Romping Around the Seattle Made Vendor Expo
“Consulting” is a weird word. My friend Jaron and I tried to come up with a better word for “consulting” and the best we could do was “business therapy”. Jaron and I interview small businesses, specifically solo-run ventures that are based in Instagram. A lot of our subjects are younger, and a lot of them have trouble with time management, finances, and business operations.
In an effort to learn more about how to help the folks we’ve met on our interview series (called The Orbit), I went to the Seattle Made Vendor Expo at Metropolist in SoDo. This is an event for business-to-business (b2b) services, where entrepreneurs shop for accountants, marketing teams, web developers, and more. The goal is to find the right people to grow your small business. All of this is exactly what I was interested in, so I put on one of my best button ups and packed a notebook.
If you’ve ever been to an expo, it can be a little bit awkward. I got a nametag, a goodie bag, and a La Croix, which I carried from booth to booth asking questions. As a podcaster/writer, I wasn’t looking for services per se, but I did want to know what all of these people did, what they charged, and how it worked for them. I wandered up to booths, met a lot of folks, and gathered an assortment of brochures. Here are some things I learned.
Pricing Is All Over The Map
The cost of marketing heavily depends on your business and what you are looking for in terms of reach. You can have someone put up posters in Capitol Hill for $40, or pay up to $1,500 a month to have someone run your Instagram account. To have an experienced marketer do an audit of your online presence in order to tell you how to improve, you can pay $500. To have the same provider create a package of 25 photos for you, you’d pay additional $500.
But, of course, this is directly influenced by the size of your project. As someone who is used to the formal job market, characterized by set prices and clear guidelines of what a job entails, this was all new to me. The fluidity of b2b services allowed for significantly more haggling, negotiation, and conversation.
Booth Presentation Is Super Important
I saw everything from blank tables to fully adorned setups complete with cardboard cutouts and branded tablecloths. The more considered the setup, the more confidence I had in the business. However, the impeccably put together displays sometimes felt very corporate and intimidating. My favorite booths were ones that were inviting and friendly, without being so polished that I felt like I didn’t belong there. This is probably because I am a modest podcaster with a very small budget. If I were a bigger company looking for wide reach (and had the money to pay for it), these displays would probably be the thing I was looking for.
Instead, I found I connected most with the folks that were put together but not polished. Their displays had goodies and pamphlets, but feel very “small business” and inviting. It was like the difference between a cozy cafe and a minimalist and sterile third wave coffee shop. I wanted to spend a lot more time with the less corporate businesses. And, as it turns out, they were also very happy to talk to me.
These folks were pretty creative with the services they provided. One provided custom coloring pages and materials for events. Another offered a one-day branding session (lunch included) in which they hash out your brand strategy and web design. These folks felt more accessible on a personal level, and as someone who interacts with smaller companies, I really appreciated the human touch they added to their booth displays.
Specificity Can Be a Good Thing
One of my favorite displays featured a gentleman who offered consultation on shipping and fulfillment. As someone who knows how difficult these operations can be, I was immediately drawn to this booth. My thought was “this guy can definitely help me with my shipping problems.” Another booth provided free workshops on Seattle Labor Laws, and nearby another offered to help walk through the process of bringing commuter benefits to your employees. These niche services were well branded and immediately interesting. Their customer has a clear problem, and their booths had a clear answer.
The lesson here is that if I look at your booth, I should have an idea of what’s going on. I should be thinking “I need that” or “That’s interesting, I want to know more”, instead of “What is this person selling?”. The specificity helped really hone in the answer to this question, and with the more generalized consulting services, sometimes I wished I could tell more quickly whether or not a particular firm was for me or not. But, I guess that’s what talking is for.
My main takeaway is that business services aren’t as inaccessible as I thought they were. Since pricing is so flexible based on the needs of you company, there is a high likelihood you can get a package that works for you. Consultants and marketers understand that one size does not fit all, and the dialogue between you and the businesses that help you is extremely important. Expos like this are kind of like speed dating in the sense that some people will click with you and others won’t. It made me feel less weird about the word “consultant”, as I realized that the people behind the title are so wildly different in their expertise and focus.
