Let me begin by saying that the spirit of the next four blogs is to help everyone learn by someone else’s mistake. Everyone makes mistakes and mistakes are our best teachers.

All names have been changed unless prior permission was given.

The following story was told to me by Kirk.

Jack and Diane had recently purchased one of our systems. They had booked a couple of small shows and made a respectable amount of money at these small shows.

Jack called Kirk on a Monday, the day after their first big show. He was happy to report that their sales at the show had been great. But he was calling because he was devastated. After working all weekend at the show and driving home exhausted. He and his wife were too tired to unload the vehicle. During the night his truck had been stolen with all of his airbrush tattoo equipment and booth set up items. Not only that, horror of all horrors, he had left his money from the show in the vehicle. He and Diane had lost everything.

My heart really goes out to Jack & Diane. I have come home from doing shows and know that sometimes it’s all I can do to drag my aching body out of the car and into the house. That’s why it is a good idea to have a few set rules in place, because when we are tired our guard is down so we are not thinking clearly and it’s easy to make mistakes.

The first rule I have is my money never leaves my side. I always keep my money in a fanny pack around my waist until I get home. This is not to say I have always kept my money on me. I can remember stopping at a gas station on the way home from a show and leaving my money in the car, thinking that my husband was there pumping gas so it was ok, only to find him standing behind me waiting to get coffee inside the station. I could have easily had my money stolen. Luckily I never did.

Secondly I would make it a habit to take all my airbrush tattoo equipment out of the vehicle as soon as I got home. If I lose my equipment, I am out of business. I would take my Power Palette, stencils, banners or posters and compressor out of the vehicle. It does not take very long to remove these items from the vehicle and bring them into the house. The rest of the set up items can be more easily replaced, although inconvenient.

We cannot protect ourselves from every adversity but we can take some precautions to help protect ourselves. If Jack and Diane had only taken their money into the house with them they would not have been completely wiped out.