Taking Things to the Next Level!

I know that a number of you may have noticed that it's been taking me longer to ship orders and reply to emails. There's a reason for this, or actually multiple reasons. The first reason is obvious. Covid-19 has resulted suspensions and delays in the postal service, and has forced me to reship a ton returned items through surface mail. I'm still trying to catch up from that.

The pandemic isn't the only reason though. This past summer has been very eventful and busy. I got married to the love of my life in June, for starters. Also in June, business unexpectedly blew up. Up until that point, May had actually been my most successful month in terms of sales. Then, on June 2nd, I held my shop's first anniversary sale, expecting a modest boost in purchases, such as in previous sales. Instead I sold almost as much on that one day as I did during the entire month of May, and things really haven't let up since. Because of the RG Perfectibility, August is now tied with June for my best sales month. Up until recently, I've been able to run things out of one room in my apartment and two nearby storage boxes while still keeping a decent work balance between my business and my day job. After the anniversary sale, I knew that things quickly had to change, otherwise I would soon run out space. In fact that's exactly what eventually happened. The situation has made fulfilling my orders at a decent pace all the more difficult.

It had been my original plan to steadily build up the funds to rent some shop space and quit my day job next year. But, due to the recent flood of new orders, I was forced to expedite those plans. What you see in the attached photo is the result of a drawn out, three month process. It will soon be the new permanent home of Side Seven Exports. There's still a lot of work do. I'm still waiting on a permit that'll allow me to use the space as my official business address. That'll take a month or so. In the meantime I'll be busy setting things up, going through more bureaucratic hoops, and beginning the process of ending my current work contract early. Progress will still be slow over the next month, but when all is said and done, and I'm finally able to focus on this full-time, things will speed up significantly. Which means everyone will finally start receiving their orders sooner rather than later.

This is going to be a huge change for me. I'm exhausted and nervous, but I honestly can't wait until everything is ready to go. I apologize for not telling you all sooner. I wanted to wait until I physically had the keys to the shop in my hands before I announced anything. Thank you to everyone for your business and  support. Without you, things would not be where they are now. I never imagined this level of success when I first started. I hope to continue it for years to come.

Sincerely, 

Gus