Happy New Year One And All! Firstly, I want to start with a thank you, to all my fans, followers, admirers (in the artistic sense) and of course customers. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart, without you all I'd not get the level of fulfillment I get each and ever day that I'm able to sit at my desk or workbench and do this most fantastic 'job'! As one year ends and another begins it's standard practice for most of us to review and analyse what's passed and plan for what is about to come, and that's what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks. Over the next couple of weeks I'll post more about my year just gone and the plans, goals and resolutions I'm putting in place for the year to come but for this week I need to get something off my chest as it were. As those of you that have read some of my previous blog posts will know, I'm a natural worrier, and this has been niggling away at my subconscious through every mince pie, present and cheesy Christmas film. I've been reviewing my prices. Weighing up how much each bead has actually cost me to make against what I anticipated the costs would be, and i'm afraid it didn't make for much Christmas cheer! I've seriously underestimated the cost of certain aspects of my business. Two areas specificaly: 1) Shipping costs. As some of you will recall I wrote a post in November about problems I'd had with a certain courier company. Well I just can't risk such precious cargo not getting to where it needs to be so I had no choice but to move away from said company which has resulted in a considerable price increase for the cost of getting orders safely back to their rightful owners. And 2) Marketing. When I first worked out the price I was going to charge I made a guestimate of how much it would cost me to advertise and sell my memorial jewellery. To say I was off the mark is an understatement, the actual costs have worked out at more than 5 TIMES what I budgeted!! So - Where am I going with all this? Well the long and short of it is, that at the prices I'm charging this just isn't a sustainable business. So my choices are to either call it a day, which after all the lovely feedback I've had from my existing customers really isn't an option. Or...Put my prices up, for which I feel terribly guilty! Now I'm not in this to make a million and retire to some far of land, BUT I do have to be realistic, I have bills to pay and a daughter to feed so I have to earn a living. So while I'm coming to terms with the guilt and anguish I'm feeling I want to make sure that you're still getting great VALUE! Firstly, I'm giving you 3 whole weeks to place your orders at the existing prices before the increase comes into force on January 25th 2016. Secondly I'm offering a payment plan on orders over £150, where you split the cost of your order into three more manageable payments, you can find more details about that here. And thirdly I'm offering you the chance to visit my studio personally to watch your order being created at no additional cost, get the details here. So there is it, as always my commitment to you is that i'll do everything I can to ensure a top class, personal service for your loved one or cherished pet from start to finish. I really hope you'll all accept my apologies, make the most of the offers I've made and continue to support me throughout the coming year. Jules x P.S - This is the link to the new pricelist - remember, I'm holding existing prices until midnight on 24th January (2016 - GMT) ![]()
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Jules MounteneyOwner and Artist at The Glass Goddess. Categories
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