Every year there’s at least one month when I look around and start thinking: Whoa! What is going on? Sales are so slow it’s easy to start to panic. When you’re looking at having to dip into savings to pay the bills, that’s when things get scary.
Which means if you’re planning to lampwork full time as your sole source of income, you really need to have a savings account set up for just these times. Never assume when you’re having a good month, that you can and will be able to sustain your sales volume. Put some of that cash away for when things dry up.
Since we’ve been at this full time for over six years, we can see some patterns of when sales will dip. Usually between June and August sales can be inconsistent and then there’s October. I’m not sure what it is about October, but it’s usually pretty touch and go.
So, how do we survive without throwing in the towel and searching the online want ads? First of all, we realize the savings is there for just this reason. Resist the temptation to check your online sales venues every five minutes and get your butt out to the torch. Work on building up inventory, work on new designs, try new things. Think about adding something different to your product line. Put your energy into creating. Do not spend your time worrying and complaining about how slow it is. Remember my post on Looking in the direction you want to go? Creating new items and hopefully building some excitement about those pieces is a perfect example of how to implement that advice.
Keep listing items. Do not decide to just take the month off and stop listing anything new. The worst thing you can do is disappear from your online venues. Think about it. If you go to someone’s shop and they’re closed or have stopped listing stuff, what do you do? You go shop elsewhere. Maybe you even become a loyal customer to the new shop and you forget all about the first shop you went looking for.
Look. I know it is hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. I’ve been there myself. Spend an afternoon commiserating with your lampworking friends. Go have a margarita. Spend a day relaxing at the beach. Take a few days off.
Then get yourself back into your studio. Take this opportunity to work on all the designs you’ve been thinking about, but haven’t had the time to develop. Have fun! Remember why you started lampworking in the first place. Because dang it, it’s fun to melt stuff.
