It started last year with WeCNCthat approaching me in May and offering to have me on as one of their first makers in their new business model where they would be the middle man between makers with an item or idea to sell and customsers who wanted to buy something. The idea really was that the maker couldn't make or hadn't done production and they would help them. We started with my Trim Router Router Flattening Jig and it sold reasonably well. We added the Portable Router Table and Fence and it did even better. In October we added the MicroJig Matchfit Benchtopper and I was told by the company that my jigs were their top sellers.
The Thursday before New Years they sent out an email that the company was closing their doors. They weren't bringing in enough business to support a company. The company went out of business, partly because they were depending on the makers to do the advertising and social media and sell their stuff. When I looked at my numbers for sales I realized that people were interested in my jigs and I didn't want to lose the momentum that i dad started.
I decided to try and make and sell them myself and did the whole social media thing to let people know and it went a little viral. I sold a bunch and my wife and I worked incredibly hard to make them all. I realized I needed help - I could not meet the production demands of all the orders. It took a few weeks, but I found someone to help with production and for about a month we had a full fulfillment going on through them in order to meet the demand of orders I couldn't have done on my own. After the month was up production resumed back to me
I went back to making them on my own and spent all my free time making these and working on them. I came home from work and started the CNC and when I was at work my wife sanded them. I am so happy that we were able to get these out, but there comes a time when a person has to admit that they can't do it all. I decided to call on the person who was doing the work before and asked them if we could work together again.
So now we have come full circle. There will be a fulfillment company working to complete the orders for customers while I get the chance to make other things and come up with ideas! Thats where we are at now. I have a few new ones I will be coming out with this summer!