Closed for Spring Break! April 15-25, 2013

I have been suffering some burnout lately. I think it is a combination of so many different things. This year winter has felt like it was never ending, the work in the shop is in it's most intense time of the year, and I have been pushing myself to get lots of changes done in the office as well as on the website. Then in my personal life I have been working hard on the weekends to get some major projects around the house done before it either gets too warm, or I start show season.

But more than that I have felt a little disconnected for people and even myself. I really was experiencing it a few weeks ago when I posted about being a workaholic. Unfortunately, with that dedication to work, usually there comes some form of burnout. Lately, I just want to turn off my brain. I haven't even been able to enjoy my hobbies, like knitting. I have found personal relationships to be just too tiring to undertake. So I started to isolate myself, which really just fed into my ability to work and work and work, in turn burning myself out more.

So how do I break this cycle? Spring Break. I am closing up shop for almost two weeks and taking a vacation. The trick is taking a real vacation, unplugging the Internet, leaving the phone to ring, and not checking email every ten minutes. I have a bunch of things to do that I think will inspire me to explore new opportunities, both personally and professionally.

So fell free to email me, or leave me a phone message, or even place an order, but I am not shipping anything or making any phone calls till April 25th. I may answer emails every few days, so that would be your best thing to try, but I make no promises.

When I return it is time for craft show and farm market season to get started, and I will be ready, willing, and able to be my usual self: dedicated to making the best products I can, and giving you the best customer service I can as well.

Thanks for understanding and see you in a few weeks!

~Hedge

Out of my comfort zone

I had a heck of a weekend and now I feel all upside down.

I went to a two day seminar that was all about the business of crafts.But really to me it was about the business of art, or of fine crafts, and not the kind of work that I do at all. It was even kind of belittled a few times during the weekend, both by the presenter and by other people attending the seminar. I am very used to that belittling, unfortunately. Until I can sit down with someone and have a conversation about what I do and how it relates to what they do, I am just a lowly soapmaker, and it is so easy to sell a consumable product, I must not be able to fathom what they go through trying to sell their art.

Oh, but I do understand. So much about selling anything is about the story of the product. I have understood for years that people purchase me and my story as much as they purchase my product. Sales is also about gaining trust, you can't be slick or cheap anymore when it comes to your sales technique. But what I sell is one of the most personal items that someone can buy. You use soap in the most discrete and intimate areas of your body, places that some people don't even discuss with their doctor. So when I gain trust, I have to gain an intimate trust with my customers. When a customer spends the "typical" 15 seconds in my booth, I not only have to get them interested in the products thorough sight and smell, but I have to project an air of trustworthiness from the second they see me. It is often easier to sell a consumable product than fine art, but it is harder to get people to keep coming back time and time again.

The seminar itself is very much a blur. It was almost 8 hours a day of constant information being bombarded at me. I have so many new inspirations for things now. I have so many new things I want to do with my booth design, and with product names, and even things like new product pictures, that no customer may ever see. I have a list of new places to research, and suppliers to check out, and things to do now. But I probably won't get to many of these things for months and months. I need to process my information overload and see how it pertains to me.

But what I think for me was the most important lesson of the weekend was that I have to remember to think outside my comfort zone for knowledge and inspiration. Yes, many things covered in the topics didn't pertain to me, but the things that did, or the things I could bend a little to help me, really did get me thinking in ways that I haven't thought before.

Let them think of what you do as below them and then take all the knowledge you can get and use it to your advantage. In the end you will be the one with a sustainable business that you find satisfying and fulfilling. Never let anyone get in your way.

The Relentless Challenge

It is very hard for an artisan to figure out what shows work best for their product. Last weekend I participated in a fabulous small show. When setting up it had all the bells and whistles and I really expected something fantastic, but it tanked, and not only for me, for so many others as well.  Yet there were others that did very well. This always leads me to ask why there can be so much of a variance within just 30 vendors, all in the same place for the same timeframe. 

For me it just boils down to two things: demographics and attendance. 

This show last weekend was all about the eggs and the art was secondary. I watched many high quality egg artisans command top dollar for a top of the line product. Meanwhile, people with other items struggled to even make booth rental for the weekend.  

Artisans that make a product that meet a niche market don’t need a show with high attendance; they need a show with the right attendees. Someone like me who makes a more utilitarian product, often needs a high attendance because I can reach a percentage of those attendees and all the small sales then add up to a profitable show. Sometimes the perfect storm happens for me, I get a show with the correct demographics that give me a small number of high dollar sales, mixed with a large attendance that gives me a large number of small dollar sales. That is when I hit the jackpot. 

This perfect storm only happens a few times a year for me and is the elusive show I am always on the hunt for. I have learned over the years that there is no one thing that makes a show like this stand out to me. I know so little about new events when I apply to them:  location, cost, projected attendance, and hours. Not all expensive shows bring in the right demographics, and many less expensive shows tend to overstate their projected attendance. All I can do is the most research possible, make the best informed decision I can, and then just go and be at an event. 1 in every 12 typically is something that is profitable; the other 11 hopefully produce a few repeat customers in the future. 

This is why my show schedule changes so much from year to year. I am always looking for the best shows that suit my product. This is why my products are always evolving each year as well. But this hunt for the prefect show is one of my favorite things about what I do. I enjoy the relentless challenge.