First today, I need to update my blog for last week's travels. I spent a few days last week seeing some North Carolina customers in the Winston-Salem area and south to Kannapolis, with some prospecting in Greensboro, which I need to continue at some point. I did have a great meeting with a custom curtain/home decor store, that I hope will evolve into more business, although sometimes hard to tell. Some customers get very excited 'in the moment' of a presentation and then as time goes on, we get lost in the shuffle. The challenge will be to follow up and contact them again, as I monitor what they are ordering (or not, as the case may be). I had always passed the sign for 'Historic Spencer Shops' on I-85 going south towards Kannapolis, and now being a salesperson, decided to stop in and see who I might interest in the line. Unfortunately, Spencer was becoming a ghost town much as Shennandoah, VA that I passed through a week earlier. There were signs however, of a growing artist presence on one historic block, so perhaps revitalization will come in that way, creating interest and traffic, and again independent retailers. I have added a three photo slideshow for you to see a little of what I saw in Spencer that day.