We are on our way to Vegas for the National Hardware Show. We have no money despite how well we are doing, so we are going on the cheap. I can’t say that our cheap fixes will work for you, but perhaps we can give you some ideas that you can modify to suit your needs:
1. You can’t always find a show in a town where you have friends or relatives to stay with, but if you can, crash their pads. These people want you to be successful, and they feel invested in the process of getting you there when they can help out by providing a place to stay for the show or stop overnight on your way there.
1a. If you belong to a timeshare, stay there if you can! Also, many of these companies offer discounted airline tickets or other perks that can be used to ease the financial burden of travel.2. Our friends and family, those who fly often and who have amassed airline miles they cannot use, have been very generous with them when we have needed them. We have had to buy four airline tickets since January, and all of them have been obtained with donated miles. Also, if you have a companion fare or a voucher, now is a good time to use them.
3. Spend some time calculating whether it would be cheaper to fly, drive, or get there by some other means. With airline tickets obtained using donated miles, it was definitely cheaper to fly from Seattle to Chicago and pay the $1000 it cost to ship our booth there and back rather than drive our truck across country for several days, paying for food, gas, and lodging along the way.
4. Some businesses have minimized their booth design such that they can get everything to a show via checked baggage and mailing a few extra boxes to the place they are staying. Most hotels and motels will accept your packages if you are a paying guest and they know ahead of time the boxes are coming.
5. Although we could not financially justify buying a ready-made booth backdrop, they can potentially save you a lot of money if 1) exhibit at shows frequently, and 2) the rest of your display can be boxed and shipped. New, they cost about $2500 apiece. However, they fold into their own shipping container and can be carried as checked luggage or shipped via UPS or Fed Ex. This gives you more flexibility in your shipping options which can lead to substantial savings, making the backdrop pay for itself over time.
6. The reservation services the show provides don’t usually have the best travel and lodging deals. You can get better deals searching on your own online for travel deals and budget hotels near the show location. For our Vegas show the cheapest room through the booking service was about $120 per night. I found us the Villa Roma Inn, which received uniformly great reviews on TripAdvisor. We have wi-fi, a pool and patio area, we are off the Strip, and we are easy walking distance to both the Strip and the convention center. We are sharing a room with two double beds, and our five-night stay is less than $300 for the two of us.
7. If you can, bring food, water, drinks, etc. on show days. Convention centers have uniformly mediocre food at best that is way overpriced. You and your pocketbook will be much happier with your own food and drinks.
That’s all I have for now. As always, sharing is good—keep the comments coming.
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