> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://course.pokesignal.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 1.3 ยท The Three Ingredients: Time, Knowledge, Inventory > Build a starting plan from the hours, knowledge, and saleable stock you actually have. Before adding anything to a shopping list, take stock of what you can put to work this week. Start by measuring three resources: time, knowledge, and inventory. Together they determine how much of the first selling loop you can complete. You need time to do the work, enough knowledge to make a defensible decision, and something you are willing and able to sell. Your first plan should be built around the amount of each resource you have now, not the operation you imagine having later. ## Time you can rely on Do not count time that appears only when the rest of life goes perfectly. Count repeatable blocks you can protect most weeks. The work will eventually include evaluating purchases, preparing listings, locating sold items, packing orders, answering customers, and reviewing the numbers. Precise task estimates can wait. Name the hours the business is allowed to use and the limits it must respect. A label such as *evenings* is not a time budget. *Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00 to 10:00, plus one hour on Saturday for shipping and review* is. A small reliable schedule is more useful than a large fictional one because it puts a ceiling on how much inventory and complexity you can accept. Record both the total hours and their shape. Four uninterrupted hours can support different work from eight scattered half-hours. Note any hard constraints as well: orders may need to leave before work, family space may not become storage, or customer messages may have to wait until a set time. ## Knowledge you can use without guessing Knowing Pokemon is not the same as having business knowledge. Useful knowledge lets you make the next decision with reasonable confidence. For a first batch of cards, that might mean you can identify the exact printing, judge its condition consistently, find realistic sold prices, understand the rules of one sales venue, and pack the order appropriately. Expertise in every era, product, or venue is unnecessary. A narrow area you understand is more useful than broad enthusiasm that still leaves every decision uncertain. Write down what you can already do and what would still be a guess. Turn each guess into a specific gap. *I need to learn more* is too vague to act on. *I cannot yet distinguish the three versions of the cards in this box* or *I have not compared my condition calls with the venue standard* tells you what to practice. ## Inventory that is actually available Starting stock can come from cards you already own, but only after you apply the keep-and-sell policy from [Chapter 1.1](/chapters/1-1-the-merchant-mindset). A card is not starting inventory merely because it has a market price. It must be a card you have decided to sell. List that stock conservatively. Record what it is, whether you can identify and condition it, and a realistic amount you could convert after selling costs. Part 2 will make the calculation more precise. For now, the important distinction is between asking-price value on a shelf and money the business can reasonably expect to recover. Cash is not a fourth resource in this model; it is one way to acquire inventory. Record it separately as an acquisition budget, and include only money you have already and deliberately set aside for the business. [Chapter 5.2](/chapters/5-2-bankroll-discipline) develops the full capital policy. ## How the three resources trade A shortage in one resource usually increases the demand on the others: * With little saleable stock or acquisition cash, you may need more time to sort lower-value cards, search for small deals, and build inventory gradually. * With limited knowledge, you need time to research and a smaller batch of inventory on which mistakes remain affordable. * With little time, you need a narrower inventory lane and less handling per sale, even if that requires more knowledge or cash per item. These are trade-offs, not complete substitutions. More money does not make a poor condition call accurate. Deep product knowledge does not list or ship a card. Free hours do not create inventory on their own. The useful question is not which resource can disappear; it is which resource is currently limiting the other two. ## Build your starting-resource inventory Complete one row at a time. Use amounts and named gaps rather than impressions. | Resource | What I can use now | Hard limit or missing skill | First response | | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | Time | \_\_\_ hours in these blocks: \_\_\_ | I cannot regularly: \_\_\_ | Protect, narrow, or remove: \_\_\_ | | Knowledge | I can confidently identify, evaluate, list, and ship: \_\_\_ | I would still be guessing about: \_\_\_ | Learn or test: \_\_\_ | | Inventory | Saleable stock: \_\_\_; acquisition budget: \_\_\_ | Stock gap: \_\_\_; cards not for sale: \_\_\_ | Prepare stock or source within budget: \_\_\_ | Then circle the binding constraint. If time is the constraint, shrink the first batch until it fits the calendar. If knowledge is the constraint, narrow the cards or venue and define one skill to test. If inventory is the constraint, prepare the cards already cleared for sale or source a small batch within the acquisition budget you recorded. Do not solve all three rows at once. Choose the smallest action that improves the limiting row, then take the completed worksheet into [Chapter 1.4](/chapters/1-4-validate-before-you-build). That chapter turns the resources you actually have into a batch of real sales and shows you which assumptions survive contact with the work.