Women's Network Yearly Showcase

Here I am, back again.  Sorry about the low profile for the past few weeks but the pressure was on to get the business "officially open".   I received approval for the Back to Work scheme, which is great and means I now have the support of a governing body behind me.

Following that, I then got an invite to the annual Women's Network Meeting 2014 which is where new businesses get an opportunity to showcase their business, and discuss what they have been doing throughout the year.  This was a huge advantage for me to meet fellow entrepreneurs and discuss business and promotional ideas.  Myself and several others Newbies, where given a stand each to showcase our products.  Therefore I have spent the past week designing and printing flyers and business cards while trying to get samples printed up and source items to display the ribbons on to. This entailed learning how to tie bows correctly, so to get the best effect from them, believe it or not there are You Tube videos and images showing you how to tie bows indifferent styles correctly.  You can have double to treble loops, pompoms, flower the list is endless. Anyway, I settled for the simpler and very elegant Double bow, which looked fabulous when stuck onto the miniature gift boxes.

As Christmas is approaching and to get people thinking, I produced samples of  ribbon with Christmas greetings and images on them.  I then provided printouts of 45mm wide ribbon,  so that I could target people who make up large Hampers and then smaller 15mm - 25mm ribbon for smaller packaging.  The ribbon colours I mostly choose to use where Ruby Red, Dark Green and Navy and the foil Prints used where Whites, Silver and Gold.  The display consisted of Jars, gift boxes, Voile favour bags and Hanging Heart ornaments.

This all sounds lovely but I was not too sure if the table ended up looking a bit too cluttered... It was the first time and extremely rushed but I think I will get it better next time.  I noticed all the other start ups who formed several months ago had turned into pros when setting up their displays. Just shows practise makes perfect.

These displays consisted of 2 stands displaying hats by Milliners, who both had completely different styles, yet equally fabulous, a crafter who deigns and sew large bags, A Yummy, Scrummy Chocolate biscuit Cake baker and supplier, (so much for my Diet) Ready to Juice drinks (to detox the CBC), some beauty and well being products, counselling services, teaching services, mushroom coffee, gluten free sauces and not forgetting about the person who comes to de-clutter your house. The rest of the attendees where relevantly new start ups that had displayed at earlier meetings. It was great to meet everyone and get the feedback and support from my Mentor and the Southside Partnership staff.  The speeches were terrific and consisted of Maxine Jones the Comedian, who gave us all good laugh and Senator Mary White (co-founder Lir Chocs).

It was a very successful night and was brilliant for me to showcase what I do and to be able to create awareness about my new business, whilst boosting my confidence.  Some people have showed their interest in purchasing the ribbon/ sew in labels for their products and others have mentioned they know people who would be very keen to avail of my services.

Sure Networking, that's what its all about...

http://ribbonprint.ie/news-blogs/
https://www.facebook.com/ribbonandsashes?ref=tn_tnmn