Page 227 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

Step 1 1 . Make Your Trade Show Debut 221

trademark infringement has tainted him. Whenever anyone has a
great product idea and is about to tell someone about it, they always
preface it with these words: " Don't tell anyone, promise?" The fear
of someone stealing the idea is real. This reason alone is why many
people just hold onto their ideas. They figure that they will make
the effort and then a big huge Goliath company will come along and
mass-produce it as they are slowly making progress.

It happens often: Someone brings a new innovation to the mar­
ketplace and it gets copied. In fact, expect it if you are successful.

The only answer is to be protected with your intellectual prop­
erty rights. In conversations, only divulge information about the
product itself. Never discuss trade secrets or proprietary informa­
tion such as the manufacturing process, design, cost, and profit
margin. No one at the show needs to know any of those things.

Enjoy the Experience

With all the hard work it took to get there, you may forget to
enjoy the experience. Every show is worthwhile in ways that may
not always be obvious during the show. If the show didn't open as
many new accounts as you had hoped for, you probably then had a
chance to network more and meet a new trade-show friend. Some­
times months down the road, someone you spoke with at the show
contacts you and gives you an order or a referral. The purchase
orders do not always materialize at that moment.

You shake a lot of hands at trade shows, so never be caught
with a weak handshake. It immediately conveys weakness

also d istracts attention from what you may want to say,
as the recipient of a weak shake may be thinking about why
that just occurred. Speaking of shaking hands, you may
want to keep hand sanitizer i n your booth. You don't want to
catch a cold from someone, so it pays to use these cleansers
throughout the duration of the show.