I know it has been years since I have used my blog page here at WordPress. But This seems like the best place to get my thoughts down concerning some upcoming changes to Black Bear Forge and the way I accept and process orders.
For years I have had a website with a simple shopping cart system that allowed people to order and pay upfront for a variety of items. Those orders would then go into the queue and hopefully be completed and shipped in a timely manner. While this works and allows the customer to secure their place in the queue, it has become a very burdensome way of doing business. It was great when I had 10 – 20 orders in the queue and lead times of about 4 weeks. But as more and more people started buying my products the list grew faster than I could keep up. At one point I had nearly 100 prepaid orders pending in the queue. Thats a lot of people with lots of expectations on receiving their order in a timely manner. When you factor in the little things that life brings your way to keep you out of the shop, things like injuries, bad weather, family vacations and so on. the wait times can not only be long, but also extremely difficult to predict accurately. Currently working a 60 plus hour work week, I anticipate lead times of about 16 weeks.
So the time has come to put the brakes on an regain control and hopefully a more sane approach to doing business and taking orders. In the next month or so i will start the process of removing the ordering option form the items listed on my web site. This is also to prepare for a completely new and revised web site. Once all of the options for ordering and prepaying for items is gone from the web site I will concentrate on the current backlog of orders. With no new orders being accepted I hope the backlog will start to clear out in a more timely manner.
Once things are back under control I plan to use a slightly different approach to making items for sale. Instead of accepting an endless number of paid in full orders I will make items for sale so that if you pay for the listed item it is available and ready to ship. To facilitate that system I am looking at simply using my Etsy shop at: http://www.blackbearforge.etsy.com This will make my life and the listing of things for sale much simpler since Etsy is designed just for this purpose.
But I know that some people will miss out on limited production runs or one of a kind items unless they just happen to look at the shop at the right time. So with that in mind I will also be starting an unpaid waiting list. I will add names to the list with no deposit. The list is not an obligation to buy nor does it guarantee I will make a given item when I get to your name on the list (so if you get on the list hoping for a sword or a driveway gate, you’re still going to be out of luck). As the time allows between stocking the Etsy shop, building stock for shows and trying to live a life outside the shop, I will slowly take a few names on the list. At that time we will discuss your project quote a price and accept a deposit with full payment due on completion.
I hope this all makes some sort of sense. I also hope that it allows me the freedom both in the shop to make what I am inspired and excited about making at any given time. But also the freedom to live life without feeling like I cannot enjoy a day off because the list keeps getting longer an longer by the day. After all we have been building our home for 10 years and I haven’t done a full weeks work in the last two years due to the overwhelming amount of work in the shop.
Thank you for everyone who has been supporting Black Bear Forge. I won’t be going anywhere, just destressing the process a bit.