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More than 80 businesses, industries and organizations were represented this past weekend at the 19th annual Business and Industry Review (B&I Review) held in the Neosho High School cafeteria.
Shelly Ertel, who sells Miche Bags, decided to come to the event and set up a booth. This was her first time to the Neosho event.
“It is a home-based business and I am just trying to get my name out there and get my product known,” she said. “Miche Bag is still pretty new to the area, so I decided that the Business and Industry Review would be the best way to get my name out there to a large crowd.”
So, what is a Miche Bag, one might wonder?
“The slogan for Miche Bag is, ‘one bag, endless possibilities,’ and what it is it is a women’s handbag,” Ertel said. “They have three different sizes: there is a classic size, a big bag size and then a mini. What is great about Miche Bag is that the outside covers are magnetic, so they are changeable, so in a matter of seconds, you can just change your purse without actually transferring your belongings from purse to purse.”
Miche Bags are a fairly new product, they started getting exposure in 2007 at mall kiosks. Ertel, who has been in the business for more than a year now, said the business has changed from kiosk to more of a home-based business.
“Then they started seeing that women were interested in doing like home parties and things like that, so that is where the home based part came into play,” she said. “They still have retail stores in mall kiosks, but they are actually kind of dwindling those down. About 70 percent of the sales actually come from home show reps and the other 30 (percent) come either from the Internet or mall kiosks.”
At her booth, Ertel had numerous purses with the interchangeable covers to show – and sell – to those who came by.
Even though this was her first B&I Review in Neosho, she participated in the McDonald County business expo last year. To prepare for these shows, Ertel said she got more brochures, made sure she had plenty of business cards to hand out to the visitors and made sure she had plenty of product on hand.
On another side of the cafeteria was Tim Mitchell, with Advantage Health Care and Family Pharmacy.
More than 80 businesses, industries and organizations were represented this past weekend at the 19th annual Business and Industry Review (B&I Review) held in the Neosho High School cafeteria.
Shelly Ertel, who sells Miche Bags, decided to come to the event and set up a booth. This was her first time to the Neosho event.
“It is a home-based business and I am just trying to get my name out there and get my product known,” she said. “Miche Bag is still pretty new to the area, so I decided that the Business and Industry Review would be the best way to get my name out there to a large crowd.”
So, what is a Miche Bag, one might wonder?
“The slogan for Miche Bag is, ‘one bag, endless possibilities,’ and what it is it is a women’s handbag,” Ertel said. “They have three different sizes: there is a classic size, a big bag size and then a mini. What is great about Miche Bag is that the outside covers are magnetic, so they are changeable, so in a matter of seconds, you can just change your purse without actually transferring your belongings from purse to purse.”
Miche Bags are a fairly new product, they started getting exposure in 2007 at mall kiosks. Ertel, who has been in the business for more than a year now, said the business has changed from kiosk to more of a home-based business.
“Then they started seeing that women were interested in doing like home parties and things like that, so that is where the home based part came into play,” she said. “They still have retail stores in mall kiosks, but they are actually kind of dwindling those down. About 70 percent of the sales actually come from home show reps and the other 30 (percent) come either from the Internet or mall kiosks.”
At her booth, Ertel had numerous purses with the interchangeable covers to show – and sell – to those who came by.
Even though this was her first B&I Review in Neosho, she participated in the McDonald County business expo last year. To prepare for these shows, Ertel said she got more brochures, made sure she had plenty of business cards to hand out to the visitors and made sure she had plenty of product on hand.
On another side of the cafeteria was Tim Mitchell, with Advantage Health Care and Family Pharmacy.
“This just gives us a fun time to be able to come out and spend time with people,” Mitchell said. “We are also able to take advantage of doing blood glucose and blood pressure screenings, talk to people about diabetes, hypertension, medical equipment issues.”
Visitors walked all around to visit with the booth participants, gather information, pick up freebies such as ink
pens, bags, calendars, and also to play games or purchase raffle tickets in hopes of winning door prizes. They also had the opportunity to try some food such as popcorn, cookies and snacks.
One particular snack was from Family Market, with their famous pulled pork and new cheese spread on crackers.
Luann Jones said the review was a great way to get recognition for businesses.
“I am sure that it increases their sales and some recognition, because a lot of people might not know a lot of these businesses, even though the store (Family Market) has been down there for, I think, seven years,” she noted.
