32
Days... Talk About Stress!
In late 2008 I
realized my business was in trouble. No, not this business but the
hi-tech surplus business that I was in. I bought and sold upper-end audio
test equipment and other esoteric technical stuff as they became available on
the surplus market. But things were slowing. Companies were not selling their
surplus but opting to hold onto it longer. One of my bigger sources for
equipment was the U.S. government. The government's stockpile of surplus was
running out as the country overspent in the last 10 years. The USA was/is
broke. I was going broke, too. Cue the stress. My old buddy insomnia came
back for an extended visit.
Interestingly
enough, I was going thru an old box of goodies from my Las Vegas days. We all
have those boxes in our houses. Stuff we have not looked at in years. Old
paperwork, odd tools from junk drawers of yore, and maybe some old CD's. Some
old CD's? I saw one that I had not seen in years. It was marked with a felt
pen :Sleep. How cool is that? It was my old sleep CD that I had used in Las
Vegas during a particularly bad insomniac period. I listened to it that night
and I wondered if I could make it better after all these years. I remembered
that I had considered creating a relaxation and sleep CD company in 2003 but
soon thought better of it when contemplating the work involved. I had owned a
small recording studio in the 80's and knew that something of this scope
would not be easy. But things had changed drastically on the Internet in the
last 6 years. There were audio file sharing sites and companies who sold
esoteric audio for projects. I had quite an inventory of unsold audio
equipment on hand also and a few good mics.
I started
Virtualdreamer.com near the end of February 2009. Of course I had spent
months before then mixing some of the early sounds (Fishing Village, Camping
with Friends... etc.) and was still on the fence about doing this
the day I put the site up. I told my friends and family about my plans
but also made sure they understood that I did not want them to buy my sleep
and relaxation CD's out of 'support' or 'pity'. I wanted this to stand, or
fall, based on it's merits. And then the stress began as I waited and waited.
It took 32 days to sell my first one. 32 days. My only customer did something
unexpected two days later. She bought another one. Queue the
smile.
Things have
picking up considerably since then as the word is spreading. No, I am not
getting rich. And no, I am not making a living at this...yet. But, being a
world class insomniac myself, I KNOW this new genre has 'legs'. Our return
business is good and we actually have a few fans who I appreciate (and need)
dearly. In retrospect I can thank the stress of the recession for helping me
make a decision to do this.
It's odd how
things like that work.
Brad
McBride
Talk at 'cha later!
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