Hangover

Remember when you were in college and perhaps woke up with a dead squirrel taste in your mouth, feeling like your body had been hit by a mac truck, and trying to figure out why you had been sleeping on the lawn? (no, mom, I never did that - I swear!) That hangover was a breeze compared to this week and sadly I don't even have alcohol to blame for it.

Last week was truly the perfect storm I had anticipated. I got all my event orders late in the day on Monday so literally spent a good chunk of Monday night, all day Tuesday, most of Wednesday night, and all of Thursday getting those 150+ orders packed up, invoiced, UPS'd, and shipped out.

You notice that I wasn't doing anything Wednesday during the day? Well that's because I was manning the desk at my zoo job for our Groupon. I had played a major role in convincing senior management we needed to do a 'Groupon' despite a fair bit of resistence. Since this was the first major project I'd taken before senior management I was terrified that a poor response would be a black mark on my reputation not to mention the fact that I simply wanted it to go well. The two nights before the Groupon - when not packing up orders - I was tossing and turning in my sleep and having nightmares.

Wednesday I was up and online by 5:40am. By the time I went to bed that night we had becoming the second best selling Groupon in our city of all time and by Thursday morning (the Groupon ended at midnight the night before) we had bumped up to the top selling spot. Needless to say, I was ecstatic as was senior management. And then I got back to packing up orders for my business.

Now that it's all over and I'm merely back to packing up tradeshow orders I find myself dropdead exhausted by 8pm and crawling into bed at 9pm every night this week. Oh wait...look at that...it's bed time!

Next Steps

I'm back from the tradeshow - not quite sure why I'm awake and functioning already given what time my flight got in last night. But I'm home and glad for it. Vegas, I find, is fun for about the first 24 hours and after that I grow weary of being inside all day where the temperature is a constant 68degrees and there are no clocks on the walls (which is actually my biggest pet peeve about Vegas). I did however find the pool (hooray!) and made it to my favorite 'off the strip' Thai restaurant which was even better then I remembered.

The show went OK. Not great - not horrible - just OK. The big event that is currently happening is also going OK. Not great and not near what I had hoped at this point. But it's OK. Not sure if it'll be good enough to get invited back for another event though.

So this is what I find myself pondering this morning. The business is going OK and in this economy I should be happy with that. But the truth is that I'm just so darn tired right now and I need to figure out what my next step is going to be. The truth is that as much lip service as people give to wanting "handmade" or "Made in America" products, at the tradeshows at least, what sells is cheap crap from China. I just can't compete with that nor do I want to. Which makes me wonder if there really is a strong market for my products or whether that market withered and died with the economy. Do I keep searching for that market or do I just shut down all together?

Right now I'm leaning towards keeping the business going but moving it into much more of a part-time or, dare I say it, even hobby catagory. I'm probably halfway there already this year given how little I spent on advertising and tradeshows this year. Or do I just decide to try and sell the thing and get whatever money I can out of it? But who would honestly want to buy a business that's just ok? And, if I'm perfectly honest with myself, selling this business feels like it would be selling off on of my appendages so maybe I'm not ready for that yet.

We'll see, I need a little more time and space from Vegas before I make a decision one way or another.

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

Helping the Economy

My credit card is on fire this week as I'm buying in massive (well, massive for me) amounts of packaging right now. I seriously put it off as late as possible but the time has come and I'm spending like a champ right now. I shuddar to think what next month's credit card bill will look like. At least I'm getting miles...sigh...

I'm also helping the employment figures as I've hired on a part-time staff person to help out for the next few weeks and, if things go well, the next few months. This person has worked for me before and is an absolute rock star of an employee. I wish I could hire her fulltime but that's just not in the cards right now. Seriously, she's so good that I've given her keys to the workspace and she'll be in there by herself while I'm at the upcoming tradeshow. I'm still dreaming of the day I can afford to have her in there more then me. It's a goal I'm working towards. In the meantime, it's both of us working our little tails off.

The reason why things have gone to warp speed lately, and why all my cash is currently headed towards packing and employement taxes, is that I've been invited to do a sales promo with a very prestigious online company (no, not groupon!). The company takes a portion of what sells but the costs still work out in my favor. The event will take place mid-September and I'm really hoping it goes well so that I can get some much-needed cash flow out of it (to pay for all that packaging and employement taxes) but also so that I can be invited back to to a holiday promotion which is when my stuff typically really shines.

Here's the catch, the online promotion happens to coincide with the last day of my tradeshow. So, if said promotion goes really well - which is what I'm hoping for - it will basically deplete me of my entire inventory stock and I'll be headed into the busiest few months of my year without any inventory. I realize that's a wonderful position to be in if it happens, but it's a little nerve-wracking at the same time. Then top it off with the fact that yesterday I got an email from one of my BIG clients wanting to reopen discussions on their holiday order and "how soon could we get it" may mean that I end my tradeshow in the red with regards to inventory if this BIG client gets me a purchase order between now and then. Again, all good problems to have but it's got my head spinning just a bit.

In the meantime, I need to walk the dogs and get to my own part-time job this afternoon. Yes, things are a tad crazy around here right now. But at least I'm helping the economy!

An Inglorious End to my Farmers Markets

The farmers markets didn't pan out for me. Thankfully I had only signed up to attend five during the summer (five total markets - not five markets a week) as I quickly learned that while I really enjoy being at the market and talking to people, I simply hate hate hate the whole set up and tear down of the market. The lugging everything to the car and stuffing it full (I have a Subaru wagon and it still barely all fits!), then going across town to the market, pulling everything out of my car, struggling in the heat to get everything set up (no matter what anyone says, those 10x10 tents are not easy to get up by yourself). But that's only the half of it - you have to do it all in reverse at the end of the day.

Then last week I went through the entire process of getting everything out and into my car, shlepped across town, only to find out that they had made a mistake and din't have me on the schedule nor did they have space for me. Sadly, I was more relieved that I didn't have to go through the whole set up then I was angry over the mistake. I think that's when I realized how very much I didn't want to do any more markets. So I traded out with someone else I know who makes similar products and she is going to take my space at the remaining markets I'm supposed to do.

If the markets had been huge money makers for me I probably wouldn't have traded in my time, but they really didn't bring in that much - at least not enough, in my mind, to make it worth all the hassle. And with my big tradeshow of the season looming in the near future and the zoo job, I felt like I had more then enough to keep me busy this Thursday afternoon rather than sitting at the market all afternoon.

Juggling

I suspect I'm in what may be the craziest piece of juggling I'll encounter between the two jobs (watch me eat my words in a few months when things are really hectic). Right now is the last push at the zoo so it's been really really busy. Not only busy, but it's also thrown my schedule all out of wack so that with the exception of last weekend, I've basically had to work 6-7days a week for the last few weeks. Not necessarily full days, but enough hours that you have to try and juggle the rest of your schedule around it.

Add to that the fact that the tradeshow season is literally right around the corner (when did September decide to show up and why didn't anyone tell me it was so close?) so I'm trying to get everything needed to get all those pieces into place as well as sending out samples to some of my larger customers and those I want to be customers.

And lastly, my better half finds himself traveling for work basically every week which means the pups need to find someone to entertain them when he and I aren't around for long stretches. So we're fully utilizing doggie daycare (though it means someone has to juggle the drop off/pick ups of the pups), a new dog walker/sitter service, and relying on good good friends to stop by and let them out when their little legs are crossed.

Despite all of those though I'm really happy. I've probably got a little too much on my plate right now between work and house projects (but hooray - I managed NOT to paint the windows shut - that's an accomplishment!) and lord knows my workout schedule isn't what I wish it was, but I'm confident it can all be handled and with an end in sight (by labor day the zoo slows down...course then my business really picks up) I'm trying to make the most of these last days of summer.

Dog Days of Summer

It is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful warm and sunny summer weather here. Don't hate me east coasters for the fact that our summer temps are an enviable 75degrees, blue skies, and no humidity. Granted, summer just showed up a month ago so it was a little late to get here but I'm loving it nonetheless.

And it has me trying to pack a year's worth of outdoor projects into the already full days. The big one right now is doing touch-up paint to the exterior of our house. While it's good for the look of the house, the real reason is that unpainted surfaces get so wet in our rainy season (aka - winter) that it makes them prime suspects for M.O.L.D. That is a word that is enough to put the fear of God into any home owner so I've been feverishly painting.

What does this have to do about work? Well, between my painting project, my part-time job, and then my workspace time and real job, things have been busy around here lately. So on Monday when I received notice that applications were up for a retail Holiday show I knew I had to spend the evening getting the application ready or I would forget about it all together. I went to this retail show last year and did really well so I'm hoping they accept me again this year (it's a juried show which means not everyone gets in). If nothing else, how quickly I turned the application around ought to show them I'm excited about the show!

Speaking of shows, I learned yesterday that my BIG wholesale trade show that is held in September every year will be moving to July starting 2013 so as to "better accomodate holiday orders." What they really mean is that they want to put more emphasis on the larger manufacturers and larger retailers who have to place their holiday orders six months in advance so they can have the products made in China and shipped over in time for the holidays. I won't lie, I'm a bit peeved off at the whole situation because my buyers - even my larger manufacturers - just don't plan that far out. I realize I don't have to worry about this just yet given that it's three years away but I figure this is the motivation I need to wean my business off of tradeshows all together. Not sure if it can be done but since I'm down to only one this year there's really no other place to go other then to cut them altogether.