from lauren. she wriets, my business creates and sells gifts to specialty sporting markets. my question has to do with wholesale marketing. a gift trade show wants to define me in ways i don t seem to fit. i need to grow and i don t know how to reach gift shops without exhibiting at a trade show. online is great, number one. secondly, there are magazines in every area. i went online and i found gifthopmag.com a magazine that all the gift shops get. advertise in there. you can reach all of them at wholesale without going to the trade show. there s an interesting question in there. should i try to fit into someone else s mold, the answer is no. and there s this weird assumption that this one gift show is the place. there s got to be a lot of different opportunity for her and to expand her awareness is so she can see more opportunities.