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Every Friday, I post a small insight into running Curio City and/or Blue Hills Editorial Services. My most recent posts are directly below. You can also start with the first post, or use the subject labels to the right to home in on particular topics. Feel free to comment on anything that interests you.
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Friday, March 29, 2013

March Sucks a Little Less



…But it still sucks double digits.

March:

Total income: -18%
Total COGS: -13.8%
Payroll: -29.3%
Marketing: -23.9%
Net Income (Profit): -148.4% (-$776)

Year to Date: 

Total income: -22.3%
Total COGS: -31.9%
Payroll: -21.4%
Marketing: -29.4%
Net Income (Profit): +28.1% (+$681)

This week was the best since Feb. 2, so maybe the trend has turned. One can dream, anyway. I blame this year’s lousy sales on the continuing decline of my old mainstay Panther Vision caps. I can’t complain about their good, long run, but I think they’ve become too ubiquitous and discounters have horned in. It wouldn’t be my first product to die of success.

I don't expect April to be any better.

Remember my most recent random act of media? As of a week ago my contact at Edge magazine still couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell me when their magazine would land. The month on the cover of a magazine is supposed to be its off-sale date, but even if they don’t follow that convention they wouldn’t ship a March issue in April, so I’m guessing that it’s out. I received one order this week for the featured LP Stepped Bowl, which is effectively a dead product. But the order was placed by somebody in Canada and shipped to somebody in Florida, so I’m not seeing a connection to this New Jersey magazine. One piece is what I expected to sell based on our past history, so that’s probably over and done with. 

The new product that I mentioned last week just shipped today, so still no link. The vendor seems to have gone from “OMG let’s partner up!” to “who are you again?” but I expected that. Some vendors get over-enthused at trade shows.

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