Friday, September 24, 2021

I keep dreaming at night of expanding the store. Not sure if these are meant to be nightmares or not. Heh.

Thing is, things are going well enough that a younger and more foolish replicant of me could easily fall into that trap.

What it means is, I'm fully involved in the store. At the same time, the transition out of the store is in the works. I'm realizing that I need to prepare for that day, both so that the store survives without me and for my own state of mind when I don't have the store to think about all the time. 

I was reproducing stats for Sabrina to use and I realized how much less revenue we were producing just three or four years ago. It's really quite astounding how new books have elevated things--just as a new wave of customers are coming in the store. 

I was able to use some of that new revenue to resuscitate toys and card games, both of which are doing much better. We're holding our own on games, despite the dramatic increase in competition and complexity. 

Comics are having one of their periodic upheavals, but we're OK. Graphic novels are humming along at higher levels. 

So all in all, the store is in the best shape it's ever been and I'm slowly but surely increasing the quality of the product. 

What I'm saying is--I'm as involved and interested as I've ever been--at the same time I know I need to prepare to let it go. 

Humph.

3 comments:

Duncan McGeary said...

It feels good to know that Sabrina will have a well-functioning store to start with.

Jeff said...

I thought of you Duncan when I read the following article about the recent explosion of new businesses:

https://wolfstreet.com/2021/10/14/the-amazing-explosion-of-new-businesses-continues-as-americans-strike-out-on-their-own/

I wonder what your take on this would be. JR

Duncan McGeary said...

Jeff. Great article.

I wrote about it above in a blog entry.