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Business Restructuring Imminent [IMPORTANT]
8 months ago
Normally I try to keep my news as positive as possible, because I don't like to spread anything less than neutral, but there have been a few things nagging at me for... a while, and with the more recent round of expenditures, I feel it's a good time to air out some laundry.
Now to clarify, I'm not upset, I'm not going away, and I'm most certainly not going to give my naysayers the satisfaction of a poorly earned "I told you so," but SFS will be going quiet and inactive for a while; here's why:
1: The revolving cost of maintaining an LLC in the state of Kansas—the registered agent service, annual reports, and license renewals—are reaching a point in contrast to my personal income (that is what I make outside of the business to pay my bills) as to cause me a large amount of financial strain. Simply put, on the 9k$ usd per year that I make for working on my family's farm, I cannot afford to add between 300$ and 500$ every year to my current debt load.
2: No sales means no justification. Without sales of any kind coming in via in person or online, I cannot justify the costs of having the company be an LLC, especially with the consideration that 99% of my work is custom orders, and of that 95% is in either research and development or planning, or limited to a certain time of year in which I can work due to my working area not being in a temperature controlled area.
3: Complaints regarding prices. Now, for the record, no one I've worked with through this site is the reason for this bullet point. I was invited to a sale approximately a year ago, in which I displayed several of my products. Nearly every single person who asked about the products I had on display said exactly the same thing, my prices were too high. Now, to put this in context, up to that point I did not charge time/labor for my products, and told several of the people who were making the accusation that the pieces they were asking about were "at cost," meaning that the prices I was asking were for the cost of material only. So, with the insinuation that what I sell is worth less as a finished piece than the raw material in mind, moving forward as I restructure the business, my prices and my attitude about them will be changing—to everyone's detriment.
Now, with all that in mind, over the course of the coming year I'll be closing down the business to dissolve the LLC, and reinstating it through my city office as a sole proprietor (or something like that.) I'll also be focusing more of my work time (the time I spend of SFS projects) on writing, painting, and 3d printing, with writing taking the highest priority, as I currently have two books in the works, one of which is nearing the halfway point in terms of being ready to publish.
As I'm dissolving the company to reopen it as a non-LLC entity, I'll be going to an exclusively private customer base, and more production appropriate prices. This means that 1: since I don't like doing advertising, I won't be; if you want something, message me, but don't wait for me to say I'm "open" for commissions, because that won't be happening again—it simply doesn't work with my kind of products. 2: All prices, on all products moving forward are going to reflect at least a small portion of time/labor costs; since federal minimum wage where I live is 7.25$ per hour, there is a better than likely chance that prices for quite a few items will reach and breech the 100$ barrier that I wanted so very badly to avoid breeching.
Examples of this are the paintings that I'm planning to start doing being set at a firm 1$ per square inch at the lowest, and 5$ per square inch at the highest. Laser etchings will still be priced the same. Jewelry—be it wire or chainmail—will be set at 7.25$ per hour (at a minimum of 10 hours, that's 72.50$) plus tax and material. Any reading material will be priced according to the printer's suggestion per format.
Keep in mind that no one whom I've done business with here, via email, telegram, or discord has been the cause of the changes I'm implementing, they are a direct result of not having the financial where-with-all to maintain the costs of an LLC, and the in person feed back I've gotten regarding pricing. Due to these two factors alone, I see no other options. If this isn't to anyone's liking, I sincerely do not apologize.
With that said, I'll try to keep everyone in the loop as to what I put up for sale, and what I plan to offer, as well as prices and links for ordering. The dissolving and reformation of the company will be done within a few weeks, but in that time I won't be doing any business as I won't legally be able to. After that everything changes.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Now to clarify, I'm not upset, I'm not going away, and I'm most certainly not going to give my naysayers the satisfaction of a poorly earned "I told you so," but SFS will be going quiet and inactive for a while; here's why:
1: The revolving cost of maintaining an LLC in the state of Kansas—the registered agent service, annual reports, and license renewals—are reaching a point in contrast to my personal income (that is what I make outside of the business to pay my bills) as to cause me a large amount of financial strain. Simply put, on the 9k$ usd per year that I make for working on my family's farm, I cannot afford to add between 300$ and 500$ every year to my current debt load.
2: No sales means no justification. Without sales of any kind coming in via in person or online, I cannot justify the costs of having the company be an LLC, especially with the consideration that 99% of my work is custom orders, and of that 95% is in either research and development or planning, or limited to a certain time of year in which I can work due to my working area not being in a temperature controlled area.
3: Complaints regarding prices. Now, for the record, no one I've worked with through this site is the reason for this bullet point. I was invited to a sale approximately a year ago, in which I displayed several of my products. Nearly every single person who asked about the products I had on display said exactly the same thing, my prices were too high. Now, to put this in context, up to that point I did not charge time/labor for my products, and told several of the people who were making the accusation that the pieces they were asking about were "at cost," meaning that the prices I was asking were for the cost of material only. So, with the insinuation that what I sell is worth less as a finished piece than the raw material in mind, moving forward as I restructure the business, my prices and my attitude about them will be changing—to everyone's detriment.
Now, with all that in mind, over the course of the coming year I'll be closing down the business to dissolve the LLC, and reinstating it through my city office as a sole proprietor (or something like that.) I'll also be focusing more of my work time (the time I spend of SFS projects) on writing, painting, and 3d printing, with writing taking the highest priority, as I currently have two books in the works, one of which is nearing the halfway point in terms of being ready to publish.
As I'm dissolving the company to reopen it as a non-LLC entity, I'll be going to an exclusively private customer base, and more production appropriate prices. This means that 1: since I don't like doing advertising, I won't be; if you want something, message me, but don't wait for me to say I'm "open" for commissions, because that won't be happening again—it simply doesn't work with my kind of products. 2: All prices, on all products moving forward are going to reflect at least a small portion of time/labor costs; since federal minimum wage where I live is 7.25$ per hour, there is a better than likely chance that prices for quite a few items will reach and breech the 100$ barrier that I wanted so very badly to avoid breeching.
Examples of this are the paintings that I'm planning to start doing being set at a firm 1$ per square inch at the lowest, and 5$ per square inch at the highest. Laser etchings will still be priced the same. Jewelry—be it wire or chainmail—will be set at 7.25$ per hour (at a minimum of 10 hours, that's 72.50$) plus tax and material. Any reading material will be priced according to the printer's suggestion per format.
Keep in mind that no one whom I've done business with here, via email, telegram, or discord has been the cause of the changes I'm implementing, they are a direct result of not having the financial where-with-all to maintain the costs of an LLC, and the in person feed back I've gotten regarding pricing. Due to these two factors alone, I see no other options. If this isn't to anyone's liking, I sincerely do not apologize.
With that said, I'll try to keep everyone in the loop as to what I put up for sale, and what I plan to offer, as well as prices and links for ordering. The dissolving and reformation of the company will be done within a few weeks, but in that time I won't be doing any business as I won't legally be able to. After that everything changes.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
