“Hi. I had to share. I just sent in (a lot of money) and paid off all my business debt.”

I opened the email in early 2022 and knew immediately that I had to talk to Jackie and find out what her secret was.

I needed to hear her story, celebrate her win, and fully understand how she paid off all this debt after working with me for under a year.

“Let’s talk”, I emailed back.

(Click here to read the entire first chapter.)

As I sat in the back room of my flagship store surrounded by boxes of inventory, crying (again), I looked down at what laid on my desk and had an epiphany. It was so profound that I had the wherewithal to pull out my phone and snap a picture. A bottle of tums, a crumpled-up tissue, and the logo of the brand I had grown to despise.

If you exchange goods for dollar bills you have inventory.

Salons that sell shampoo have inventory.

Interior design stores that sell lamps and rugs have inventory.

Subscription box businesses that send out notepads each month have inventory.

Coffee shops that sell bags of coffee beans have inventory.

The importance of inventory is so overlooked. Cute stuff to fill up the shelves. Things people can add onto their service. A reason to go to market twice a year.

But inventory is the lifeblood of a product based business. Your inventory will either load you down with debt or create a surplus of cash.