Sweets and Trees

Today will be the first official opportunity to sell fudge to the kids during their study break. For now we will be stocking small packets of chips and fudge. I'm not sure how long we will keep going with the fudge, but for now it seems to be very popular. My cash is still at such a level that the fudge sales provides a significant boost, percentage wise, so as long as this remains true, I will be investing in the business.

One question that begs answering is, how long do I invest a major part of my capital in the sweets business? Part of this question is also what to do with the small business, that Tanya and I are building, once we reach the point where the income from selling sweets is extremely small relative to other ventures. At the moment I'm weighting two options. Firstly to employ someone to handle the sales for us, or alternatively sell the opportunity and market. This is still early days, and as such these questions do not have to be answered immediately.

The lesson I have learned from my own experience, and from seeing what other people have experienced during their participation in the challenge, is that there is a delicate balance between over- and under-stocking. If you are understocked, you might loose potential income, and worse yet you may loose customers. If on the other hand you are overstocked the perceived value of your product drops, and your cash gets locked up in goods. Especially in the food and drinks market, this might be a problem, as most of these products have some sort of sell by date. Also the unavailability of cash can disqualify you from other lucrative opportunities. My approach is to diversify my portfolio together with an slower expansion of stock size. Selling R20 worth of fudge might mean doubling your money, that does not mean that the same will be true if you immediately try to obtain R40 worth of fudge.

Speaking of diversification, I will be selling bonsai starter kits. I have always had a deep love for and interest in these small trees. Recently Tanya and I bought a number of trees and started out own little bonsai project. If you want to buy a "bonsai" at a nursery you pay quite a steep price, so I figured we are able to produce the same product at a better price. Watch this space for the advertisement/official announcement. There will be a number of options available, ranging from simply a freshly trimmed tree planted in it's first pot, to a full starter kit, including a quick and dirty little manual, basic tools, your first tree and bonsai pot. These starter kits are just that, starter kits, so you will have the opportunity to shape your tree the way you want to. Both types of trees we use have character from the get go, so you can display them from day one.

Get one!