This is that post-holiday week where everything just kind of stops. Hours go by without customers and you try to do those tasks that have been piling up since the holidays, or in the case of something like paperwork, since around May. When you've finished with all these less important projects, you start going over what's left. At a certain point you decide if those tasks will ever get done. Will I ever sort those boxes of dropped off Magic cards? If not now, when? Do I really want to pay an employee to file invoices from six months ago? What are the chances we'll ever need to find one at this point? How about a big box simply marked "2007"?
The tendency is also to attempt to spend your way out of the low period. Perhaps if you had just a few more hot games, something new at the very least, customers will come back. That's a bad bet. They'll come back when they're good and ready, and probably not for a few more weeks. If you own a game store, cleaning, filing, working on your marketing budget are all good tasks for right now. Better yet, last year this week I was on vacation in Paris. It's not that this period is just slow, it's demoralizingly slow after a peak season. It is emotionally draining to have the car screech to a halt after setting top speed records. Thumb your nose at the whole thing and take a trip.
