Monday, October 30, 2017

Almost the end of the year ..wow that was fast. kinda of..figuring out what to DO.


Hey every one , been a long while since i posted any thing.
Its been a strange year, well 2 years actually and I am not sure how this year will end.
Ravenstar has been a great company and i love every thing we have produced. a little over 2 years ago , I noticed a turn in sales, not much at first but then it started getting worse and over a year it became the worst in sales since i started long ago , but this year has really taken a nose dive. Last year down 30%, this year 60%. So last year I ( the resin foundry) took on more casting jobs to make up for it and that in its self ended up costing more than expected. ( more work than funds) . so I been trying to catch up with that while still bringing in work just to pay bills. So we have had more and more sales to try and start things back up , but the last sale carried 2 orders , the present sale none. We normally have a end of the year sale as a thank you but not sure if that will happen.
There are lots of reasons for the low sales and where the customer base spends the funds, new tech( i,e, rapid prototype machines) people spend funds on, kickstarters , companies like shapeways ( if you can make a CG model you can sell it there ) or companies like it. and also more people are starting up their own small companies and many or the larger companies have jumped into the space base product.
Lack of funds for many people tend to make them more conservative as to where to spend their cash, i know i do.
But Also , mostly I have not been able to grow the product lines like I had planned. Cold Navy , though I have added to the existing lines , I have not had time to add the other races and complete the out lines , story and art work. Additional products like the 15mm lines have not jumped out like i thought they would , just fair. great response from the customers who purchase , but limited still sales. the other space ship lines also get great response , but also limited sales.

If this was just a side job it would not be as big a issue as it is  but its is a full time job , and what used to pay the bills and  make me oh so happy , no longer does sadly...
So at the end of the year I may be closing the doors for a while to retool the company and figure out which way to continue on. So  I will keep you updated as to how the next 2 months go and what we are going to do.