how wholesale improved my quality of life

It’s no secret that I love wholesale. Wholesale forms more than the core of my jewelry business. (Over 90% of my jewelry business comes from wholesale.) I’m a big advocate of wholesale as a way to grow your business financially.

But today, I want to talk about the difference wholesale has made in my quality of life.

Like many of you, I went into business for myself because I wanted control over my life. I wanted to do things on my own terms. But back in 2007 and 2008, when I was doing lots of retail shows, I didn’t feel in control.

Renegade Craft Fair, 2008

Every other weekend, it seemed, I would load my car, drive to mostly unexciting suburbs in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and stand in my tent in the wind and rain talking to customers. The kicker for me was Renegade in Brooklyn, held in 2008 in an abandoned swimming pool. Midway through the first day, a horrible storm came up. There I was, standing in several inches of water, holding onto my metal tent in a lightning storm, thinking “there’s got to be a better way to make a living.”

Enter wholesale.

Wholesale has enabled me to ditch those weekends in tents in the rain. True, I do travel to several wholesale shows throughout the year. But they are indoors, in cities I LOVE to spend time in (hello, New York, Philly, LA, Chicago!), and, most importantly, they are concentrated to a few months out of the year. The rest of the year, I get to spend my time (and most importantly, my weekends) home with my husband.

Wholesale and trade shows have also helped me have a more predictable income stream. When I leave a show, I have a good idea of my orders (and income) over the next six months. I can anticipate times when I’ll have money (and make sure some of that goes into savings!), and plan ahead for times when less is coming in. This has helped me feel much more in control of my financial situation (no more living “retail show to retail show” – the makers’ equivalent of “paycheck to paycheck”) and helped stabilize my life.

Being able to predict my income has also led me to one of the biggest and best changes to my business, hiring an employee. Since I hired a production assistant in 2011, I’ve had a lot more flexibility in terms of my time. I’ve been able to travel more, to take time off when life got crazy, and to simply enjoy my life a little more. Yes, I still work, but the sole burden of production doesn’t fall completely to me.

And being able to take time off, especially around the holidays, might be the best thing wholesale has done to improve my quality of life. With only the occasional exception, most stores want product in by mid-November at the latest. The last two years, I’ve watched as my friends frantically prepped for holiday retail shows or filled last minute online orders while I actually relaxed. Wholesale has enabled me to take the entire week of Thanksgiving (also my anniversary week) off the last two years, and to mostly coast through December.

When I started my business, I never even considered wholesale. I thought for sure that retail shows were the right solution for me. But after stepping back and examining my life and work, wholesale has provided the control and the ability to run my business in a way that suits my life. And for me, that’s the ultimate benefit of wholesale.

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Want to grow a wholesale business that puts you in control? Check out my best selling class on Creative Live, Sell Your Products to Retailers.