We got through the trade show. It was a long weekend with some high points and a few low ones.
It's not unusual that events like this give one a great opportunity to 'think things through'. The realization is that what we really like to make does not fit the usual 'wholesale' concept. What does fit into wholesale is at an uncomfortable price point for some and OK for others. Nothing surprising in that conclusion. This also means that our marketing has been wildly misdirected to some extent and that we need to reconsider some of our business activities and go back to our strategic plan and rewrite it to better fit what we now know about ourselves to be all too true. It is in following that truth that we will find our niche and our success.
The other thing that has arisen lately is the incontrovertible realization that we will never again be "doing" a certain show in our home town. I'm still not sure if I need to feel bad or just glad that I have a definitive answer to the question and no longer need to wonder about what we are doing the first weekend of November each year. Somehow, writting it down and reading this makes me feel thankful and relieved, and that's a good thing. Another query answered.
I learned another important thing this week, that it's not just artisans/artists that can suffer from intense amounts of insecurity, the people that work around them and try to provide them with opportunities for advancement do as well. Sometimes these people suffer so much so that anyone that questions any of their associations or decisions, even in the smallest way, are subject to an absolute reactionist asperity based on their perception of the questioner's words as highflown and laden with antipathy. A little sang-froid handles that.
It is good to learn.
