I'm alive! And well!
I'm amazed this place is still ticking!
Sorry I drop off the radar here. I try to remember to check in once in a while.
If your interested in a life update...I'll oblige...
Me?
I'm doing well, overall. Still married, finally legally...it will be 21 years next month!!!
Biggest life change...3 years ago I went back to the low carb diet. This is my second go at it. I was up to 260lbs, and am now down to 180!
I maintained pretty well until The Rona hit. During lockdown, and all that uncertainty we said screw it and ate tons of crap for a few weeks. then went back to being good, then being bad again, then good. All in all over the course of the year I was up 20lbs. We recently rebooted, and got back down to my lowest...180lbs. I am pushing to lose another 15. Husband was in the same boat.
Four years ago I finally had time to get back into gaming and bought a PS4. I remember so many of you talking about the Mass Effect series, when it was current. I am glad I finally got to play the remastered trilogy. Wow that was awesome! It was emotional, and I am experiencing post game depression. I love that games can do that to you.
Business...
Whew. Business. What a ride it continues to be.
The first several years I had to work 7 days a week, and was just making it. I was letting people control me a little bit too much. Some things happened and I said no more mister nice guy. Business also started changing getting into 3D design and printing. I started growing my custom design business, and really started to get to show my creativity. It started becming the bulk of my business! Then one year my $25K wax printer failed near busy christmas time and I had to send the thing in for repairs. It shut me down, and it was really hard. The next year it happened again at the beginning of November, and again I ended up having to send the printer in for repairs. It took them TWO months to fix it. Again it shut me down. This time I fell into a deep depression. This was ruining me. I started losing customers because I was becoming unreliable. Dark times. But, I bounced back. I bought a resin printer that has been super reliable, and I recovered and never looked back.
The recovery was amazing and business began to grow again. I was repeatedly setting records. But then it started becoming overwhelming again. So I decided to stop doing repair work altogether. I wanted to focus on what I loved, and what was the most profitable...CUSTOM design. Everybody told me that I can't do that. I HAD to do repairs. Nope. This ended some relationships. I went 100% custom and what do you know...that grew more! I began setting new monthly records! I was on top of the world! Then the Rona hit. *ugh* Fortunately, the boom I was having allowed me to finally SAVE money. I was able to make it through lock down. I was lucky!
Opening back up, business quickly picked up pace again. But after last christmas, I had a falling out with my biggest account. I fired him. I lost a third of my income. THen for whatever reason things cooled off in January/Febuary/March. I posted my lowest numbers ever in January. For the first time in a long time I was worried. THings have slowly picked back up, and I am doing OK. Not great, but OK. This has allowed to finally take saturdays (and sundays) off. The trade off with having less work from the retailers, is I started designing for myself. And that has been AMAZING. I never had time to make what I wanted to make. But now I do, and I am cranking out the ideas. While I am not selling any of it yet...(next phase) I am building up my own inventory of original work, and I couldn't be happier! The next phase of business is to shift to becoming a retail store. (I mainly do wholesale for retail jewelry stores). So now I am in the beginnings of trying to make my brand known, and get people to come directly to me. It's hard. There's a lot that needs done, but slowly and surely I am getting there.
I have to say, running a business has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It's always changing and you have to find ways to adapt. There is always too much to do and never enough time to do it. I am proud of where I am at now.
If you want to see what I have been up to, you can find me at facebook and instagram by searching for David Wilkinson Design.
So, that's where I am at in a nutshell.
It was sad to hear of Timbuck's passing. It was sad to see other members drop off the radar too.
What happened to Lolli and Ness? Is Wraith still around? I see some familiar faces still kicking around here. That's great! Remember when people said this place wouldn't last?
