The best laid plans.... well for the week of March 2, I had planned a nice full week trip going to Fredericksburg, VA north into Maryland, to see as many of our existing customers as possible. I had a pretty good docket of appointments, and with a trip that far away, needed my full 5 days to get there, get 'er done and then get back home by late on Friday night. Then came Sunday night and in Raleigh about 3" of snow, but in Northern VA into MD, much much more snow. On Monday, I couldn't even reach anyone by phone and even by Tuesday, a couple of MD customers said the roads were rough. I regrouped and went into major planning mode to cover the next month and laid out my future trips. I went into the Mill on Wednesday which was a good and productive day, working on a few projects. Thursday I planned for my SC trip next week as I work my way down to the Atlanta Gift Show March 14-16. Friday was a good day as I left early to see the bakery I missed earlier in New Bern and then to prospect in Kinston and Goldsboro, NC. The bakery/restaurant is going to only do the wall hangings now as their space is limited, but from the looks of the dining room at 10:20 am they are doing a booming breakfast business. The buyer I worked with told me she is really pleased with the look of the new wall hangings. She plans to order in several styles and loves now that our pack size is 2, giving her an opportunity to order and try more looks. I asked her for direction as to who in New Bern might try our table and window lace and linens and she really couldn't suggest anyone. On the way in I had seen a Tea Room/Restaurant, so headed back that way to check it out. There was lace in the windows, on the tables, on the shelves and it was all low quality and miss-matched - I saw an opportunity there for sure! The owner was not in but was expected around noon, so I went around to see if there were other opportunities in New Bern, where by the way, Bike Week is moving from Myrtle Beach this May; I found a party store that I showed halloween too, a fabric store where the owner was not in, and then circled back. The owner still was not in and the lunch crowd appeared about to descend, so I took my catalog out to get the wait staff interested so they could share my thoughts with the owner. They loved what they saw and promised to pass the catalog and my card along to the owner. I thanked them, and let them get back to work. Onward to Kinston where I found a great gift, gourmet and home decor store with an unusual concept, it was connected to a huge independent sporting store for hunting and fishing and the parking lot was full. The buyer was at lunch so I left my card and told her I would be back in about thirty minutes. I ate my yogurt and banana in the car and went back again. I met the buyer and she seemed interested as I told her about Heritage, our USA made story and flipped through to show her the diverse looks. I shared that a huge gourmet store in Chapel Hill was putting some products in and showed her what they had liked. She asked for a catalog and for me to follow up with her again to make a presentation - she had a shipment of furniture that had just come in and needed to attend to that. I moved on towards Goldsboro, where I had seen a curtain store in a strip center right on the US highway. I stopped in and shared our story with the owner and she loved what she saw, only problem was she had a customer appointment in a couple minutes and could not take time for a presentation, but begged that I make an appointment and come back when she could really take the time to look at everything. I told her I would come back. I went on into Goldsboro where I checked out an interior decorator's home decor store, but there was so much stuff piled in there they couldn't possibly have displayed another thing. I thought maybe Provinaire, but they turned out to be a dedicated Hunter Douglas dealer. I found another curtain store where the buyer there was going through some tough times personally and we talked for a good long while about many things before she let me dig into my sample bag and show her our products. The look in the store was very youthful and so her interest was only in a few of our window treatments, and possibly the pendant lighting - most products in her store were pretty low priced items from China so she was a bit resistent to our price points. I explained our quality to her and answered any questions. We may do some business there later, with follow up but not today. It was getting late, so I started to head back to Raleigh. But wait, a phone message, so I checked and it was the owner of the tea house very interested in the concept of using our lace and selling it too. We talked for a long time and I agreed to get back down to make a full presentation in the next few weeks. Yea! Looks like I need to make a trip back down for three follow-up presentations after Atlanta. And today, a catalog in Virginia emailed me to say they are putting two collections in the Fall catalog. So some weeks don't go as you planned, but even then some good things happen!