Swings and Roundabouts

Tis the season and all that stuff and for crafters it's a busy month. They're off to shows every weekend to sell their wares and make money for Christmas and to buy in more supplies. I used to be one of them but no more. Not after the last show.

Ever had a show where the attendance is minimal, the two days seem like two weeks and you don't even make your booth costs? Of course you have. We all have. It's frustrating, it's depressing and if you're anything like me, you rant and rave for a while and swear you're never going BACK to that show.

Well, Leanne and I had a show that was something like that. Bad year, bad attendance etc. It was not the sponsors fault, they advertised all over the place, but the grumbles were heard from all corners. I heard one woman say ( on the first day) that all she sold were a couple of bracelets and a necklace and had made only $20.00.

Gee, we wish we had made that much. In fact, we wish we had made something, anything! It was the first show I had ever been to that I sold absolutely nothing. We were the only booth that at the end of the show, had more inventory than when we started. For two days we had nothing better to than create more jewelry and buy B.J's fantabulous Bar-B-que sauce. I bought 5 bottles and Himself bought one too. Great stuff.

After the show, we were of course upset. We knew our prices were out of step with most of the things being sold there and while we didn't expect to sell much, we didn't expect a big fat goose egg. Then, I talked to a friend of mine, extremely smart, scary smart in fact and he said something to me, that I passed on to Leanne. Something simple, elemental and brilliant. He had the pleasure of making TWO women feel stupid in the space of ten minutes (I called her as soon as I could stop blushing from the embarassment of being so dang dumb!).

"Kathleen," he says, "what you should do is..." and at that point I thought of the fortune cookie that I got the night before the show opening. I kid you not, this is the absolute truth, the cookie said "You need to start a new collection or get a new hobby." After that craft show you can imagine how THAT kept running through my head.

At any rate back to Dave's brilliance, "what you should do is..."

"Find a new hobby?" says I

"No, you need to sell at ART SHOWS!"

Well, DUH! After banging my head against the wall and having finished blushing I call Leanne. So now two of us are feeling really stupid.

Then synchronicity comes into play. "You mean there's MORE to this story?"

Darn tootin.

Turns out there is a woman (Christine Gierer) who is starting a new website (Handmaderesults.comand )giving free lessons to people who want to learn how to sell jewelry online. Turns out there are more than a few of us that really need to learn how to do this. Along with the free lessons she will also have paid membership lessons, premier and premier plus which has coaching.

Leanne and I need something like this desperately. We really want to know how to run our website and make a profit. So we signed up for it and I entered a contest that ran to win a free premier or premier plus membership and would you believe it! I found out this morning that I won the free premier lessons.

So in the space of two weeks we've swung from the depths of misery and rounded up to being excited, hopeful and happy about what we've done hither to and what we will accomplish in the future.

So swings and roundabouts my friends. Nothing stays the same and every depressed beader can have their day. ;-)