It was all for nothing! After yesterday’s almost optimistic rant about the Jeep’s yellow warning light the business consultant promptly emailed to say that I couldn’t even spell “Lambda Sensor” (to which I pleaded the Dagenham exception – the Ford Focus has a “Lamda Sensor” dunnit).
But Mr Sparks (Automotive Electronics) had the last word. “Nothing to do with the sensors, it’s probably a Jeep thing. You’d best talk to them”. And the yellow warning light is back on. Oh, sod it!
Talking of the business consultant I’ve taken a peek at the latest Business Plan thing he sent me (just in case you are interested). It asks killer questions about quantifying your plan with market research statistics. Oh lordy, what bookseller on earth (with the exception of W H Smith and Borders who are not proper booksellers) ever gave a moments thought to market research.
My plan is simple. My business needs to “make” £350 a day to cover its costs and continue trading on a level plane. To achieve this magic figure I need to sell a whole load of books and some will make me £1 each and others £10 each. Now wouldn’t life be simple if every day I sold exactly 35 of the £10-margin books, a bell would ring and the Nappa would rush home to continue his vertical tasting of Hendrick’s Gin vs. Gordon’s Distillers Cut, or even swing a golf club. Sadly I have to be as interested in the £1-margin books as I do the £10-margin because it is the final total that matters, not the split of low-margin/high margin.
After that provocative statement (which will probably cause burst blood vessels chez the Business Consultant) I’ll turn to calmer ranting waters …such as the utterly ridiculous brainlessness of West Sussex people when confronted with murky early morning fog. The white van drivers en route from Chichester to Petersfield come pelting through the village at twice the speed of normal, and in Nyewood, would you believe, unlit cyclists dice with death, and on every country lane hitherto never seen wide-load tractors with virtually no lighting come out to join the fun, and the wretched, lazy pheasants, and the munkjacks, and, and, and ….
Old fogey, less-than-totally-successful bookseller, husband, parent and grandparent holds forth on his own issues of the day.
About Me
- Rumbling Nappa
- Sometimes referred to as the Rumbling Nappa I occasionally return to blogging. This time it is to comment on the Languedoc marriage of my neice, Louise Ticehurst to Rich Astley.