Category: Uncategorized

Inspired by the example of , I figured that I would give folks a look at sales trends for Adamant Entertainment.

First, we have our average monthly sales, over the past 5 years. We see this general shape to our sales year to year, regardless of total income.

A spike in sales in March (due to the yearly “March 4th for GMs Day” sale) followed by a slow decline which reaches a low point in September (post GenCon, the gamers have spent their money) followed by a skyrocket in sales for the holidays. (Note that November is often higher than December, because we usually run a sale marking Adamant’s anniversary, which we coincide with the Black Friday post-Thanksgiving weekend event.)

This year, however, was a rollercoaster.

The same basic trend, but extremely exaggerated. The March 4th sale was massive this year — the passing of Gary Gygax occurred at the start of it, which seemed to spark gamers into a mood to dive strongly into their hobby. The November sale was Adamant’s 5th birthday, and we ran a dollar sale on our entire product line — which resulted in a month nearly as big as March. However, December was a sharp drop over usual trends (something reported across the economy, as Christmas sales were slower than usual).

Without the dollar figures (and no, I’m not sharing those…), you can’t see it — but the drop from August through October this year was worse than in previous years — September and October ending up nearly 40% off from the previous year. The sale in November saved our year — but drop in December has me wondering whether we’re trending up or down.

So there you have it. I’m opening the virtual floor to questions, so if you have any — fire away.

The replacement power adapter arrived via UPS.

It works.

Thankfully, it wasn’t my G4 Powerbook that was the problem, but the old adapter. Hooray for relatively inexpensive solutions!

Had to turn down an opportunity today.

An offer for a gig that I’d have *loved* to do, and that had some truly exciting possibilities.

The job would’ve necessitated a major winding-down of my own business, as well as a cessation of the work that I do for others, too. Plus, it would’ve required relocation to another city. A city which interested me, but which also meant that would have been thrown into the job market in current economy….

Still, I was considering it.

Unfortunately, the salary being offered made it essentially a parallel move. I cannot responsibly take on something which would require moving to a new state, uprooting my wife from her current job, etc., for basically what I’m making right now… no matter how cool I think the job would’ve been.

As I was writing this, it occurred to me: This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever turned down a job that I was really interested in, purely because of money. Guess that means that I’m a grown-up now.