Dear Staff,
If you were to look only at revenue, it was a poor year, with some customers' sales down by as much as 40% from the year prior, and an overall sales drop of about -2%. If you were to look at overall products sales, we are down too in many products (even calendar sales are down from last year).
But if you look at it from the perspective of growth potential, that is, how diverse is the range of products, how many channels of distribution that you have, then we are moving from one basic product to a wide open future in souvenirs. Whereas in 2013 almost 95% of our sales came from just map products, today 50% of our income comes from non-map products like our successful Bag Bling, Magmentos travel accessory and souvenir lines.
Considering that many of our customers have suffered a 20-50% drop in map sales, we have done VERY WELL in diversifying our product base, and should be PROUD OF OUR EFFORTS in 2014.
But this does not mean we were financially successful, which is used to determine profits and bonuses. On the financial level, in raw cash flow (money in, money out), we have a slight outflow (less cash in, more cash out from savings), and very low profit on paper.
So, while I have always paid bonuses in December for 19 years, we cannot afford it now and will have to wait till Songkran or June to reevaluate and see our cash situation. We also cannot raise salaries if our own "company salary" amount is less than last year. That is not smart to do when we need all extra cash to re-invest for the long-term profits.
If we do the following, we will do great in 2015:
1. Take Bag Bling and Magmentos to all stores under our control. They offer proven product paths, and we can keep adjusting to find the best sellers and stock more of them. Magmentos make up 12% of our sales this quarter and are growing fast.
2. Create new product lines that will contribute to profits and sales.
3. Set targets by account and by customer. This will give us something very clear to aim for.
4. Develop a system for stores to report stock and reorders direct to us. We cannot visit hundreds of stores monthly, and hire extra people to do this. If we pay others to make reports for extra cash, we will see extra cash too.
Lastly, I thank you for patience. We are towards the end (I hope) of the "Great Depression," one of the worst economic environments in America and Europe for the last 100 years. We could not have pulled through it without your commitment and hard work. Thank you thank you thank you.