Exhibit!: How to use exhibitions to grow your small business

Discover the secret to using exhibitions to grow your small business. Exhibitions can be hugely beneficial to a small business or a colossal waste of your time, effort and hard earned cash. This book is designed to inspire you to think differently about your next event. To plan your strategy, increase your focus and take simple yet powerful steps to gaining scores of clients. This could be the best investment you’ll make all year. When I started my graphic design and print business in June 2005 I faced a challenge many start-ups face: great product, no clients and a chunky mortgage to pay. A truly terrifying combination! Although I’d worked in the industry for several years, I hadn’t been client facing for some time, so I brought no contacts with me and had no real potential for gaining any customers quickly. I was operating from a serviced office in the centre of Guildford that, whilst central, was pretty invisible. So the chances of gaining passing trade were zero. I needed to find a way of building up my business, and fast! On my second day as my own boss, I exhibited at a local business-to-business event. By the end of the day I had captured around 100 leads. Over the following days, weeks and months I called, emailed and wrote to these leads, and within a year had converted almost 70% of those into paying customers. Those 70 new customers told their friends about my business, who told their friends, and soon we had more work than we knew what to do with. Despite working just four days a week, I became one of the fastest growing start-up printing.com franchises. I still believe that if I hadn’t exhibited at that June exhibition, my business would not have taken off as rapidly as it did. Five years on, I cannot think of a more cost-effective way of gaining a large number of quality leads that quickly. This book is designed to inspire you to think differently about your next event. To plan your strategy, to gain in focus and to create simple yet powerful marketing. Use it as a guide, a toolkit to help you navigate your way through your next exhibition. Whether it’s your first or your fifteenth, I hope that you gain something that you can put in place to boost your profits. I sold my company in 2012 but the demand for a simple and practical guide to exhibiting continues. The recession may be (hopefully) coming to an end but the principles behind this book are just as relevant in good times as they are in times of economic crisis. *****Praise for Exhibit! “Fiona practices what she preaches - and it works!” Paul Webster, The Webster Partnership “We doubled our sales this year at the Designer Wedding Show in February, and the marketing advice that Fiona gave me definitely contributed to this.” Clare Yarwood-White, Yarwood-White.com “A book that has been written by an author that really knows her onions when it comes to taking us through the minefield of exhibitions and, helping us to develop a robust, practical and highly effective exhibition strategy...” Dee Blick, Author of the Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book "A no nonsense, practical and easy to read book that gives you all the advice and tips you’ll need to ensure that you achieve your business goals when exhibiting. What I really like is the way Fiona covers all aspects of exhibiting and how to avoid the mistakes so many companies make. I organise a big annual Expo at Twickenham Stadium and we bought a copy of this book for each exhibitor. After the event we asked for their feedback and all of them found the Exhibit! book really useful. Highly recommended." Nick Taimitarha, The Best of Richmond and Richmond Expo