A New Beginning

It is almost scary to think that it has been close to a year since my last post here; I knew I hadn't posted in a while but I had no idea that it was going on close to a year. I do apologise for the lack of posts for such a length of time but I hope to restart this blog.

To give an update on the business this blog covers I am happy to announce I had a very good Christmas relative to the rest of the year. Unfortunately due to industry trade fairs after the new year it was only 3 days ago that I was able to get the most popular items restocked. Perhaps partly as a consequence the year has been off to a disappointingly slow start. I was hoping to carry on the increased interest from Christmas but it seems this has not been the case, which is unfortunate but natural.

It also seems that my supplier has been getting a lot more business of late as more competition is showing up on sites like Amazon Marketplace and eBay which forces my hand to turn a lower profit in order to still make sales. This is not an ideal situation to be in, particularly one where I'm not turning over enough sales on a daily basis to really justify it, but I am in a niche market and my supplier has exclusive distribution rights in this country so I can't source from elsewhere.

This does mean I know we all pay the same price wholesale so all I can do is abuse the fact that I'm running this company myself and not relying on it for a living, meaning I can cut the profit margin as close as possible hopefully to the point that it becomes unprofitable for the competition who presumably DO rely on the sales for their income. I realise this is potentially a suicidal strategy but any income is better than none and since on the internet there is little more than price point to set you apart from the competition on places like eBay and Amazon Marketplace it's all I can do.

I was however recently contacted by a foreign supplier who stocks brand new products I can't get elsewhere. I am currently raising funds to make an order through them and diversify since being foreign there's a good chance I'll have less competition also selling these products. It's a gamble like everything else but as this whole experience has shown me running a business, no matter how small, is no easy task.