We are officially at the halfway point of the year, which is kind of crazy to say. This has already been a big year for us, and overall I feel really good about where the business is headed.

Sales continue to move in the right direction. With two stores now open, it is not surprising that our overall sales are up, but it is still exciting to see the business continue to grow. Our sales goal for the year is $3.5 million, and we are currently at $1,444,899.53, which puts us at 41.28% of that goal.

Here is the breakdown by sales channel, sorted from highest to lowest:

Even though sales are continuing to grow, we are also entering what I would call the summer slowdown. This is pretty normal for our business. During this time of year, fewer people are shopping in-store and online for the types of products we sell. People are spending more time outside, traveling, and doing summer activities, even if the heat has been absolutely unbearable.

So while things are still moving in the right direction, this is also the time of year where we have to stay focused, keep pushing, and make sure we are doing the little things well. We still have a lot of year left, and I expect October, November, and December to be very strong months for us. The work we do now matters a lot. The more we can process, list, organize, clean, test, and prepare during the summer, the better position we will be in when the busiest part of the year arrives.

Team Updates

We recently hired Simeon as our new warehouse manager. I am looking forward to working with him more. He previously helped us out when we would shop at PayMore, and I had a great experience talking with him then, so I am excited to officially have him on the team.

Daylan Little John has returned from Europe and is back working as a game processor. I am excited to have him back and helping with processing again.

Summer has joined the Manhattan team as a retail associate. I think she is going to do a great job over there, and I am excited to see Manhattan continue to grow into an awesome store.

We are currently hiring for a console processor and a Shawnee store associate.

I have been really proud of the team. I feel like we have done a great job hunkering down, especially in the back, and focusing on getting as much as possible completed, processed, sent off to Amazon, or handled within each person’s responsibilities.

I really appreciate everyone continuing to push. It is going to take all of us to reach our sales goal of $3.5 million this year, and that same focus is going to matter throughout the rest of the year.

Manhattan and Cards

Cards continue to be a huge part of the Manhattan store. We are buying cards at an insane rate, and we are going to continue looking at what we can do to increase card sales and keep building that side of the business.

We are also working on a possible staffing adjustment to support Brett with cards. Nothing is fully finalized yet, but the current direction is that Asher may transition to working in the back as Brett’s card assistant, and we would then hire a new manager up front.

I will provide a more official update once we have something solidified, but cards are clearly becoming a major part of what Manhattan does well, and we want to make sure we are supporting that growth correctly.

Whatnot

We brought back Whatnot on June 17, and the first show was a success. We have another show coming up on July 8, and for the rest of the year we are going to be looking at how we can continue selling on Whatnot more consistently.

That may eventually look like doing a show every week, plus one bigger show each month that I host. We are going to keep testing, learning, and figuring out what works best.

I think Whatnot has a lot of potential for us, especially as we continue to build up the platform and get more consistent with it.

Operations and Financial Systems

One thing we implemented this month that we have needed for a long time is dedicated business savings accounts.

We now have a savings account set up for our quarterly sales tax obligation, which is basically 10% of our store sales. In the past, we were usually able to just pull that money from our accounts when the payment was due, but with two stores and higher sales than ever, that is not the best long-term system.

Now we are pulling money every day so we are prepared instead of having a last-minute panic when a large payment is due.

We also have a separate savings account dedicated to paying rent for both locations. That account is currently pulling around 5%, although we may adjust that percentage up or down in the future based on sales and what we need.

This should put us in a much better position operationally. The goal is to reduce the stress around big bills and keep building better systems as the business grows.

Website Updates

The website is continuing to get major updates. As we keep finding ways to improve the customer experience and make the site better, we are going to keep pushing that forward.

The website is a huge part of the business, and we are going to continue improving it as we find more things that need to be added, changed, or upgraded.

Upcoming Event: SEGE

In July, we have SEGE coming up. I will be gone July 15–20, and Thomas, Ben, and Justin will be gone around July 16 or 17 through July 20 as well.

This is our biggest show of the year and my absolute favorite show that we go to. We will be buying a bunch of inventory to bring back and sell through the stores, online, and other channels.

This is always a major opportunity for us, and I am excited to see what we are able to bring back this year.

Internal Future Planning

This part is internal only and not something to share with customers or post publicly.

We are continuing to look at future expansion options. Opening another store has been on my list for a while, but I wanted to make sure we had our feet firmly under us first.

The most likely area we are looking at right now is Columbia, but nothing is guaranteed, and we do not have a location picked out yet. When there is something official to announce, that needs to come from me and our official social channels. Please do not mention this to customers or talk about it publicly, especially because it is not guaranteed yet.

On a bigger-picture level, I also want us to eventually have an official headquarters. That is not something happening immediately, but it is something I want us to work toward over the next year or so.

The Neiman location will not be our long-term headquarters because we do not own the building, and we are already outgrowing the back. If we are going to put a lot of money into building out a truly solid headquarters, I would rather do that in a building we own instead of a building we rent. It is kind of like an apartment — you probably would not replace the walls in an apartment you do not own.

There is no reason for anyone to worry right now about where they would land if that happens. Nothing is solid yet, and there would be a lot of conversations before anyone moved. We are probably still at least a year away from that being a realistic possibility.

Long term, if we do get a headquarters, the goal would also be to make the Neiman store even bigger and turn it into more of our main mega store. It is already our main location in a lot of ways, but I would love to give it more room, carry additional products, spread things out, and do more cool stuff there.

Overall, things are looking good. We are growing, improving systems, building the team, and continuing to push toward a very strong second half of the year.