Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Valentine Open House Ideas

Need to break out of the winter sales slump? You still have time to plan a Valentine Open House! Here are some ideas to keep your costs down.

Invitations
Use evite.com for free invitations. You can upload a photo of your jewelry and use one of the seasonal theme backgrounds. Evite is free and tracks who has viewed your invitation. Don't forget to send a reminder 2 days before your event.

Display Ideas
Play up a sweet treats theme. Use cake plates, tiered dessert stands and heart shaped candy boxes to display your jewelry. Borrow them from friends/family if you don't have any in your stash.

Dollar Store
Check out your local dollar store for display props, decorations, tissue paper and bags for packaging.

Giveaways and Discounts
A 10-20% discount is enough incentive for your customers to drop by. Give away a few pairs of heart earrings or a bracelet as door prizes for those who attend.

Refreshments
Don't worry too much about what to serve and don't let this part of the open house eat away all your profits. Just serve chocolates! It's so fitting for the theme. If you buy a few heart shaped boxes of chocolates you can take the candy out of the boxes and serve them on pretty dishes.

Keep your Open House fun, simple, relaxing and focus on connecting with your customers. If you don't have space for an open house, ask a friend to host the event for you.
Bonus Idea
The heart shaped boxes of chocolates can be a fun way to sell earrings if you work outside the home. Empty the box of chocolates (Let's have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on what you do with the chocolates!) fill each little compartment with a pair of earrings and take the box with you. Offer the earrings at a special Valentine price. I did this for a few years when I was in college. Guys are not afraid to ask for a chocolate and that's your cue to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, this box is filled with earrings that I'm selling. Have you bought your girlfriend a Valentine's gift yet?" Sneaky, I know. Have a stash of earring cards and little gift bags to put your earrings in when they sell.

(Heart beads from Jangles)

5 comments:

EmandaJ said...

What a great idea! I'm going to have to see if one of my friend/customers would like to host a party.

Emanda

GrandmaMarilyn said...

Wonderful ideas. Thank you for sharing them with us. I especially love the candy box idea.

rosebud101 said...

Great idea!

Chelsea Gwynne said...

Thank you for the bonus idea! I have a show coming up and will definitely use that. Thanks so much!

Roxanne Mendoza said...

Great idea! I do alot of heart themed earrings and I love the heart shaped candy box idea too. :)