Kind & Jugend Hall 11.2 Booth F-32 and ABC Booth #123

Jaq Jaq Bird will be at Kind + Jugend at Hall 11.2 and Booth F-32 and ABC Booth #123. For ABC, please look for us with Oopsi Baby (new brand from California) at booth #123.

Retailers, we have some exciting new products to debut, so don't miss the show! We've been busy working on the new catalog and products. If you like to make an appointment, you get a gift for coming to see our new line. Please email: retailer@jaqjaqbird.com  to schedule a time.

September is Almost Over: String of Shows

My busiest time of the year is September through February because of the string of tradeshows that are scheduled back to back.

I just got done finishing up ABC Kids and King & Jugend in Cologne. I love shows because I love hearing what customers have to say and listening to the trends of styles, but I also love getting to know my fellow neighbors as we huddle together for 4-5 days/8-9 hours a day. I loved getting to meet Boba, iPlay, Bumkins, Ore, Pacific Baby, Mabels Labels, InnoBaby, etc.  We had a great time together. Time to get ready for January!

Kolo, 2014 at USA Pavillion

Baby essentials: Bibs, Sippy Holders, Binky Keepers

Mocking it up at our garage!

Our Patent-Pending Chalk A Doodle™ Book with Zero Dust™ Chalks (patented)

September 2014 Trade Shows

As a typical owner wearing many hats this year, I am sorry for neglecting my blog!  We have officially moved (personally) to Germany but have a full time staff working at our USA office. Andrea heads operations in USA and Susan will be taking over our sales in USA. I am super excited about the new changes. Please come see us at the two shows this month!

September 7-10 ABC KIDS LAS VEGAS 2nd Floor Booth 6823. Come see what our show specials

are! Please come see Susan and Dave who are super excited to meet you all!

September 10-14th Kind + Jugend, Cologne, Germany at the USA/Canada Pavillion F-34a. Heather and I will be there greeting and meeting all our European customers! We are super excited to launch with Europe this year and I know our products will be well received. 

Als ein typisches Besitzer tun so viele Dinge auf einmal, es tut mir leid für die Vernachlässigung meinem Blog! Wir haben offiziell verschoben (persönlich) nach Deutschland, aber wir haben jetzt Vollzeit-Mitarbeiter arbeiten in unserem USA-Büro. Andrea arbeitet Operationen in den USA und Susan wird auf den Umsatz in den USA konzentrieren. Ich bin super aufgeregt über die neuen Änderungen. Bitte besuchen Sie uns auf die beiden Shows in diesem Monat!

September 10-14th Kind + Jugend, Köln, Deutschland an der USA / Kanada Pavillion F-34a. Heather und ich werde da sein Gruß und erfüllt alle unsere europäischen Kunden! Wir sind super aufgeregt, um mit Europa in diesem Jahr starten und ich weiß, unsere Produkte beliebt.

Off to ABC Kids Expo

I have been so busy getting ready for our abc kids expo. I leave Sunday, and if you can see the office now, you would panic too: rep sample kits, boxes, displays, catalogs, etc... all strewn on the floor of our our office space. Everything has been shipped to my consultant's office in Las Vegas and I'm stressed: I'll be unloading everything and dragging it to the convention center.  I truly wonder if retailers realize the cost, time and resource to pull these shows! They are a lot of money and time! :) BUT I thrive on doing them. I love meeting all of the buyers. They all have a story, and love hearing about the type of business they have and how they got started. I will be instagramming my journey at abc, so please stay tuned on Instagram: JaqJaqBird. Probably will not be blogging much in the next few weeks but you can see us on FB, Twitter & Instagram. Please tweet #JaqJaqBird. Come visit us at booth 4827 for coffee & pastries in the morning or wine and cheese in the afternoons!

ABC Show a Huge Success!

The ABC Kids Expo in Louisville, KY was a huge success!  We sold every product showcased in our booth and were left with empty suitcases heading home.  My husband designed the display and laid out our latest Machine Washable line all across the walls.   May not look like much, but it was a ton of work, taking us 2 full days to unpack and set up, then another 12 hours to break down once the show was over.

We were located in the Toy section which caused some anxiety at first since our booth seemed SO out of place.   But with each day, the traffic multiplied and our products began to stand out among a sea of trinkets.  Not sure I would opt for the same section next year, but it's good to know our products have enough style and presence to succeed wherever / whatever section they're located.

The most popular items were our original chalk mats, place mats, ButterStix, totes and aprons.  Gone in a flash.  Our newest Machine Washable line also received tons of "touches" and incredible feedback.  Everyone loved our prints, especially the mustache and chevron designs.  The feedback was so encouraging.  And several customers recommended we participate in the NY Gift Show this January.  Last but not least, we had such a wonderful opportunity to promote RESTORE NYC with all of our visitors.  Our friend is the Director of this important non-profit battling domestic sex trafficking.  After so much work these past few months in preparation for the show, it was amazing to see it all come together and tangibly witness the fruits of our labor.  So satisfying.

Another treat for the week ... I actually LOVED Louisville, KY!  The cooler weather was a great change of pace from Louisiana, and the Fall colors were simply brilliant.  I think I could actually settle here!  Quaint, charming, plenty to see and do, centrally located, and always important ... good eats!  Louisville reminds me of a midwest town with Southern charm.  Must places to dine:  HillBilly Tea (great teas, bourbon cocktails, tasty bites), The Brown Hotel for their Hot Brown (delicious turkey dish), and Toast for breakfast ... must try the lemon souffle pancakes ... Yum!

ABC Show 2012 Under Construction

As I stated in my earlier post, moving to Japan really brought my business to almost a complete halt, but I made headway when it came to production, and manufacturing, etc. If you are thinking of starting a business like this, securing manufacturing is your number one priority. You stand and fall under your manufacturer. If there is one thing that keeps me up late at night, it's my manufacturer, and making sure quality isn't being compromised. There are other major issues too, but this one is by far the biggest one. I love my current factory. They are wonderful people. I'm so glad and blessed to have such a great team that works for me.  Okay, back to the booth.. so I hired a handy man here in LA, and he's great.  I wish my husband can help with the walls, but we have no tools in the house to build something like this, and not sure how handy he really is (haha) I wanted to do a hard wall this year because I think the hard wall will give it that polished and finished look I want to achieve. Here is a video he did of just the set up.

I wanted to paint it too, not sure what color... so I'm still figuring it out. I went to Home Depot last week and decided I might want to have a chalk board finish on the walls, afterall, what's what I sell: Chalk Mats! The paint world is a whole different culture and the array of finishes they offer overwhelmed me, especially in the area of chalk paints! Home Depot and Lowe's sell your standard black and green chalk board paints, but there is something called tintable chalk paint where you can mix a custom color to achieve the same effect! I did some research and found a company that sells tintable chalk paint. I am excited to try it out, the paint just arrived this week:

I had heard of Hudson Paint, but it was super expensive. Afterall it's only a wall that I'm painting, and their paints for a quart started $25.00.  The tintable chalk board option isn't cheap either, but at least I can customize any color at my local paint store. Hudson Paint gives you a swatch of colors that their chalk board paint comes in.  It's going to be super fun painting (that is, my hubby) and dabbling with different colors! The problem is I have to wait until my husband's fiscal year end closes out next week, because he has no time to help me this week. I'm so anxious to try!

Ramping up for the ABC Show

So there are some great pros to living in a small city: Stay inside my home-office and pour into the business during the day! It's so much fun, I love what I do: creating, designing and developing! Ironically, I am not a very "crafty" person, and I'm terrible at decorating anything that has to do with space. Fortunately, my chic little sister, Caroline is very good at it, so she's been giving me some pointers. Right now, I hired a nice handy man here in LA and he's making my hard walls. I have an inline 10x10 booth at the show. 3 years ago, my sister and I did the show together in Las Vegas and the booth looked like this:

We didn't know what we were doing. The little banner on the far left was added during the show because I needed more pictures. Buyers would walk by puzzled by the Chalk mat display, so the banner on the left really brought more people inside the booth. The little stool and table set up was super crowded.  Believe it or not, I spent close to $10,000 on this show 3 years ago: plane tickets, hotel room, food, transportation, signage, dreyage, shipping, press kits, products shipping from overseas, etc.. But this show was well worth the investment.  For such a humble booth, we walked away with some great accounts...

Now for my next post.

The Perfect Mini Pouch™

SO finally, my new line is shipping this month. I am so excited. I thought I would have everything by July, but it's taken longer than expected. Debuting at the ABC Show October 14-17. Are you coming?
My booth is 2502, coming with my husband. It's going to be awesome. I decided to design everyday patterns that you won't get tired of: stripes, chevrons, dotties and I couldn't resist adding moustache to the mix! Plus everything is finally washable and dryable! That was the constant feedback I received from you all. It's finally machine washable, stain-resistant and love love the functionality of the line.

But the best part is the price is super reasonable, and great for gifts. I tried to package everything so it would be easy to gift wrap and ship from me to you with lots of love.

Check out the other products coming up, and OH don't forget to tell me what you would use our little
Perfect Mini Pouches™ for because we are running a contest all through September. Here is the link:
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