I preach the gospel of don't complicate things, Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS), if it ain't broke don't fix it, time and energy and space are the same thing as money.
Well, I'm nothing if not inconsistent.
All it took was an offer from a major publisher for a generous book return program to throw all those good thoughts under a bus.
We will almost certainly lose profit margin, work much harder, and risk having everything becoming uncomfortable. All for the uncertain goal of increasing sales.
Thing is, once I accepted the program, which seemed like a no-brainer as long as I didn't take into account all the things I mentioned in the first sentence, it was easier to keep going than try to change course. Now that I'm in the midst of it, I see even success in the venture as a possible problem.
We are stretched to the max right now in handling the flow of customers and still maintain a store staffed by one person at a time. If we boost sales by, say, ten or twenty percent (the best result from ordering more books) it will be that much harder to maintain our energy.
I'm always trying to build sales, and this venture probably will, if for no other reason than we'll have more product to sell. I've always said, the more you have in stock, the more you sell.
The reason to do this is to boost sales in the slow months, or eight
months out of the year. I'm always aware that there will be another down
market. There always is. You want the slow months to continue to be
profitable, or at the least, still viable.
If sales increase too much, we can let business take care of itself during the summer and Christmas, slow the pace down a little.
We also have the option of opting out of the program, going back to the previous way of doing things. If nothing else, this has impelled me to find more room for books (which if you had asked me in advance, I would have said was impossible.)
But most of all, I just think I need a challenge once in awhile, even if I'm throwing the gospel of KISS out the window.
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