The last few days I've been meeting people who are either potential customers or have some useful contacts for doing sales. I'm encouraged, though it's still going to be a lot of work to get the kind of volume I need in order to make a living.
I also talked to a banker who was encouraging about the prospects for my products and may even have some useful contacts for me. I still haven't picked which bank to go with, but I'm starting to feel inclined to have a small local bank on my side for keeping most of my money plus an account at a big bank for handling credit card transactions and international wire transfers.
Today I even got contact information for a buyer at a pretty significant department store, and someone at a smaller group of stores around here that tends to do specialty stuff. In both cases, it was just due to chatting with some employee at the store that I was snooping around in. It's not a sale, but it's a more direct route to people that make buying decisions than I expected I'd need.
Of course, it would have been sensible to get customers lined up before I made this leap. But there is a kind of thrill in doing it the hard way :)
One thing I'm a little embarrassed about is my product samples presentation... I really need something better than a cardboard box filled with an assortment of things when I start presenting to customers that are strangers to me... so I started hunting for something that will work better as a samples case.
I ate a dosa today at a South Indian restaurant in Bellevue for dinner. I need to avoid spending money at restaurants right now, but it was a kind of business meeting. Other good stuff I acquired this week include a cheese with embedded lavender and fennel made by Quillisascut. I love those guys. I've been eating simple stuff this week but I haven't completely gotten out of the habit of buying good ingredients... I may have to be more parsimonious if I don't manage to make a few good sales in the near future, though.