When there's nothing happening

What do you do when there's nothing happening?

Summertime is a slow time for retailers, even when the economy hasn't crashed and crumbled around you. There's a usual slow down this time of year in orders, but I seem to be more aware of it because we are home more.

Usually we go somewhere around this time, and I put a warning up on the website , notifying customers that they can place orders, but nothing will be shipped until we return.

My customers are so wonderful, most go ahead and place their orders and patiently wait the week or two until we come back without a word of complaint.

Only we're not going anywhere until late July, and that for only a few days over a week-end, so the dribbling in of orders is painful. Not just with bookplates, either - which are slow anyways. But my Cafepress orders are slower than usual, and of course, Zazzle - which is new to me - is painfully slow!

I don't think this is because of anything permanently shocking going on. And it isn't just the Economy. It's the Economy Plus Summertime. People are on vacation, puttering around outside, enjoying time off work or the nice weather, even if they don't have a lot of money to spend - it's too nice to be inside, shopping.

So, rather than panic, what should I do, what should I do?

I could clean house or work on the yard, which I am certain is the weediest house on the block. Nawwww, it's too hot and there are other things to do. Besides, my youngest son's girlfriend is coming for a few weeks. She's promised to help with all that stuff.

So I'm spending my work time (which for me is usually a good 8 - 10 hours a day) on my laptop outside or inside, depending on my mood and the heat, working on:

1) Fixing up my website.

I redesigned the main page and added a couple of new ones that look fresher to me.
I'm going to bravely look into a different shopping cart, a major change. This is the time of year to do that, before fall and the (hopefully!) Christmas rush.

This included stuff like redoing advertising and working with SEO's, techie stuff I never make time for.

2) Cleaning up inventory and old junk out of my CafePress shops shown on my main page.

3) Opening up a new shop on another POD shop (Print on Demand), also shown on my main page.

4) Creating new graphics, learning stuff I've learned over the past two years while creating things on Second Life. And here I thought that was a waste of time, just something I was doing to escape reality and have fun! Turns out, I was educating myself!

5) Wrote a little descriptive piece for Squidoo that I hope will help people who want to make their own bookplates

6) Joined Twitter which I don't really understand, but OK, follow me.

7) Got myself more active in Facebook, which I do kind of understand. I use it both to keep in touch with family/friends, and for business.

8) Started this blog, which seems mostly a place for me to write down some of the thoughts in my head.

I need to get outside more, walk around and spend time with friends. I'll put that on the "To Do" list I started. I figure if I keep a big TO DO list here, I'll do some of the stuff and check it off!