A few months ago I wrote a blog post where I talked about how I would be focusing more on growing a Photography and Digital Marketing business and spend less time finding antiques, and since then the photography side has grown enormously, to the point where I have been putting very little time into TW&W.
The new direction of supporting other stores and helping both large companies and small independant stores achieve their goals through what i've learnt running TW&W has been immensly gratifying and to put it bluntly, a lot more financially successful than TW&W over the last couple of months.
At this point I don't feel like my heart is in finding antiques and the last few pieces i've bought have been from a place of feeling like "i should" stock something rather than for the joy, and as such they struggled to sell because I wasn't as invested mentally as I used to be.
As I write this theres an antiques fair going on that I would normally be at. A 5am start and a 2 hour drive to search through boxes of old junk to find the odd piece of treasure used to be the highlight of my month, but I got the feeling of "why should I go all that way to buy more stuff thats going to sit on a shelf". Whether its my lack of pro-activeness to sell or the current state of online selling but the joy of finding and selling things isn't there any more.
And so at this moment in time I need a fresh start with the antiques... an "everything must go" sale, not for financial reasons or flashy sales to increase turnover during a slow period... but a clean slate, a fresh canvas on which to build something new... it's not a closing down sale, or going out of business... simply a spring clean both of both physical stock and mental thoughts.
And once everything has gone I'll put the site into hibernation for a while, at this point I don't see TW&W closing down, simply power down, a hard reset... clear the cache to operate more smoothly.
If you just want to know about the sale:
Everything online will be discounted to the point where it has to sell, even at below cost in some instances, if things arent online, check instagram as i'll be posting 1 off pieces on my story.
As always thankyou to everyone whos ever bought over the years, the friends I've made through TWAW and the people who pop up in DMs to offer a kind word.
If you want to see what i've been up to, or you run your own e-commerce store and want some advice check out: www.normanjwright.co.uk or @Six8studio on instagram