Advantages and Disadvantages for Inventory at Booths

Here are your options for having stock to sell at the event with advantages & disadvantages of each so you can decide what is best for you:

1) You can take out an inventory order from the home office. There is a small fee and then there is also a restocking fee for any books returned. If you have several events within a few weeks where you can sell any that don't sell at one event, this may work fine. You have 30 days from the date of your event to pay for it. However, it is a hassle to do all the paperwork & makes the whole thing harder than usual so I don't usually recommend this.
2) You could borrow stock from area consultants, keeping track of what sold of theirs & replacing it right away to them. You get sales credit & commission for it. This requires local consultants with available stock they are willing to share with you. If you do this, it is nice to give them some extra books as a thank you for loaning their books. Of course, return their books in new condition or replace any that get damaged.
3) You can sell the books you have & also take orders. Set a pick up date & place and if they'd rather, they can have them shipped directly to their home for $5 per address for any size order (special delivery fee). This can work well & keeps you from having to drive around the county for deliveries. Sometimes it helps to build their order to add more to their box.
4) You can use the books you have as samples for people to see what they're like. Then be there to BOOK SHOWS and RECRUIT NEW CONSULTANTS. "Hi! Are you familiar with Usborne Books? Oh, they're wonderfully entertaining & educational books for children of all ages. What we are doing here today is booking shows for October and helping new consultants get started in this area. Would you like to see what the specials are?" This is actually the most effective for business building. Sales there are really nice, but bookings & recruits are even better! And you'll get more bookings if you are concentrating on that rather than selling a book.
5) You can do a combination of 3 & 4 - selling from what you have, but giving extra attention to booking shows & helping new consultants sign up.