Have I missed much? (lol)
it’s been quite a while since I frequented the forum with quite a lot happening in my/our little world.
I won’t bore you all with everything (Justin’s aware through PM’s etc) but hopefully I should have more time to visit this fine web-gathering.
In a nutshell, due to some events a few months back I had to make a decision as to which path to go in business. I (like anyone) always want much more and through some events out of my control it lead to a decision that if I wanted to move forward I needed to give it 100% which had to mean 100%. I decided that where I would spend the odd hour every day on the forum I would invest this into trying to improve and push our business at every opportunity. Every little bit of luxury was cut out of my lifestyle, it was family or business and I knocked on every door I could find and sent hundreds of emails to contacts I had.
After a few weeks this started to pay off and I became busier and busier but then I had the opportunity to work with a cartoonist that had been drawing and illustrating for over 20 years (some very famous characters). He only walked into the shop to have a few images put onto t-shirts for a comic convention which then lead (a few weeks later) to him suggesting that he create some brand new characters that would be featured on merchandise and also appear in a web-comic through an interactive website updated regularly. We signed a contract giving us exclusive rights to merchandise until 2020.
These characters then developed into a world with map and the project was becoming huge, and I spoke to a very large charity regarding donating a percentage of every item sold to their charity. They jumped at the chance and rightly so, and (to be honest) from a business point of view, having a charity attached to a project would only bring more to the table.
Well that was then, and I’m now sorry to say that the ‘project’ is no more – due to unforeseen circumstances (not on my/our behalf) we had to cut ties and pull out of the project. It wasn’t due to budget or anything and the amount of time, effort and money invested was substantial enough for it to be very, very disappointing.
I had spoken to Justin about this a few months ago and must have sounded like a big kid and I was looking forward to posting about the project and introducing you all to the characters but sadly, as the cartoonist owns the copyright to these images I can’t mention them by name or post any images.
Why am I explaining all this then you may ask?
Well, things were looking bad to be honest from a business point of view. It’s one thing making a Granny so pleased as you print her cat on a mug that she tells everyone at the bingo club, but that’s not going to help you invest into the future if you have ideas and plans. So, I gave it 100% and a business opportunity came up that (to be honest) could have been very, very profitable – but, the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side (as they say).
For now, we get by. We’re having more and more orders, compared to last year we are a lot better but (like everyone) there’s always room for improvement.
But – the good news is, I have more time to read and post on here so if I repeat or ask a question that’s been asked please poke me in the eye and direct me to where I should go.
Finally, as all this was happening the only person (from the forum) I spoke to was Justin and I just want to say ‘Thank You’ as I know you’re probably very, very busy but still find time for others – a good man indeed
