Decisons, Decisions

Yesterday I made the momentous decision not to attend the 2009 National Stationery Show in New York. It was a hard decision to make. I have only ever just barely broken even on the show, but it has always felt like a necessary part of maintaining a presence in the stationery trade. It is just so far to travel from the west coast, and accommodations in New York are so expensive. All of my friends, who are extraordinary people with ordinary jobs, live out in the boroughs in tiny little apartments, and anyway, I'm too old to be sleeping on their floors. Yes, it is great to see my east coast reps. It is great to see the faces of all of those east coast buyers, but that's just the problem. It's all so east coast, and I am so far away from that, and a lot of those east coast accounts have been really, really, sluggishly slow to pay their accounts. The ones that are still in business, I mean.

SO, I am now of course terrified that the bottom will drop out of my business because I have dropped out of the show. I guess only time will tell. I have decided instead to go to the American Craft Retailer Exposition in Las Vegas, May 31 through June 2. It's just a heck of a lot cheaper to exhibit there, and to travel, and everything else. I am keeping my fingers crossed.