Ugh, I caught a cold at the ACC Baltimore Show. I started feeling mildly ill on Sunday, the last day. When I woke up on Monday, there was no doubt. I've been slogging around since, generating small mountains of used tissues. I guess it's no wonder, given the super-dry air of the convention center, and the number of people there. Today is Wednesday, and I'm starting to feel better. I managed to unpack my car, and start writing this blog post. 

As many of you know, ACC Baltimore is two different shows. The first two days are for wholesale to trade buyers only, followed by three days of retail sales to the public. I did this combination show once before in 2007. Back then, I was brand new to wholesale. I set up one display and used it for both shows. In other words, I considered all of my pots to be available to wholesale buyers. Now it's six years later, since then I built up the wholesale side of my business at the Buyers Market trade show, then reached a point where I realized I needed to shrink that part of my business, before it swallowed me whole. 

Last year, I took a break from all wholesale shows, while I tried to figure out a smarter way to proceed. I wanted to make my wholesale business more efficient, but still profitable. My new ideas sprouted last August. I received several new orders that month (this is the time of year when galleries place orders for their holiday season), and one of them stood out. It was the largest order in terms of dollar amount, but as I read down the purchase order I thought "piece of cake" because the order consisted mostly of dinner plates. My dinner plates are not wheel-thrown; they are hand-built out of clay slabs, using templates and molds. They are far more efficient to produce than anything wheel-thrown. In fact, someday I ought to do an Hourly Earnings calculation comparing my hand-built dinner plates to wheel-thrown pots. I bet it would show a significant difference. So in the months that followed, my wholesale line was reconceived around this idea. It is now focused mostly on hand-built dinnerware, with very few wheel-thrown pieces. I've also included my upscale line of oversized, carved serving pieces and vases. Because as my Hourly Earnings Project revealed, this segment of my work has always been worth wholesaling. Here is my wholesale display from the ACC Show:

Pretty sparse, huh? In past years, when I was deciding what to include in my wholesale lineup, I would keep adding more and more pots, thinking "somebody might want this." But I am no longer trying to guess what everybody might want, instead I am focusing on what I know I want, what makes the most sense for me. And here's another insecurity that I've overcome ... I've known for years that my hand-built plates were more efficient to produce. I tried not to place too much emphasis on those pieces because I wanted to be known as a wheel-thrower. These days, I feel confident that everyone knows I'm an excellent thrower, and no longer feel like I need to prove it. I was very satisfied with the amount of orders I took. I am on track to increase my wholesale gross this year, but doing so with a far more efficient use of my time.

So the reason I chose the ACC wholesale show over the Buyers Market is because of the retail show that follows. While I'm trying to streamline my wholesale business, I want to grow my retail business as much as possible. In between the two shows, I added a whole lot more shelving to my display, and a whole lot more pots, including the entire spectrum of my wheel-thrown work:

If you look in the lower right corner of this photo, you'll see that I am trying to grow my dinnerware sales in my retail business too. This is by far the most stock of dinnerware I've ever prepared for a show. I'm happy to report they sold great, along with just about everything else. Of the eight boxes I packed for the show, five of them came back empty. Hell yes. Despite catching a cold, the show was totally worth it! 

Looking forward now, there are two items that I think I need before I can expand the business further: a second kiln, and a larger vehicle.