08:13 – Barbara spent some time labeling bottles for me yesterday, and will do more labeling today. As of this morning, I have 2,288 labeled bottles that need to be filled, which, with what’s already on hand, is most of what’s needed for the next batch of 60 chemistry kits and 30 forensics kits. While she was doing that, I was making up solutions: 4 L of iodine solution, 4 L of copper(II) sulfate solution, and so on.
We’re in reasonably good shape in terms of finished-goods inventory for the moment: 41 biology kits, 25 chemistry kits, 20 life science kits, and half a dozen forensics kits. With the exception of the forensics kits, that should be sufficient to take us through June, or nearly so. With the batches already in progress and those we’ll start and finish later this month, I’m hoping we’ll be able to start July with about 90 each of the biology and chemistry kits and 30 each of the others on hand. With a few exceptions, all of which are readily available from multiple sources, we have enough component inventory on hand to build another 700+ kits. Our original goal for 2013 was to double 2012 sales, but through the end of May our actual sales have been quadruple 2012’s. If that holds up, we’ll sell about 1,000 kits this year rather than the 500 we’d planned on.
Barbara visited her dad yesterday and took lunch to him. She said he’s still doing extremely well. With his congestive heart failure and renal failure, there’s no hope of recovery, but Dutch’s personality is back to what it used to be. Barbara is taking the day off from visiting. Frances and Al are taking Sankie over to visit today.