Growing Pains

A little insight…

What a crazy ride this has been! I’m not even sure how to describe the last eight months, let alone the last 3 years or so. I can distinctly remember sitting in this very chair over three years ago, having just come back from the Bozeman Angler, thinking why in the world would anyone pay that much money for a couple dozen barbless hooks. Good grief! “I’m going to change this…” I said that day.

Fast forward from that day to this one (fast forward as the in between is another post all together…) and I find myself in a bit of a struggle. A good one mind you but, a struggle nonetheless. I truly did not dream that Deb and I would be as well received as we have been nor in the manner that we have been. Our long-term goal was to have ordered three-million hooks by our third anniversary of actual operations. I figured that by then we would have made an introduction, figured out consumer buying patterns, tackled the uncertainty of overseas manufacturing, etc. However, that didn’t quite work out. On August 31st I placed an order with the manufacturer that brought the total ordered in the first eight months to 3.25M hooks.

While this is a great thing to happen to us, there is a bit of anxiety associated with it. You see, the manufacturing, quality, and packaging process has shown itself to be a full four months, not 2-3 months. And, within that four months, there are times when a product is rejected for quality more than once (read 413 #14 and 609 #12) along with manufacturing shorts, etc. which then stretches some deliveries to 5+ months. Now, couple that with knowing that my sales history is too short and changing too rapidly to be of any real use in forecasting inventory needs for a delivery coming four months later! Oh man!
Growing pains. Got to love them!

We are growing. We are trying our level best to serve you in an honest, truthful, and transparent manner. Thank you to those who have been so patient waiting on their last box or two from the summer presale (read rejects above). Thank you for being patient while we have holes in our availability of some styles/sizes, especially the dealers. Thank you for your support and acceptance of our product and business model. God bless all of you and…

Get ready for pre-sale #3. Models 315, 317, 320, 321 and a surprise. Details by the end of this month.

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