when i began running my little business full time in late 2008, i decided an important aspect of my business model was to pretty much constantly be adding new diagram designs to my line. i made a conscious decision to have a wide array of niches and hit different demographics / fanbases as the direction i wanted to grow in. in many respects, this has been really fun and worked well for my business, with only one little hitch...
how do you know when to retire a design? while i love the idea of just continuing onward and upward and just adding and adding and adding new designs to my catalog, there is the slightly sad + frustrating realization that i am, indeed, only one person, and logistically, having 50+ diagram designs, printed on a dozen different products in several colors becomes a little unwieldy. not only is there the maintenance of keeping everything fresh and up to date online (since i do sell in several online venues), but also i participate in craft shows quite frequently, where it's hard to try to have a little of everything on hand.
do you retire designs? do you only keep a current collection and phase out older work? do you keep just crowd favorites and let less successful designs sort of fizzle out naturally? i'd love to hear your thoughts on how to constantly keep a product line fresh without it becoming overwhelming + life consuming. thanks in advance for your thoughts, dear friends!
