Yo yo yo! Reader,

This week felt like a milestone.

After weeks of planning, measuring, moving and reorganising, the new pallet racking finally went in. In less than an hour, one of the biggest operational projects we've tackled this year was standing in the warehouse and almost immediately, it started filling up.

On the surface, it looks like shelving.

In reality, it's capacity.

Capacity for more stock. More consignments. More opportunities. More live shows. More moving parts.

And judging by the amount of stock and projects arriving, we're going to need every bit of it.

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Behind The Scenes

The warehouse barely stopped this week.

We had:

• New pallet racking delivered and installed.
• More than 1,000 new consignment pieces signed and committed.
• Another 3,500 items lined up for August.
• Multiple eBay Live shows.
• E-waste deliveries, camera drops and media pickups.
• Washing coming and going.
• Discussions around adding a new revenue stream through fulfilment and storage services.
• Early conversations about bringing in more people to support eBay Live.

The irony is that just as we create more space, more opportunities appear to fill it.

The challenge isn't finding inventory anymore.

The challenge is moving it fast enough.

The Lesson

Good Problems Are Still Problems

A few years ago, my biggest concern was finding stock.

Today, the concern is completely different.

We have more opportunities than ever before, but opportunities only matter if you have the systems, people and processes to execute them.

The reality is that growth creates new bottlenecks.

Right now, I'm becoming one of those bottlenecks.

There's only so many live shows I can run. Only so much stock I can process. Only so many decisions I can make in a day.

That's why the focus has shifted from "How do we get bigger?" to:

"How do we build something that scales?"

What I'm Thinking About

The core eBay store is still quieter than I'd like.

Sales volume has softened, and while there are obvious reasons... school holidays ending, less listing activity, new competition from Vinted and Depop BUT, it doesn't change the fact that I want the business to be stronger.

But something interesting is happening.

While traditional sales have slowed, the opportunities around the business have accelerated:

• More consignment deals.
• More service work.
• More live opportunities.
• New fulfilment partnerships.
• More inbound stock than we've ever had.

It's a reminder that sometimes growth doesn't happen where you expect it to.

Numbers Corner

This Week

• Revenue: $12,710.04
• Monday live was less than $700
• Wednesday live: $1,020
• Thursday live: $715
• Friday live: $1,842
• E-waste revenue: $330

Financial Year Pace

We're currently sitting at approximately $37,720.97 for the financial year to date, tracking at roughly $57,000 per month, putting us on pace for around $680,000 annually.

There is still work to do, but we're trending in the right direction.

The Bigger Picture

One comment this week stuck with me.

People often see the warehouse, the stock and the growth, but what they don't see is that every improvement creates another challenge.

We added more storage.

Now we need more systems.

We added more stock.

Now we need more turnover.

We're adding more revenue streams.

Now we need more people.

Progress isn't neat. It isn't glamorous. Most of the time, it looks like controlled chaos.

But that's how businesses are built.

One problem at a time.

Question Of The Week

What's a problem in your life or business that would've felt impossible to you five years ago but today, you'd actually consider it a good problem to have?

Sometimes the challenges we're dealing with now are proof that we've already come further than we realise.

See you next week,

Chris

Building a Business to Suit My Lifestyle