We recently returned from the Chicago Gift & Home Show, a trade show for retail buyers to come and stock their stores. I'd like to say that we signed an account with Marshall Field's and will be appearing on Oprah in May. To be honest, it was quite a brutal and depressing experience. Perhaps some background on the overall trade show experience is in order: The tiny 10x10 space is extremely expensive, and for a small, young business, it is quite an extensive investment. Most established manufacturers are happy to break even on a show, using it to connect with customers, find new ones, and …
Archives for January 2003
Give Me Benefits Or Give Me Death!
I remember when I graduated from college almost four years ago and plotted my career path as a freelance illustrator, the well-intentioned arguments from my father on the prospect of getting a "regular" job usually involved some mention of "benefits." I heard it so often, in fact, that I began to think that it really didn't matter what job I got, as long as the benefits were good. After a while I resolved to myself, "Self, I don't want to work at a job I hate for forty years just for the benefits." …
A New Year, A New Perspective
Well, it's nice to be through with 2002. Not that there was anything horribly wrong with it, although I spent an unwelcome amount of the final days near the toilet compliments of the flu. As you shuffle that to the "Too Much Information" file, I'll move on. We did fall short of some of our goals for last year, which can get one down and cause one to ask oneself, "Were we too unrealistic?", "Am I a horrible leader?" or "Should we have sprung for that Super Bowl commercial?" Being ever the optimist (I'm a Cubs fan), I have decided to learn from last year and look ahead enthusiastically to the …