Auctions speak louder than words.
8 years ago
I had been debating with myself for quite some time on how I would start this specific journal. Of course, I am deeply embarrassed for taking so long to get back on the horse, and broach this topic.
This is largely do to our initial plan a little over a year ago, where we were going to pull out all the stops, brought in extra help, and really aimed to confront a lot of the problems left over from the very beginning of TCF. To be completely frank, this plan did not work.. Until recently, I genuinely believed that we could grind our way through this slump. Stubbornness and pride also playing a big factor. I didn't want to say anything unless I had something good to say… and that was just plain stupidity on my part. I forwarded communications to the other people helping me out, and this worked initially. The same problems cropped up again, as we never addressed the root problem of how communication was done, the who was irrelevant.
I was naive, and with what I thought would only be a few weeks worth of correction, I stayed under the radar until we had our new business model. Yet, within months, we seemed to be going back to old habits. Again, stubbornness and pride also playing a big factor. I didn't want to say anything until the ship was corrected, and with what I can honestly say was the worst year of my life, that didn't happen nearly soon enough. I apologize for being hard headed, and aloof.
I do have some context to add from my personal life that I want to address in another journal, as it was not just institutional reasons for the problems. That, and my own stupidity.. Look for my next installment, where I will go over the move, the landlord lawsuit, communication, the ADHD medication, and the depression aspects of this. Of course, I would not mind a sympathetic ear, but I don't want to come out with what looks like excuses, or deviate from the plan. If you would like to know more about this, just keep your eyes peeled.
Right now… This is our immediate solution.
We are either giving full refunds adjusted for inflation (rounded up to 5%), or finishing the existing commissions as planned. I will be opening notes up specifically for existing commissioners only, allowing us to swiftly come to a resolve (please allow us about a week to catch up). The majority of our most recent commissioners will not be affected by this, but the option remains open to all.
We stopped taking on new commissions around 8 months ago for several reasons. We wanted to shorten our waiting time, not only that, we wanted to break the cycle of taking on more commissions to make more commissions. A strategy that seemingly has no endgame. In retrospect, we should have realized the pitfalls of this strategy long ago.
We recognize that repeating the same action, and expecting different results is ludicrous. Until we iron out these issues, we WILL NOT BE TAKING ANY COMMISSIONS, nor have we for some time.
That does leave us with a serious problem.
It does not take a rocket surgeon to see that running on a fairly thin, to "break even" profit margin, to then no longer taking in the only source for income we have is not a good plan. Not only that, like anyone would expect, we run into unforeseen circumstances that can cost us serious time and money.
Let me be Frank, to run the shop, give refunds, and make this right, we cannot return to the old ways that got us into this mess. Unless you had previously commissioned us, we are going to go exclusively with auctions on completed suits.
Auctions speak louder than words.
We may not deserve it, but we are asking for your help, and we just need you to look at this suit to help get us back on track.
This is a hyena we will be posting once we get proper pictures.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22508293/
We could really use your help to check out this suit that will be up for auction, and help us turn this around.
This will be one of may auctions to come in the following months.
The basic principal being, a fursuit, in box, ready to go. That is what we want to focus on. I know it may not be the most popular solution. Still, we have reviewed several alternatives, and this is the plan that allows us to not only make things right, but not continue the cycle.
I did want to wait until we had the suit we plan to sell posted before I continued with this plan.
I will be around, but still have quite a bit of anxiety that can be distracting. So, comments may take a moment.
Thanks for reading.
This is largely do to our initial plan a little over a year ago, where we were going to pull out all the stops, brought in extra help, and really aimed to confront a lot of the problems left over from the very beginning of TCF. To be completely frank, this plan did not work.. Until recently, I genuinely believed that we could grind our way through this slump. Stubbornness and pride also playing a big factor. I didn't want to say anything unless I had something good to say… and that was just plain stupidity on my part. I forwarded communications to the other people helping me out, and this worked initially. The same problems cropped up again, as we never addressed the root problem of how communication was done, the who was irrelevant.
I was naive, and with what I thought would only be a few weeks worth of correction, I stayed under the radar until we had our new business model. Yet, within months, we seemed to be going back to old habits. Again, stubbornness and pride also playing a big factor. I didn't want to say anything until the ship was corrected, and with what I can honestly say was the worst year of my life, that didn't happen nearly soon enough. I apologize for being hard headed, and aloof.
I do have some context to add from my personal life that I want to address in another journal, as it was not just institutional reasons for the problems. That, and my own stupidity.. Look for my next installment, where I will go over the move, the landlord lawsuit, communication, the ADHD medication, and the depression aspects of this. Of course, I would not mind a sympathetic ear, but I don't want to come out with what looks like excuses, or deviate from the plan. If you would like to know more about this, just keep your eyes peeled.
Right now… This is our immediate solution.
We are either giving full refunds adjusted for inflation (rounded up to 5%), or finishing the existing commissions as planned. I will be opening notes up specifically for existing commissioners only, allowing us to swiftly come to a resolve (please allow us about a week to catch up). The majority of our most recent commissioners will not be affected by this, but the option remains open to all.
We stopped taking on new commissions around 8 months ago for several reasons. We wanted to shorten our waiting time, not only that, we wanted to break the cycle of taking on more commissions to make more commissions. A strategy that seemingly has no endgame. In retrospect, we should have realized the pitfalls of this strategy long ago.
We recognize that repeating the same action, and expecting different results is ludicrous. Until we iron out these issues, we WILL NOT BE TAKING ANY COMMISSIONS, nor have we for some time.
That does leave us with a serious problem.
It does not take a rocket surgeon to see that running on a fairly thin, to "break even" profit margin, to then no longer taking in the only source for income we have is not a good plan. Not only that, like anyone would expect, we run into unforeseen circumstances that can cost us serious time and money.
Let me be Frank, to run the shop, give refunds, and make this right, we cannot return to the old ways that got us into this mess. Unless you had previously commissioned us, we are going to go exclusively with auctions on completed suits.
Auctions speak louder than words.
We may not deserve it, but we are asking for your help, and we just need you to look at this suit to help get us back on track.
This is a hyena we will be posting once we get proper pictures.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22508293/
We could really use your help to check out this suit that will be up for auction, and help us turn this around.
This will be one of may auctions to come in the following months.
The basic principal being, a fursuit, in box, ready to go. That is what we want to focus on. I know it may not be the most popular solution. Still, we have reviewed several alternatives, and this is the plan that allows us to not only make things right, but not continue the cycle.
I did want to wait until we had the suit we plan to sell posted before I continued with this plan.
I will be around, but still have quite a bit of anxiety that can be distracting. So, comments may take a moment.
Thanks for reading.
FA+

And i don't mean Cattas only, but other leems, too! Ruffed ones are quite rare and nice looking, also crowned and blue eyed.
And if you're tired of Leems, try fossa. ;)
Actually pretty much any rare (fursuit) species should sell pretty good... Or throw a bunch of colors onto a generic species. Suiters nowadays try to look as unique as possible with their suits sometimes resulting in a dog/cat looking like it had rolled around on an entire color set of paint xD
Or make DADs, because... fashion icon i guess? (Honestly i have no clue why they're so popular, probably because of Telephone, but o well)
Sergals are gaining popularity, too and they're like DADs, but awesome. :P
But who am I to tell you what to do? You're doing a great work and you deserve the attention :)
-
...still waiting.
I can't wait to see what you'll produce, and if you need to talk you can catch me on telegram bell_the_otter
Good luck guys! Rootin for ya. You're not alone.
Definitely hope you manage to find a solution to this, auctions seem a good idea but there's always the risk that they don't sell, not something to risk as an only source of income for a long period of time, but as a solution to your current problems it seems it could be sensible.
I'm sure you'll get through it, just hope you're okay personally now! <3