So, we’re approaching our second birthday and I thought it would be a good time for a status update.
But first I want to post a photo here of our newly expanded incense room! It’s not a beautiful photo (I took it with my phone), but I repainted the floor in there and we have four new shelves of product. One of our wonderful customers made me a super deal on an area rug, which I don’t seem to have a picture of, so you’ll just have to come in and see it for yourself.
Newly expanded incense section and a fresh coat of paint on the floor!
As you might infer from the counter at the top right of the blog, we’re nearly two-thirds through a three year lease on our building. The rent is exhorbitant (but it’s a square deal), and the location is excellent, so we’re exploring options for What Happens Next.
I am hoping to be able to approach the landlady about the possibility of becoming a part owner of this building. Because there are five lots all tied together, buying the building outright is not going to be an option. Besides that, I can’t afford it; this building is worth at least a quarter million, and I’m not good for that kind of money. My goal is to have our backlog of paperwork completed to the point that I can show her what we in the accounting biz call the “top sheet” – a statement of our financials, where we’ve been and our projected earniings. I do like the location a lot, and this isn’t an impossible request. But it’s much too soon to ask about it, namely because we are still finding our equilibrium and trying to become stable.
So here’s where we are right now. This might seem kind of boring, but it’s progress. We’ve always been pretty transparent with our readers and I’m always kinda interested to go back and read our old posts, see what’s changed and what still needs to manifest.
We’ve been able to stay on top of our overhead, more or less. We still have bad (slow) weeks, which cause considerable strain on our cash flow since they always seem to line up with the same time that payroll and advertising is due to draft. I’ve managed to split the ad deadlines where they are coming out about every two weeks (which aligns with the twice-monthly paydays).
We are spending about $350 a month on our regular advertising with Natural Awakenings magazine, The Gayly, and now once a month with The Gazette. Natural Awakenings by far pulls the most customers our way, but we’ve seen results from The Gayly, and they’re both really great about personally referring people to us, so we’ll definitely keep supporting those publications. Not sure about the Gazette ad but it’s too soon to tell. You need to run an ad at least six or seven times before you can decide whether or not to pull it, so we’re giving it a shot.
I’ve also signed up for getting our phone bill autodrafted. This is a really big deal for us, because we’ve been following the deadbeat pay schedule where you pay a month, skip a month, pay enough to not get cut off, and then pay it current whenever you have a good week. I loathe this. I want to be current on everything, always.
The best positive change is that we’re consistently paying the rent now on time, by ACH, to my landlady’s bank account. This means we’re not writing a hot check on the due date and then sweating to scratch up the money to get it covered before she gets it to the bank. To me, this is amazing progress, because the other way is not only bad business but super stressful. So yay on that, woo!
I’ve hired a nice ladyfriend of mine who speaks accountant to help me out with some of the backlog of paperwork. It’s not a lot of hours, but it’s now become a priority, and if I keep the schedule within our projected budget this is going to help us out a lot PLUS creating a job!
Additionally, I’ve put out feelers for a second part-time position at the store, because Ophelia can only be in one place at a time. I have a Thing coming up in June where I’m going to be out of town for nearly a week, and she has a full-time job elsewhere, which means that we’re either going to have to be closed while she’s at that job or that I’m going to have to hire a second person. As long as employees are paying for themselves with sales, it’s the smart thing to be open when we say we will. People sometime drive from as far away as Tulsa, Dallas, even Little Rock to shop with us, and it would really suck to be closed due to my absence after they went through that trouble to honor us with a visit. Hell, even if they’re coming from across town, it’s a crap experience to get to a store and find it closed. We need another person, anyway, because we do have a lot of times during the week when people drop in and want a reading and I can’t do it because I’m the only one there.
So these are all pretty good things. It’s decent growth (other than the fact that I am still working about 80 hours a week for zero pay).
However… it’s not, at the moment, enough to reach our goals of buying a building. We’re still falling short of our weekly goal. Sometimes we get as close to it as 90%, but then like the last two weeks, we only made 60% of that goal. It’s averaging out where if we are careful we’re not bouncing anyone’s paycheck, can restock, and even add a product line or two during the month, but at this time we are definitely not able to put anything aside toward a down payment on a building.
So we’re really hoping that the landlady is interested in maybe letting us snag a 1/3 share of the building in the next few months. We have 14 months left before we have to make a definite decision, and that’s quite a lot of time. But if we ask and she says no, we are probably going to throw in the towel.
THAT SAID, if we are getting very close to our goal and have a fair amount saved toward a down payment, we will consider renewing our lease for just a few months while we continue to collect the needed money. But it’s really got to start hitting 90%, 100%, on those slow weeks, and exceeding our weekly goals far more frequently if we are going to stay here for you guys.
Also, I am behind on paying my sales tax again, which is BAD BAD BAD. They can shut me down if I go 60 days past due. That’s the very next thing to tackle on the fiscal list. I had to dip into my sales tax withholding to pay the rent this month because the past two weeks were way under par and I had extra expenses in the form of taking a gamble on a $300 ad with the Tinker Take Off. I am seriously hoping that will pay off over the next couple weeks!
This shop is not an ego project for me. It’s a business. I WILL make that decision to shut it down IF we are not viable at the end of the lease. I have other projects on my back burner that I’m quite happy to spend a lot more time with, so yes, I am okay with the concept of letting it go. On the other hand, it’s a pretty fun experiment, and I like to be the one to give people a great experience and to help the customers find meaning and joy in their lives, so I’m equally okay with it going on as long as there’s something in it for me, too.
How can you help keep YOUR local metaphysical store open?
- Understand the math involved. This blog post explains a lot of it.
- TELL YOUR FRIENDS to come and shop with us. Check out this email from our archive to understand how very, very important this can be for any small business. (Also – join the mailing list!)
- Support small business – shop local! We rely on YOU for our overhead. Our employees rely on YOUR PURCHASES for their paychecks. If we are too tight, people get laid off. I’m already working for free, so I’m going to be the last one to leave, but if I have to start spending my partner’s grocery money on the biz, dude. I’m folding.
- Print off a few flyers (follow the link) and take them places you think people would like to pick them up. Please do not just stick them on cars – it creates litter and people will hate us if you do that.
- Let us make something for you. We are happy to create custom jewelry, bath and body potions, candles – if you can think it up, we can probably make it.
- Use our Amazon Affiliate link whenever you shop on Amazon. It costs you nothing and nets us about 7 pennies for every dollar you spend. We’re not going to beg for “donations”, but this is a little thing you can do to throw a few free pennies our way. Pennies add up!
So – we have progress toward stability, but still very sticky cash flow issues. Just keep bringing in your friends and do try to make it a regular habit to think of us for your gifting needs. Psssssst…. Mother’s Day is just around the corner!
