Planning for next year.

I'm well into the process of planning for next year.

I did my comic orders for February over the weekend, and once again I'm shocked by what a low number it is. The result of long years of building my inventory. I'm now at the point where I can pour the cream, pick the cherries on top. For almost my entire career I've been building or changing my inventory, which is way more difficult than simply having inventory in place and replacing as needed..

It's no doubt temporary. Demand constantly changes, and as time goes on the changes come quicker. But for the moment, I feel on top of things.

I'm expecting next year to be about the same as this year.

Turns out, the monthly number I diagnosed about ten years ago as my 'goal'''; the number I thought would allow me to make a living wage, and keep the store up, and which looked nearly impossible to reach, is just about where we currently stand. (2% less). And I think I can hold the line here.

I'm going to continue the shift in emphasis toward new books and boardgames, but I should be able to do that easily through normal cash-flow, and without having to take more risk.

A warning to those of you who find business planning boring; my blog is probably going to be emphasizing 2009 results, and 2010 planning for awhile. Sorry. For me, it's one of the fun aspects of owning a business.