llike Christmas, summer vacations, weekends  gradutions, will take away from your business. I'm in a tourist area, where the winter is an excellent time of the year for providers.  However, the summer is can be a really difficult time of the year. Many providers where I am, tour in the summer.

because of family commitments.  Depending on where you live, the summer could be good or bad.  In Florida, many providers tour elsewhere because it is so hot and few tourists are around for business.  Also, not sure if the ecconomy has rebounded sufficiently yet.  I know my hobby spending is down.

diverting funds that I would have to spend on a wide range of products & services.   I don't think I'm anybody special...  more like typical.   It will not stop my hobbying but will affect the frequency.   Around holidays & vacations there are other needs for funds so that is a factor as well as time.
skb

Holidays are past, everyone is at work, vacation season is 2 months away, the days are longer.

I suggest some kind of marketing variation for you.

Dear Ms. Ricci:
In any business there usually is a slow time of the year. However as it pertains to holidays, business tends to be slow because you clients priorities come first.  However I was wondering would you have a strong customer base and how many of your customers would tend to be married since the hobby would tend to be expensive? Finally, I was wondering what would the population density would be in your metropolis and have you found a way to identify new hobbyist or anyone whose is not aware that you are a major participant in the game? Finally, I can see you tending to be creative with your compensation packages or coming up with some type of a barter system to promulgate business where they would give to certain charities or organizations that you would cherish.  Also try to attend certain events in places or conventions during the summertime where you would think that men would tend to frequent.  These would be good places to identify knew and potential clients. Thus, expanding your horizons as you expand your business simultaneously.  This would be a viable option and as it says about business new clients are just as important as old clients.  
With respect to the verification issue with new clients you might have to do more employment verification with them but it just might be worth it. However I don't know the volume of business that you would like to do, but you might have to be slightly hire in the numbers that you would do. Also see if you can attend meet and greets in your area. This might be a new venue where you can meet and identify new clients as well. Also if you have any friend that would be providers ask them how are they getting knew clients and also what boards would you belong to?  These are also ways to expand the potential numbers of hobbyist that you would be exposed to.

Sorry to hear business is slow for you.  Too bad you're in Boston!

Not sure why it's slow, probably because the weather is getting nice so we're going outside more, thus, we are happier and thus, we make less calls.

Feb, May-Jul, Sep-mid Nov with an average of one client per day four (occasionally five) days a week. The rest of the time was random and much slower, with anything from no one in three weeks to only six in an entire month.

Part of it was marketing; sometimes ads just didn't work as well as I thought they would. Other times, marketing seemed secondary because I was entertaining repeats or regulars. And still other times, it was only due to the ads that I had anyone call at all.

You don't want to hear it, but - "you should charge less".  You have good reviews and back channel reports and you are a very attractive woman, but your rates are very aggressive.  You have the right to set whatever prices you want, but you should not be surprised if these prices result in a "very slow period".