So the two guys from George S. May seemed to come from an accounting background, and after combing through reports and numbers with them, they made several logical (and one unwelcome) recommendation.
They provided me with a binder filled with plans that make sense for the most part, and when I went over some of the items with my staff, they informed me that the analyst had discussed some of the items with them (I wish she had discussed/ summarized these items with me, and I feel a bit jipped, but what can be done now).
They also furnished me with a weekly payment plan to pay the $6,000 bill that I had no idea a week prior that I would incur, so now there is an additional struggle to pay for that.
I was surprised to learn that I had actually lost 8,000 last year on vending at conventions which I had been doing (in my mind) to pay the bills on my two stores. So it is definitely time to take more weekends off and to stop forcing myself to work at shows with no payoff.
They recommended that I re-condense my stores immediately, which would save over a hundred grand, and would make my life easier, but I am having a hard time admitting that I have wasted thousands of dollars and months of efforts in splitting my brands. This may still happen, but I feel a personal need to try to put in place things I haven't had but have been working on (such as two functional websites).
They recommended cutting staff costs and any other possible expense in order to alleviate a projected loss of 50,000 by the end of this year.
I called an emergency meeting of my staff to discuss these items and they were cool with it for the most part. I told them that if we can make 50,000 profit during October and November (our two busiest months) that 10% of that would be split between them based on 10 performance items per person/share (a recommendation the analyst made the first day we met).
The consultant team recommended implementation of a strategic inventory plan to eliminate the insane problems we have had in keeping key merchandise in stock and in holding on to unproductive merchandise. I haven't stopped working on that since we met at the beginning of the month.
Buying, selling, and management procedures all have to change and I have to find other business people with whom to meet on a regular (maybe monthly) basis to chat about managing my business (since I don't have a board of directors and I cannot afford expensive consultants).
Anybody out there want to do lunch? My treat?
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