Staying On Top

I suppose it's as good a time as any to sit down and write a few words. I started with such a flourish here on this blog, and have since thought about it often but never just sat down and started typing.

Usually I find something else "more constructive" to do. Maybe it's preparing an order that comes in. Maybe it's sweeping and mopping (because too many adults told me when I was a teen that "if you got time to lean, you got time to clean" and it stuck). Maybe it's going through the old boxes and packing materials that I refuse to get rid of, because I just know they're going to come in handy one day.

Today I have decided that I'd rather talk to all of you about, of all things, staying on top of things. 

As much as I love this particular sales platform, it still causes me to have to manually check everything in the store every week or two. I can't figure out why it doesn't always count correctly, or better how Rob and I can't seem to count correctly, but at least once per month I re-inventory everything.

This is how I recently discovered that we were very short on red wheat malt. It's how today I discovered that we only have a few packets of Saaz hops left in the freezer. I also noticed that I'm running desperately low on coffee pods, and if I don't get more by next week I'm going to be in quite the fix.

There is also shipping things to stay on top of. Do I have enough boxes left? How many bags have I used (this is actually something I have to report on our sales tax return each quarter)? Where is my next shipment of products and why is it always stuck for an extra day in a warehouse in New Jersey?

I feel like, on the whole, I'm doing an OK job staying on top of everything. Sure, I have my moments where inventory runs dangerously low and I have to make emergency orders (that Saaz, anyone?), but I'm still learning how to do this. 

For reasons I won't get in to here, I have had to start driving my children to school each morning. This morning my wife came with us, making the boys very happy. She immediately started commenting on my driving, and when I'd done what she asked I said "well is there anything else you'd like to comment on?" 

She said "I'm proud that you said you were going to start a business and you actually did it."

I've been on top of the world all day. I want to stay here.

- Matt