Replying to [Street Smart]:

Hello there,

Sounds interesting to share the personal views and perhaps get some more ideas. Here is what happened in 2007

- 1st quarter was a slow start this year, the textile market has been
flooded with cheap Chinese products, in addition to that big
companies have shifted to cheap products in big volumes
and slowly but surely pushing away the small to medium sized
business. This trend has been going on since 2001, but 2007 was
it has become more visible and has effected our business as well.
In order to keep up my sales
~ I changed my product line and targeted a different Age group
~ My shops appearance had to be adjusted accordingly
~ In addition to what all the other shops were saleing, I got some
of their similar products and sold them at a lower profit margin
to give my customers all they needed at one place

- 2nd Quarter was a tough one this year, the textile business is
dependent on the Weather, if the Weather doesn´t match, its
obvious people don´t buy the summer clothing if its still cold outside
That was something hard to fight with, the only thing possible was
to bring out a some stocks from the winter.

- 3rd Quarter was similar to the 2nd, just reverse, this time it was the
Fall season, and it was hot as it should have been in the Summer.
So we kept our Summer collection, and just added up some Fall
products.

- 4th Quarter only season that really matched out of this whole year,
the changes I initiated starting this year, has shown effect, the sales
have kept a steady line, except for the 2nd Quarter (of which we
unprepared for). Although I must say that consumption power has
gone down, compared to years before, currently we are only having
1/4 of the sales we had 4years ago, which I see from the this years
report compared to the earlier reports. Not much we can do about.

As for my Scrap business, the beginning of 2007 was pretty good, I have had a pretty unexpected high turnover in the first half of this year, but due to the weak dollar, its been a slow second half of 2007.

My business resolution for 2008 is

- To divert my attention to 100% scrap business
- To rent out my Building, in which I currently do my business, which
in turn will give me a financial independence
- That in turn will help me to work on my textile business with a
different style, and possibly tie up with some of my partners for a
better teamwork and broader perspective

Of course there are many other things I would like to do, but this here are the basic steps that will allow me to get to what I dream off. Its obvious that it takes a lots of hard work.

Would like to hear all the ideas of the other business partners.