Numbers from 1/3 to 5,000

I’ll let April’s numbers speak for themselves before I massage them. Look:

Total income: +70.2%
Total COGS: +81.2%
Payroll: +75.1%
Net Income (Profit): -29.7%


Year to Date:

Total income: +33.2%
Total COGS: +52.3%
Payroll: +41.9%
Net Income (Profit): -216.2%


It looks like the economy might be roaring back, as I predicted. With the year one-third over, 2010’s running a third over LY. The increase is more than twice what I'd planned. Even lifetime sales are only 15% behind my cumulative plan-to-date. Curio City is growing almost as fast as I had envisioned five years ago – despite the Great Recession! I probably can’t chop the whole five-year deficit this year, but I’m whittling it down.

I’ll plan more aggressively if that number ever turns black. Meanwhile, I’ll enjoy trouncing what I thought was an ambitious top-line plan (15% growth) and focus on protecting my battered bottom line. My planned payroll increase and development expense joined unplanned disaster expenses (floods and theft and banking fees) to cut my year-end bonus by thousands of dollars.

My wonky whole-week accounting system makes May’s targets look weird. Last May had five weeks and this May has four. Beating LY’s sales should be easy enough. Beating plan…not so much. Making a 15% increase with 20% fewer days will be difficult. I ought to put my Excel records on straight calendar accounting. Moving weeks from one month to the next as the calendar drifts throws me off. But I am anal about continuity. And I'm lazy.

One parting number: The 5,000th customer “contest” that I announced on Facebook and in my newsletter will end today if sales keep up their recent pace, and before Monday even if they die back to their historical summer somnolence. (Transaction #5,000 gets free shipping plus a small gift if the customer is an account holder; otherwise the prize goes to the first account-holder to place an order after #5,000 is reached.)