Keeping score.

This has been an interesting month for keeping score.

I had to unplug the cash register a bunch of times in order to connect the new POS. The register has been acting up for a few years now, and the info simply disappears every time there is a power outage. Except for the hard copy readouts I do every night. So I have the info, it just needs to be collated.

I'm just sort of guessing with one day left in the month how I did in each of the categories. I'm almost positive I had a record month in books; other than that, I'm a little vague.

So I'm writing this on Friday, and I'll finish up when I crunch the numbers, tomorrow.

One thing I can guess, I'll be down 20% -- again. This has been an amazingly consistent number all year long. It's actually a pretty good number for me to make a profit -- I do just as well without an employee, as I would've with the higher numbers with a full-time employee. (My definition of profit is money over and above the minimum wage I pay myself.)

I can't remember when I've had such a steady --dare I say, predictive? -- number. (I wish I'd contemplated that number a bit more when I got carried away with my ordering...)

And as I've mentioned -- the real interesting number will be what I do in September, when we'll find out Year to Year whether the declines will continue or flatten out.

My profit was only half as good as I hoped this month, but that was due to my spending money in the first week simply because business was so good. I won't make the same mistake for August.

I'm halfway through the August billing period, and I've stuck to budget so far. I have a small comic reorder next week, and a small game order, and than another week of no reorders, and I'll have done it. If I succeed, and I have every intention of doing so, I'll make up for the short-fall in July.

The customer counts have been really high. Which has been a blessing and a curse. Not many sales per customer, but I hate to think how we would've done without that many people. It means, essentially, that I'm working harder for every dollar.



Next day: Well, had a bang up last day, brought my average up considerably. It now appears I'll be only 15% down this month from last year, which is pretty good, considering. Too bad about the middle 10 days, which were about 40% less than the rest of the month.

I haven't had time to total up the individual categories, so I'll save that for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have only 12 days to get through without breaking my budget (17 days, to be exact, but after 12 days, the stuff wouldn't arrive all that much faster than if I wait the extra 5 days.)

As I always say, I have the opportunity to earn good profits four months out of the year, June and July are gone, but August and December have yet to play out.

Here's the thing.

If I stick to budget, and I do the average 20% down in sales, or even better, equal July sales (which is usually what happens) I will EQUAL all the profits for the year up this month.

I'd call that a pretty good incentive to stay disciplined.