Is This The End Of Brute Force Studios? This is going to be really long-winded and possibly over-sharing about my business and such. Just thought Iād let you know before you clicked on āread moreā. If you donāt want to read this, Iām sure there are plenty of pictures of kittens, or perhaps Grumpy Cat has said something super funny today. The story thus far: My apologies for just thrusting out there the woes of my company yesterday. Many of you were lovely and very eager to help (and I thank you!), but what I said yesterday was not too terribly useful for that, so I thought further explanation may help. Last year there was a huge flood which knocked out much of my equipment, a massive and expensive repair on my industrial cutting laser (one of the core tools of Brute Force Studios), and the year before we had tens of thousands of dollars in which clients informed us they were unable to pay for the product and were seeking bankruptcy protection. Previous to all of this, I had someone working for me who confessed to other friends of mine their desire to destroy my business; they nearly did so. I weathered all of this. Weāve had a recent change of hands in the office and when I looked at the state of our email correspondence and books, the effect was devastating to me, to say the least. People ask āHow could you let it get that way?ā Well, Iām the writer, the maker, doing lectures, travelingā¦ no one can do this alone. There always has to be others to help, and you canāt watch them all the time. Iām not saying any of this was malicious, but itās still devastating, and I spent so much time fixing these problems that were popping up that there was no way for me to complete all the projects that are here on my books and my table. It is absolutely overwhelming. I really was planning on just completing the orders I have, and folding the company within the next several weeks because I CAN NOT do this alone. All of your offers of help and hope have given me the idea of just seeing if it is possible to fix this, so to that end, instead of just crying āWAH!ā Iām going to list the problems, which may be more effective. -- Fulfillment. I need to get someone else in the shop who is effective, intelligent, and most of all can actually do what theyāre told. Iām not telling people to lick a hot curling iron here; just reasonable stuff. -- Web presence. Yes, Iām all over the web, but so many people donāt even know that what theyāre looking at is necessarily me or mine. -- Well, of course, money. My company has always been underfunded over the past couple of years, because, well, even the nicest, friendliest divorce is still expensive, and my credit was destroyed in this. Iāve been operating out of pocket (quite successfully, really) for years. Because Iāve been working on my latest book, and the office work was not being done correctly, orders and sales have dropped drastically. Yes, it would be great to just hire people to do this, but that requires a huge chunk of orders and income, which would require further help, which requiresā¦..you see how itās circuitous? -- Time. This is always the killer. One of the ways in which Iāve been able to stay competitive and keep the copycats at bay has been to use the laser and proprietary knowledge that I have to create my products. The problem is, Iām the only person who knows how to operate my laser and how to do some of the more complicated pieces, so the pinch point of production is always me. As I am writing the books, appearing on television, operating a laser, and generally being Thomas Willeford, I have not said much about it, but it has been taking quite a toll on me, including two trips to the hospital, strictly because of collapsing from exhaustion. I do appreciate all the offers for help, but thereās not an easy, āquick fixā here. But, you know, you guys may know something I donāt about some of these problems, and all of your help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Thomas Willeford
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:55:33 +0000
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