An Apology is Due

OK, so the title sounds a bit ominous, but it is true – I owe my customers, and those who were potential customers, an apology. I’ve been terrible at responding to enquiries and tickets raised on orders where items were missing or broken. I certainly won’t offer an excuse. Whilst I devote perhaps one day a week to MCM, that should have no bearing on my customers – they shouldn’t have to wait weeks for a response.
This isn’t a particularly new problem for me – I’ve always struggled with the organisation side of things (something made sense of by a diagnosis of ADHD) – but the scale of it had got out of hand. I let a pile build up and every time it got bigger I found it harder to tackle. Harder to even start tackling.

Finally, today, I have responded to everyone who has raised a ticket in June and July. Any tickets concerning order dispatch from May and earlier have been deleted – either they will have arrived or the customer has sent a follow-up enquiry. Not ideal, but I had to introduce a cut-off just to be able to tackle this self-imposed situation.
Now that inbox is empty, I should have no problem responding more promptly.

European customers: There is a bug with the tax plugin I have to use which causes problems with orders which contain lots of lines (i.e. independent produts). If you are affected, please raise a ticket and I will work with you to find a solution.
Unfortunately, the only solutions to the actual problem involve either moving to a different IOSS agent, or a different web host. Both are costly and require research, so aren’t likely to happen very soon.

The Future of MCM

The store side of my business has seen a large decline over the last couple of years, following considerable growth during COVID lockdowns and for some time after. I can’t deny that the growth the store experienced allowed me to become somewhat complacent.
I’m now trying to figure out how best to manage the store going forward. 3D printing, initially through Shapeways, allowed MCM to become a reality. I moved to in-house 3D printing over the years, though still only as masters for resin casting. Now, in the shadow of Shapeways going into administration, the democratisation of 3D printing poses questions for my own little store. I can’t justify holding stock of all my products anymore. I firmly believe cast resin is the superior material for miniature modellers, but I can’t maintain the range in the same way going forward. 3DP resin is a good alternative, and I am working on a way to provide many products as STL files.
This is not a small task – I want to release as many products in one go as possible. Whilst I can provide downloadable products on this store, I need to seriously consider other storefronts where hobbyists go to find STLs. MMF et al. The reality of these storefronts is that I need to have a large proportion of my range available in order to make any kind of profit. This means cataloging, organising, supporting many files. I’ll get there, but it will take a little while.

In a few weeks, my family will be welcoming our second master crafted miniature. This will take me away from the store (and work generally) for a few weeks. I may close the store temporarily during this time. This is probably the best way to provide good service to cusomers, rather than leaving a zombie storefront up and not processing orders. Hopefully, I can keep the site viewable so people can still browse. As a self-employed person, there is no formal paternity leave available, so that period may be shorter than I would like. Perhaps I’ll be able to process some files between feeds!

Anyway, I’m trying to do better with the store, work, and life in general. Thank you for bearing with me.
Ben.