I would just like to take a moment to say a few things. First of all I wish to thank all the WSO customers and supporters as well as the wetshaving community as a whole. Your patronage and support has been nothing short of amazing To say I am grateful and sincerely appreciate it seems a bit insufficient but it is the best way I know how to convey my gratitude and appreciation.
This bring me to my next point and unfortunately it is a bit more difficult to address. As of late I have been receiving emails from potential customers ranging from inquiries as to when certain products will be in stock to expressing some dissatisfaction at the lack of availability of certain WSO products. These range from pleasant inquires and email exchanges & correspondence (which I very much enjoy) to some outright irritated and frustrated people expressing some thoughts that quite honestly simply do not apply to me or to WSO. I will explain further re: the cryptic second portion of my last sentence. When I have multiple people asking me, "how I expect to ever run a successful business when I cannot provide adequate inventory to satisfy the demand?" or, "what makes me think people will not just buy other brands of soap if they cannot get mine?", those quite honestly do not apply to WSO.
Allow me to explain. My goal with WSO never was to run a significant "business" of any kind. It is a hobby, a passion, a joy I have been fortunate enough to be able to share with the public. For that I am extremely grateful. That being said I never expected it to take off as it has, I never expected the demand to be what it is, and I certainly never viewed it as a significant business opportunity at all. I have a career, I have a family, both things take precedence over my hobby that is WSO. They always will. They both really go back to the most important thing in the world to me, my family. One is obvious and that is my family itself, the other is what allows me to provide for my family. They are and always will be more important than WSO and any wethsaving software or hardware in any capacity.
The second question I have been asked multiple times, "What makes me think people will not just buy other brands of soap if mine are not available?" Well the answer to that is absolutely nothing. There is no goal here to corner the soap market. To compete with other soapmakers, Artisan or large manufacturers. In fact in my mind there is plenty of room for a multitude of soap makers and to think one would corner such a market is ludacris. I will take it a step further, I wish the Barrister and Manns and the Synergys and the Mike's and the Tiki's fabulous success. Especially the Artisan Soap Makers. I know for me, as a wetsshaver, my soap stock does not consist of one kind of soap. Even to this day with all my WSO soaps that I have in my possession I still sometimes shave with other soaps.
My point is this. I feel bad that I am unable to keep up with demand for my products. I am grateful for the response to them. I am humbled by it, I am flattered by it, I am downright honored. All I would humbly ask is that people keep in mind exactly what this is and be patient and bear with me. I will do and am doing my best to put some things in place where the quality of my product will not be compromised but the availability will be increased and improved. That being said I must keep my priorities in order and I will not sacrifice several things. My family, my job or the quality of my product. Those things can not and will not be compromised.
I will own my role in this. I jumped into this endeavor with both feet. With a website, an Etsy store, twitter , facebook, you name it. I can understand for those that have not followed the WSO journey from its inception where the perception might be that this is my primary job or career. I just wished to clarify to those under that impression that this is not the case.
So to those that are not satisfied with my ability to provide you with the product you desire I am truly sorry. I will do my best to improve in this area, but keep in mind there are things that are in fact, more important in this world than shaving soap and aftershave, at least to me. This is an uncomfortable post for me to make. I love doing this and have every intention on continuing to do it. I would just like people to understand where I am at with it and if you will be patient with me, I promise to do my best to provide you with the WSO products that I am extremely flattered you wish to use. I give my word to try to improve product availability. I do not view this as a "problem", I view it as an opportunity. I simply enjoy this so much I wanted to address some emails I was receiving that were making it feel a bit too much like a job and less like a hobby. That is not to say I will not work extremely hard at it , as I love it, but I do NOT want this wonderful hobby of wetshaving to feel like a job in any capacity for me!
Thank You for taking the time to hear me out, thank you for your patience, and thank you for making WSO even possible! I will do my best to make it even better!
Enjoy Your Shaves!
Regards,
Jim@WetShaveObsession
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