When you don't know what to expect do you overestimate or underestimate ? Do you hope for the best and prepare for the worst ? Or are you totally relaxed and prepared for anything ?
Perthshire Open Studios is over for another year and I am now trying to assess how successful it has been for us. I had been hoping to be really busy with loads of visitors and fantastic sales and that didn't quite happen. We did however have a lot of lovely visitors who seemed to really like Buy Design and who said they will definately be returning in the future. Hopefully this means a busy Chrismas for us.
The general feedback from other participants is that it was very quiet compared to previous years, but since this was my first year I don't really have anything to compare it to. What I do know is that in my experience ( not vast as I have only been open for two and a half years ) September is generally a quiet month. It's too early for most customers to be thinking about Christmas and they have just paid out for summer holidays and new school uniforms.
I seem to have spent the last week talking, talking, and talking again about how I started making jewellery, and how my hobby has developed into my business. I do like talking but I was starting to feel a bit talked out by the end of the week. So this week I am back to the business of making again and looking forward to the next challenge.
Oh... and we have just seen our daughter off to Aberdeen University to study psychology. It's been quite a week all round.
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3 comments:
Sorry to hear that you didn't sell as much as you'd hoped. I hope those customers do come back for their Christmas shopping. It almost sounds as if the event is at the wrong time of year - maybe slightly nearer to Christmas would be more worthwhile.
You could be right about the timing but closer to Christmas could be tricky with a lot of the crafters being tied up with craft fairs. And then a lot of the studios are quite rural so you get the problem of snow and icy roads. The summer is pretty busy as well with country shows etc. I'm being positive though. We got really good feedback from those who came and I'm sure they will be back.
You never can tell can you ? Now the decision to go back next year or not ? Or find another event that is better patronised? This is an occupational dilema for many of us!
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