Oh Glorious Day!

Yes, the stock market dropped 300+ points yesterday and oil has reached an all time high. Some would argue that armaggedon is around the corner and yet...today I am in the world's best mood! Perhaps it's because the sun is shining brightly and it's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps it's because I have my new Photoshop CS3 software and am loving it. Or perhaps it's because I'm tapering for a race next weekend and that always has a way of bringing out the highest highs and the lowest lows in my emotional state. What ever the reason, I am happy!

Things with the business are also going well - especially given the state of the economy. I'm still getting in orders and am getting in a few requests for information every day or so which leads me to believe that people are still interested and still purchasing merchandise. Best of all, we are *almost* at the point where the orders I'm getting in monthly are enough to cover our monthly fixed expenses. Let me explain:

For the past two years 70+% of our sales come in third and fourth quarters as retailers make purchases in advance of the holiday season. This means that I typically have very few orders for the first 1/2 - 2/3 of the year so any money made at the end of the previous year starts to get very very tight this time of year. Don't get me wrong, things are still tight and I've had to inject a little personal cash into the business (written as a loan so that when we make the money back I can take it out tax free - or at least that's my understanding of the tax code) but I've noticed that this year the orders we've been getting in on a monthly basis have been inching closer and closer to being able to cover our montly fixed costs. Right now my dream goal is to be able to cover monthly expenses with montly orders so that when the floodgates (hopefully) open in the later part of the year it is "extra" money that doesn't necessarily have to be put towards future monthly fixed costs. We're getting closer to that point...ever closer...

I also started the new business book "Alpha Dogs" the other night (after finishing off the Revolutionary War in 1776. Though am I the only one who didn't remember that the war actually didn't end until 1783? I will be contining my Revolutionary War summer reading through by picking up Founding Brothers today from the library). So far Alpha Dogs is really good even though I haven't actually gotten into the meat of the book yet. Let's just say I'm already dog-earing pages so that I can go back and reread sections later. Once I get a little more into it I'll report back but thus far it's the type of book that makes me really excited to be an entrepreneur and is giving me things to think about in how I run my business.