September was a big month for Nerd Nation. We made major progress building our new POS, continued pushing marketing harder, had one of our best management meetings yet, brought on some great new hires, and continued moving toward our yearly sales goal.

We are still feeling some of the late summer and early fall slowdown.

Sales Update

Our sales goal for the year is $3.5 million.

At the end of August, we were at $2,118,892.61, or 60.54% of our goal.

At the end of September, we are now at $2,384,156.41, or 68.12% of our goal.

That means we moved $265,263.80 closer to the goal this month and increased our progress by 7.58 percentage points.

We still need $1,115,843.59 to reach the goal, which means we have 31.88% left to go.

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

Other Sales includes Whatnot sales.

New POS

One of the biggest things this past month was building our new POS.

We are officially giving Fulcrum the middle finger and saying see ya never.

There are still bugs and things we are working through, but overall the launch has gone really well. This has already helped speed up sorting, processing, and other parts of the business. It also gives us the ability to build new features that we either could not do before or would have been way more difficult to do in Fulcrum.

One example is the membership program coming soon.

We were also able to build in more protections for the business. I do not believe this was a major issue before, but in Fulcrum, staff could apply store credit, change prices, and make other adjustments without the same level of logging or evidence. Our new system gives us more visibility and more control, which is important as we continue growing.

This is a huge step forward for the company.

Marketing

We have put a lot of effort into marketing this month.

We are trying different things in general, but especially with Manhattan, to see what we can do to help that store grow. I am also trying to take more ownership of marketing and make it feel more like Nerd Nation and more like me.

After thinking about it, I realized we have not always done enough to set ourselves apart from our competitors. Some of our biggest competitors are not going to try anything edgy, different, or risky with their marketing.

I cuss like a sailor. Obviously, we are a public-facing business, so we cannot just drop F-bombs left and right, but I do think our marketing should reflect who we are more than it has.

That is part of why you have seen posts like F It Free Shipping, Stop Dickin’ Around, and the OnlyFans joke content.

Not everything will land perfectly every time, but I would rather us try things, learn from them, and keep improving than be boring and forgettable.

Management Meeting

We had a management meeting this past month, and I think it went really well. Honestly, it was probably the best one we have had.

We are always trying to get better, and I think the meeting helped us get more aligned on what matters most right now.

For the time being, we are putting Store 3 on hold. We still want to open another store eventually, but right now our priority is shifting toward getting ready for Q4 and making the most of it.

We are also working on an online shop where customers will be able to shop items from our stores from anywhere in the United States. That is going to be a big project and a big opportunity for us.

Nerd Nation Celebration After Hours

Justin is working on setting up a Nerd Nation Celebration After Hours, so shoutout to him for spearheading that.

The idea is to have a night of pizza, drinks, hanging out, and playing games at the Shawnee store. It sounds like it will be on a Friday at 8, but Justin should have more information coming soon.

I think this will be a great chance for everyone to relax, hang out, and enjoy the store together outside of normal work.

New Hires

We hired Trina, Jadon, and Hazel this past month.

The three new hires have been kickass so far, and I am really glad they joined the team. We are already seeing major improvements.

We are still looking for retail associates for the stores, but I am really happy with the people we brought on this month.

Leadership and Communication

I want to take a minute to talk about my leadership style and communication style.

I want people to like working here. I want Nerd Nation to be a place people enjoy coming to. That is why we try to keep things fun, why we allow flexibility, and why we try to work with people on schedules. I understand that life happens during the day. Doctor appointments, DMV visits, family stuff, and random life things come up.

Because of that, we are more flexible than a lot of workplaces.

But the hard part is that sometimes people take advantage of that flexibility. Sometimes people just do not come in, and that causes issues either downstream or upstream for everyone else. We do not track your days missed, sick days, or every time you have had to call out, but some people take way more time than they would be able to take at almost any other job.

This may sound like it contradicts what I just said, but if you really need a day, just be honest with us. If you need a mental health day or you are just not in a good spot, say that. Do not fake it. We can usually tell.

Sometimes we let a lot slide because of the type of business we are and because we want people to want to be here. Then we see people screwing off, doing nothing, moving slowly, or acting like they can do whatever they want.

When that happens, it makes us question why we are giving that level of flexibility in the first place.

I love this team. I am proud of this team. Some of you have grown a lot, and I absolutely see it. I appreciate what you all do for this company.

My goal is to keep building a great place to work. I want this to be somewhere you want to be. But a lot of the things we want to do for the team take money, and that only happens if the business keeps growing and everyone keeps doing their part.

How I Communicate

I am direct.

I know I can come across like an asshole sometimes. That is not my goal, but I know it happens.

I have high expectations for everyone here. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect high effort.

I also do not ever expect more out of any of you than I expect out of myself. I would never ask you to do something I would not do myself. I do not love moving heavy boxes, but I will still do it.

One thing I have had to work on internally is how direct I can be when I am trying to get to the point. I do care about the journey, but I am also an efficiency snob. I want to know the important details, what matters, what is blocking the result, and what we need to do next.

Because of that, I know I can come across brash, like I only care about the result. That is not exactly true. I do care about how we got there, especially if something went wrong or if someone needs help. But I also do not want us wasting time on fluff when we need to solve the problem.

Tell me what I need to know so I can give you a response.

That said, sometimes I get the details and realize the person has not really tried to solve the issue themselves yet. Sometimes a quick Google search, checking the system, asking the right person, or spending five minutes trying to solve the problem would have fixed it.

Before bringing an issue to me or your manager, try asking yourself:

• What would Michael do?
• What would Justin do?
• What would Ben do?

That does not mean you should never ask questions. It means try to take a first step before passing the problem off.

Try Doing, Not Overthinking

I move fast.

I do not like creating imaginary issues in my head. I usually figure out the plan, start doing it, and deal with the issues as they come up.

Does that always work perfectly? No.

But a lot of the time, it means we already have something built, something improved, or something moving while someone else is still thinking about every possible thing that could go wrong.

Again, I do not expect perfection.

But I do think we have to be careful not to overthink ourselves into doing nothing. Sometimes I see people spend 10 minutes thinking about something when they could already be 10 minutes into the task and halfway to solving it.

Try doing. Try solving. Try moving.

Be a Problem Solver

A lot of this comes back to one thing: be a problem solver, not a problem creator.

I love solving problems. I love seeing something that is broken, slow, annoying, or inefficient and finding a way to fix it.

We had a buying problem in store, so I built a website.

Our POS was missing features we needed and wasting a ton of our time, so we replaced it.

That is the kind of thinking I want us to keep building here.

If you see a problem, think about how to solve it. If something is inefficient, think about how to improve it. If customers keep asking the same question, think about how we can make it clearer. If something keeps slowing you down, bring a possible solution.

I am not asking everyone to build a POS or rebuild the website. I am asking everyone to think like a problem solver.

If there are things I need to explain better, tell me. My goal is not to just be an asshole. My goal is to keep making Nerd Nation better.

Looking Ahead

September was a big month, and October, November, and December are going to matter a lot.

We are heading into Q4, and this is the part of the year where we need to be locked in. We need to keep improving the POS, keep pushing marketing, keep building the website, keep buying inventory, keep processing quickly, and keep making the stores better.

We are at 68.12% of our $3.5 million goal, and we still need $1,115,843.59 to get there.

We are in a strong position, but we still have a lot of work to do. We also have a lot of momentum.

Let’s keep pushing.