01/11/2024
This will be long but please bear with me especially if you are currently on my waitlist. I gave up a corporate job three and half years ago to dedicate myself full time to leadmaking. They say “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” That was very true for the first two and a half years. Over the past year unfortunately I have been starting to feel burned out increasingly more. It's not the braiding...I still love that. It's the "business" side of it that is causing tremendous stress and frustration. Although for most of you dog showing and everything involved with it is a hobby for me this part is also my job and my source for income to contribute to my household. I have been too easy going and nice where I needed to be firm and unfortunately I need to change some policies and give another reminder of how I work. I really should have done this six months ago but I didn't want to make a negative post or have any one person feel I was thinking about them with these changes but things are just worsening instead of improving and I don't want to get to the point I let my frustrations cause me to quit this. So I am reviewing how this works with explanations why with the hope I can get back on track and feel the joy again.
First is the waitlist and how it works. I typically stay out about 3-4 months. When someone inquires I give them the time-frame I anticipate to get to their lead. This works great when I stay on time. Unfortunately I am 3-4 weeks behind right now to the people at the front of my list. I hate that! I don't want to disappoint people and have them feel like I lied about how long before I would get to them. My expectation when I reach out to someone on the top of my waitlist is to start confirming their details within a day or two at most and have their lead in the mail to them within a week. I keep a calendar of orders and try to work by the week so I know where my waitlist is. When I reach out I ask of it's a good time to work on your lead. This means to confirm design and pay your invoice promptly. When I send out an invoice it's due within 24hrs unless you have notified me that is not possible and we make other arrangements. If I reach out to you and you can't do both just please let me know. I am happy to push you back a week or two if you need more notice. I am not going to cancel your order or move you to the back of the line. I can be very flexible. What has been happening is I get people telling me they are ready and then they drag out the process for many days or even weeks. That makes it very difficult for me to keep my list on track and I get behind and start disappointing the people patiently waiting down the list. Another thing that has been happening is people are ready to do design and then after that's done don't pay their invoice until towards the end of the week instead of within 24hrs. This means at the beginning of the week I can get the leads for that week ready to be braided but then I sit all week waiting for invoices to be paid so I can braid. At the end of the week they start getting paid and now I either have to spend my entire weekend trying to catch up the past week's orders instead of enjoying time with my family or push all those orders into the next week and then there I am behind again. And if it's a dog show weekend for me with my dogs I have that added stress. So basically when I get to you just communicate with me if you are truly ready to have your lead in your hands in a week. If not I will work with you to schedule a more convenient time.
Next is communication. This is a biggie!!! If I message you to tell you that you are up to start your lead whether it's a good or bad time please let me know. Most of you I message through FB and I can see my messages are read but I often get no response until I make a second or third attempt to reach you. It only takes a few minutes to let me know what you're thinking. I don't want to have to chase people. I have some weeks gotten almost until the end of the week to hear back from people at all. I am going to stop giving so much time. From this point forward I will send the original request and then one more 24hrs later. No response after that will get you removed from my list. I hate to do that but I need to. If we are in the process of doing your design and you stop communicating with me for several days you are going to be pulled from my list until I can find the time to fit you back in because I am going to move forward.
If at anytime while you are waiting on the list for me to get to you your need of a lead is no longer there please let me know. Usually there are beads being held that I can add back into inventory rather than continue holding them. Also while talking about holding beads please do not have me hold multiple sets of beads for multiple leads when you really want just one lead but just can't make up your mind which bead set you want and then cancel all the others when I get to you. If this continues I am going to have to start charging a bead deposit to go on my waitlist and that's not something I want to have to do. Currently I only charge deposits for special order beads and leather and I would like to keep it that way.
Also I have started a change in the invoicing policy for repeat customers. ALL leads must now be paid prior to me starting them whether it is a new or repeat customer. I have been allowing repeat customers to be invoiced after leads are done but this has been abused too much. Again invoices are due within 24hrs unless other arrangements are made. I have been waiting at times weeks for invoices for completed leads to be paid.
I do my very best to work with everyone in a timely manner and really appreciate the same consideration. Most of you are absolutely fabulous and I so appreciate your business. There have just been enough bad apples to start spoiling the bunch. I know there may sometimes be extenuating circumstances to cause a slow or non response. Please know that I am sensitive to that and will work with you if that is the case. I know life happens. If you have read this far thank you very much. I hope we can all work together so I can keep enjoying what I do and provide you all with leads to show your magnificent dogs.
❤🐾
