June results.

I ended up about 10% less than (a very good) last year's June. For the first half of the month, I was actually up a little, and then the kids got out of school. When I should have seen an increase, I actually saw a drop, until the last few days.

The week after the Bite of Bend was absolutely horrid, and I'd be tempted to blame the event....but that can't be right, can it? I mean, every once else must be right and I must be wrong, right?

We made good profits again, mostly from the efforts of the previous month. July will probably be up in sales, but down in profits because I increased spending in the second half of June.

We made enough to pay both credit card balances down to ZERO. I've got to finish off taxes in July, and then concentrate on profits in August.

I was doing my orders during that horrid week, so I sent in very conservative numbers.
Comic sales are the real culprit, right now. Not sure that's anything I'm doing, or that there is a whole lot I can do about it. I did lose some major shelf customers, for which I can thank the local economy.

Books came in by a length as the second best selling category, especially during the slow second half. Turns out tourists buy books. Huh.

Mostly, everything worked as if it was planned that way. Oh, yeah. It was planned that way. I'm feeling very vindicated in my diversification efforts. Books, games, toys, and cards all did very well, making up for more than half the comic sales decrease.

I should feel great relief in getting my debt to zero. But I don't feel it much. May be why I don't feel motivated to do it more often. This was an intellectual impulse, not an emotional one. Intellectually I know that not owing on credit cards is a good thing, a great thing, but it's not as satisfying as filling my store.

I was talking to my son, Todd, who is a very talented artist, about my inability to leave empty spaces. He said that there was actually a term for that fear in art, that inability to leave a blank space on the canvass.

I now have a successful example under my belt, which I can hopefully build on for the next year.