Yes, it's gone a little bit quiet here!

Time out for the holidays. Time out for wintery (as wintery as it gets around here, at least) weather; time out for some regrouping, even. Anyone who knows me well would be gobsmacked if they discovered I'd made anything resembling resolutions for the new year. Let's just call it some business planning and be done with it, eh?

The plan for 2011 is to get more of our inventory put on to the website, as the local shows are fewer and farther between. We even decided to forgo the January Sunshine City show in St. Petersburg altogether as we assessed the cost and benefits. Its proximity to home just couldn't trump the low sales this show realizes for us. Another major factor impacting our decision is the increased travel that Bob's day job entails. Working at such a pace Monday through Friday doesn't leave much time for preparation, loading and unloading - and definitely leaves Bob without the restorative down time on the weekends that is more necessary than ever for him.

I can't say that I'm saddened by this decision. The fact is that for myself, I have struggled with the shows this past year, finding them difficult as issues with my mental health just wouldn't Go Away as any of us who know, wished they would. I'm sure that things will change again, and we remain ready to adjust when the time is right for that. But economically, and personally, this shift is the way for Time Travelers to go for now.

I'm excited at the prospect of opening the doors wide on the eCrater store. I'll also be creating more jewelry and exploring more creative expression in that area.

Perception is a funny thing

Yesterday we did a one-day show in Bellair Bluffs at Antique Alley. We've done it before, but not with any regularity; it's been difficult to get on the list of regular vendors for this popular show. It was a glorious Florida day. Cool and clear in the morning for set up, and no wind or humidity for the day. There was a steady stream of customers for most of the day, although, true to form, most of the commerce had been completed by early afternoon. (This is the only pattern that I have been able to detect amongst the different outdoor shows that we do during the season.)

Just about all of the dealers were grumbling about how traffic seemed to be "off" or down, and how sales were down along with that traffic. Bob and I jumped in with the rest of them, as our gleaming tables of goodies went seemingly untouched by a breeze, let alone any human hands other than our own. We packed up at the end of the day and trudged on home.

Where I finally whipped out the calculator and discovered that we'd just finished the best show we'd done at that location. Lower in sales volume but higher in sales total. So what on earth had we been complaining about? Making MORE money with FEWER sales? Wait a minute - isn't that the whole idea here?

Yup.

I think what had happened was that we - or more to the point, *I* - was listening too much to the wailing and moaning going on around us, instead of actually looking at my sales records. Yes, we are in a very poor economic state, and the outlook is grim. But Time Travelers is holding our own. If anything, we are getting a bit better at what we're doing in seeing our average sale climb when you'd expect to be seeing it go lower. We've cut back - believe it or not - on our purchases. We've revamped how we do some of the merchandising, and I'm thinking that it's paying off. Having the inventory well stored and accessible makes it easier to select items to take to a given show - a big stress reliever.

So there you go. We spent all day thinking we were doing stinko and it wasn't until we got home that we had to read the facts to set us straight. Now I know there is a lesson in there for me. Just who am I listening to?