Hello everyone!
I just wanted to give everyone a status update regarding my position with Vapor4Life.
It is with great sadness that I must make the announcement that I will no longer be working with Steve at Vapor4Life. I have already received numerous emails and private messages due to Steve's post earlier today asking why, so I will explain it here.
I originally contacted Steve about ordering the Vapor King product, and as I said in my review we talked that night on Skype. I asked him what the status on his website was and, since I am a Web Developer by trade, offered my services to him and sent him my resume and links to some of my past work. He was impressed by the resume and we agreed to discuss the website in more detail later on after I tried the product I had ordered. I tried the product, LOVED it, and let him know I would be more than happy to back this product 100% of the way and it would be an honor to build this website for him.
Over the next few days we developed a good friendship and made plans for me to go to Chicago so that we could meet face to face and discuss other opportunities. I arrived in Chicago and was able to see and test all of the products he offers, and we began to discuss the possibility of me handling customer service, order processing, shipping, receiving shipments, warehousing, and developing and maintaining the website. We setup an agreement the following day, and I left Chicago with all of the inventory.
When I arrived back in Ohio, I originally set everything up in my living room. Due to the facts that my living room isn't very big, there was a moderate amount of stock, and at least 10x the amount of stock I already had on the way, we made the decision to rent an actual office/ warehouse for the business, complete with a small loading station outside for trucks to deliver shipments. I also needed office equipment (computer, printer, packaging supplies and general office items).
Since Steve is funding the whole operation, the overhead after rent and utilities, website development costs, office supplies as well as my weekly salary began to get a little pricey - not to mention his large investments into purchasing large quantities of the products we sold. It's easy to see how all of this can quickly add up to a major investment.
Now if you couple the costs above with the recent news about FDA attention, unpredictability of customs, trying to start, run and grow a business and manage employees, what started off as a small operation quickly turns into the equivalent of 5 full-time job hours.
We got together, we figured out costs, tracked inventory, added up all orders from the past 3 weeks, looked at the profit margin and time invested into our work, and decided that for right now we were growing too big for our britches. After we figured up cost vs. profit, we decided we were spending more than what was coming in, and made the decision that it would be in both of our best interest if we mutually parted ways. There were absolutely no hard feelings in any way, it was something we decided to try and see how it went, and it became much more expensive than we could have initially predicted.
Steve and I are still good friends, there was no falling out, nobody did anything wrong, we only mutually agreed that it would be in the best interest of the company for the time being to downsize and minimize costs. I still fully 100% recommend the products, especially the Vapor King and the liquid. They are absolutely the best I have ever tried, and I will continue to back the product wholeheartedly.
As Steve stated in his post, please direct all emails directly to him from here on in at smilinenterprise@aol.com, as the vapor4life@gmail.com address is now inactive, and the provided phone number is no longer in use. I am returning all the inventory to Steve on Monday since that is the soonest I can make it to Chicago due to prior engagements, so I'm sure he will be shipping orders on Tuesday. I have already begun to pack the products up, so I will be unable to ship orders out tomorrow, Saturday or Monday. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience there.
It was great working with Steve and Vapor4Life, and most of all it was great working with all of you. The business is still running, operated fully by Steve once again, and business will resume as usual on Tuesday.
Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to work with you, and for the wonderful opportunity of working with Vapor4Life, even though it didn't last very long. I still had a great time even though at times I was swamped, but that's business, baby!
I just wanted to give everyone a status update regarding my position with Vapor4Life.
It is with great sadness that I must make the announcement that I will no longer be working with Steve at Vapor4Life. I have already received numerous emails and private messages due to Steve's post earlier today asking why, so I will explain it here.
I originally contacted Steve about ordering the Vapor King product, and as I said in my review we talked that night on Skype. I asked him what the status on his website was and, since I am a Web Developer by trade, offered my services to him and sent him my resume and links to some of my past work. He was impressed by the resume and we agreed to discuss the website in more detail later on after I tried the product I had ordered. I tried the product, LOVED it, and let him know I would be more than happy to back this product 100% of the way and it would be an honor to build this website for him.
Over the next few days we developed a good friendship and made plans for me to go to Chicago so that we could meet face to face and discuss other opportunities. I arrived in Chicago and was able to see and test all of the products he offers, and we began to discuss the possibility of me handling customer service, order processing, shipping, receiving shipments, warehousing, and developing and maintaining the website. We setup an agreement the following day, and I left Chicago with all of the inventory.
When I arrived back in Ohio, I originally set everything up in my living room. Due to the facts that my living room isn't very big, there was a moderate amount of stock, and at least 10x the amount of stock I already had on the way, we made the decision to rent an actual office/ warehouse for the business, complete with a small loading station outside for trucks to deliver shipments. I also needed office equipment (computer, printer, packaging supplies and general office items).
Since Steve is funding the whole operation, the overhead after rent and utilities, website development costs, office supplies as well as my weekly salary began to get a little pricey - not to mention his large investments into purchasing large quantities of the products we sold. It's easy to see how all of this can quickly add up to a major investment.
Now if you couple the costs above with the recent news about FDA attention, unpredictability of customs, trying to start, run and grow a business and manage employees, what started off as a small operation quickly turns into the equivalent of 5 full-time job hours.
We got together, we figured out costs, tracked inventory, added up all orders from the past 3 weeks, looked at the profit margin and time invested into our work, and decided that for right now we were growing too big for our britches. After we figured up cost vs. profit, we decided we were spending more than what was coming in, and made the decision that it would be in both of our best interest if we mutually parted ways. There were absolutely no hard feelings in any way, it was something we decided to try and see how it went, and it became much more expensive than we could have initially predicted.
Steve and I are still good friends, there was no falling out, nobody did anything wrong, we only mutually agreed that it would be in the best interest of the company for the time being to downsize and minimize costs. I still fully 100% recommend the products, especially the Vapor King and the liquid. They are absolutely the best I have ever tried, and I will continue to back the product wholeheartedly.
As Steve stated in his post, please direct all emails directly to him from here on in at smilinenterprise@aol.com, as the vapor4life@gmail.com address is now inactive, and the provided phone number is no longer in use. I am returning all the inventory to Steve on Monday since that is the soonest I can make it to Chicago due to prior engagements, so I'm sure he will be shipping orders on Tuesday. I have already begun to pack the products up, so I will be unable to ship orders out tomorrow, Saturday or Monday. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience there.
It was great working with Steve and Vapor4Life, and most of all it was great working with all of you. The business is still running, operated fully by Steve once again, and business will resume as usual on Tuesday.
Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to work with you, and for the wonderful opportunity of working with Vapor4Life, even though it didn't last very long. I still had a great time even though at times I was swamped, but that's business, baby!
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