What this means is that we are moving into Phase 2 of the business plan. Phase 1 involved taking custom orders for everything, and only making as many jackets as I had an order for. Phase 1.5 required hiring 1-2 employees to cover expanding orders—which is a phase that we blasted right through, thanks to the support you, our followers, have provided.
In Phase 2 we will be splitting orders into 2 different order types: express orders and custom orders.
Custom orders will always be accepted, assuming orders are open, for as long as this business is afloat, and probably longer, and will work as they have all along.
Express orders on the other hand, work a little differently. There will be a preorder stage, where we will gather as many orders as we can for a particular style of jacket, aiming for a quantity of at least 500. Once we have gathered those orders, the job will be farmed out to a local manufacturing company, ideally based withing my own state, Massachusetts, but at the very least remaining within the USA. This will help keep prices low, and increase production rate drastically.
The minor downside to the express orders is that because they are manufactured on a large scale, there will be less customization available, which is why custom orders will still be open. The jackets will maintain the original cut, tailored to fit the human body better than your average store-bought designs, but there will be standard sizing. And rest assured, I will personally quality-check production standards for every design, to ensure that anything bought from Volante Design is high-quality and manufactured with great care for the final look of the product.
Express orders will only be available in select color schemes, of which there will be about five to choose from. But because I respect the desire for personalization, we have pulled together a list of some of the most popular color schemes to date, and will be hosting polls for each new design that comes up on the docket for mass production.
We have several designs in mind for starting off the new Express orders section of the store. Namely, the Kenway jacket and the new Beaked Jacket to begin with, along with a few others that will be announced in the coming weeks. So, following this post expect to see a poll post for those two jackets, right here at blog.volantedesign.us.
—
To be the first to receive more updates in the future, subscribe to the Volante Design mailing list: http://eepurl.com/pJB6v
-Enzo
