Tis the season ... but is it a season of low sales or high sales, low fraud or high fraud, too little new inventory or too much?
What plans have you put in place? What goals to these plans support? What are your actual expectations, given the changes over the past 3 years?
-Bob.
@downrightspecialkids wrote:We had two days in a row of no power. I was beyond miffed that our 7.5hours of no power on Christmas eve when it was 15 degrees out was due to rolling blackouts by our power company! That should be illegal.
I'll take a rolling blackout over a equipment damaging brown-outs and the possibility of actual loss of power due to equipment overload & failure. We had two 4hr 'breaks' - one while we were sleeping, the other midday that same day. I have my computers set to stay off if the power goes out and then comes back. I've lost too many power supplies to the surge that comes from the entire neighborhood (or city!) turning back on at the same time. Plus we don't always get a clean return of power... sometimes it comes/goes/come/goes for several cycles until it stabilizes. That'll fry a computer as well - and my UPS needs a rather expensive battery replacement (much like a used EV).
I always enjoy seeing which politicians flee the event to someplace warm and sunny... rather than sticking around to help get things back on track. "Vote for me - I'll sork for you (unless it's cold, really rainy, a hurricane or tornadoes...)"
-Bob.
I finished 2022 with 17 sales across my three selling IDs. Considering how little time I put in due to the holidays and family needs, I did ok. My PC parts sales are picking up, so I'm working on getting more of those posted, as well as filling in the solds on the other two IDs
Work is fluctuating. We don't really have a seasonal inventory - we have something for everyone at some time or another. Everything from the kitchen sink to commerial refrigerants. And some toys. 🙂 We put the entire Store on sale, except for what was newly posted in December. The goal was to clear out older inventory and increase our sales count to reduce those 'defect' percentages. What really knots my shorts is when we get "late shipping" defects because USPS didn't pick up for three days straight and then when they did, it was yet another day before they scanned them as accepted. And what's with packages being scanned into a USPS sorting facility and then just sitting around for a week?? Has nothing to do with the cold weather of late -- this has been going on since Jan '22, and to a lesser degree during all of 2021. We pay more for postage and get less service -- gotta love that business model!!
This may also be the year my wonderful wife finally has enough of the games that are being played at work and actually retires. Financially, we'll be fine, but emotionally it's been rough for her. She'll joke about finally being able to binge all day and get thru her Netflix, Prime, and On-Demand must-see lists. But she has problems with doing that for a 5-day vacation.... how's that gonna work for month after month after month?
The grands have gone back to Houston, even tho they were hoping to stay with Daddy. Even tho we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, it was still great to see them again... they are growing like weeds!! Grandpa's having a hard time accepting that his 4-6yr old 'adventure buddy' is not a 13yr old young lady... even tho she did say she's ok with me using her old nickname. 🙂 I can't wait for summer vacation...... 🙂
-Bob.
@downrightspecialkids wrote:@rosachs Bob, which grands live in TX? Tell me Journey isn't 13 already! It must be other grands?
The 7 1/2 hours without power on the coldest day of the year and a holiday was more than just a rolling blackout, IMO. Plus, if they know they're going to do this, couldn't they warn people?
Does your wife have the option to go to part time, if totally retiring would be too much for her? If not, she can always be your listing partner! 😄 I can't imagine having free time on my hands.
Anyhow, December ended pretty low for me with 229 sales and los ASP. I am normally over 300, but with moving and not listing for a good month, I guess I need to be thankful for the sales I did have.
Journey is now 13, Jayson is now 7. Their mother moved to TX last summer, while they were here, then brought them home to TX instead of IA. Mama also got herself in even more potential trouble -- she's supposed to be keeping youngest apprised of where she's living, where the kids are going to school, phone number (yea, she 'lost' another phone)... and 'forgot' to do so. 😞 Like the lawyer said - only she can stop digging that particular hole.
We got notifications from our power company - I created an account on their web services site years ago and attached both our phone numbers. Interestingly, I got the notice a full day before my wife. 🙂
K could go hybrid full-time (x days in the office, x days from home), standard part-time, hybrid part-time, or probably even just work full- or part-time from home. FedEx has always been very tech-positive, so sending the majority of their staff home with laptops (which they already had on their desks instead of a desktop system) was no biggie. The pandemic slowed them up for about a day as everyone got their home space set up, and then it was work as usual...except no in-person interactions.
Problem she's having is that she's ready to retire, but she won't until she gets some focus on what she is going to be doing next. It's highly likely FedEx will bring her in as a consultant when specific issues need to be resolved -- there simply isn't anyone else, or any group of someone elses, who can understand how interactive that whole foundational system is. She was looking into proof-reading, but the reality of the job and her idea of the job didn't mesh - as a job, you're not reading to enjoy, you're looking for grammatical errors, awkward phrasing, misspellings (altho that depends on where/how the writer writes). And you have a deadline -- you don't read at leisure, you push your way thru and get it done done done! 🙂
We've tried working together a few times - it doesn't end well. It's mostly my personality - I tend to pick things up quickly, especially tech, and expect everyone to do the same. Add the (to me) fact that I'm an excellent teacher, and that the job is so super simple (again, to me).... yeah, it just doesn't turn out well. That's why our home design has that huge garage - I can leave in the morning after breakfast and 'return home' later in the day, giving her peace & quiet or just time to do whatever she wants to do.
We do want to travel more, mostly within the US for now. I'm hoping we can squeeze a couple of weekend get-aways (3 or 4 day) this spring/early summer. I really want to spend a week 'back home', before Mom forgets what I look like! 🙂
-Bob.
