Our BIG Baby

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 2:55 pm

Yeay! Another successful delivery! This is all jolly exciting!

Congrats, Birdman!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 8:36 pm

only one more full day until training! (2 sleeps)

can't wait to get going, Val is just sitting looking ominous in the corner, she needs to be tamed before she runs amok!

birdman · Post by **birdman** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 8:50 pm

Grahame Case wrote:Val is just sitting looking ominous in the corner, she needs to be tamed before she runs amok!

Yes Grahame,

Our Val resembles that remark. Like a Ferrari sitting in pole position on the grid and waiting for the chequered flag - me too come to that.

Roll on Wednesday. I don't want to hear "rain or snow stopped play".

Rolf

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:07 pm

Grahame Case wrote:only one more full day until training! (2 sleeps)

Grahame, you've got it bad!!!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:11 pm

most certainly have, i'm putting off seeing my live-away fiancee on wednesday night/Thursday so i can complete the training

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:17 pm

Grahame Case wrote:most certainly have, i'm putting off seeing my live-away fiancee on wednesday night/Thursday so i can complete the training

Priorities, eh? That's a hard choice to make, Grahame!!!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Mon 24 Mar, 2008 9:19 pm

osgood wrote:Priorities, eh? That's a hard choice to make, Grahame!!!

Expensive New Toy... Fiancee....

i'll have the expensive shiny new toy please!

only a few more pictures to add to the oval mounts on our website then i'm going to be happy about going "live" with a basic selection of around 120 different items

robbiez · Post by **robbiez** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 7:29 pm

Grahame

I have just had a look at your soon to launch website. All very professional and well laid out, but may I make a few constructive observations on you pricing without meaning to offend.

Minimum Order.
Do you have a minimum order value?? If not how much profit would you make if I order one 60p mount?? Bearing in mind Paypal charge 20p plus 2.9% per transaction. At your online prices and very low postal charges you will find you take a high number of very low value orders which may not be profitable.

Postal Charges.
I added a 40cm X 40cm mount to the shopping cart and got a postal quote of £1.35 First Class Recorded. How are you packaging your mounts?? In Between very heavy board?? The mount may only weigh 100g, but the packaging will take the weight upto 500g plus which will give you a postage cost from Royal Mail of around £2.50 - £3.00. In addition to this you have the cost of the packaging materials you use.
I had a look at postage charges for the same size mount on other sites and they have quoted between £5.76 & £11.95 plus VAT. I think you will find the actual cost to send a 40cm X 40cm mount would be over £4.00

Good Luck

Robbiez

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 7:34 pm

i still need to do a fair bit of tweaking Robbie,

but thank you for the constructive comments, we are reviewing our packaging pricing policy, ( it can be added separately to the shipping element) for our own testing it was set to 2%, but i do plan to increase this, to possibly a minimum cost.

the problem we have is we haven't received out packaging materials yet (Correx) so i have no idea how much it will cost to use it, or ship it.

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 7:48 pm

Grahame,
Your website is looking great.
One thing that concerns me is the sample sets you offer with free shipping. I have a vision of multitudes of people wanting those and you being up for a huge amount of shipping costs and perhaps not getting orders from a lot of those people.

IMHO, people who want to order mats online may not be all that fussy about the colour if it is reasonably close to the colour shown on the website. Your disclaimer that the colours are only approximate explains that perfectly, so if it were me I wouldn't be offering samples sets at all. If a customer asks for one, then you could send it, but I would be very hesitant about making that offer public.

I hope your training goes well. Have loads of fun!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 7:59 pm

ahhh Ormond,

ever the observant,

our sample sets are going to come in under the price bracket of a small letter, which will be around 24pence, they cost very little to produce, and the rest is profit,

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 8:54 pm

OIC!

I guess you can make those from scraps anyway, but it will still take some time out of your productive day!
I guess you can make many sets while you are still playing with your new toy and can't bear to leave it alone! I remember what that's like even from the dim distant past!

I think there will be times coming soon, when Mary (and probably your fiancee) will need to get the whip out to get you away from Val!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 8:58 pm

osgood wrote:I guess you can make many sets while you are still playing with your new toy and can't bear to leave it alone! I remember what that's like even from the dim distant past!

got it in one!

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 8:59 pm

Grahame and Val
Sittin' in a tree....

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 9:47 pm

C-U-T-T-I-N-G ?

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Tue 25 Mar, 2008 9:56 pm

Brilliant!!!!!! L-O-L!!!!!

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Thu 27 Mar, 2008 9:20 pm

Well, that's the training done. Just had an enjoyable 2 days with Joe and Nico and the local rep, learning what makes Val tick. Cardboard scraps everywhere. Hate to think what customers thought when they came in today with 5 of us huddled round the machine, sample cuts everywhere and the remnants of a Macdonald's lunch and several cups of coffee lying around on the design desk. Even changed the machine's position and had to rearrange the shop walls. One of Grahame's first solo efforts is attached. He's an expert already and Nico almost offered him a job:lol: Did the first multiple aperture mount for a customer in a fraction of the time it would normally take. In the morning we're going to tidy up the mess and get down to some serious practice. Looking forward to that. I know we had a few problems before we got the machine, but the last 2 days have been painless and we look forward to many happy years as Valiani customers.

birdman · Post by **birdman** » Thu 27 Mar, 2008 10:06 pm

That just about sums up what happened here. Same mess, same crowd grouped round the Valiani, cups and food scraps everywhere, and customers a flipping nuisance.

We too have managed to cut one double mount for a customer (sorry no picture) and had set up templates for two others. But the fickle finger has intervened and we've lost them. Oh well more practice. We had Luca, Mark and Tony the local rep squeezed into our bijou and compact premises.

We also had to dismantle and move around our workshop to achieve the optimum position and we're very pleased with our new member of staff. Hopefully we can now put behind us what has gone before and look forward to happier days.

Rolf

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 27 Mar, 2008 10:53 pm

Best of luck with both new CMCs!

birdman · Post by **birdman** » Fri 28 Mar, 2008 8:43 am

Thanks Áine we look forward to making beautiful music sorry mounts together.