There are two ways to grow my wealth under my current business model: 1) grow sales; 2) grow profit margins (i.e. each unit of sale makes more profits than it used to).
A great visual way to watch a business growing year after year is to look at the annual cohorts showing monthly cumulative growth for each year.
This allows you to get a instant sense of how a year is going vs prior years and what to expect (or need to do) in the coming months.
Cohort charts of my Eve Online Business
I mainly do Regional Trading. I buy from Sell Orders in Jita and put the items up for Sale in other Regional Trading Hubs. I limit myself to 45 minutes a day doing this.
On the charts below, the y-axis is billions.
So take the first chart below "Cumulative Sales".
Firstly it shows for each year how the sales build through the year.
Secondly it shows the rise in total sales as the year goes by for each year from when i re-started in 2020 to the current year 2025 to end of May.
For the Sales chart three things stand out. 1) the growth years were 2021, 2022 and 2023. 2) growth tends to accelerate in the second half of the year; and 3) 2024 and 2025 are not showing any real growth vs 2023.
If i want my business to grow then this is a problem. And i need to diagnose it.
My item profits in 2024 started to grow on 2023 from around August. Item profits are the simple Sale price less purchase price of the items i trade (so before taxes and courier costs).
Likewise, my pre-distribution profits grew on 2023 from around August.
I put this growth in profits down to the 2-for-1 MCT / Omega sale last June which meant i entered the Skill Farming industry and i effectively bought 12 months of Omega for free. I think that explains the no real growth in Sales vs the step up in profits.
The step down in profits for 2025 in recent months is in part slightly lower sales vs 2024 but also a rise in competition in Blueprints in four of my trading locations. So growing relisting fees. I get that and i am not complaining.
So, it seems a problem with Sales
I need to grow sales.
I may have run into the maximum i can make with the time available.
One thing i did do was move my focus to items selling for at least 500 million isk to help me manage my time better. That may be a headwind to sales growth - i will look into this.
Actions taken so far to grow sales again
I have started manufacturing. Only 1 month in, so no useful observations to make.
What i have noticed is that i now have 7 Omega Accounts with all but three of the characters in High Sec. That's 21 characters in total. When i get the time i will set up Planetary Industry again and set the extraction to 14 day cycles. Lets see if that generates any profits - it will, the question is how much vs time taken. Lets see what 21 x 6 = 126 planets doing PI mostly in highsec can get me! Or lets see if i burn out!
I need to set up trade locations in null sec or low sec. From what i hear from other traders, this can be lucrative.
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