For the past few months, I have been trying to catch up with orders. And I went from a few weeks orders to fulfill, to now 6-7 weeks. Every time I finish one order, I get two more. Working 6-7 days a week hasn’t helped either. But a few days ago I found a helper! And he’s from Europe so he understands my style. We will be making about 5 media consoles in the next month, and they will be slightly different from each other. So I hope to be catching up because every month my lead time increases. And I probably lose sales that way.
In the back of my mind I know I could open up a shop with a few employees and crank out tons of my designs. And I could get my prices down with the volume I’d do. The part of this business I love the most is the design and prototype process. Which leads me to a fork in the road about 6 months ahead. My wife is also a designer, but of couture bridal gowns (SJ Couture). It’s a new company that will be marketing it’s first collection in a couple months. I’ll be helping her in any way that I can: meetings with buyers, photo shoots in May, Fashion Week, interviewing models (I hope), trips to Los Angeles, NY, France, etc.
So my furniture business may go bye-bye, or I may sell it, or I may open up a shop with employees and just do design, and be a boss. I know it doesn’t make sense to close a business that is successful and growing like a weed in the rainy season. So I am considering my options.
And I am doing my first public show at The Willows First Friday sale here in Phoenix on 4/2 from 10am – 2pm. Woohoo!! They sell some beautiful industrial furniture and have expressed an interest in my goods, along with a couple other shops all curiously just a few miles down the road from me.
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