The Trade Show ROI Ledger: The Booth Doesn't Lose Money. The Missing Follow-Up Does.

The sample show costs $5,910 all-in — including the closed shop and thirty prep hours nobody invoices. Booth-weekend sales alone lose $3,809, which is where most exhibitors stop counting and conclude shows don't work. The ninety days after — the show-code emails, thirteen wholesale calls that became two accounts — take the same show to +$250. Same booth, same weekend. The follow-up is the whole verdict.

How it works

• The True Cost — six lines including the two nobody counts: the days the shop was closed, and your prep hours at your real rate
• The Show & 90-Day Ledger — weekend takings, captured leads, then everything attributed for ninety days. The verdict computes at YOUR margin, side by side with what stopping-at-the-booth would have said — plus cost per lead and a GO/NO-GO for next year
• The Follow-Through — capture or it didn't happen (the QR, the fishbowl, the show code); the hour-48 thank-you email (usually the largest line in the 90-day column); week-one wholesale CALLS (one afternoon, the entire difference between a loss and a channel); the 30/60 remails with a deadline that means it; and the multi-show comparison that finds which two shows carry your season

Built for

Makers · craft fair and market vendors · wholesale exhibitors · anyone who loads a van four times a year and argues about whether it's worth it.

What you get

One .xlsx file, four tabs, instant download. Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice. No macros, no subscription. Copy it per show; compare the season.