Living LaVita Loca (Living The Crazy Life)

Staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning for the past week, I've been preparing a cute but time-consuming creature for the upcoming Co-production Contest being held on ETSY on May 22nd, and making new jewelry for the Georgia Microenterprise Network show, held last night.

The show went relatively well but admitted vendors late to start set-up, and was cut short by one hour, something many of the vendors were not too happy about. The customer base was really good, but the time-frame between 5 and 7:00 P.M. over the dinner hour and the bar probably was a distraction from the handcrafted items. We all could have made better sales had the show run from say, 9:00 A.M.- 6:00 P.M., and alot of us did express that sentiment to the management on the feedback form provided. Apparently there was a middleman company in charge of booking the hotel space for the show and the time-frame was not made clear in the initial contract, so our show had to break down at 7:00 and be out of there before 8:00. It seemed that the hotel did offer some leeway in the end, as the next party didn't come in until 8:00 to use the room.

The National organization, Association for Enterprise Opportunity was there as well as a co-sponsor. To find out more about them go to http://www.microenterpriseworks.org or contact Katie Igrec Lima at (703) 841-7760 Ext. 38. Her e-mail is kigrec-lima@assoceo.org

One of the highlights of this event was its glossy Microenterprise Fair 2006 Business Directory (in which Giftbearer is listed on page 15), designed and laid out by Jones Creative, LLC. Photos were printed in black and white, but the listings were professional-looking and easy to locate with all contact information on each business included. Each of the vendors in the directory have been through one of the Microenterprise classes offered by their respective County affilliate.

The agency I took my Business Plan Writing course from several years ago was BusinessNOW, the affilliate in Dekalb County. I would recommend this agency to anyone wanting to develop an official business plan or who might like to apply for a small business loan in the future.

To find out which organization offers these and other related business development services in your area you can contact the Association for Enterprise Opportunity listed above or if you're a Georgia resident contact GMEN at http://www.georgiamicroenterprise.org
of which Patricia C. Williams is the Executive Director.