The End Of The Year

As usual, I'm rolling into the end of the year like any manufacturer or retailer - feeling bruised, beaten, and otherwise utterly exhausted. I just wrote out a check for my workspace for the month of January and am ecstatic that I'm only paying for 50% of my normal time as I don't have any plans to go into the space more then that this month. I just keep telling myself that I have to get this big Valentine's order finished up (which I'm hoping will be done by the end of the weekend) and get my QuickBooks in order for my meeting with the accountant on the 12th for year-end taxes and then I get the rest of the month off.

Of course I say that now...truthfully even in the four-five days I had at home for Christmas - with no computer, no phone calls, and no workrelated aspects at all - I found I was still thinking about work...a lot! Actually, what I found was that after a day or two I started thinking creatively again about new products, potential new distribution channels, potential new relationships. It's that type of stuff that makes me really excited about the business and I can see the future potential again whereas normally this time of year I'm just so mired in the day-to-day survival.

And so even though I can't wait to have some time off, the truth is that I know I'll be experimenting with new products, and working with the graphic artist to get some new mock packaging drawn up, and sending off samples to potential new relationships. Downtime has never been a strength of mine....

In other news, I took a very quick look at QuickBooks today and it looks like I'm ending the year $400 behind where I was last year. Not too bad for what will hopefully go down as the worst economic year in our lifetimes. Here's hoping for a better economy for everyone in 2010.

Happy New Year - I hope the new year brings all of us hope, creativity, and lots and lots of opportunities.