Sorry everyone for not being around the forum the last few weeks. It's been absolutly mad here lately. Let me explain.
It started around the beginning of April. My partner Warren was coming for a visit, and we had a TON of things to do to get ready for him. We had a regular order to finish, as well as a new and very special battery color that we were trying to rush to finish, a small handful of new product ideas I wanted to get to the sample stage to show him, and trying to get the big new product line far enough along to have something to show him. So I let the forum slide for a week while I was doing all that.
We still didn't quite get everyting finished before he arrived like I'd hoped, but we got most of it done, and his visit went well. And afterwards he and I took a small two day trip to Xi'an to do some sightseeing (I'll post some pics for you to see soon, I promise) and after that I meant to get back to the forums and get caught up.
But, one of the things that hadn't gone so well during his visit was that my assistant, Helen, who I had come to rely on for sooo very much over the past year for both business and personal assistance made a big mistake during an important meeting. A huge unforgivable mistake that unfortunately meant we had to let her go. I spent a week after Warren's visit trying to fight it, work around it, find some way to keep her because I depended on her for so much (again, bith business and personal), but in the end I had to accept it; my partners were right, she had to go.
And so, since then I've been working twice as hard to get things done around here. And during that time our new product line has been facing some development challenges that I've had to put a lot of additional time into working with the engineers to solve, and I've been trying to put the finishing touches on that nice new MaxxFusion battery color we're going to be launching very very soon, and still keep up on the regular resupply orders. And with all that, I just didn't find the time to get back to the forum.
But don't feel bad for Helen, we parted amicably. She knew she deserved it, and she landed on her feet anyway. She had another offer she had been turning down out of loyalty to us which she accepted once we let her go. She is now a partner in her own company, a mold manufacturer which we just may do business with in the future when we have other new products to make molds for.
And don't feel bad for me, either. My partners drew on their business contacts here to take some of the burden of regular order processing off of my shoulders, and I'm working on finding new solutions for the personal assistance I needed Helen for like translations, shopping, and so on which are all so much more difficult when you're living in a country where you don't speak or read the language.
So both business and personal matters are settling back down now into a much smoother and more regular flow, and I should be able to have time for all the usual forum participation again. Again, sorry for the absence, and thanks for your patience.
We now return you to your regular forum activity.
It started around the beginning of April. My partner Warren was coming for a visit, and we had a TON of things to do to get ready for him. We had a regular order to finish, as well as a new and very special battery color that we were trying to rush to finish, a small handful of new product ideas I wanted to get to the sample stage to show him, and trying to get the big new product line far enough along to have something to show him. So I let the forum slide for a week while I was doing all that.
We still didn't quite get everyting finished before he arrived like I'd hoped, but we got most of it done, and his visit went well. And afterwards he and I took a small two day trip to Xi'an to do some sightseeing (I'll post some pics for you to see soon, I promise) and after that I meant to get back to the forums and get caught up.
But, one of the things that hadn't gone so well during his visit was that my assistant, Helen, who I had come to rely on for sooo very much over the past year for both business and personal assistance made a big mistake during an important meeting. A huge unforgivable mistake that unfortunately meant we had to let her go. I spent a week after Warren's visit trying to fight it, work around it, find some way to keep her because I depended on her for so much (again, bith business and personal), but in the end I had to accept it; my partners were right, she had to go.
And so, since then I've been working twice as hard to get things done around here. And during that time our new product line has been facing some development challenges that I've had to put a lot of additional time into working with the engineers to solve, and I've been trying to put the finishing touches on that nice new MaxxFusion battery color we're going to be launching very very soon, and still keep up on the regular resupply orders. And with all that, I just didn't find the time to get back to the forum.
But don't feel bad for Helen, we parted amicably. She knew she deserved it, and she landed on her feet anyway. She had another offer she had been turning down out of loyalty to us which she accepted once we let her go. She is now a partner in her own company, a mold manufacturer which we just may do business with in the future when we have other new products to make molds for.
And don't feel bad for me, either. My partners drew on their business contacts here to take some of the burden of regular order processing off of my shoulders, and I'm working on finding new solutions for the personal assistance I needed Helen for like translations, shopping, and so on which are all so much more difficult when you're living in a country where you don't speak or read the language.
So both business and personal matters are settling back down now into a much smoother and more regular flow, and I should be able to have time for all the usual forum participation again. Again, sorry for the absence, and thanks for your patience.
We now return you to your regular forum activity.
