Monday, January 25, 2010

The 2nd goal becomes 1st..

It's looking like I'll have higher sales this month, significantly higher, but very little profits. In fact, I'll probably just break even.

Next month, I'm assuming I'll have higher sales again, and this time maybe even carry a little credit card balance into the following month.

This is the new paradigm for my business-- what I'm terming a "working profit." By which I mean, I'm taking out my own wages and paying the other overhead and buying inventory and breaking even.

I'm not trying to build up cash; either for the retirement or emergencies.

This is all strictly on purpose.

I've always maintained that you need to have a minimum of two results to make a business work. You can -- possibly -- keep a business afloat for a short time without one or the other of the two, but not forever. Obviously, #1 is more important than #2, but not by as much as you might think.

1). You need to make money.

2.) You need to have fun.

I believe the second goal is nearly as important as the first, and it seems to me I've seen as many businesses quit for the second reason as the first. (Though, most often, they are inextricably linked. Not making money is no fun, you know.) Burnout happens when you work really hard, and the results don't equal the work.

Anyway, after this many years it's as important for me to be engaged and interested in what I'm doing as it is to make money -- maybe more so, now that I'm not totally dependent on the business for survival.

Oh, sure. I could retrench for long periods of time, watch my pennies, and take satisfaction out of turning a bad situation into a profitable one.

But only for so long. It's a real drag.

People often say, "Wow. This must be a fun business. Games and Toys and Books and Comics, etc. You must get to play all day.

Well, no....though it doesn't hurt that what I sell is interesting stuff.

But that isn't really it.

What's important to me is that I Have My Own Business. That I Am My Own Boss. That I Make The Decisions.

When I do something, when I make a change, or an addition, I get to watch and see if it works. I get to play with it all.

I don't care how stupid and inept you are, if you do something for 25 -30 years, you tend to get pretty good at it. There is great satisfaction in seeing it pan out.

If I had to sum it up, it would be ----------

--------------

--------------Pride of Ownership.



Now, I know some people are in business strictly for the money.

Other people are in it for the activity.

I'm in it for the job of trying to do it right. (I'm not saying I'm doing it perfectly right, but I'm trying and trying.) My strongest motivation is to create the best store I can accomplish. I've never understood people who let their stores get messy. Who aren't curious about how it all works, who don't analyze and experiment and gather information. Who seem to want nothing more than to get away from their store -- to hire a manager and become "Lord of the Manor."

Maybe someday I'll see Pegasus Books as a revenue stream only, but I think if that day comes the wheels will start to come off the engine of the store unless I'm lucky and I've found that person who can do the job almost as well as me, and who takes an equal pride in the store.

Until then, I want to be fully engaged, which means buying the stuff I think the store needs (and, I have to face it -- I really like buying stuff; and I like seeing if the stuff sells; and if it doesn't sell, I like to see if there is some way to minimize the damage; and so on and so on.)

The process itself is the part that is enjoyable.

Frankly, it's not all that different from writing a novel, or creating a garden. You can't do it overnight, you have to really keep applying yourself toward the task, you need to be creative, you need to visualize the final result, and you keep being surprised by the parts that don't work and parts that take off unexpectedly, and you get feedback from the customers, and inside you know what you've accomplished.

I'm making a 'living wage' finally, and I don't discount the importance of that. But the real fun is in continuing to grow the store.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

1). You have to make money.

2.) You have to have fun.

*

This is WHY your a survivor Dunc, and most men aren't.

This is called "Townsends Question", from the 1960's.

He said "If you ain't doing it for money, or ain't doing it for fun, what the fuck are you doing it for?"

This question can be applied to all of life's activity.

In your care its always been MORE fun than money.

Too many people have neither, and ergo live a life of "Quiet Desperation", - Thoreau

You have to have one, most of the time you don't get both. Usually when your making a lot of money, your not having fun, ... nature of the beast. When your not making money, you got to figure out how to have fun.

But like Townsend say's "If your not doing it for FUN or PROFIT, then what the fuck are you doing it for??"

I think this question can be applied to most people living in Bend these day's. Are you having FUN? Or you making money?

I know in my world, its all about FUN. Travel, meditation, exercise.

My only public question for you Dunc is WHY? Why at 65 do you even bother? If it were me I would buy a building and plug in a youngster to BUY your business, and have him pay your MTG and provide you income. It seems that both you and linda work for lifestyle, .. but you got only another ten years to play, and then your going to have health problems, because both of you are not fit. I don't understand why you don't just enjoy your life? Working until you have a stroke, ... just doesn't make sense?

Duncan McGeary said...

"My only public question for you Dunc is WHY? Why at 65 do you even bother?"

Well, geez. I'm 57 and Linda is 61.

WHY? Like I said, I'm still having fun.

"....because both of you are not fit..."

Well, when I fill out health forms I'm still checking off NO on all health issues....

But point taken....

We are intending to take more time off, though. Active owner 'time-off' not 'Lord of the Manor' time off.

Wes said...

Dunc,

I don't think you look a day over 57. I went in for a haircut a month or so ago and they gave me the senior discount for people over 65. Younger people are incapable of judging age. Their day will come.

Wes

Duncan McGeary said...

Hey, Wes,

Linda who has no discernible white hair has no problem asking for the senior discount at the movies, whereas I would rather not.

Sad news about Tina. She passed away yesterday. I know you liked her a lot.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"but you got only another ten years to play, and then your going to have health problems, because both of you are not fit."

Fitness and health are NOT synonymous although Americans have been brainwashed by the popular culture into thinking they are.

A person can be amazingly fit and still be unhealthy. (Ask Steve Larsen.)

A person can be out of shape, be a drinker and a smoker and live to a ripe old age. (Ask Winston Churchill.)

I always say that longevity is 70% heredity, 30% luck, and the rest is determined by lifestyle.

Dunc just might surprise you by living longer than you do, Buster.

Anonymous said...

Fitness and health are NOT synonymous although Americans have been brainwashed by the popular culture into thinking they are.

*

So there from the 'expert' Lord HBM, the expert on Hamster fitness whose best friend Bob Woodward ( ex Bend mayor blew his knees out running ).

Yes, and what lifestyle do you advocate?

It's well established that balanced eating and exercise prevents strokes. Dunc & Linda are overweight. Fact. Sure and not all people who exercise are 'fit', Woodward in Point, maybe its because he's a hamster? Maybe stress who the fuck knows. Sounds like our dunc doesn't have stress.

I know a lot of people in this town some are 70 and look 40, and feel 40, and some are 50 and look 80. #1 reason for them looking old and feeling old is they're over-weight.

To each his own HBM, my only point is giving Dunc's lifestyle which is obvious from his body type, ... why doesn't he enjoy his next ten 'statistical' years? Rather than toiling?

Now I thought of this later today, I know one guy who is 75 in Portand and still runs his machine shop, but he walks to work and rides his bike on nice days. Everybody I know in Bend who is 65+ and bikes and skis everyday like me is retired. Fact. I'm not advocating the 'competitive' shit that blew out Woodward, I'm just talking honest balanced lifestyle. Walking, Yoga, eating good food, ... It fucking works HBM. Maybe that's why at 65 you don't have a fucking sex life?

H. Bruce Miller said...

"Walking, Yoga, eating good food, ... It fucking works HBM. Maybe that's why at 65 you don't have a fucking sex life?"

Hey, I exercise and eat good food and do qi gong every morning and the doctors say I'm in pretty good shape for my age (63, not 65, please) but I have no delusions that exercise will prolong my life or anybody else's.

People have weird ideas about the power of exercise. For example I was in a bar yesterday watching one of the NFL playoff games, and a guy sitting at the bar near me was eating a huge plate of biscuits covered with sausage gravy, plus eggs and bacon. When I commented on it he said, "I had a good workout this morning so it's okay."

Workouts won't protect you from heart disease if you eat shit like that. They might make your heart stronger but your arteries are still gonna get clogged and one day you'll keel over like poor Steve Larsen.

As for my sex life, two comments:

1. WTF do you know about my sex life?

2. At least I don't have to patronize disease-ridden $2 Malay whores.

H. Bruce Miller said...

I think this blog is degenerating into BendBubble2 Lite. That's what happens when you let the trolls take over the place.

Anonymous said...

"I always say that longevity is 70% heredity, 30% luck"

Not sure what's so great about longetivity. When your numbers up, it's up. No regrets. Does anyone really wish to live beyond 80?

H. Bruce Miller said...

"Does anyone really wish to live beyond 80?"

I can tell you're young. After you pass 60, living beyond 80 starts to look pretty good.

I've known quite a few people who were still enjoying life in their 80s.

Anonymous said...

I've known quite a few people who were still enjoying life in their 80s.

*

Yep, perhaps this youngster needs to go some place warm and watch 80 year olds surf all day, like in Brisbane. It's only in the USA that people 'die' when they get old, hell there are even people retired in Hawaii having a good time after 80. Right HBM?

I remember first time in Brisbane and Surfer's Paradise watching all these 80 year old guys surfing and smoking pot all day long and drinking beer and chasing girls. I'm thinking "Shit I know where I want to be when I'm 80"...

Trouble with the USA is there aren't any fucking role models worth worshiping.