rates or uninterrupted business (or simply retaining your space!). Take a look through the terms and calendar your action items ahead of time.
5. Addresses and Personal Info. Do you have current contact information for all your employees? Do you have a W-9 or at least a social security number or tax identification number for any independent contractors? It’s much easier to collect these items while people are present and willing than after they’ve collected payment and disappeared, so approach them now.
6. Required Employer Postings. State and federal laws mandate certain posters be placed in an easily visible location in the workplace for employees. These posters are updated from time to time and must be kept current to comply with law and mitigate exposure to employee or regulatory claims. Most states provide them for free; in Minnesota, you can download and print the state posters and access most of the federal posters online.

This is just a brief list of the most frequently overlooked items I see. What else have you remembered last minute, or forgotten until it lapsed? I’d love to see your reminders for fellow entrepreneurs in the comments below! 

An American Buyer in Italy

This past week I had the extreme privilege of attending the 120th annual Fieracavalli (translation: Horse Fair) show in Verona, Italy. This is a massive exposition comprised of over 12 buildings, eight arenas, and seemingly endless outdoor exhibitor areas. There are a multitude of events going on simultaneously, from B2B vendor booths to public shopping to educational shows for school children to world class jumping competitions. It’s completely fantastic and overwhelming!

I was graciously invited to attend Fieracavalli by the Italian Trade Agency. They brought in a small group of buyers from the American equestrian industry in the hopes of building business relationships and increasing the Italian brand presence in our U.S. market. They took wonderful care of us, from the comfortable Lufthansa flights to the beautiful Hotel Giberti accommodations. They even surprised us with tickets to the historic 120th anniversary dinner, set in a courtyard and building where Mozart himself was rumored to play music in his youth, and they gave us VIP accommodations to the spectacular “Gala D’Oro,” or Golden Gala, with performances from some of the best equine acts in their country. As one of the few delegates treated to this magnificent display of hospitality, I feel compelled to share my amazing experience.

Favorite Entrepreneurial Takeaways from the Retail Success Summit 2018

This past month I attended the 10^th Annual Retail Success Summit, presented by WhizBang! Training in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This training is geared towards store owners, but employs principles that can be universal in their business application. Last year I came home filled to the brim with ideas and motivation, so I went back this year hoping for the same.

I was not disappointed! I made an entire book of notes, but I thought I’d pare them down and share a few favorites that other entrepreneurs across various industries can also put to use. 

1.  http://www.mentimeter.com. This one did not come in the form of a session or a tip, but it was used heavily and successfully throughout the conference, and I brought it home to my own July staff meeting for a bit of fun and some great results. This website allows you to create live, interactive presentations where participants can pull out their smartphones, enter a code, and submit their votes. These can be open-ended “word clouds,” multiple choice questions, scales, reactions, and so much more. It’s a great way to keep your audience’s attention, to brainstorm for honest input, and to encourage participation by allowing anonymous responses.  

Holiday Tipping for Small Business Owners

The holidays are an incredibly busy time of year for most of us, whether we’re running holiday sales for our customers, trying to close a year-end deal, or preparing for an annual inventory. Amidst all the hustle and bustle and buying holiday gifts in between, it’s easy to forget the service people who have been helping to make our businesses successful all year, but this is a great time of year to remember them with a small token of appreciation.

The Emily Post Institute publishes a helpful holiday tipping guide for all kinds of home service providers, and offers some factors that we business owners should consider in tipping as well:

• The quality and frequency of the service you receive.
• Your relationship with the service provider (for example, the UPS delivery driver who always has a biscuit for our store dog and knows us by name gets a bigger tip from us).
• Your location; tipping averages tend to be higher in larger cities.
• The number of years you've been using the service.
• Your budget.

Tips are generally in the form of cash, but need not be (and in fact some businesses prohibit their employees from accepting cash gifts or even gift cards). The second most popular gift among business owners appears to be chocolate. At my business, we sent out big Costco stacks of holiday treats to two local service providers with large staffs.

What I Learned About Business from Garth Brooks

This past Saturday, hubby Mike and I road-tripped to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for Garth Brooks’ evening performance at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.  This was my eighth time (in my fifth state!) seeing Garth live, but the night was just as magical as ever.  Garth has a way of making his entire audience forget the outside world and welcoming them into his club for the night, and this has to be part of his unparalleled success in the music industry and his ability to sell out crowd after crowd, year after year
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For this show, Mike scored some incredible tickets in third row center, close enough to make eye contact with the big man himself a couple times, and to watch as my neighbors fist-bumped and high-fived him at various points in the evening.  This vantage point gave me a new glimpse into Garth’s world, and gave me a few ideas about how businesses might take a lesson from Garth to boost their own success:

1. Play to Your Audience.  Garth uses his whole stage well, and does his best to acknowledge every person in the crowd, spending his entire show pointing, waving, and nodding to people, whether up close or in the rafters.  He speaks to the crowd often, gets emotional with them, and genuinely thanks them.  Whether a fan or a customer, you feel more loyal and engaged (and more likely to return) if you feel acknowledged.

Cool New Technology for Fresh, Fun, Growing Businesses

I’ve owned my retail business since 2011, and in that time, I haven’t made any big technological changes. We’ve stuck with the same point of sale system, the same website providers, and the same email marketing service. But this year, I totally caught the bug and started checking out some new technology, which has turned out not only to be a good investment for sales purposes (our numbers have grown every month), but also fun for our employees and customers. There are so many technologies and services available, it’s hard to sort through them all, but here are a few of my personal favorites for small businesses:

1. Zipwhip.  This service allows customers to text your regular business phone number, where you or any of your staff can respond easily. We receive messages in three ways: 1) on the zipwhip website, where we can also fill in detailed customer info, send mass text campaigns (reply “yes” to receive a $10 coupon!), or set up auto-replies to answer outside business hours; 2) via pop-up notifications on a computer screen, so we never miss a message; or 3) through the smartphone app, which alerts me every time a message comes in and allows me (or one of my managers who has downloaded the app) to answer just like any regular text.  Prices start at $35/month, and referral credit is readily available. We initially started using this as a “text to order” experiment, hoping to make it even easier for customers to order from us than a competitor’s website.  However, it has additionally turned into a round-the-clock communication platform for our customers, who seem to love using it for questions of all kinds. It’s definitely improved their access to us, and in a personal, yet non-intimidating way.

30-Day Offline Shopping Challenge

I’d like to start this entry on a personal note, with a tribute to my dear uncle, Robert Mattern, who passed away on March 25 at the age of 80.

Uncle Bob was my first entrepreneurial inspiration. During my entire lifetime, he owned and ran Mattern’s Bait Shop in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and was still running his beloved shop at the time of his death.  As a child, I spent hours in the shop during every trip to Aberdeen, gently fingering the colorful lures and fancy rods on display, playing with the minnows in the tanks, and - most of all - observing Bob as he interacted with, and truly helped, his many loyal customers.  Bob’s obituary captured these relations well: “Customers sought out Mattern's expertise in fishing and hunting, his knowledge of the best fishing spots and his skill in repairing fishing reels, rods and ice augers.  Bob and [wife] Linda appreciate their customers and consider them friends.”

To me, this is the essence of the small business experience.  I love the personal touch, the joy of a bright and tidy display, the pleasant sounds of people working together, and the knowledge to be gained from an experienced shopkeeper.

Gift Cards: Tips and Traps from a Small Business Perspective

The holidays are over, the gray days of January are upon us, and for many of us, that means it’s gift card season.

For consumers, this can be fun, going out to spend all that plastic accumulated in December.  But for retailers, it means something entirely different, and though it’s always worth it in the end, gift cards certainly come with their own bag of hidden challenges.

I spoke with my managers and staff this week, and we came up with our own list of “pros and cons” to keep in mind when dealing with gift cards.

No Free Speech Rights Under Private Employers

Last week, we held a presidential election in this country. You may have heard about it.

When I woke up Wednesday morning (after very little sleep, like a lot of Americans), I found social media ablaze with fuel being thrown from all sides. I was barely two steps into Facebook when I found my first post from an employee (in addition to practicing law, I own a few companies, including a retail business) spewing some nasty words at another candidate’s voters. Jump two posts away, there’s a different employee posting a personal letter directed at all voters for the other top candidate.

Is Your Entrepreneurial Clock Ticking? And Other Ways the Entrepreneur’s Mind Works…

I started my first business six years ago, after a decade of hobby experimentation and continually increasing requests from the local community. It’s a unique horse treat company, and we continue to sell about 400 dozen per month, with demand currently higher than supply.

I followed that with my next business, the tack shop – St. Croix Saddlery – and started offering new ancillary services, like horse blanket repair, consignment and custom saddle fitting, and now it seems I’m just hooked on this process of generating ideas and putting them into action.  

A Nod to Behind-the-Scenes Workers

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to score incredible seats to Disney’s live stage musical, The Lion King. It was a fantastic production and I highly recommend seeing it if you get the chance! I marveled at the vocals, the set, the mechanical stage tricks, the lighting, and especially the animals.  Life-sized elephants and giraffes, flying birds, laughing hyenas, running antelope, and even a rhinoceros (!) on stage, in the aisles, in the balconies – it was mind-blowing!  

After the performance, I posted some pictures on Facebook, and learned through a comment that a friend had actually been working behind the scenes, handling male costume changes all night! I think the biggest compliment I can give this friend is that I actually forgot he was there.  Everything looked so flawless that it was easy to get caught up in the magic and forget that there were real people walking around on the giraffes’ four stilt legs, making the hyenas’ necks crane around as they laughed, and thrusting Scar’s lion head forward whenever he got angry.

Take Your Dog to Work Day 2016

In addition to being a lawyer who works with entrepreneurs, I own a retail business called St. Croix Saddlery. At the business, we have a unique but overwhelmingly popular greeter. Her name is Hufflepuff, and she’s a 12-pound Pomeranian ball of fluff (see above). She’s truly good for business, as I’ve seen customers’ buying moods shift from gloomy to gleeful with the wag of a tail, and parents always find more to buy if Hufflepuff entertains the kids! She’s also given us a boost on social media, with staff and customers regularly posting and pinning and tweeting selfies with her. As her owner, I love seeing the joy Hufflepuff brings and receives, but I also enjoy the added benefit and pleasure in being able to bring my dog to work with me.

Dogs can certainly be a positive addition to the right business, and I’m not the only person to recognize this, with dog-friendly work environments popping up everywhere, including Google and Replacements LTD.  At Ben & Jerry’s, in addition to getting three free pints of ice cream a day, you can also bring your pooch to the office.

That’s a crazy idea for a business…

This past week I visited London, which turned out to be a perfect choice for my first vacation overseas.  What an amazing, historical city!

While there, strolling through Covent Garden, I came across the most curious business I’d ever seen.  It took up two store fronts, and bore the name “2theloo.”  I watched, wide-eyed, as customer after customer dropped their coins in a slot and proceeded through the till to use the restroom.  Could this be for real?

I found the company’s website, which promises “public toilets the pleasant way.”  This business first opened its doors in 2011, and now boasts over 200 “toilet stores” worldwide!  In addition to offering a clean, “better than home” experience in the restroom, these stores sell toiletries, gifts and gadgets, provide a platform for artists to display their work, and promote a green planet through sustainable choices.

Show Your Customers Some Love this Valentine’s Day!

Customer acquisition cost – the cost you pay to bring in each new customer – is one of the most frequently discussed metrics by business advisors and in entrepreneurial articles.  Sources vary in their statistics, but the consensus is that on average, it costs somewhere between four and ten times more to find and sell to a new customer than to a current one.

It is also widely understood that people like to be acknowledged and appreciated.  Dale Carnegie’s second principle of human relations directs us to “show honest and sincere appreciation.”  He says, “Nothing else so inspires and heartens people as words of appreciation.”

Relationships are Key to Building Business

This past week I made the 25-mile trek to see my allergist, Dr. Wyatt, an experienced doctor and just generally a great guy.  He is out of network for me, which means that, in addition to driving an hour round-trip, I pay a semi-steep co-pay to see my doc.  So why do I do it?

It’s all about the relationship!  I’ve seen Dr. Wyatt for 30 years.  Every time I visit, he asks about my horses and my business, and my family (by name).  I look forward to my annual visit and I would miss Dr. Wyatt if I went somewhere else.

The Entrepreneur as Chameleon

I was watching this week’s most recent episode of the FX TV show, The League, about a group of friends in a fantasy football league.  The show’s naïve, somewhat goofy character, Andre, professed himself a “dating chameleon” – that is, whatever his girlfriend likes, he becomes.

This made me think about how we all must become “chameleons” at times, adapting to the likes – or perhaps needs – of the people and environment around us.  In addition to being a business lawyer, I became a business owner in 2011, and I had to learn to be a chameleon and take on all kinds of roles that were new to me.

My business is retail – a saddle shop and equestrian sporting goods store – with some side services such as horse blanket repair and saddle fitting.  I love chatting with customers, going to market to pick new products for the store, and hosting big sales events. But owning a business is so much more!

My favorite motto that first year was, “Well, they didn’t teach this in law school!”  I became a handyman, changing light ballasts and replacing parts in our industrial washing machine while watching an instructional YouTube video.  I learned the ins and outs of marketing, designing Constant Contact email campaigns and preparing ads for print and social media.  I went through a DOT exam and began hauling our mobile unit to events.  I developed interviewing skills, found myself with a staff to manage, spent hours staring at QuickBooks™, and tried to decipher complex point of sale reports that would help me make educated buying decisions.  And I bought an industrial sewing machine, which might as well have been a time machine for all I knew about it.

This all worked fine…for a while.  But gradually, I realized that adding an in-house bookkeeper would make invoicing and payroll go much more smoothly (and take that headache off my plate!).  Calling an electrician seemed an obvious move after I shocked myself trying to remove an exit sign.  I brought in a trailer manager (with a DOT card) to handle the mobile unit, and an expert seamstress to operate our industrial sewing machine.  And yes, I have an appliance repair company handle the washer repairs now.

For those with an entrepreneurial spirit, it can be especially tempting to jump headfirst into each new challenge because, frankly, there’s not a lot that scares them.  And truly, most entrepreneurs make great chameleons!  But the bigger test comes when the same entrepreneurs need to define their limits and learn to hand over the reins (pardon my pun).  Adapt, yes!  Challenge yourself, yes!  But be careful not to electrocute yourself in the process!  Focus on the things you do well and should be handling in your role, and find the right experts to handle the rest.