I have one final thought on negotiating that I would like to share with you before we move on.

I was watching the reality show True Beauty a couple of weeks ago. I know it’s sad but what can I say, I got hooked. In the segment the contestants were divided into groups of three “beauties” per group. They had to prepare for a fashion show and were required to go out and purchase the clothes and shoes that they would be modeling on the run way. The catch was that each group would only be given $100 to buy three outfits and they had to restrict their shopping to exclusive Melrose Ave. This task would be next to impossible even if they were shopping at Goodwill.

Of course they let us watch each group’s brain storming session and the one group that stood out came up with the ingenious plan of simply finding a store that would loan them the outfits. Oh sure, like that pie in the sky idea is going to work. But it did work! They got everything they needed to look positively outstanding on the runway, free of any charge.

The point is – THINK BIG and don’t be afraid to ask for the moon and the stars.

Let’s now move on to setting up the kiosk.

I think a picture is worth a thousand words. Check out our entire picture display of carts in malls. Go to the home page and click on “information”, then click on “carts in malls“. I have chosen this one because I think simplicity is best. On this cart we covered the posts with black felt and wrapped them with chicken wire. All the posters are hanging from the center of the cart. This leaves the surface of the cart available for any additional signage or other merchandise you may want to add to your cart. I would caution you to keep your focus on tats, anything else you are selling can be a distraction for the customer and they may walk away from your cart without having purchased anything. The cash register fits nicely on the end of the cart, leaving the sides open for clear viewing of the posters. The work area for applying tats is at the end of the cart by the cash register. You will not want to be too far away from the cash. You never know what can happen when you are swamped with customers and everyone is milling around your cart. Expect the best but prepare for the worst. Purchase some nice looking, unbreakable containers for your cotton balls, make-up squares, powder, Q-tips and alcohol. These containers will sit out near your work area.

A nice way to display additional tat designs, for example, the children’s stencil designs, would be to spray several designs on a piece of heavy weight 8½” x 11″ paper and place the paper in a simple, inexpensive black picture frame with no glass. Place the framed designs around your cart on the lower shelf so the kids can easily see the designs. If you do this, remember to add the stencil number and the pricing dot to the picture.

Following the same display idea as the children’s stencil display, I would also spray some tat designs and add crystals to the designs. Check out the picture! This simple idea worked so well for us at the New York Beauty Show. I hope everyone will implement it for their tat business.

Most kiosks have a few extra large drawers for storage. In ours, we put the compressor in one of the drawers and the cleaning and tat supplies in another. One item you will need to add to your supply list is light bulbs. The mall will usually supply you with your first set of light bulbs for the cart but since the lights are on all the time they do burn out fast. Lighting is very important for your cart. It helps to keep your cart bright and cherry and this attracts customers. Most of the lighting on the carts is adjustable. Adjust your lights so they are not shining directly on the posters so they won’t reflect a glare. I would also purchase a Swiffer dust wand. You will be surprised how dusty your cart will get.

With the simple cart set up that we used, we did not need to purchase a tarp to put around the cart and lock it up at night. When we closed up the cart, all we needed to do was close out the cash register, lock it, put our Power Palette in the drawer and lock it up. If you use picture frames for some of your tat displays as I suggest you may want to put those in the locked drawer also. The less work you have to do at the end of a long hard days work, the better. Keep it simple.

Next week we will look at hiring extra help.