Bitching about the ups and downs about running a small creative business...

I just updated my website with all of my upcoming shows for November, and I am busy in the studio (with work in various stages) trying to get enough jewelry ready to support my upcoming holiday shows and consignment accounts. This doesn't leave much time for other business activities like social media and blogging...but I did want to spend a few minutes to bitch about a few things that have been on my mind. (Even though I haven't blogged in months, while I've been doing shows I have thought a few times "oh this would be good to blog about")

Most of my thoughts have been centered around the reliability of markets and in person events. Although not surprising, the success at markets and live events is hard to predict (I have known this for a while, but it really stood out more this year than in the past). Through the summer and fall, I did several markets and festivals. Some for the first time and others were old favorites of mine. I have had a few really successful shows this year while others were a little lack luster. And what I discovered is that it wasn't always the shows that I had had good history with that were reliable. For example, I had a show in September which was great. Not only were sales good, but feedback and interactions with customers were super positive. I left that show excited for another upcoming show the following week which was one of my favorite shows that I had done for many years. Riding my high from the week before, I came crashing down when the show was a letdown. My sales were disappointing since my expectations were high. And to make matters worse, customer engagement during the show was low. It was hard not to take it personally and to not let self-doubt creep in.

To add to my disappointing feelings, I have been seeing several creatives on social meeting talking about how much they make at in person events. They talk about the thousands of dollars that they make, and I can't help feeling I must be doing something wrong. I know you can't compare yourself to others especially since they have more established businesses and they aren't in the jewelry space, but it is hard to hear sometimes. On the flip side, it is nice to hear how other creatives tackle in person events and to see the possibilities.

I changed the title of this blog as I was writing once I realized that this was more of a bitch session than an update. And to be honest, I am okay with that :) Sometimes you just need to process disappointment with a little bitch session! And I feel better getting some of this off my chest. But I do want to talk more about this...maybe in a future blog especially after my holiday shows to summarize how the year went as a whole and what lesson I can take into 2027.

Also, for any other small creative business owners out there, would love to hear how you handle disappointing sales/events? How do you set expectations?