7 Years and Counting…

Did I mention that time is flying by…? Can’t believe it’s already end of October which means I’ve been actually doing Netmag for 7 years and now on to it’s 8th! Who knew a simply hobby would translate into a full on career/business that I guess I still love doing. 2020 has been a tough year for me not from a business profitability standpoint, but more so on my mental and physical ability to keep up with the business growth. Of course I am forever grateful for the support and continued support my customers and supporters have given me to date, but the hard part that comes with business growth is keeping up. When I first started Netmag one of the biggest problem was that I didn’t have enough stuff to sell and I had all the time in the world to search high and low for products that I love that I believe would sell for higher either instantly or over time. That was fun to say the least because I was moving at my own schedule/pace and “working” without it really feeling like work. I honestly miss that part of Netmag the most because it didn’t really feel like a job and I was having fun and making some side pocket change. 2020 has been the complete opposite… I have TOO MUCH product that I often fail to keep up.

I’m not trying to say I’m not having fun now, but I do have to admit it feels more like a full time job than doing what I love compared to what it was in the past. When your business grows, so does your WORK associated with the increased customer growth…and what I mean by that is…more customer emails, more customer problems and more downstream issues such as shipping and blah blah blah. I’m fortunate to be in a position to have established the business connections over the years to be where I’m at right now, but the biggest challenge for today is that I’m not able to work at my own pace and schedule anymore. I’m working with others and that means I can’t slack off if I wanted to. Working with someone’s schedule means if they need to push product, you do too…and trust me…when it comes to products coming to market, there’s no stopping…atleast I don’t feel like it ever stopped since in 2020 turned the corner. Though the work has increased, the positive out of all of this is the bottom line of the business has benefited. 2020 probably will end up being the best year for the business to date because I’m constantly forcing myself to push harder with the insane amount of product pushed down by brands.

All in all I’m certainly not complaining because many can only dream of being in the position I’m currently in including myself 7 years ago. Back then I just wanted to grow as fast and big as I could to establish myself in the sneaker game, but who knew I would actually get there. It’s safe to say 2020 has served to be a year where I realized I think i’m at my max growth capacity and that I know for sure I don’t want to grow any bigger than Netmag currently is. I don’t inspire to be a multi million dollar business…I just want to make enough to be happy in life and do what I want to do with financial freedom. At the very least I know I never ever have to work a 9-5 corporate job ever in my life and having the freedom to still do what I love in sneakers… I guess if you think of it this way, the added stress isn’t that terribly bad after all. Anyways, if you are and have been a Netmag supporter and you got this far in terms of reading…just know I appreciate from the bottom of my heart and here comes the 8th year!