Farewell to 2008...By the Numbers

I said that I was going to stop posting financials, but I slacked off a lot last week, and I don’t have any remarks prepared for today. Besides, it’s logical to literally sum-up the year. My spreadsheet closes the year on Saturday, December 27, so these numbers (through Christmas) are final enough despite having nearly a week left in the calendar.

Do you see a recession hiding in here?


December 2008 vs. December 2007

• Total income: +75.5%
• Total COGS: +66.9%
• Total payroll: +49.6%
• Total expenses: +22.1%
• Net income (profit): +488.2%


2008 vs. 2007

• Total income: +71.7%
• Total COGS: +68.7%
• Total payroll: +79.7%
• Total expenses: +48.4%
• Net income (profit): +220.7%


In 2007, my gross salary plus profit came to $6,600, and I did not take out any of the $1,200 profit. Curio City paid out $5,400.

In 2008, my gross salary plus profit came to $16,400, and I took out $3,800 of the (estimated) $7,400 profit. $2,200 of my $3,800 goes to taxes. I put $1,000 of the remaining $1,600 into my Roth IRA and gave $600 to my wife. Altogether, Curio City put roughly $12,800 in my pocket, or more than double LY. (I took the payout as a stockholder loan repayment rather than a shareholder distribution, btw. The profit is applied to reducing my life-to-date negative retained earnings. Curio City now owes me $24,700 of the $28,500 that I invested.)

In 2009, I’m planning a 50% sales increase over this year – ridiculously ambitious in light of the collapsing economy, but not in light of 2008’s 70% increase. If I can achieve that, my gross salary should reach $13,700 and my profit should top $11,000; I will pocket $18,000-$20,000 of that. For my first act of the new year, I’ll raise my payroll percentage again to shift a little bit of that anticipated profit into my paychecks. And with a couple clicks on my spreadsheet, I am now paying myself 18% of gross, up from 17.75%.

Sales and traffic were both poor last week, but it’s a throwaway week anyway so I don’t read anything into that.