What Impact Has the Economy Had On You?

I stole this blog topic from a forum I read as it's definitely something that's been on my mind with regards to the business.

Right now it's actually a little hard to tell how the economy has impacted my business since my business is very seasonal. I will know more after the Fall tradeshows since if retailers aren't buying then it will be a very good indication that people are incredibly worried about the economy and holiday buying season.

Right now we've actually been doing ok business-wise given the seasonality in our business. I can definitely tell that retailers are less apt to make new product purchases now and are sticking to "tried and true" products but our new products are getting a lot of attention from retailers but most are telling me to come back to them in the Fall.

At the same time, our new product seems to be generating a lot of buzz in the industry trade publications. I already know that we're going to be in the upcoming June edition of one publication (or so I've been told - we'll see if I make the final editorial cut) and it's looking like we're going to be spotlight in another publication in July. I've also sent in material to a few other industry trade publications so I'm hoping they bite and perhaps do a little more press towards August/Sept timeframe as that's getting mighty close to tradeshow season so I want our products/company top-of-mind for retailers.

So while right now the company is blowing through a decent chunk of change - it's not necessarily so much that it has me totally bent out of shape (only midly bent out of shape). I was hoping that we'd break even this year and while I do think that we still stand a chance of doing that, this economy may make that goal a little harder to reach than originally anticipated.