Last Christmas I was gifted with a 3 CD set by Bruce Baker, that I found to be very helpful for my jewelry business. If you currently exhibit or are planning to exhibit your handmade goodies in juried art festivals, I highly recommend purchasing these CDs.

On the first CD, Bruce talks about “Your Slides and the Jury”. In other words, tips on how to wow a jury and gain acceptance into high-end art festivals. The second CD is about “Booth Design and Merchandising”. I learned some surprising Do’s and Don’ts from this one. And the third CD has been my favorite of all: “Dynamic Sales and Customer Service Techniques”. I’ve listened to this one 3 times so far!

It has been fun to try out the suggestions regarding booth design, marketing, and particularly the sales technique during my 2008 shows. I noticed a definite increase in my sales… not to mention, my increased comfort level with being a sales person now that I feel like I know what the heck I’m doing.

I’m a formula-girl. I feel more comfortable with having a basic formula or guideline to follow than I do with adlibbing. I’m also a middle child, so that means that I deviate from formulas. My life is full of contradictions like this. Would you believe that although I am an artist, I am like structure, I obessive about organization and I love numbers? Yeah, me neither. But apparantly someone did, considering I was hired three years ago to work as an Administrative Assistant for the State’s Judiciary… oh gosh, I am deviating (again) from the point of this post… at any rate, go out and get you a copy of the 3 CD set by Bruce Baker. You will not regret it!