Economic recovery?

For the last 2 weeks I received at least 1 wholesale order every day. This week has been a little quieter with 3 retail etsy sales and 1 more wholesale order, but this is the most activity I've seen in a while. I'm hoping that means some economic recovery is in sight. It probably means that many stores looked around and realized things have been selling and all of a sudden they need some new fresh work for the holidays (and for their repeat customers, which is who we are all catering to).

I am thrilled to feel so busy. Nothing like in the past where I had enough work for 4 employees, but the base is building back up. The part that is killing me is that all of these calls have come to me... I know that I should be calling all of my accounts to check up on them... even just to say hi. I'm trying to work this into my schedule but other things keep taking precedent, which is probably a bad priority since my livelihood exists on orders being in the queue.

The daunting part of making calls is the shear number of galleries I need to be in touch with. I need to create a list and maybe tackle just 2 or 3 a day. I have about 60 active galleries, not counting the ones that have fallen by the wayside for various reasons. We all know it's best to break a large project into small bites, but the practice is sometimes hard to get started. The funny thing is that I love talking to my galleries! They know what's going on, and it's fun to build a relationship.

Some people think 60 sounds like a lot of galleries (I still agree), but other people think 200-600 is a better number. In talking with a friend a couple of weeks ago, though, he explained how 60 is better than 3. Sometimes we get caught up with trying to find the 1 big client that will keep us afloat, but then we might as well just work for that client. Having a large number of clients reduces reliance on any 1 income source. I'd rather have 10 little orders sitting on my desk like I do now than 1 big one because it shows that the economy is opening up around the country. The orders are small and conservative, but they add up. It also prevents me having to sit and stress and wait for the 1 check to come in; multiple orders improve cash flow. A large number of accounts also means that 1 client doesn't have too much ownership in my company. It's interesting to look at income from clients as percentages of ownership or interest in my business.