Series 2 update: bandaids have arrived!!
almost 2 years ago
– Fri, May 17, 2024 at 02:20:57 PM
Happy Friday critters!
I've got a long overdue update for you today-- the bandaid prototypes finally arrived! They look incredible too and I'm so happy!
Bandaids will come packaged together in a poly bag with a length of elastic string that you can cut to suit your needs. Because of the loose bits and assembly required they are NOT recommended for young children. It's not an ideal solution, but so far its the best one I've come up with.
Now for the transparency portion of this update! I have some really big, both fun and a lil stressful numbers to share.
- This month I ordered over 22,000 pcs worth of plushies and accessories (not including keychains, pins, or totes-- that's gonna be another several thousand!)
- This means we'll have lots of leftovers for the tinyteeth.shop store after all orders are fulfilled.
- Final cost? Roughly $210,000! That doesn't include shipping though, which is estimated to be another $30,000-$50,000 (this is actually less than I expected, so I'm pretty pleased)
- I've got another $100,000 set aside for shipping to backers and preorder customers. I don't think it will cost this much, but I'm not sure exactly how much 3rd party fulfillment will add to the cost so better safe than sorry.
Now you might be going--that doesn't add up to how much the campaign raised and you're right! Is the rest all profit? Haha, I wish. Have a few more big numbers, for funsies.
- Advertising fees ate up about $71,000
- Professional tax prep and getting my books in order cost another $5,000
- Hiring a lawyer and getting the trademark process started was roughly $4,000
- Both Stripe (payment processor) and BackerKit also take a cut of my earnings, to the tune of about 7% if I remember correctly (roughly $42,000)
- Failed payments, believe it or not. The estimates you see on the preorder store and campaign page don't account for the hundreds of payments that fail (over $30,000 worth in this case)
- And the remainder goes towards prototypes, any unexpected fees, and sustaining myself as I bring everything to fruition.
In summary, running a giant campaign ain't cheap! But assuming all goes well, everything that sells in the tinyteeth.shop store is essentially profit and that's pretty exciting! My ultimate goal is to invest a good portion of that money into future snughoul-related projects and keep bringing y'all these spooky cuties for years to come 💖
Also reminder that the snughoul discord is poppin' and yall should check it out:
https://discord.gg/GPsu6exqzX(the link won't expire this time I promise 😅)
Snughouls Discord 👾
almost 2 years ago
– Sat, May 11, 2024 at 10:50:51 PM
Hope you're having a great weekend, critters!
It's been brought up a few times but I finally took the plunge tonight and set up a discord sever for the snughouls. I'd like to use it as a way to share smaller updates (similar to how I use twitter, but without the algorithm getting in the way) and to keep the conversation going in a way that BackerKit struggles to do.
Bear in mind that I 1) suck at discord and 2) just set it up a few hours ago, so there's not much there at the moment! I'll tweak things overtime to better suit our needs (and of course I'm always open to suggestions).
Invite link: https://discord.gg/wTDywe3AI'd also like to add a mod or two if anyone is interested. No hours or requirements other than a familiarity with discord moderation and the ability to hop on here and there and make sure everything is running smoothly 👉👈
For right now there won't be any compensation, but if the discord grows to the point that more stringent moderation is required then I'm open to discussion!
The gangs all here and final photos!! 🎉🎉🎉
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, May 09, 2024 at 11:32:43 PM
It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The last few straggler snughouls arrived last week, and I finally got some good photos today 💖
Now you can see them all one in one place, hooray! (right click + open image in new tab to see a larger version)
Currently the only thing we're missing is the bandaid add-ons. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it seems like they went missing or were forgotten because my manufacturer is having to remake them now. While that does put a damper on me getting some high quality photos in a timely manner, safety testing and production on everything else can carry on in the meantime so it isn't the end of the world.
To that end I've sent the final count to the manufacturer, crunched the numbers, and am feeling pretty great about where everything is at right now! The final count for all plushies, plush accessories and bandanas is roughly 22,000 isn't that wild??
Thank goodness we have a warehouse to send them to this time! 😅
Last chance to preorder/fill out your survey!
almost 2 years ago
– Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 03:14:15 PM
PLEASE READ: Sorry for the confusion folks! I just received a ton of emails from pintopia backers worried because they haven't received a survey yet.
This update applies to SERIES 2 ONLY, NOT PINTOPIA PLEDGES OR PREORDERS. Pintopia surveys will go out during the first week of May!
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Howdy critters!
Apologies for being a bit quiet, lots going on between getting everything arranged post-pintopia, bringing a new puppy into the house (she's a treasure, but boy is she a lot of work! 😅), and preparing to go out of town this weekend to celebrate my niece's graduation.
I mostly wanted to pop in and remind everyone that preorders and surveys close on the 30th! Any outstanding payments will likely be collected between the 1st and 3rd of May.
While I do my best to honor any surveys that come in late, it makes my job a little more challenging and can result in individual delays when it comes to you getting what you paid for. So get those surveys in or let me know if there's anything preventing you from getting yours filled out-- I'm always happy to help!
The second thing I wanted to mention and ultimately apologize for is it looks like we won't be getting the prototypes for the final few plushies in before the closure date. Due to a miscommunication between me and my manufacturer they won't be shipping out until later this week. Despite being "finished", the factory has to make copies of each design before sending them to me. This is so they have a master copy to reference when the plushies go into production.
That said, I'm happy to make adjustments to your order/issue partial refunds/etc if you're unhappy with the final photos when they're released, no questions asked. All I ask in return is that any requests for adjustments be submitted before May 20th. This should be more than enough time for the plushies to arrive, me to take photos, and then share them here.
If you've already emailed me about a survey or preorder adjustment and haven't heard back, feel free to send another message as well. As you can imagine I've been receiving a LOT of emails this month and I would hate for anybody to slip through the cracks due to me overlooking something!
The most reliable way to reach me about survey/preorder issues is by emailing me at [email protected]
I don't always see private messages on twitter/facebook/instagram (or don't see them until too late), but 99% of the time I will see an email.
I think that just about covers everything, but I'll be keeping an eye on the comments here if you have any new questions!
I'll be away from my laptop between the 2nd and 6th, but will jump right back into responding to questions and emails when I get back. Thank you all so much for your patience 💖 I suspect May will be a quiet month for production updates, but June and beyond should be very exciting!
Edit: I'm a FOOL and forgot to include the puppy tax. This is Hushpuppy and she is an (adorable) menace.
Prototypes are FINISHED! 🎉🎉🎉 Preorder store closes on April 30th!
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, Apr 11, 2024 at 07:03:24 PM
A celebration is in order, critters!
I just received the final prototype pictures last night and with that the last few stragglers are finally finished. I'm missing a front-view of Grimshroud but will update soon once these guys reach me and I can get some professional photos.
The bug friends and juice pouch are all finished up too! Beetle friend took the longest and was quite the struggle, but ultimately I think they turned out awesome.
The preorder store has been updated with all the photos here, and as soon as they reach me I'll get some more color accurate photos in front of a nice, white backdrop to match everyone else.
Now that prototyping is finished, I can comfortable set a closure date for the preorder store, hooray!
The preorder store will close on April 30th.
That means you have until then to make any final changes to your item selection, because cards will be charged on or around the 30th. Please note that once your order is locked in and paid for I'm afraid I can't offer refunds outside of extreme circumstances (and of course in the event of a damaged snughoul once they ship).
After the 30th we will be going directly into production! I'll be gathering a final count for each design, adding a few hundred extra to each one, and sending that information to my manufacturer to get the ball rolling. The lead time on this kind of thing is usually about 30-45 days, but I suspect it might take a bit longer in our case with a preliminary count of 15000 plushies already!!
Either way I promise to keep you folks informed every step of the way 💖
To summarize:
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Preorder store closes on April 30th. Cards will also be charged on or around this date if you have an outstanding balance.
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All surveys and orders will also lock after the 30th. Once locked you will no longer be able to add, edit or remove items so if you need any help with this please reach out to me asap.
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I cannot offer refunds after the 30th. Once I send the final plush count to my manufacturer, I'm locked in to purchase that amount and can no longer offer refunds.
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You WILL still be able to edit your address. Addresses will not lock until about two weeks before plushies ship, after an email prompting you to make sure its up-to-date.
If you have any additional questions or concerns, feel free to reach out or comment them here!
