Entrepreneurs can find it hard to release control when it comes to opening up their business to others. It’s especially hard if they’ve nurtured their business through the lean, early years, and are just now seeing their rewards flourish.
It’s not that wanting this kind of control over a product they’ve grown carefully is unusual, or is a bad thing in any way. What it does mean is that, if it’s a smaller business, the best person to be behind the trade show booth is the entrepreneur themselves.
Even bigger businesses can benefit from having the original entrepreneur make an appearance at their trade stand. Every business had to start from somewhere, and even the big business which dominate the high street began as a one-person operation, with a single idea.
They know the product inside out
An entrepreneur who helped to create the lines they are selling will be naturally more engaged than a new staffer whose only exposure to the product has been seeing them in the office and then selling them at a trade show. Entrepreneurs are fonts of knowledge, and have no need for flash cards to help if a customer asks a difficult question. New staffers, though, are typically underinformed about the product and shouldn’t venture guesses if customers ask them specific questions.
They believe in the product
With the best will in the world, it is more difficult to believe wholeheartedly in a product if you were not involved in its creation. You approach the product as a sceptical customer. However, if you’ve created it, pouring time and money into it, you have believed in it from when it was just an idea in your head. Naturally, this means your enthusiasm for the product will come across.
They’re hungry for business
Entrepreneurs, especially those who have lived close to the breadline while trying to make their business work, are keenly aware of how the market works and reacts. Things that are in vogue today may be completely ignored tomorrow. They know you should never rest on your laurels, and will be eager to find business where they can. A trade show is a golden opportunity they don’t want to waste or throw away, and an entrepreneur who has seen so many other products fade away and disappear will know how quickly everything can change.