What are YOU Going to do differently in 2026?

[bonny]

Everyone has a different focus, but I bet we have a lot of similarities. 

[rtfulk]

There are a couple of things we are doing different in 2026.

1. We are canceling our CommentSold account, live shows are starting to die out.

2. I am currently finishing up our new mobile app, before CommentSold hosted it with built in live shows, when we cancel we will lose the app. So I am building our own, I will have all the control of the app then.

3. We have dropped one fair this year, another next year and one more in 2028. That will leave us with 6 fair when we turn 64. That will be enough.

4. More time for us to travel and enjoy life.

I like number 4 more than the others. 🙂

[bonny]

Sounds wonderful, especially #4.  Make it so.  

@bonny 

[JUYBoutique20]

Alot of my boutique friends are cancelling their Comment Sold, but they're going live on their socials.  Are you guys pivoting to that or completely eliminating lives.  #4 sounds like perfect, definitely my goal!!!!

[rtfulk]

CommentSold is getting more and more about wanting us to give discounts for all our product and with the new returns they want us to start using they are now longer cost effective.  Plus they ended the 49.99 a month plan giving them 5% of the sales and went to 149.99 and 5% of your sales as the base plan, you figure 5% of your sales, 3% for credit card fees and 149.99 a month it's a definite no for us now.  We have added a Hot deals tab to our website and are just training people with emails and texting to go there and get the same deals we gave on CommentSold. We have one more live scheduled through CommentSold and we are cancelling them.  I finished our new app and it is in the review process, so when we cancel commentsold that app will come down and the new one will be up.

[doc_choc]

We are rationalizing our product offering so it is more manageable

Making our business more reliant to external factors

Taking more time off to enjoy life a little more

(those fairs you do can be so tiring and hardwork...you are doing the right thing there!)

[DinaLRosenberg]

We are staying VERRYYY tight with our inventory on hand. Ordering on demand as we can and not eating up our cashflow with tons of inventory.

[ascoach]

I'm trying to learn to say No.  I usually end up taking on way more than I need to, and it ends up with us working nonstop and before I know it is the end of the year.

Also working to stay more organized and focused on the tasks at hand.

[JUYBoutique20]

This is me as well.  I take on so much more than I need to then by the end of the year I'm ready to pull my hair out.  

[homeprogreen]

Running margins and cost of goods on every single order that comes in the door and adjusting prices accordingly. Also running tighter inventory levels so I am not keeping as much inventory on hand

[TCSlaguna]

We moved to a smaller location last year. It was a great move. We are able to maintain a tighter inventory and focus on best sellers. At the end of the day, it's the data that guides us. 

[Getonthebus]

I have officially ditched Lightspeed for my retail shop and converted everything over to Square and will be utilizing Square for Retail as my POS. I am super excited at the ease with which it operates, great reports that don't take a PhD to generate and super intuitive to train staff. 

Work smarter not harder and minimize expenses when possible and change that bottom line. 

[JUYBoutique20]

I'm transitioning to be more online than in-store.  I love my in-person interactions, but I want to be out of store more than in it.

[VanKalkerFarms]

Honestly, more or less the same.  We have some new equipment coming to replace some 20 year old equipment that will hopefully make that area more efficent.  My issue is both my businesses (A garden center and 3 bakeries) are discretionary spending so as always it seems the economy is my biggest enemy.  So far we have powered thru all and haven't had a down year in the Garden center in over 25 years, but we are always just the one year of we can't buy flowers for the backyard, or we really can't buy donuts.  The Bakeries are definetly feeling the downturn and overall queezy feeling of what is happening.

On a personal side I have started kind of a side hustle with my hobby of 3D printing.  I've already sold enough to pay for 2 more printers so that has potential to be a nice vacation money source, and just something more for me than the last 49 years of grinding the garden center and farm business.