Make hay while the sun is shining.

I made it through the week without reorders. So I'm done with August. Next week, starting around Tuesday, I can start ordering with a fresh budget for September.

It was hard not to pull the trigger -- especially since I ran out of Settlers of Catan again. I resorted to selling my own copy; and I could've sold 3 or 4 more copies, plus extensions.

Meanwhile, I still have an adequate supply of 2010 magic, even though this has been sold out at the wholesale level for several weeks, even though the resupply is going to be heavily allocated, and even though many retailers are charging more than retail price.

I've kept the fact that I have them at regular price pretty much on the downlow. Another one of my sayings is, "It is better to have the product at a higher price than it is to not have the product at all."

But I'm really reluctant to charge more than retail for anything, anymore, no matter how short the supply. I will if I have to -- if I get to my last couple of boxes, for instance.

But I'm most curious as to why I haven't had a run on magic. I figure most of my blog readers don't play magic, and most of my magic players don't read the blog, so I'm safe musing about it here.

My sales are right on line with projections right now -- actually, probably 10% better. I'm hoping that August won't do what June and July did, and sag drastically in the middle of the month. In two or three weeks I'll know whether I succeeded at turning a good profit or not -- and I'm hoping that if I do, it will motivate me to continue the process on into the fall, and especially into Christmas.

We're at that wonderful part of summer where people are just buying stuff -- mostly tourists, for whom everything in the store is new and interesting. It's a good time to lay off the reordering, and make some money, and then sit down at the end of the process and decide what I really want to reorder and what I can do without.

Also, people are in a bit of a summer routine now, and we aren't throwing as many distractions at them -- fairs and festivals and what not.

I, too, have settled into a routine. Been getting along fine with the customers. Again, there has been a bit of damage -- my Kurt Cobain action figure has been dropped so many times that the neck of his guitar broke, several torn book covers -- but I suppose it could be worse. There is still a bit of price resistance going on that wasn't there a couple of years ago -- but when you get 135 people in the door, like I did yesterday, then you can watch the people who refuse to pay your price walk off with a shrug. I really can't do the price they're asking.

I still think it's a little odd that they won't spring for a 10.00 book that they are looking for. Even if they found it used, it would cost them 5.00 or more. And, I'm really not exaggerating when I say to them, "I carry this book new because I rarely see it used." Maybe it's the thrill of the hunt. But I unless they are extremely lucky, for most of these books they will have to visit a dozen stores before they find a copy, if that. Shrug. It's their time and money.

It's beginning to look like my fall and Christmas budget will allow me to buy a few thousand dollars worth of new books, over and above the maintenance budget. I'm looking forward to picking the best books I can find. I'm a sucker for beautiful covers; even though once they reach my store I don't have enough room to display them, dammit. I still haven't run out of classics, cult, and quirky books to buy....not really all the much guessing, yet. There always comes a point when you need more product, but you aren't sure what's good and what's not. But I'm not there yet with books. Which is fun.

Got to go to work early for my last POS session. (That just doesn't seem to be happening -- my own fault and seeds for a blog another day...)

Status report.

Approaching the 4th of July weekend, I still don't know what to expect.

Usually by now, we would have seen an upsurge in tourist business. I don't think we've really seen it.

Pegasus Books is on track to my middle-case scenario, mostly because I was on track earlier in the month, and it has pretty much stayed there. Flat. Usually I would have seen a bit of a boost by now, what with the kids being out of school for over two weeks. (Not so much because of kids, but because people spring for vacation....)

Meanwhile, however, I'm pretty astounded by the foot-traffic count. I can see averaging 100 people a day in the door for the July and August period. When I last did customer counts a few years back, it was probably a third less (or more) than that. I attribute that to growth of retail around my store.

The books on the sidewalk are probably bringing in 10 or 20 extra people a day. I may only make a dollar or two off them, but I think it's really helped my book sales. I'm constantly getting the remark, "I didn't know you had books."

The biggest thing, the thing I'm most proud of, is the broad reach of the store. No one product is really carrying us now. All 8 product lines are producing. (Well, maybe not so much anime...) It makes the store very stable. Many more of the sales are to the over-twenty crowd, probably something like 90%, nowadays. Again, a relatively more predictable age-group than the old teenager/nerd/collector axis that the store used to be.

I get tons of people who once never would've stepped foot into my store actually being intrigued. "An interesting mix," the people who don't buy will say. "I love your selection," the people who do buy say.

My budget?

Well, um, you know.......err........I, ah,.......

Don't ask.

Actually, I haven't Quite Tipped Over yet, but I have used every bit of cushion I had, and the real summer hasn't really begun. I wouldn't fall into the red unless I was to fall back below my Jan and Feb levels, which isn't going to happen. That would be like getting snow in June, ....no, wait......

Anyway, I'm still optimistic. As opposed to having a certainty earlier in the summer if I'd just stuck to my budget better.

On the other hand, the store is and continues to be fully stocked. My reserves are untouched. I've actually turned a good profit in the first half of the year which almost never happens. (I spent years falling slowing into the red -- like a stretched rubber band -- from January through June, and then pulling back into the black in summer, then falling into the red in Sept. through Nov., then pulling ahead again at Christmas.) So I've managed to flip that around. Now, instead of having to constantly catch up, I have a cushion for the slow times. Which is a double improvement -- first I had to catch up, and then I had to pull ahead.

My other goal is to get through the rest of the summer without any conflict with customers. That'll be something like 6,000 people I'll be dealing with, all of whom I need to handle well, no matter what they do. Even one tenth of one percent of problems, would be too much. It's within my capacity, especially if I make it a goal.
I'm getting better at it. When I first started working everyday, I wasn't quite ready to handle it, I think. As the spring has progressed I've gotten a bit better at figuring out customer behavior; so what I want to do is refine that to a 100% success rate. It'll be a day to day thing. (Either allowing certain things to happen, or being the most diplomatic I can be.)

I'm going to just focus on the store for two months. Not worry about anything else. Just go to the store, and if I crash on the couch at night, so be it...

Temptation proves too much.

In the last two days, I fell off the spending wagon bigtime. I woke up in the gutter with invoices plastered all over me. A hazy memory of hitting the keystrokes and hovering over the commit button. What harm ordering a few items?

Hi, My name is Duncan. And I'm a Spendaholic.

I've been invoice free for one day.....



I don't want to talk about it.


Moan. Sigh......



Thing is, I've been keeping you up to to date until now, so I'm going to keep on doing it.

First of all, it isn't a huge disaster, unless the economy tanks again. What I essentially did was spend my reserve. It takes the sales level I need to make to turn a good profit from the 'worst case' to 'middle case' scenario. The worst case is obviously easier to reach, but I generally do hit my middle case.

So I can still hit my goals.

But only if everything goes according to plan. I have to stick strictly (as of now, heh) to my original spending plans and not take advantage of any more opportunities for the next 10 weeks. And I just have to hope that I reach my sales goals.

Here's where I supply the rationalizations.

By buying such a huge amount of product as such huge savings, I've given myself more of a chance to reach those goals. By spending it now, I've given myself the entire 10 weeks of summer to try to sell.

I can make the case that this kind of behavior has kept my business going all these years: but also that it's kept me from making much of an extra profit.

Here's my reasoning as to why I just jumped all over the Summer Appreciation Sale from Diamond.

1). It keeps the inventory level high. I can sell fewer items to make back my money, or take longer to sell them.

2.) It takes me out of my ordering box. I know that 20% of my product will sell, but the other 80% is more of a gamble. Frankly, I can't tell much difference in that 80% of product between what I pay full price for and what I got a deal on.

The two examples that are most noticeable are posters and t-shirts. I'm offered dozens of each every month. I used to spend a lot of time trying to pick out the good ones, the ones that either I thought would sell or the ones that really appealed to me. Eventually, I realized I could do just about as well ordering by using a dart board.

Strangely, not everyone likes the same designs as I.

3.) It brings in a constant flow of new material. Just replacing the evergreens would keep the inventory static. At a very high level, to be sure. And most of it would be new to all the tourists.

Still, and I don't know how they do it, but customers seem to be able to pick up when you're active and when you're not. And they generally reward activity.

4.) It keeps me actively engaged in the store. This is no small thing. The more involved I am, the better the store does. Sitting back and letting sales fall where they may is almost like giving up to me.

I'm going to be challenged, over the next month, to find ways to sell the new material. To find display space. The unpack them, and sort them, and price them.

It could actually turn out to be a very good thing.

But it was a gamble I didn't need to make.

Budget game, continued. Wonky.

The following entry, (after the *****'s below), was written on Saturday. After Sunday, it became a moot point. I'm not doing any discount orders until the 19th of this month, at the earliest, and only if I reach a very high level of sales.

I was really steaming along in the first 6 days of the month, 25% higher than projections, then had a lousy day yesterday. One of those days I wish I could've stayed home. Sundays are so unpredictable. I can do a couple of small days, and then suddenly have a huge day. I just never know.

***********************

The way it's working out, I can't make anymore "Appreciation Sale" orders until Tuesday at the earliest. So that gives me a few days to see if the really good days I've been having continue.

I can't order from most of my suppliers for July until my credit card turns over sometime next week, so again, I have enough time to gather information and make allocations. If I come up short over the next few days, I may make the "Sale" order on the 19th, but only if I am significantly above projections.

I joked about finding a loophole in the budget, but it was always there, if not expressed. The reason is, the total retail of my orders are going to be below what I need to get to projected sales. That is, my markup from the product ordered falls about 20% short. I'm depending on the increased margins from 'sale' product and the usual summer diversity. (Stuff that doesn't sell most of the year, sells at Summer and Christmas because it's exposed to more outsiders....stuff that doesn't have to be, or can't be, replaced -- thus giving me a 100% profit margin.)

But it was always going to be a tight fit. And if sales were significantly higher than projected, I knew that my budget wouldn't be sufficient. So I made a deal with myself that I would spend half of the excess on the budget, thus keeping the same margins. That extra would be applied to the following month.

Where I may weasel out would be to use the full amount of the excess on product; which would leave me with about the same overall profits I originally planned. And to spend it within the same month, as long as I'm pretty certain I'm going to get to the overage.

I know, it's confusing. Without using real numbers, it's hard to explain. It may be a little clearer with made up, proportional numbers:

Say my margin is 50%.

Say my sales projection is a 10.

Say I'm ordering at a 4.

Obviously, double 4 doesn't get us to 10.

But it does if a significant proportion of the total is inventory that doesn't have to be replaced, or that was purchased at higher than 50% margins.

I think I can do that.

The problem increases, however, if I sell at over the 10 level, say a 12. Unless I take at least 1 of those points and apply it to my budget. So the 4 becomes a 5.

Or, as I'm planning, spending the entire excess, thus the 4 becomes a 6. Thus maintaining both margins and profits. Actually, I make the margin a more realistic 50% again, and still end up with an extra point. If I could pull that off, I'd make more profit, and yet have even more product at the end.

Does that make any sense?

But I'm somewhat gambling that the current sales will continue at this pace. That the 12 actually becomes a 12, instead of a 10. Because if I spend a 6, and it comes in at 10, I've wiped out all profits.

So the trick will be to delay as long as possible to get a good read, and yet not so long as to miss the opportunity of the 'Appreciation Sale."

Chances are good. After all, Summer business doesn't really start until the second half of the month. Normally I'd be expecting an increase, not a drop, but if we can even maintain the current sales it's good.

***********

O.K. I think I really need to use real numbers here, even if they aren't my actual numbers. (Real/fake numbers? Fake/real numbers?) If I was writing this for publication, I'd probably delete the above "proportional" example, and substitute the example below. But, hey, if you're with me this far, you're a glutton for punishment. I know MY eyes would glaze over.....

Examples, we'll call them.

Case study examples.....(Note: I may have a few math errors, here. As my C.O.C.C. business adviser said, I have a "primitive sophistication" when it comes to numbers.)

So, for the sake of illustration, let's say that my sales projection is $10,000.00. I want to make clear, my sales are much higher than that or I wouldn't be surviving in downtown Bend, but 10,000.00 is a nice round number.

Through the course of the year, I strive mightily to keep my profit margins at 40%. That is, for every 10.00 worth of product, 6.00 is Cost of Goods (C.O.G's) and 4.00 is gross profit.

40% pays my overhead, plus a small profit.

Most of my buying is at about 45% to 50% margins, meaning that 5% to 10% is added to inventory, wasted, discounted, or destroyed.

My goal this summer was to raise my operational margin to 60%. I was going to do this by trying to maintain evergreen inventory, selling off non-evergreen inventory, and buying as much viable discounted product as possible.

Mostly, to be blunt, I was going to do this by sticking strictly to a 40% budget. I was going to spend 40% of what I considered a very conservative projection.

So, let's say that projection is 10,000.00.

That gives me 4,000.00 to spend on C.O.G's. Like I said, I'm hoping to make the sales level I want through turning 1,000.00 of that 4,000.00 into 4 times the product.

3,000.00 at 50% = 6,000.00 in sales. 1,000.00 at 75% = 4,000.00 in sales. Total 10,000.00 in sales.

If I do 12,000.00 in sales, my spending won't be sufficient to keep up the inventory. Therefore, I intended to spend half 1,000.00, to keep it up. Or 1,500.00 if I do 13,000.00 in sales, and so on.

But if I spend the full amount of the extra, say the 2,000.00 extra at the 12,000.00 projection, and I spend it all on legitimate discounted product, I can turn that 2,000.00 into 8,000.00 in inventory, which actually increasing the likelihood that I'll hit the higher projections and actually increases the inventory at the store, hopefully helping out the next months.

But...it's a gamble to do it before the fact.

My dilemma, as usual, is that the deals are available now, not later.

For me to take the chance of waiting for the 19th (much of the product will be gone) and to set such a high standard, is showing great discipline on my part. At least, compared to my past behavior.

It really, really hurts to let it pass. But there it is. Now is the time to stick to my guns.

I'm Tevya?

Fact is, I'm enjoying the store a lot, right now.

I never thought I was one of those people who would find the bright side in every situation they were in. I see it in Linda, I see it in my family. But not me. I mean, I enjoy reading the grumps more than the fatally optimistic, and like to think I'm a cold, hard businessman.

But reading this blog, I realize I'm like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, with his big plans that always get waylaid by life. A handy attribute for a small business owner, I guess. "What could possibly go wrong? I have this figured out this time! The Acme Co. assured me this contraption will work."

"Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.
But it's no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"


You are forewarned:

I thought when the year started that working every single day would wear me down. That it would become pure drudgery. If it got to be too much, I intended to hire a part-timer.

Instead, I'm feeling revived. I'm enjoying it. I feel an anticipation every morning about the store, wondering what the day will bring. (Every new store owner knows how this feels. And -- apparently -- every long-term store owner whose establishment is doing well...)

Here are some of the reasons I feel recharged:

1.) Part of the reason I'm enjoying the store so much, is because it's operating at such an high level. It's become very efficient, and cost effective, and I just love watching my long running plans come to fruition. There is also something pleasant about staying dry in the storm, about feeling strong in the disaster.

2.) I've actually been able to relax more than usual. I have a plan in place, I'm doing as well as I thought I'd do, and I need but show up every day and do my job.

3.) I'm a workaholic. That sense of virtuous industrious nose-to-the-grindstone working man feel. (I've got a new saying: even the stupidest businessman will learn something after 30 years....)

4.) I'm a bit of a loner, and like my time to myself. I don't have to confer or confab or explain or worry about anyone else. It's good to be be King. Duncan's Kingdom.

5.) I've learned to pace myself, to take care of myself. I'm pretty regular in my habits in every way. I'm completely boring.

6.) Fact is, I really didn't make very good use of the time off when I did have time off..

Except for the vacations. Those 3 and 4 day trips were lots of fun, but you know what? Our little trip to Ontario felt pretty much the same, and it was only a day and a half. Just getting out of town felt good.

I may just push through to the end of the year. I don't think I'll go much beyond that, because I do think it's important to get away once in a while, not just for relaxation, but also because of the danger of losing perspective.

************************************************************

Speaking of losing perspective.

Recently, I've had three or four guys come in all concerned about me, because they heard that the competition was taking all my game sales away.

I looked at the first two in shock. "Look around, dudes. Do I look like I'm having trouble?"

But when a couple of more guys came in asking the same question, it became too much of a trend to ignore.

I think this is one of those cases where I've probably been too honest for my own good. Especially because I didn't bother to put things into context.

That 47% drop in Magic sales from last year sounds very dramatic. But to put it into perspective, even if I'd had those sales, it would've added all of 6% to my total sales. Even that isn't really getting to the crux of the matter. By applying the money I saved on cost of goods to some other product, chances are I made the money somewhere else.

Also, when I compare my situation with my compadre in Ashland, who is even more of a game store than I am, he says Magic sales are down -- period. Nothing to do with competition.

I think it's O.K. for me to be forthright, but I probably also need to explain the context.

My fault for not making it clear.

Perhaps people are so used to business's not admitting to any weakness, that they inflate the importance of any admission. Whereas I can see it as a strength.

I've enjoyed being able to say to my customers, "We're doing fine. We're doing really well, actually. Sales are down a bit, but our store is probably more solid than it's ever been."

And to say it without a hitch in my voice, with obvious authenticity, which I think people can pick up. Harder to judge tone and body language on a blog, I guess.

If I ever do go through a bad stretch, I'll probably have to quit blogging, because I don't think I could help myself -- I'd have to tell everyone. But even then, it wouldn't necessarily mean the worse. I've had some dire times over the years, but I was always going to hang in. Whereas, I can't tell you the number of businesses I've heard tell me they're doing "Great!" only to see them fold shortly after.

My candidness is more in the nature of airing the simple ups and downs which all businesses endure, but very few admit to.

*******************************************************

The Budget Game.

O.K. You have to trust me on this.

I had already thought of this loophole in the Budget Game. A sort of "Get out of Jail Free" card.

No, really.

I know it looks like I'm just making up the rules as I go along, but I knew going into summer that it was going to be difficult to keep the store stocked if sales were too much higher than my projections.

I had decided that I would spend half of the total of any sales above a certain amount.

Come back here!

I'm not joking.

I really had already thought of this. Trust me!

O.K. So maybe I was thinking I'd apply this money at the beginning of the following month, but what if it's completely obvious I'm going to overshoot my projections, and the sale I want to take advantage of is going to be out of date by then?

Hmmmm? What then?

I'm running 20% above my best-case scenario. So...it's only 5 days so far, but it shows every indication of being a new norm. But....I've been fooled before.

If I take advantage of the "Appreciation Sale," and we have a sudden dropoff later in the month, will I be able to hold back ordering the Evergreens? And if I do, won't that defeat the purpose?

Or, can I make the case that the profits are going to be enough to divert a portion of them to making the store stronger?

What you're seeing here, my friends, it the constant dilemma I feel between making the store as strong as possible, and actually pulling cash out of the place. It's also a matter of feeling engaged in the business, and enjoying it. (See above.) But I also very much enjoy the cash reserve in the bank.....

I'm fighting it. I'm fighting it.

But, you know....... One little puff wouldn't hurt.....

Budget Game, turning the first card.

So I wake up this morning, and go to the Diamond site, where they're announcing a waving of the 3% reorder fee for the next two weeks in "appreciation" for our "patience" over the warehouse move.

I guess it's a good thing the never heard my cursing and stomping, or they wouldn't have used the word "patience." Then again, maybe they did.

Anyway, no 3% reorder fee wavier. O.K. That's nice. Nevermind that not one other supplier I deal with charges a 'reorder fee.' Nevermind that it would seem to be counter-productive. Nevermind that most of my suppliers actually pay shipping, too.

At least they're making the gesture.

Oh, look. They're having an "Appreciation Sale." I'm sure it's all junk which I can safely ignore. I click (turn the first card)....

DAMN YOU DIAMOND!!!!

So...first off, they have all the Lone Wolf and Cub graphic novels at a discount. I used to carry the full run of Lone Wolf and Cub, and I'm currently sold out.

What to do, what to do.....

Do you see now? Do you see the temptation?

I look further down the list, and Marvel has the Ultimate line on sale. The wife of one of my best customers has just discovered the Ultimate Spider-man graphic novels. "I had no idea they were this good," she says. "I've wasted time not reading these!"
-- I love it when that happens. -- She's bought the first 3 books, and there is every chance she'll want the rest.

And there they all are, all for sale at a discount....

What do I do? Are you getting how hard this is?

Upshot:

I ordered everything on the list that I would've bought at full price, or was planning to buy at full price. So, just expended another 11 points.

Later....I'm going to go through the list and order the stuff that I wasn't worried about it selling out right away. Last summer's sale, I missed, because by the time I was ready all the good stuff was gone....

I think this Budget Game is going to be every bit as hard as I expected.

Off to the races...

This blog is going to become a bit of a horse race for the next 3 to 7 months, because that's where my focus is going to be.

Housing? Boring. Haven't read the Housing Bubble Blog for months.

The discussion has turned to the economy (and other equally disgusting things) over on BB2, which is all right by me. Despite all predictions of boarded up buildings downtown, new businesses keep opening. But as I said yesterday, this isn't so much a predictor of success as an indication that people are still willing to take a chance.

My two little stock picks, (2000.00 invested in each, Eaton Vance and Evergreen Global,) have increased by about 30%. I'm not sure this means my portfolio has gone up the same, but it's fun to watch anyway. You can see why stock picking could become addictive. Going to plop a big 5000.00 more into them by the end of summer.

Anyway, my main focus will be to stick to my budget, come hell or high water. Sales I can't really control, since I'm unwilling to discount to bump them up, or spend more than maintenance money on inventory.

But summer usually takes care of that. Tourists come. Christmas takes care of that, despite the Sheriff of Nottingham's threats to "Cancel Christmas!" People still buy gifts.

Buying I can control. The budget will be tight. I'm not sure it's completely possible with this tight budget to get absolutely everything that sells. My standards for what I consider an Evergreen will probably have to be raised.

I'm not sure about that. If enough of the 'liquidation' product I buy sells, it might be possible to keep tooling along.

Either way, the budget is written in stone this time.

May was my best month of the year, so far. Running about 12% above the average of the previous 4 months. We're down about 20% overall for the year, which is the least amount I expected it to fall. We should start lapping last years dramatic declines in September. (Last fall was Armageddon for retail.) There has been a small but noticeable increase each month this year.

COMICS: Down about 15%. Lost a whole bunch of subscribers, but seemed to do all right with the off the counter sales. Off the counter sales are preferable in some ways. I'm not in a hurry to talk customers into signing for a shelf, and thus getting an automatic 10% off. Nor to tie up my cash flow for weeks and sometimes months.

ANIME: Up 25%. Numbers are so small in this category, not sure it's significant except to show there is still some life in it.

SPORTS CARDS: Down 80%. Simply had no box buyers in this category. I can carry it, though, for awhile.

CARD GAMES: Down 45%. A lot of my magic customers disappeared. I've decided not to get too upset about it, just order more moderate quantities. But I take note of the fickleness of this category.

BOARDGAMES AND RPGs: Up 20%. It's fun when a category starts to respond to tender loving care. I'm liking my selection of games, right now.

BOOKS: Down 15%, but still very strong. Last year I was throwing money at books, this year I was more maintaining them. The number is a very strong number. Between books and games, they represent 27% of sales. These are two categories that barely existed in my store 3 years ago, so I shudder to think what sales would've been like without them!

TOYS: Down 33%. Another fickle number, and not necessarily indicative of the strength of the category. Next month could be 3 times more, and so on....

GRAPHIC NOVELS: Down 6%. Basically even. Again, these are mostly off the counter sales, thus I get full price. Like boardgames, this category has lots of juicy product to sell and reorder.

Like I said, I'm pleased with these numbers. The categories that are low, I can respond by keeping just enough flow of new stuff to keep them interesting but not lose money. For the categories that are doing well, I'm not in the expanding phase but just keeping them humming along.

Off to the races....

Sitting on my hands.

This is one of my periodic pep-talks to myself, so those of you who expect actual content are excused. As I think I've mentioned, I wrote a hard-copy business journal to myself for years -- for more than a decade -- before I started this blog. It was full of such pep-talks, attempts to buck myself up and get disciplined.

Usually didn't work. First little temptation that came along, and I fell of the wagon.

But that's really being a bit unfair to myself. More accurately, I wasn't able to follow through because circumstances would change radically in the middle of the plan.

In the first half of last year, I managed to be disciplined enough to pay off my credit cards. I managed to stay even through the rest of the year, despite the deteriorating economy. It was perhaps the first time I was able to formulate a plan, stick to it, and make it work for an extended period. A great confidence booster.

The first half of this year, I've managed to stay in the black, and even make a bit of money. I've kept away from debt, and completely stocked the store from top to bottom.

It's as if I'm a major league sports franchise that finally has all the right players in place, and the season is about to begin. Now, I just need to let them play.

Doing nothing is harder than doing something. So this pep talk is really about staying focused, and yet not really making any major moves. Staying involved, but without messing with things.

Last year I succeeded, but fear is a bigger motivator for me than greed.

If I can manage to stick to budget, and sales are what I believe they will be, I might be able to make this store really solid for the first time. The budget is more than generous, and my projections are very conservative.

By solid, I mean, completely operational in cash-flow, completely stocked, debt-free, taxes paid, and an amount of cash left over to actually motivate me to keep going.

So wish me luck sitting on my hands.

***Later: To Continue...

I can almost guarantee that sometime this summer a 'great' opportunity will arise, a real deal, a future money maker. If not this summer, then certainly this fall. And if not this fall, for sure by Christmas.

And the rationalizing will begin. It will be a wonder to behold. Hell, I'll convince you guys it's a good idea, as well as myself.

This is advance warning to myself.

No.

Just say no.

Make money for once in your frikken' life....