Someday this store will make a profit....

By profit, I mean, over and above what I pay myself in income.

Ironically, the drop in sales over the last four months, has freed me up to spend money.

I'll try to explain.

If I'm expecting a ten percent increase in sales, then I can mirror that increase with a ten percent drop in orders, for an overall increase in gross profit of twenty percent.

I'm not completely sure why this is -- I suspect it's has to do with a broader range of material selling. For instance, if it's really busy, there is a good chance that maybe 30% of sales are of material I see no need to replace. The other 70% might be evergreens, which I always want to keep in stock and must reorder.

Whereas, if it's slow, maybe only 20% of sales are material I won't reorder. A significant 10% difference, in that it takes several more turns of in-stock items to make the same profit as a sell it and forget it item.

It's the same reasoning I use to spend more money on product in the 'off' seasons than I do during Summer and Christmas.

Anyway, once I see a 10% drop in sales, then my reaction is go ahead and spend the 10% extra on product that I had hoped to save.

This runs counter-intuitive to some extent. The impulse is to think: "Oh, you customers are going to spend less money? O.K. then, I'm going to spend less money, too."

Part of this seems rational -- save money, don't risk it; part of this is emotional -- oh, yeah. Well two can play at that game!

But I think it's a mistake. Either you have faith in your business, or you don't. By faith, I mean, once you've identified product that has a track record, it's a mistake to make false savings by cutting into the budget. Unless, like I said above, sales are so good that you can afford to let a few lines get run down a bit because something else will sell instead.

Believe me, I'd much rather spend money than not. That's half the fun of running a store -- buying cool stuff, getting it in and processing it, pricing it, displaying it and seeing what sells.

The profit part? At this point in my career, all that profit is going toward a 'far' future; retirement and beyond. I don't get any warm fuzzies from socking it away. Prudently, I know I need to get on the stick with that; but you know what? This is a historic slowdown, and maybe all I can realistically expect to do is probably stay out of debt, pay my bills, and break even.

One other thing; I think too many stores make the mistake of cutting on inventory because of a slowdown in sales. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy; a vicious downward spiral. As I said, I think you need to refocus your faith on your core product and make sure you have it in stock.

So I'm relaxing and enjoying the summer -- pretty much back to normal. Someday this store will make a profit....