We don’t get much snow around here in Winter. A typical Winter for us has endless storms swooshing in from the Pacific and dumping rain, and rain, and more rain.
However, when the storms drop down from Canada, we get some snow, and brisk East Winds.
As I was out walking the dog this morning, the streets were clear, and there was a dusting of snow swirling along in the gusts of wind.
The sidewalk was also littered with dead tree branches recently cracked out of their space.
I was reminded that in spring, Summer, and even Fall, dead branches lurk among the live foliage. But, when the storms come along, they have no place to hide, and snap off. The live, but dormant branches are limber and bend rather than break.
We have the same sort of problem with Inventory.
When sales are good, and business is chugging along, slow or obsolete inventory tends to lurk in the shadows, and our attention passes right over them.
When business slows, and the storms of adversity assail us, we find that inventory and try to get rid of it. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we toss it out.
So it is with business practices or plans.
What once worked well gets exposed during the storms as being no longer effective.
The trees let the dead branches go to make room for more good growth. Do we have the courage to trim and discard those practices that no longer help us survive and grow?
Our storm happened to be fairly painless, but the stress of daily shipping has taken its toll. We long to travel.
So, we are discarding our successful eBay business in favor of using Amazon to generate our living expenses. We’ll still be online retailers. But, we’re changing our venue, and how we work
So far this year, our Amazon sales are 10-times our eBay sales. And our eBay has been doing pretty well.
Our past practice of shipping every day is evolving into making only a few large shipments every month to Amazon, or working with vendors over the phone or email to have THEM make those major shipments for us.
Many businesses fail because they are always chasing the latest big thing while ignoring their core business. The successful business pays close attention to their core and only experiments on the edges.
If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.
On the other hand, if it IS broken, fix it fast, or abandon it for what does.
Do more of what works, and less of what does not.
John L