Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sticking to a strict budget this time around has been relatively painless. Hard to start, but once I started seeing the results, not so hard to continue. It shows how much I've stocked up over the last 3 or 4 years that we have plenty of merchandise to sell.

There might be a week lag in getting evergreen product back in stock, but hell, at one point I thought of doing it this way anyway, just to save on postage. Nothing is so important, it can't wait a week.

The spot shortages, such as they are, are in the margins. Things like Star Wars Standups, or Death Mints, or sports supplies.

But the thing about margins-- they are as endless as the universe. There is never going to be a time when I can fill in the margins, because the stuff outside the core is unlimited.

But even if I count everything I have ever had in stock as core, and everything I haven't carried as margin, I should be able to add; I just have to do it seasonally; at the beginning of summer and just before Christmas.

Just thinking outloud.

2 comments:

RDC said...

Duncan,

Since you are not buying a lot now, and to some degree living off of stock and reaping increased profits, are you putting of that aside in preparation for the next upward turn, so that you can then place larger than normal orders without credit card support?

Duncan McGeary said...

That's the idea. But mostly I'm preparing for my new lease. If I get a lease with a small increase or something, then I'll be able to reinvest.

But I need cash for most options.