Hmm...thoughts...

I just got off the phone with two different sales reps who I was pumping for information about sales in general (not just my product line but overall in the industry) as a way of gauging what's going on in the larger marketplace. Now I fully realize that I may be jinxing myself here but I was really interested to hear from both that sales are basically at a standstill. Truly it doesn't come as a huge surprise expect for the fact that our sales are pretty much on par with last year. Granted, we're selling more of our lower profit margin products but at the same time costs have been curtailed so our profit margins are looking decent. I was kind of surprised to hear that industry sales were that bad based on our year so far. Course it makes me even more happy about were we are right now!

One of the sales reps also recommended that in terms of stocking up inventory for the holiday season to really work on building up the lowest priced items because that's what seems to be selling right now and she suspects (as do I) that it will remain so through the end of the year. Pretty much along the lines of what I was thinking of doing but good to have some outside validation.

Course in the meantime admist news of slowing industry sales I happened to find the perfect little retail spot today. In the back of my mind I've been thinking that it might be nice to get a space in a great location that I could use as a 24x7 workspace (build the workspace into the back and then I could use it whenever needed as opposed to my scheduled workspace hours) and then have a small retail space upfront for my products and a few others that I like/trust. I'm not even sure if this space is truly availalbe - it just looks empty - but it's in exactly the neighborhood I want, a neighborhood that has my target market nailed down, is in the heart of the little community. From what I can see from the windows it's a great blank slate that I think someone (me?) could do a lot with.

And then the realities of what that means hits me. Not only would it be renting the space but also buying the necessary workspace equipment. Since you'd also have to be open at least 6 days a week in that neighborhood (if not 7) then I'd probably want to hire at least one other person to help out so I could see my husband occasionally on the weekend.

The funny thing is I'm not ever someone who dreamt of opening up a retail store. I don't even like to shop. But I'm believing that if you have to have workspace anyway and can't literally work 100% from your home then you might as well have workspace that can also work for you from a retail standpoint. Anybody have any suggestions because I'm at a lose here...