AVOID APPLICATION ANXIETY

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Mark your calendars, friends.
January 25th is the day that you make a pretty boss business decision and apply for Cleveland Flea Season Seven! 

We don't want any of you feeling anything less than confident about your Season 7 Application, so let's talk about how you can reduce (or even get rid of) Application Anxiety.

First, read up on our emails from today until Friday of next week. We're TELLING YOU EXACTLY HOW TO APPLY.

The facts:

  • We WANT to accept small businesses

  • We WANT to know who you are

  • We DON'T expect you to be perfect

  • We serve a range of businesses from ones who have been in business for years to some who are just starting today! 

  • You've got to start somewhere

  • We don't sit around making fun of your work or lack of a website or anything. We spend our time understanding if you'd do well at Cleveland Flea based on certain criteria

Why people get anxiety about applying for things:

  • They're scared to do it 'wrong'

  • They don't want to be rejected

  • They don't think they're good enough

How to not be scared of doing something 'wrong'

  • There's no wrong way to do anything. Seriously. One you stop thinking this, you'll be able to think through how YOU want to represent yourself best. It's really up to you.

How to deal with possible rejection

  • Running a business, living a life, being a human requires we be open to rejection. In the case of not getting into Cleveland Flea, we'll let you know why you didn't get in, pretty specifically. 

    • you didn't provide enough information (most common and most easily solved)

    • you don't fit into our vendor categories (high-quality handmade, well-curated vintage, small-batch food, thoughtfully-curated boutiques).

    • we can't gauge if you'll be able to create a high-quality shopping experience for our guests (ie, will your setup be as important to you as your products,? etc)

    • we just don't feel that you're far enough along to really benefit from being a part of Cleveland Flea and if that's the case, we'll be offering a business incubator program that will help you get ready for Summer and Fall Flea IF you're really serious about getting better. 

  • Rejection doesn't mean anything except that you tried. You can try again. It doesn't mean anything bad about you and we don't think badly of you in any way. We have a competitive market, because business is competitive. But we're also here to help you get better.

Business is tough. But jumping in and learning more and more about it will free you from the thoughts that you're not enough. We always say that you don't know what you don't know and you'll jump to conclusions that are often negative and just totally false.

We're here to help you grow. To learn that every day in business you'll face decisions and uncertainty and have to rely on your own instincts to move you forward. 

The good news is that if you're super excited and really love the reason why you're going into business then you're in for a pretty wild and fun and crazy ride.

And we'd love for you to start that journey with us.

xo,
Team Flea

Pre-Season 7Stephanie Sheldon