PopUp Republic

How to Manage It All

Focus on your strengths first. If you’re a numbers person, concentrate on the accounting. This is important anyway, since it is crucial that you have a grasp of your projected revenues and expenses, but if it’s something you’re good at, set up a spreadsheet so that you can be in charge of tracking this throughout the duration of your pop-up.

For those areas that are not your strength or for which you don’t think you’ll have enough time to handle, look for outside help. There are companies that can provide services on your behalf at reasonable costs. One such area that is often overlooked is marketing. Because pop-ups are short-term, operators feel they can dispense with marketing as a priority. Just hang up the sign and open for business. In fact, especially when it comes to pop-ups, the opposite is true. Pop-ups have none of the marketing weapons that are usually available for retail and dining establishments—no advertising, no prior foot traffic, no attractive buildouts or signage, no prior word of mouth, no coupons—almost none of the resources. This means that extra attention has to be paid to marketing your pop-up, using whatever means are available.

What you’ll be hearing and reading about most often when it comes to marketing and promoting pop-ups is social media marketing. This is an accurate assessment. There is no better way for an upcoming or ongoing pop-up to connect with the public and to spread the word than through strategic, consistent social ...