ProgMatinee
circlesendwheretheybegin
Re: DarkArtist's Creations of DOOM!
Great ideas there.
Also, I want to agree with Kabuki when he said don't choose work you don't want to do. Like the Luke I sent you, I know it was an old item that you probably did many times already and I've since seen several new items like Indy get done before mine.
You can always say "no".
Anyway, I think you can tell by the responses in this thread that you're pretty much worshipped around here and nobody wants to see you go. God, this thread gets bumped dozens of times a week, every week. Obviously you're invaluable around here. You should be demanding your own forum like the POTA kids....LOL.
Anyway, best of luck.
Alright. So.
Try this. Once you get back from your hiatus, do some work. A little less sexy than the customs and repaints, but work that will allow you to do your best work and put your life back in your own hands at the same time.
1. In addition to the work you do for your shop, determine how many repaints you think you can handle in a month. Only you know what that number is. 5? 15? 30..? Whatever the number turns out to be let us know how many slots you have open for a particular month. If the number is 10, then you have to tell request #11, they'll have to go for a slot in the following month that you'll be working (working months need not be consecutive), and so on. Do this for each month, January through December. There will be months you don't want to or can't work - vacations, comicons, etc. Build it all in. Do your best.
2. Finish it up! Don't take on a single new request until you are convinced that the current order is ready to fly out the door within the promised time-frame. I know you are saying that part of the broblem was that you got greedy and took on too much because you really needed the cash-flow. Well, that may be true, but I suspect that the main reason is that you are a hell of a nice guy and you don't want to say no to anyone. You'll just have to get over that, my friend..! And whatever you do, fight with all you've got against responding to an impatient or even irrate customer with an off-handed promise of an unrealistic delivery date (even if you think its perfectly realistic at the time!). Always go back to the plan and provide a honest date with some margin hours thrown in. Despite the very purest of inentions, a string of broken promises on delivery is the worst for a customer (and for your wits too..!)
If you can find a way that works for you to accomplish this, in addition to creating a very happy client base, you might just create for yourself a nice predictable income stream on which you can depend.
Now, I'm not a fool. I know this is a tremendous simplification of a complicated situation. Certain figures take more time than others, and no matter how much you plan, life is still going to happen. That's fine, but you can build in some buffer for some of that. You can allocate one or two monthly slots for the time consuming jobs and a few more for the quick touch-up jobs. The point is that you must work on your own terms. Once you allow them to be dictated by outside forces, you're sunk. No, nothing will ever be perfect and you will have to scramble here and there on occasion, but you'll be doing it all in a circumstance of your own design. You may only be able to turn out half or less of the number of customs/repiants that you do now, but you know what? We'll get over it...
You can do this, Josh, and we don't want to lose you. But, despite all we say, you are the only one who can measure this commitment. And I suspect that even if you walk away from all this, all of your Freak Friends will understand...
Now where's my Han..?
Great ideas there.Also, I want to agree with Kabuki when he said don't choose work you don't want to do. Like the Luke I sent you, I know it was an old item that you probably did many times already and I've since seen several new items like Indy get done before mine.
You can always say "no".
Anyway, I think you can tell by the responses in this thread that you're pretty much worshipped around here and nobody wants to see you go. God, this thread gets bumped dozens of times a week, every week. Obviously you're invaluable around here. You should be demanding your own forum like the POTA kids....LOL.
Anyway, best of luck.
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