Market Preperation Day in Dallas

I arrived in Dallas at the Market Center about 4pm today and was excited to see all of the activity in preperation for the show. Many exibitors were unloading and getting all of thier things "spruced up" and ready for the show. I made it to our showroom after standing in line to get my new key card for only an hour and a half...yuck. Not a good time to decide to update the key card system during one of the largest shows of the year. Finally, I was on the 8th floor and made it in to the showroom to check things out and I was shocked to see all of the empty spaces. We are in a shared showroom where people can lease 10 x 10 or 10 x 20 spots per year to display and market thier products. Thier are probobly 50 shared showroom spaces in the Kids World Studio. I counted 10 that were vacant...this is alarming because of the economy and the pace that even our sales have done since July. It really made me sad to see all the empty spots and the evidence that a business had most likely gone under during this hard economic time. I talked with a few other owners and asked what thier expectations were for this show and I was... I guess shocked would be the word...to find out that they were not expecting much because of the lead certification law that is being inforced and knowing that the boutique owners, our clients, were going to be very cautious as to whom they purchased products from not only because of thier lack of sales this fourth quarter but also the lead law that is being passed. I knew nothing about it until then....basically what the law says is that any product that is made for a child under the age of 12 to use has to be lead certified by February 10, 2009. What does that mean? Certification means that we would have to send one of every nursing cover fabric that we offer to be certified by a lab and tested for lead. The cost for this is thousands of dollars. I wondered where the line was...we technically are not an item for a baby, but for a mother to use while nursing. One of the other owners told me that a sling manufacturer company had decided to go ahead and get the certification and instead of offering 10 different fabrics because of the cost of certification they would now be offering 3.....Please pray....I have no idea what this means for our company. We need a really great market financially and cannot afford to sink in thousands of more dollars into this company merely for lead certification.....I do not know what the Lord has in store with this but I will continue to trust in Him and His plans for this business...Please pray.

"But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me." Psalm 13:6