My Stella & Dot Launch Party!

I mentioned in my last blog post that I'd recently signed up to become a Stella & Dot Independent Stylist and that my starter kit had arrived - all very exciting!

To kick-start your business it's recommended that you hold a 'launch party' event with family/friends to let them know about your new venture and to start booking in Trunk Shows. 

It wasn't suitable to have my party at my house, so I contacted a local bar and arranged to hire their upstairs 'lounge' area which had the added bonus of being free and letting people go to the bar to get their drinks if they wanted!

The room is fairly small, so I knew I couldn't have too many people at the event - not that I was expecting a huge crowd anyway! I planned a list of everyone I'd like to invite (mostly friends, my theatre group members, family & close work colleagues) and set up a private Facebook event. I was thinking if 8-10 people showed up I'd be happy! 

I didn't have many samples at this point, so I knew I needed to 'bulk out' my display and the content of the evening to fill the 1-2 hours time slot. 

I have quite a few mirrors /  display items / jewellery holders in my room so I used all these within the display as well as nice candles and fairy lights. I also made up 'Fabulous 5' boards which I included in the display and then spoke about during my 'group hello' - more about this later!

I set out the tables with brochures, booking forms and Customer Information sheets. When everyone arrived I gave them a special goody bag containing lots of 'dotty' themed goodies (nail file, candle, lolly pop, mini brochure, business card & welcome letter) and said they could sit down and feel free to start looking through the brochure or the display in the centre of the room. 

Once everyone had arrived (about 40 minutes after the scheduled 'start' time) I stood up and gave my 'group hello' which ended up being a bit longer than the recommended 5-10 minutes of a normal Trunk Show! As this was my launch event I thought it was okay to go into a bit more detail, but I would probably refine it for future Trunk Shows. I spoke about: how I found out about Stella & Dot, the history/background of the company, ways to order, the Fab 5, ways to order tonight, the stylist opportunity & the Trunk Show opportunity - all in all this probably lasted about 25 minutes!

I then gave everyone the chance to try on items from the display. They were a little reluctant at first so I actually took most of the items out their boxes/displays and passed them out to different tables and then asked them to send on to the next table etc. 

At this point I also stated the final call for orders (in about half an hour's time) and that i could help anyone fill out order forms etc. I also collected in the Customer Information sheets which allowed the person entry to the raffle! I didn't have too many raffle prizes (some fizz, perfume, chocolates etc) but had also included lots of 'Free catered jewellery party' vouchers and two 40% off vouchers which I only included once I knew the orders had taken the Trunk Show over the £300 qualifying limit. Instead of buying more supplies for myself I thought they would be great prizes to incentivise buying from Stella & Dot and to help people fall in love with the collection!

The event came to a close after about 2 and a half hours, and everyone seemed to have had an enjoyable evening. In the end there were 16 people there including myself which was a fantastic crowd and more than I could have hoped for / ever expected!

I placed the majority of orders first thing the next morning so the items could be delivered as soon as possible, but a couple of ladies had requested that I not process their orders until payday (a week later) which I was more than happy to do. I think it's a good idea to offer this flexibility!

I'm really excited for next week when I'm taking Stella & Dot to my first Wedding Fair and then to a Craft Fair. My friend is holding a Trunk Show on 18th March and I'll hopefully get another couple planned in March to share the new Summer Collection! 

Melissa x
My online Stella & Dot shop
My Stella & Dot Facebook page