Perspective

Last year I spent four days, ten hours per day, at a fairly well attended craft festival. I paid a hefty entry fee and agreed to pay a commission to the festival if I sold over a certain amount of merchadise. Long story short, it ended up being a big disappointment. Not my audience. Win some, lose some, and all that.

I finally added up those earnings tonight, and man, the reality is I spent four long days to barely break even on the entry fee. If you count parking and food expenses, I came away owing the festival money.

Now I haven't done as many shows as some people, but I've been fortunate to normally do better. I guess if there's a lesson I can take away, business-wise, it's to position myself for success. Know my audience. Don't waste each other's time.

Or maybe trying to find the value in this experience is my desperate attempt to apply Pollyanna logic to a bad situation. Either way, here's to reading too many marketing books tonight.