Yo yo yo! Reader,

Sometimes the best way to find out whether a system works is to put pressure on it.

That was basically this entire week.

More Live shows.

More orders.

More stock.

More consignors.

More cameras.

More categories.

More people doing different parts of the process.

And more revenue flowing through the business.

It was one of our strongest weeks ever.

But strangely, the number I'm probably most interested in isn't the revenue.

It's everything that started to become obvious because we pushed harder.

Where the friction is.

Where we're relying too much on one person.

Where processes could be faster.

Where we need better systems.

And ultimately...

What has to change if we want to do more without simply working more?

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Snapshot

We came into the final week of August with one goal:

Push.

The previous few weeks had been quieter than I wanted, so we'd already started working our way back.

Monday morning we were sitting around $181,000 over the previous 90 days, with 139 orders going out.

The plan was to run a Live show every weekday.

Monday.

Tuesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

Then another one the following Monday to finish the month.

At the same time, we were still processing cameras, photography, consignment inventory, wholesale, e-waste, media, Pyrex, jewellery, shoes and everything else happening inside the warehouse.

And somehow...

We got through it.

By Friday we were sitting around $191,000 over 90 days.

The week itself was tracking toward somewhere around $20,000–$21,000 in revenue.

Potentially our second-best week ever.

That's something I'm incredibly grateful for.

But it definitely required us to push.

Behind The Scenes

One of the things I've been deliberately trying to do lately is put pressure on our processes.

Not because I want everything to feel chaotic.

The opposite.

I want to find the chaos before we grow further.

Because if something starts breaking when we're doing 100 orders...

Imagine what happens at 200.

If preparing one Live show is difficult...

What happens when we're doing five per week?

If one person being away completely stops a process...

That's something we need to understand.

The only way you really discover some of these bottlenecks is by using the system.

Hard.

This week gave us plenty of opportunities to do exactly that.

We had the team helping with postage.

Photography continued moving.

Our newer team member was processing more non-clothing inventory.

We were rotating stock between shows.

Consignment stock continued flowing through.

And I was able to move between cameras, listings, Live, customer conversations and working on some of the bigger systems behind everything.

It wasn't perfect.

But it worked.

And every week we're learning how to make it work a little better.

The Lesson

I've realised something about scaling:

Pressure reveals friction.

And friction is useful.

Maybe your stock preparation takes too long.

Great.

Now you know.

Maybe one person has information nobody else knows.

Great.

Now you know.

Maybe you're moving inventory between three different spreadsheets and somebody enters something incorrectly.

Great.

Now you know.

Maybe postage becomes messy after a certain number of Live orders.

Great.

Now you know.

It can be tempting to look at problems appearing and think:

"This isn't working."

Sometimes the opposite is true.

The business is simply telling you:

"If you want to go to the next level, fix this first."

That's how I'm trying to look at it.

Something We're Building

One thing I'm particularly excited about at the moment is some of the internal technology we're starting to work on.

A lot of the business currently runs through things like:

Google Sheets.

Google Drive.

Dropbox.

Different processes.

Different tools.

They've worked.

They've helped us get here.

But as the business becomes more complicated, the cracks start appearing.

So we've started experimenting with building our own internal web application.

The idea is to eventually bring more of what we do into one place.

Listings.

Inventory.

Reporting.

Workflow.

Automation.

AI.

There are lots of possibilities.

It's still early.

We're testing.

We're playing around.

We're working out what actually makes sense.

But I'm increasingly thinking that the next stage of this business won't simply come from selling more products.

It will come from building better infrastructure around how those products move through the business.

If we can make something take five minutes instead of fifteen...

That's capacity.

Do that across hundreds or thousands of items...

That's a completely different business.

Numbers Corner

This was a very strong week.

Our Live shows were roughly:

Monday: $1,250
​Tuesday: $1,004
​Wednesday: $1,109
​Thursday: $760
​Friday: $1,458

There were also camera sales, normal eBay sales, wholesale/media sales and other revenue throughout the week.

By Friday before the final Live we were around $17,700 for the week.

Add Friday's show and we were around $19,000, with the weekend still ahead.

That should put us somewhere around $20,000–$21,000 for the week.

Potentially our second-best week ever.

For August overall, we were approaching the low $60,000s, with a few days still remaining.

And looking at FY27 overall, we're currently tracking around $757,000 annualised against my target of $750,000.

That's encouraging.

Especially because this is our first financial year operating under the new company structure.

Where The Revenue Is Coming From

Something else I've been watching closely is how much the mix of the business has changed.

We're approaching roughly $118,000 in FY27 revenue so far.

Only around $10,000 of that has come from the traditional model of us buying stock ourselves and selling it.

Consignment has already generated roughly $49,000.

Cameras around $30,000.

Live around $25,000.

There are smaller amounts coming through wholesale, e-waste, services and some experimentation with other platforms as well.

That's really interesting to me.

Because if you'd shown me those numbers a few years ago, I probably wouldn't have recognised my own business.

It used to be:

Buy clothing.

List clothing.

Sell clothing.

Repeat.

Now the business is becoming much more about moving inventory and creating different pathways for it to sell.

I think that's an important evolution.

Good Business With Good People

Another reminder this week came from one of my media buyers.

I've talked before about the importance of good relationships in business.

This week reinforced it.

We had a whole stack of media, games and other inventory ready for one of our regular buyers.

He came in.

Looked through it.

Paid us a strong price.

Loaded it up.

And it was gone.

No photography.

No listings.

No testing every individual item.

No customer service.

No storage.

No waiting three months for everything to sell.

Could we potentially make more money selling every item ourselves?

Maybe.

But that's missing the point.

Time has a value too.

Cash flow has a value.

Warehouse space has a value.

Certainty has a value.

And relationships have a huge value.

If you find someone who consistently does good business with you...

Look after them.

Because when both sides understand how the other makes money, you can build something that continues working for years.

That's far more valuable than squeezing every last dollar out of a single transaction.

The Team

I've also been really grateful watching the team continue to develop.

There was a simple example earlier in the week.

Instead of me doing the normal postage, Dion handled it.

During that time, I worked through a bunch of cameras.

Those cameras generated around $1,000 in sales.

That's exactly why I'm trying to build the team.

It doesn't mean postage isn't important.

It's essential.

But increasingly, I need to ask:

What is the best use of my time right now?

And that's changing.

Our newer team member has also started working through a heap of things that had been sitting around waiting for attention.

Jewellery.

Watches.

Shoes.

Wallets.

Collectibles.

Pyrex.

Other non-clothing inventory.

Those things don't necessarily sound revolutionary.

But every pile of stock sitting untouched is tied-up opportunity.

Someone having the capacity to process it changes that.

But There Is a Problem

Here's where I need to be careful.

This pace isn't sustainable forever.

We're pushing hard.

It's working.

The results are good.

But I'm tired.

And I know that continually adding Live shows, inventory and opportunities while expecting myself to fill every gap isn't the solution.

I'm still looking for another person to join the team and help host Live.

That's becoming increasingly important.

Because proving that we can do something and designing it so we can do it sustainably are two completely different things.

This week proved the demand and the capability.

The next challenge is capacity.

Revenue Isn't Everything

There's another reality underneath all of these bigger numbers.

Costs are going up too.

We've added another team member.

There have been unexpected expenses.

Operating costs continue increasing.

And next month is shaping up to be an expensive month as well.

So while I'm incredibly grateful to potentially finish August somewhere around $65,000–$67,000 in revenue, that doesn't mean all of that money belongs to me.

Far from it.

We're currently sitting around $6,000 in profit before the month fully closes out.

That number should improve with the final few days, although I'll probably pay myself some additional money as well.

And that's something I'm trying to become increasingly disciplined about.

Revenue is exciting.

But cash flow, margin and profit are what keep the business alive.

I want growth.

But I want good growth.

The Bigger Picture

I keep coming back to something:

I'm not trying to build the biggest possible business.

I'm trying to build a better business.

One with multiple ways to make money.

One where good people have clear responsibilities.

One with processes that don't completely collapse under additional volume.

One where technology removes unnecessary work.

One where strong relationships make inventory easier to move.

And eventually...

One where I'm not required to personally hold every piece together.

We're definitely not there yet.

But I think weeks like this are how we get there.

Push.

Find friction.

Fix it.

Push again.

Question of the Week

Here's something worth thinking about:

Where is the friction in what you're trying to build?

And more importantly...

Are you avoiding it?

Or are you deliberately exposing it?

Sometimes the thing slowing you down isn't something to be frustrated about.

It's simply pointing at the next problem you need to solve.

Fix enough of those problems and eventually something interesting happens.

The thing that used to feel difficult...

Becomes normal.

Running one Live show used to feel like a massive undertaking.

Now we're running them throughout the week.

Hiring my first person once felt like a huge step.

Now we're building a team.

Operating from a warehouse once sounded ridiculous.

Now it's where I turn up every morning.

That's growth.

Not everything suddenly becoming easy.

Just continuously increasing what you're capable of handling.

And then doing it all again.

One week at a time.

Building a business to suit my lifestyle.

Until next week,

Chris

Building a Business to Suit My Lifestyle