April, already. Where did the time go? The Calgary Expo is three weeks from today, and even though this will be my 10th year, I still obsess about the prep.
I keep detailed spreadsheets that allow me to look back on every show to see how much I sold of each item, which informs how much I order the next time. Knowing that my Smiling Tiger, Otter, and others are bestsellers is not enough. I need accurate numbers, otherwise I might order 20 of one print, though I only sold 10 the year before. Multiply that by dozens of paintings, and it soon gets costly.
Each year, I try to bring enough stock so I don’t sell out early, but not so much that I have a lot left to bring home. With tariff threats and an uncertain economy, people will still be there, but will they buy?
Late spring and summer aren’t big months for my online store, but they’re the busiest times for my wholesale clients. Because of my editorial cartoon commitments, I don’t do summer markets. So, if I have too many prints the Calgary Zoo, Toronto Zoo, or Discovery Wildlife Park don’t sell, they can sit in the closet for months. For example, none of those venues want a Raven, Orca, or Panda.
Immediately after this year’s Expo, I have two commissions on deck, one featuring three cats and another with three dogs. It’s bizarre they both arrived at the same time from different clients. Those are significant commitments and top priorities for the next few months. Both clients have been collecting my work for years and were willing to wait until May for me to start.
Sadly, I dropped the ball on a video assignment last month for a client I never want to disappoint. But I bit off more than I could chew and had to bow out. I’ve been learning a new camera setup and editing software, and editorial cartoon commitments have increased with the rapidly changing daily news, not to mention marketing efforts that have taken days away from productivity.
While the client understood and let me off the hook, it’s a professional failure I have not yet accepted.
There aren’t enough hours in the day right now, and I’m floundering.
Fortunately, everything I need for Expo is already here or on the way. I placed a large print order earlier this week to fill orders for The Calgary Zoo, Discovery Wildlife Park and this event, which will arrive next week.
My stickers, magnets, coasters and metal prints are fully stocked for the show, but I’m waiting on tote bags. As with any new product, you learn the most from the first order.
While the first two tote bag samples arrived quickly, this much larger order took longer. It’s been five weeks, but they finally shipped a few days ago. Quality takes time, but that was unexpected. Thankfully, they’ll still arrive before Expo.
I didn’t anticipate the enthusiastic tote bag interest from all of you. Even though I asked for feedback before I ordered, inquiries have continued to come in. I checked with the company to see if I could add more to the order, and they said it wasn’t possible because they were already in production.
So, while it’s great that people are excited about them, it has presented a dilemma. I won’t have enough for the event if I offer them for sale before the Expo. The best sales are in person, and I can’t test a product at a live event if I don’t have enough to make it through the weekend. How the bags perform at Expo will determine how many I order for the four weeks of the Banff Christmas Market, which is a much more significant financial investment.
Additionally, the next three weeks will be some of the busiest of my year, and the bags won’t even be here for another week. I don’t have the room to add hours and days of shipping and delivering tote bag orders on top of all the prep and drawing cartoons.
Creating the art is the easy part. Promoting and selling it is the work.
For those of you who have expressed interest in the tote bags, I greatly appreciate it, but I’m going to ask for your understanding and patience for a little longer. I need to take the whole order to Expo.
After the event, I’ll immediately put any remaining stock in the store and let all of you know when they’re available. If I don’t have enough to fill the demand, I’ll launch a preorder for subscribers and do what I can to add a little bonus incentive to reward your patience.
Three months into the year, I have yet to find my groove. I’m always working, but it doesn’t feel like I’m getting anywhere. Something has to give, because if there were a report card that listed all the plans, projects, and paintings in progress, there would be a big INCOMPLETE next to most of them.
I need to figure that out.
In the meantime, I’m focused on Expo. It really is a good time, and I look forward to it every year. There are so many subscribers and collectors I only see in person at this event, which is what makes it so much fun.
I’ve painted seven new paintings since the last Expo, which isn’t as many as I would have liked. But two of these paintings were a lot more work than any before, so it’s understandable. Those Grizzlies and Lemurs felt like several paintings in one. And since I will still have 39 other available images at the show, I won’t worry about it.
Stickers do well at Expo, and because so many asked for it at this event and the Banff Christmas Markets, I’m looking forward to introducing my new Highland Cow sticker.
But every year, even if they follow A Wilder View, people always ask, “What’s new this year?”
So, if you’re coming to the Expo but haven’t come to the Banff Christmas Markets or ordered anything online, here’s a refresher of the paintings you most likely don’t have yet. Of course, I’ll be happy to remind you in person.
Cheers,
Patrick
