The Perfect Storm

I realize there's only been the sound of crickets chirping on this blog lately but there's good reason for that. The perfect storm is brewing. I can see it out on the horizon and I'm desperately trying to batten down the hatches before it hits. Let's see, how best to break this down:

Job #1 (my own company)
1. I leave for Las Vegas on Monday for a tradeshow so I've been manically trying to get everything ready for that, get booth materials shipped out (which I sent via FedEx because it was the cheapest option available), packing, getting the house cleaned up before the pet sitter comes in for the week, etc
2. In advance of the tradeshow I've been trying to touch base with all my BIG and Medium clients over the phone (rather than a nonpersonal email) to let them know that we'll be at the show and encourage them to stop by the booth to say hello in person.
3. In advance of what I'm hoping will be decent orders, I've been frantically trying to build up some inventory so I've been putting in super long days at my workspace and then coming home and doing more work at home.
4. Oh, and did I forget to mention the "event" that's taking place next week (while I'm away at the tradeshow)? Without giving too much away, I was approached by an online retailer - a HUGE online retailer with something like 2.8M customers - about doing an event with them next week where I essentially offer up a range of my products to them at a discount. Once I ran all the numbers I realized that I'd still be making more then my wholesale price so I agreed to do it. So much of the last two weeks has been spent getting inventory ready to go for that, getting packaging ordered in (I'll be dropshipping all orders), and getting all information and photos to the retail company in advance of this event. In theory, if things go well, I'll start drop shipping a week from Monday right after I'm back from the tradeshow. If things go really well it will completely knock me out of inventory for all my wholesale orders. I'm hoping it goes really well but the thought terrifies me at the same time.

But wait, that's just one job...now let's look at Job #2
1. The zoo has been incredibly busy the last few weeks as the summer season is winding down. I've consistently been putting in 25+hrs a week which, I realize, doesn't sound like much, but when you fit in another 20+ hours of workspace time and probably another 4-6hrs nightly of work (and about 10 each weekend day), there's been a lot going on.
2. But here's where things get really fun. A colleague and myself managed to single-handedly (double-handedly?) convince the senior management team to go out on a limb and try a new marketing tactic that could pay off huge or fail miserably. After we convinced them the entire project fell on my shouldars to coordinate. Guess when it's all going down...nope, not next week...a week from Monday (the same day all teh drop shipipng has to begin). But next week, when I'm in Las Vegas, will be all the final prep for this event. I honestly think that a large part of my reputation is riding on this event and while my boss knows I'll be away he still wanted to go forward.

So my stress level is in the red zone right now between the two jobs and anytime I've thought about sitting down to get this all down on paper (screen?) I just didn't even know where to begin. Is it too much to ask that everything just exceed expectations? That my show just go gang-busters and I get great orders and reorders, that my "event" maxes out and goes so well they invite me back to do another one before the holidays (which is where I could really make some serious serious money with them), and that the marketing piece for the zoo just blow everyone away? Do you think my chances are better at winning some huge slots in Vegas?

What I need to do now is get to Vegas, get my booth set up, and then take my new pretty Kindle and go sit by the pool for an hour and just "be." Then I need to buy myself an overpriced Vegas beverage and just prepare myself to ride out the next two weeks