Feeling More Upbeat Today

After a touching outpouring of encouragement from many friends and a few customers, I am realizing that I am maybe worrying too much. As one of my friends pointed out, it is good to face these fears head-on and having this fear is important to being receptive to the need to change.

I spent most of today filling weekend orders and organizing the next group of material to list. This felt more productive. After tallying up the orders I can see that sales are not quite as low as I thought, so I felt better.

I have to remember that I spent many quiet years thinking of my business model - it wasn't something that I just came up with on a lark. I have made many observations over the years of working in the professional stamp trade as to how customers behave and these observations form the basis for the model that I eventually chose. I must be alert for evidence that contradicts what I believe the ideal business model to be, but at the same time, I need to have confidence in my self and in my ability to develop and execute an effective long-term plan.

One thing I do feel very good about is that I am constantly adding new customers every week and after 6.5 month, I am up to almost 200 names. I just need to figure out how to make these people regular customers. I think the attempts at relationship building and the blogging will eventually pay off.