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This past weekend John was perusing an issue of Boat & RV Trader. My first reaction was “Boat ownership! That is one helluva money pit.” John’s response was to say that our business has created a money pit for us. The operating expenses of our business has been, at times, the equivalent of buying and maintaining a small yacht. After giving it a brief moment’s thought, I was floored. “Our business is a money pit?” To be true to myself I must say—yes.

While I enjoy the compliments and positive comments about our storefront and our creativity,
compliments and recognition do not necessarily translate into sales and being in the black. Who cares if everyone knows and loves your business but do not frequent it enough times to make your business worth the financial risks? My shop is not a museum and I’m not a curator.

I have been forced to take some true reality checks (which is ironic because I thought we were so broke we couldn’t even cover a ‘reality check’!) and recognize that my focus has been too much on the image and not enough on the bottom line. Every effort that I make towards my storefront will not be towards buying more product but on making sales of through the products that I already stock.

All of this I hope to do without spending money on advertising by building upon the relationships with our loyal customers, and in turn, hopefully turning browsers into paying customers.

Perhaps sooner than later John and I can build our shop business to the point where we can comfortably own both a strong, ever-evolving business and a small yacht. Back to the drawing board for me.