Monday, October 5, 2015

1 Year with new helper!, New website, 4500 facebook likes, a lot of LOCAL WORK!

Well, things are happening quicker than we imagined. Almost too fast for us to handle. Our business is expanding and growing... We have had the same helper (Josh) for just over a year now (AWESOME!!!). He's a great blacksmith, and he's learned how to weld in the last year too. He gets better everyday, and we are really happy to have him in our shop. Our WEBSITE is active now, and we are slowly but surely getting our inventory moved over there. I imagine we will have about a year or two of growing pains, where we won't have many orders coming from that site for a while. I'm sure that Etsy provides a marketplace where consumers feel safe. So until we can build up trust on our own, without the babysitter of Etsy, we'll keep pressing on, using both Etsy and www.vintinwelding.com . We have 4500 Facebook likes now! It's so crazy! And awesome. Several local jobs are coming in now. We have a door we're getting ready to make (pictures to come obviously), we just recently completed a couple of different railings, and we have another two in the works. Several folks have been finding us from Google searches, and are coming to our shop for repairs on their vehicles (which we limit due to time constraints), and other items. We are just beyond blessed. We had to raise prices on Etsy (some items we doubled) because we couldn't keep up with the work load. I imagine over the next few years we will end up doubling the prices again. It doesn't feel right, but it has worked! We are making more money but have fewer orders. OUR GOAL: To have high paying commission pieces, so there are fewer orders but higher pay. We are a family of 7 now, which means we have less time and more mouths to feed. God is good, and we really cannot complain at all! Keep checking back... I'll update at least once a year! (hah!) Here are some photos from some of our favorite things we made over the last year... ENJOY!