🪢Tying up loose ends 🪢
9 months ago – Tue, Aug 08, 2023 at 02:17:04 PM

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🏁 Last Push!! 🏁
10 months ago – Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 01:39:31 PM

Hey guys, 

hope you're doing well - it may not have seemed like much progress has been made but this is because around 45 orders have been made without being marked as shipped. Having a bit of trouble with my postage account but this will be fixed tomorrow. After that, I have two full weekends planned where I'm planning on finally putting this to bed and getting all the remaining orders out the door by the end of July. I know I've over-promised in the past but all I can do is give this my best shot. 

Genuinely appreciate the patience and messages of support - wish this one could have gone smoother but I'm happy to say it's almost there.  For those that are waiting on little things like a missing brass cross - haven't forgotten Peter! I've created a list of these so please remember to email [email protected] and just bear in mind I'm dealing with a lot of back and forth between lots of people so be patient with my response times but I will try to get back to everyone.

Thanks again, 

Alex

P.s. just to avoid having a boring update of just text, here's a terrible drawing of me as an old man still making orders in my spare time :)

Home Straight 😅
11 months ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 10:57:36 PM

Hey guys, 

we're almost there. Still packing and shipping out orders every month. Just shipped another big batch. Of the 75 people or so that are still waiting, thank you for your continued patience. Sorry for the lack of updates too, it's quite demotivating to continually update on how I've still not shipped everyone's kits so sometimes that stops me from writing these updates. The key thing here is that people who supported this project will receive their rewards, no matter how long it takes. 

Thanks again and hope you're enjoying the summer so far ☀️

Alex 

Shipping Update
about 1 year ago – Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 11:56:26 AM

Hey guys, 

quick update here - I won't go into details but I've just finished a big batch orders which took a long time since they were all made from custom full size climbers and spartans as well as the build your own kits. We're now looking at just over 120 orders left from the entire project - sounds like a lot but we started with 550. 

I really appreciate the patience here as I know it's gone on way longer than I first anticipated, I want to ship these final orders more than you know - thanks to everyone that's still waiting. I'm planning on taking some holiday just to dedicate some full-time attention and get through the last of the orders. Getting a fair few messages of encouragement saying how much they loved the kits and the building experience, even with the delays so really happy to hear that - thank you so much for your continued patience. 

Thanks, 

Alex

Shipping Updates & Story So Far
about 1 year ago – Sun, Feb 05, 2023 at 06:21:04 AM

Hey guys, 

back again with another shipping update.

TL; DR. I shipped 75 orders in Jan, and we have 175 left - which will more than likely stretch into March but hopefully not April. Sorry about this, but this update will explain in more depth and give a bit of context to how we got here...

 What's the Story?

This is a bit of a window into the reality of running a business, a Kickstarter campaign and a bit of a reflection of the journey so far. 

I decided about two and a half years ago, that I would leave my full-time job to start my own business and create some products that I really believed in.  This led me down a really weird and interesting path of getting studio space, designing over 25 different products and really getting stuck into the custom SAK world. The plus side of this was creative freedom and getting into a community of makers and people who really love edc. The downside was that there's no safety net in business, if your overheads are too high and there's not enough cash coming in then there's really no one to turn to. 

Around 1.5 years in, I had an apprentice and 1100+ sales through the Etsy shop and over 281 five-star reviews. A serious amount of effort and care went into every single product we made and the reviews are a great testament to that which I'm still proud of to this day. 

Even with these sales and amazing track record, the products we were making - custom brass SAKs (swiss army knives), brass bottle openers and other personalised products, were priced too low. The issue with raising prices is that the rate of sale (how many you sell per day) drops so low that we weren't bringing enough cash in per day to justify my tiny salary, apprentices' wages and rent for the studio. 

In an attempt to change things up, we did a Kickstarter campaign called the Make100, where we sold 100 units only of the custom SAKs in titanium and brass - it was a hit and sold out everything in less than 48 hours. We knew we had a hit, so did everything we can to get the orders out on time to the customers, which we did as promised. 

I knew we had an audience for this sort of product, so I wanted to make something truly special. From the early days of looking into SAKs and custom builders, I always loved the fully custom versions with your own bolts that you could clean and disassemble. 

It was after seeing this image that I decided I wanted to make my own, it would be later that I had the idea to allow other people to build it themselves. Cut to this campaign, after launching through spreading the word through facebook groups and instagram, people like you decided to take a shot and back it. 

Before this Kickstarter launch, the financial reality was that the Parallel business was on its last legs. The Etsy store was still unprofitable, and my apprentice decided he wanted to join another business which was a great move for him so I was happy about that. 

With this new injection of revenue into the business, I could focus full-time on making sure the parts were perfect and getting them to you on time. As the months went by, the profit margin we added to keep the lights on quickly waned away without more revenue coming into the business. It was after receiving all the stock in the workshop and paying for all the SDs (550x Victorinox SDs are not cheap), I realised I was going to have to do something different in order to get these orders to you. 

I decided back in October time to start looking for a design position, which I gratefully found. This is one of the major reasons the rate of order production dropped since I started working - the order production has been restricted to evenings and weekends. I felt it wasn't right to add this personal information to my updates but now I think the situation calls for it.  I really mean it when I say I'm persevering to get these orders out to you, I'm not looking for sympathy here because I've definitely dropped the ball with regard to updates and keeping everyone informed, the reason for this is just a lot of workload at the moment and I'm prioritising fulfilment over communication, but I recognise people want both. 

Thanks again for all the words of support and sorry for any messages that haven't been responded to, there are many different channels of messages and emails so some fall through the gaps. 

Shipping Updates Extended Update

I spoke about the plan to get half the remaining orders out in January, the actual number of orders done in January was 75 in total. This leaves 175 orders remaining to fulfil in the next month, which isn't realistic I'll be able to do all of those in that time.  I expect this will continue being pushed into March and even April, but I will update again at the end of February with the latest actual figures. Either way, the finish line is in sight, I'm endeavouring to make sure everyone gets what they ordered. 

There's nothing else to do other than put my head down and carry on cracking out these orders, as I explained in the last video, the number of configurations and personalisations have just made each one painfully slow to get done. 

On the brighter side of things, here are a few builds that I think came out particularly well, with a few unique combinations...

Thanks again,

Alex 

P.S. I will be having some more help with orders actually, but mainly moral support because I don't think Maggie is very dextrous but with training, I hope she'll improve. I know for one thing, she's going to have the most intricately personalised dog collar - I'm thinking polished & engraved titanium but that's for another day...