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Planning Private Gift Shows

May 16, 2013
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Planning Private Gift Shows

In 2002, I exhibited my Lewis Clark Gifts at the Portland Gift Show — our first exhibition!!  We had a blast …. let me share our experiences with you… Since we were positioning our business at the place to purchase Lewis & Clark souvenirs, we wanted to play up the theme as much as possible. …

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Best Sales Mentor: Brian Tracy

May 13, 2013
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Best Sales Mentor:  Brian Tracy

My husband and myself have been long time fans of Brian Tracy.  His newsletter were a great inspiration to me in my early years as a sales rep — and hold a great deal of meaning for me still today. Our personal library contains several of his books, tapes and CDs, but our favorite by…

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Expanding Our Line, Part Two

May 9, 2013
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Expanding Our Line, Part Two

In our last post, Expanding Our Food Line, I talked about how we expanded our Idaho (and BackCountry) Redneck line.  Most of the products were gourmet foods, but like I said in my last post, we also added some personal care items.  For awhile, we had about 24 different products with the humorous Redneck label.…

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The Changing World of Business

May 6, 2013
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The Changing World of Business

One of the most inspiring writers, in my opinion, is Seth Godin.  Not only is he a good writer, he is a visionary.  I love what he has to say about business, entrepreneurship, marketing and the world in general. Recently, I ran across an article he wrote that I found particularly inspiring:  Toward zero unemployment. …

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Expanding our Food Line

May 2, 2013
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Expanding our Food Line

We started our own gourmet food business in 2001 by developing a new BBQ sauce with a very interesting label.  (If you missed it, here is part one of this story:  Starting Our Own Gourmet Food Business. Because of the popularity of the Idaho Redneck label amongst our Idaho customer, we decided to run with…

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Wholesale Trade Shows

April 29, 2013
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Wholesale Trade Shows

Wholesale Trade Shows are the backbone of the gift industry and an excellent tool for sales reps.  Often times, it is just too spendy for a single producer to exhibit in a wholesale trade show, but an excellent opportunity for them to exhibit via a rep or rep group. Wholesale Gift Shows (or frequently referred…

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