There was a time in my life when I swore to myself that I would never be in the sales business again.
That particular thought was constantly in my mind as I closed down a retail business after 13 long years of doing neither well, nor particularly badly.
The year was 1998.
Of course, I managed to get myself involved in another retail store business, almost 20 years later. In retrospect, I can't really fathom why, other than maybe it seemed like something familiar. And I was hopeful.
That particular business ended with something we call Covid-19 and the attendant lockdowns and craze surrounding that situation... following on top of a couple of external disasters, like a flooded store after a "100 year rain event" and then the city upgrading the street by our front door for a year.
I swore to myself that I would never get into the sales business, again.
Of course, I have never really left the sales business, although I continue to "sell stuff" only in the context of not having an actual store... except online.
With the small exception that Mrs. Denmarkguy and I periodically set up booths as vendors at arts and crafts shows and festivals to sell our various creative endeavors. It's still sales, after a fashion... but it's a little more palatable when you only have to do it for short bursts at a time... and it's your own wares you're selling.
I suppose we're ultimately all in the sales business, after a fashion.
We sell ourselves, we sell our products, we sell our ideas, we sell our services. Life, it seems, revolves around commerce, more than almost anything else.
Can't get away from it.
I suppose I put up with it because I don't want to work in some boring job, beholden to a soulless organization whose obsession with maximizing profits benefits nobody but the CEO's bottom line, so (s)he can make the payment on her/his private jet.
It's not that surprising, I suppose... given that I was one of those kids who "does not play well with others." Not in the sense that I was a disagreeable brawler, but because I failed to understand "common motivations."
That tendency followed me through my somewhat abbreviated stint in the corporate world where "working in teams" was always my least favorite thing... not because I didn't like people, but because it seemed like there was a staggering amount of time wasting happening, pretty much all the time.
So I became self-employed. Which, of course, meant sales.
So, tomorrow is showtime!
The nice thing about holiday markets is that at least people are there for a more focused reason than just walking around aimlessly, entertaining themselves by looking at stuff.
After all this time, I still have mixed feelings about selling. I still wish I could leave that part to someone else, but at least it's my stuff I'm talking about. Even so, I'd rather just get orders, put them in a box and be done with it all.
But I also know that "meet the artist" is the best way to sell handmade items... so showtime, it is!
On the upside, hopefully we'll be able to pay a bill or two.
Meanwhile, I continue to cross my fingers that the current uptrends in the cryptosphere will continue for a while... like for most of 2025...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!
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Created at 2024.12.06 01:08 PST
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