Yo yo yo! Reader,

This week felt like one of those weeks where a lot of things we’ve been working towards finally started colliding at once.

New stock arrived. New consignment opportunities came in. eBay Live continued to perform. We started processing new inventory almost immediately. I put the call out for another team member. We’re adding another service into the warehouse. And somehow, amongst all of that, we still had to run the normal business.

It was chaotic.

But it was productive chaos.

And I think there’s an important distinction between the two.

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The Snapshot

We started the week with the core eBay store unusually quiet. At one point, we’d done something like four sales and $300 across a day... definitely not what I want to see.

Yet by Friday afternoon, we were already around $11,000 for the week, with the weekend still to come.

That turnaround didn’t happen because the core store suddenly exploded.

It happened because the business is becoming broader and the priority of sales has changed...

eBay Live.
Consignment.
Cameras.
Electronics.
Wholesale opportunities.
Services.
The core eBay store.

Some areas were quiet while others carried more weight.

And that is increasingly becoming the business I’ve been trying to build.

Behind The Scenes

This week was probably one of the clearest examples yet of why I've been investing in infrastructure before I necessarily needed it.

We had roughly 1,000 consignment items collected, followed by another huge delivery of 3000 more consignment stock. Suddenly the pallet racking, walkie stacker, warehouse space and systems we've been putting together weren't things I hoped would eventually become useful.

We needed them now.

By the end of the week, everything was in, the warehouse was functioning, and we'd already processed somewhere around 80 pieces from the new stock.

At the same time, eBay Live is becoming a much bigger part of the operation.

We've now done somewhere around 50 shows since February. The workflow is getting better, we're learning what works, and I'm now hiring because I don't want its future growth to depend entirely on me.

One of Friday's shows finished at $1,475 across 68 orders, with a $21.70 ASP.

But that growth creates another problem:

More sales means more postage.
More stock means more processing.
More consignors means more administration.
More Live shows mean more preparation.
More opportunities mean more decisions.

Every solution eventually creates the next bottleneck.

That's business.

The Lesson — Build for Where You're Going

There was a moment this week that really stood out to me.

All this stock was arriving, the warehouse was filling up, and suddenly I realised:

We actually prepared for this.

Not perfectly. There was still chaos.

But the racking was there. The equipment was there. The space was there. The team was there. The processes were starting to exist.

None of those things happened this week.

They were decisions made weeks or months ago without necessarily knowing exactly when we'd need them.

I think that's something that applies well beyond business.

It's easy to only solve today's problems.

But sometimes you have to look at the person, career, business or life you're trying to build and ask:

"If this actually works, am I ready for it?"

You don't need to build everything years in advance.

But you should probably be building slightly ahead of yourself.

Because opportunity isn't always going to wait around while you get organised.

What I'm Thinking About

How do I make this business less dependent on any single thing?

I've spoken a lot lately about the core eBay store being quieter.

That still concerns me.

Our 90-day sales are sitting around $180,000, so when I say things are "quiet", it's relative. The business is processing more than it ever has. What I'm noticing are underlying changes in where those sales are coming from and how certain parts of the business are performing.

That's why I'm not interested in sitting still.

Consignment became bigger.

Then cameras.

Then e-waste.

Then eBay Live.

Now we're experimenting with additional service revenue and more non-clothing consignment.

The goal isn't to chase every shiny object.

It's to create enough complementary revenue streams that when one slows down, the entire business doesn't stop with it.

That feels increasingly important.

Numbers Corner

This was a fascinating week because the numbers don't necessarily tell the same story as each individual day.

The core store felt slow.

Yet eBay Live delivered some strong shows, including the $1,475 Friday result, and by Friday we were already sitting around $11,000 for the week.

For August, we're roughly around $12,200 at this early stage, tracking somewhere around $55,000–$60,000 for the month if the current pace continues. Early profit was sitting around $4,500–$5,000, but there are obviously plenty of wages, rent and other expenses still to flow through, so I'm certainly not counting that as the final result.

And that's another reminder:

Don't judge the business from one day.

Monday can look terrible.

Friday can look brilliant.

Neither necessarily tells you where you're going to finish.

The Bigger Picture

There's something I'm increasingly appreciating about building a business.

You never really "arrive".

You solve the stock problem and create a space problem.

You solve the space problem and create a staffing problem.

You solve the staffing problem and create a management problem.

You increase sales and create a fulfilment problem.

Then you improve fulfilment and suddenly you've created capacity for the next opportunity.

That's not failure.

That's progression.

The problems I have today are very different from the problems I had when I was sourcing a few items from thrift shops and running everything from home.

And hopefully the problems I'm dealing with twelve months from now make today's problems look small.

I'm tired.

I've literally been falling asleep at my desk this week.

But I'm also buzzing.

Because underneath the chaos, I can see things starting to connect.

We're building something.

And every time the business proves it can handle a little more, it seems to unlock the opportunity to do a little more again.

Question Of The Week

Are you building only for what you need today? or are you creating capacity for where you want to be tomorrow?

Maybe that's learning a skill before you need it.

Saving some money.

Creating a system.

Building your network.

Hiring someone.

Getting fitter.

Starting the thing you've been putting off.

You don't need to know exactly when the opportunity is coming.

You just want to make sure that when it does...

you're capable of saying yes.

See ya next week!

Chris

Building a Business to Suit My Lifestyle