Island bound!!

I have 4 more days till I travel to the island. All products in place. Now busy weighing each bundle and figuring how to distribute to my suitcase. I wrote on my Facebook account earlier this week. Packing for a business trip to the Caribbean isn’t near as much fun as packing for a pleasure trip but is still better than the day in day out doldrums that you go thru in a normal job. This adventure is quite a bit costlier than I had intended with who knows what chance at being a success?? Yes it is easy to doubt myself. People here in the land locked American Midwest seem to love the products but what will a tourist think? Also have a small art show next Tuesday…am nervous about that but all will be fine!

I hope to earn back at least a third of what I have spent. I know some of my stuff has a long shelf life where some of the rest not as much. Will find out soon I guess.

If you are in the Grand Case area on Tuesday evening the 27th of April, stop by TiJon and say hi…if you say you read my blog….I will have a gift for you.

Rob

Pre-show thoughts

The sun, moon and all of the stars aligned this weekend.
I got all of my products ordered and on a shipping time line which will give me a week to pack and weight…then redistribute the load before I board the flying tin can to the tropics.

I have decided to take many of my products down in my luggage. This required, of course getting the suitcase and measuring the inside width and length to see if I could pack it all in there. The next part may seem funny to some, I am a very visual person so I laid out a grid on the carpet with masking tape…laying out the complete size of the suitcase to be followed by the size of pictures that I have ordered. This helps me to realize just how much room I will have and how large the frames I want to order with it can be.

Yes it is a bit obsessive but I will have my first show and I don’t want it to go poorly because I didn’t plan well.

Only 20 days till I fly and another 2 till my show….ready or not SXM here I come.

My Island Return is Imminent!

Just crossed the 40 days till I board a plane for the islands threshold.
Things are coming along…a bit slowly but still they are getting there.
The two products that take the most time for me are in the production pipeline.

I still have to sleect some of my photos for artwork, figure how I want to present them and oh yeah, work some more on getting folks to attend the exhibit. I have contacted a few locals on island but still need to write up something for the paper and then see if one of the radio stations might be interested in putting me on the air for a couple of minute spot. Still need to get my website up and ready too…..

So nothing much to do and not much time to do it in. My eldest son has decided to hitch a ride to see the island so I will also be a bit of a tour guide. We look forward to hanging out a bit, some introspective conversation about his future and that of my business and of course consuming a few bottles of rum while on island.

I am looking so forward to getting away from Kansas for a while ….we have been set in a dreary weather pattern since December. Still haven’t hit 70 and seldom see the sun. I need a battery recharge badly.

I am working with a friend on island who is going to link me up with some of the business owners on front street in Philipsburg and I hope to see a few folks in Grand Case and even Marigot if I don’t run out of time.

If you have time on the evening of April 27th from 6-8PM locally and have nothing to do, stop in at Tijon in Grand Case and say hi, I will have a special gift for anyone that says they read about the debut in my blog….

Diving it is!!

As any of you that follow my page know, I have invited our 25 year old son to travel to ST Martin with me for a few days. I promised him one day of activity that is his choice…Threw out two fun ideas, first being a tour of Anguilla and second being a couple of dives off of ST Martin.

To my surprise he chose the diving. Yes we are both advanced open water certified with PADI so being qualified is no issue. I made the assumption that he would want to go to Anguilla and was wrong. I like to dive and has been a bit over a year since I have been so I am very good with refreshing my skills a bit and seeing a bit of King Neptune’s gardens that surround ST Martin.

Our next discussion is what part of our own equipment will we bring or no. Our fins are large enough to propel a pretty healthy Humpback whale thru the water. Problem being they are just that large. My guess is we will be taking our masks and snorkels but leaving the fins behind. My intent is to use Octopus dive in Grand Case. They look like the kind of shop I would like to use. Max on a dive is 6 people and they will rent equipment that is fairly new and very well kept. That makes things easy. Now just have to book a half day of diving to enjoy…

A lesson learned in seeking out vendors

I am putting together ideas for different ways to market my photo art, from photo paper to canvas works and even printed on metal (awesome by the way) and Plexiglas. I have worked with local vendors, national and even one international.

The following are some of my learnings;

First and foremost, sample it. I have had to absorb a bit of expense with sampling some products but in the long run it has saved me some serious heartburn.

Visit with many vendors, you never know who you will just fit with and what will work out. I have one vendor that does exquisite work…with out a doubt the best quality bar none. Issue is they price me out as the middle man. If I were to go directly to retail their incredible art work, I would do ok but to wholesale, I lose my shorts. I know, I am selling on ST Maarten so who needs shorts? I do!!!! I will use this vendor for a few items where it makes sense.

Have a second vendor that is like me fairly small potatoes. Very good to work with but draw backs are things like, I have shipping expenses so what ever it costs there is a small mark up just to get it to me as is a few states away. I have at least one product in mind that this vendor makes well and is worth me using.

Third vendor is a local ad agency. They are fantastic for my lower end products and some specialty printing they do is out of this world. I think they will get the bulk of my business. They are close by so I save on shipping and get very good prices and turn around time.

Fourth vendor is the vendor from hell. This is my international vendor, I tried a number of products. They misspelled words…that they spelled correctly in other places. Put logos on products crooked and even lopped off heads on simple photos. I have to wait weeks for these orders to complete and ship. Last item took them four full weeks to get to me. By the time I add shipping and time….these guys are simply unacceptable for product.

I am currently working low quantity and that is part of my expense with an over seas vendor. If I were ordering 2500 or more of an item and knew the quality was decent, then I would be in good shape with using the over seas vendor.

Rob is building his business on shoestrings so doesn’t have an extra 10K at hand to be able to order quantities like that so I guess I will work with my “local” vendors.

Look for this flyer on island soon

I sent several copies of this flyer with one of my friends today as they headed for ST Martin/ST Maarten.

If you have some free time that evening I would love to meet you.

I've commited to a show!

Moved forward with my business that is. I am now officially scheduled for a meet the photo artist evening at TiJon Parfumerie in Grand Case on the evening of April 27.

For anyone on island that wants to stop in and say hi, meet me or even just come and visit the shop, this would be a great opportunity. Flyers have been printed and will be en-rute to the island tomorrow..gulp. Rob has to prepare to meet folks. This is a bit unnerving as well as just plain fun.

Next on the agenda is to gather a few more interesting shots from around the island that are unique. I have a load of the normal beauty shots. I want to bring those and some unique ones as well.

This trip will be super short, only on island 3 full days but I will have so much to do.
Will be meeting with a friend that is going to introduce me to some folks on front street for some sales opportunities too. This will of course be using my pix but not necessarily as art prints. I still have a bunch of work to do but the advertisement component has at least started.