Don’t you just hate it when you set out to make a dozen pies and you run out of time and oven space? Then the apples start to turn brown and the chocolate filling ends up curdled?
What? Don’t tell me this has never happened to you before. Don’t you have family over for holidays and lose your mind cooking for five days before they come over? No? Me neither. I actually live out-of-state from my family. Holidays are usually very relaxing.
But I’m intimately familiar with taking on too many projects. Like five out-of-town events in six months (four of them shows), publishing a book and scheduling another one for December, and trying to run four successful online stores.
Thank the powers that be I don’t have kids. As it is the dogs think my butt is permanently attached to my office chair. If I go anywhere else in the house besides the kitchen or the studio they get seriously confused.
Tomorrow I leave for Bead Fest in Philadelphia. I have my good friend Susan Sheehan to thank for talking me into this show while we were at Bead and Button. It’s made for a crazy two months while I worked furiously to get my book Haunted on Bourbon Street published. I’m sad to say my online venues have suffered like the oldest child left to fend for herself. Oh, I still listed stuff, but not at my normal rate.
And the sales data really shows the hit. If you’ve been reading my The Business of Lampworking series, you should know by now the best thing you can do for your business is to constantly list new items. Of course, the last four weeks I have been focused on getting my table ready for the show and holding inventory back.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure these shows are the best business strategy at this point because as hard as I work, I’m having trouble keeping all of my pie plates in the air. One was bound to splatter or at least wobble. Online sales for me are wobbling. Luckily Greg does this with me and since the shows don’t focus on his work, his stuff is selling at the usual rate.
I’ve always said which ever direction you’re looking is the direction you’ll go. I started looking at shows. The last few I did have been successful, but not successful enough to take away from my online business. I have two more shows not including Bead Fest Philly. After that I will need to run some numbers and do some evaluating.
Moral of the story? Don’t take on more than you can handle. Something will suffer. And in this case, it’s my bread and butter.
But I’m ready for Bead Fest. I’ve got the pictures to prove it.
