DELIVERY/ORDER UPDATE: Getting back to normal

EDIT: I forgot to mention below but I’ve also made lots of changes to; the homepage, the ECOSYSTEM page, the Mushrooms page (corals part 2), the Inverts page, and there is also the new Advice page too (button below).

Getting back to normality

Ok, so we should soon be getting back to normality finally.

I’m still waiting for the op on my arm, but, I have the pre-op appointment on Wednesday 7th June, and the op is likely to follow soon afterwards. The good news is that with my new arm brace, whilst I still can’t lift much with my right arm, I can now type at up to about 60 words per minute for an hour or two before needing a break. I’m not quite up to my usual 90 words per minute, but, I’m getting there. Whilst this might not sound like a huge improvement, 50% of the work in packing orders is paperwork, typing, etc. So I can at least now start getting the admin side a bit more sorted out.

New people

I’m happy to say I now have some new people helping me, and we’ve worked out a way to juggle the packing times around, so a very small number of orders will go out as a trial next week, and the week after we can start ramping back up to normal packing rates.

To take the pressure off the posting days we will also be doing hand delivery runs on other days too. Ben will be back driving for us again soon, and although I can only drive short distances at the moment (mostly just to take Tik to the park and back at the moment), it shouldn’t be long before I’m out doing the long hand delivery runs again too.

This week

This week I’ve been able to sort out some long term goals, reorganise the website a bit, get some promo prepped, start catching up on the email backlog etc. I’ll be doing more of all of that this week.

Next week 5th-11th June

Next week I’ve still got a medical appointment, and more stuff to do with the (still) ongoing lease issues, although they look as though they will hopefully (finally) be resolved giving us hopefully long term security in our current building.

I’ll get a few orders out next week, but, probably only a few small ones just to trial our new packing systems etc. I’ll also try to get the admin side back to normality a bit, and get emails out to all of you individually regarding your option A, B, and C emails etc.

There’s around 30-40 people that haven’t replied to their option A, B, C, emails so I’ll be chaisng you guys up in the next few days.

12th-30th June

Around 90 of you chose option B for June delivery, and we should be able to get all those orders out before the end of June. I will email you later in June to arrange a delivery date, please bear with me and wait for me to email you, because as always emailing people individually can take up a lot of time, and that takes time away from getting orders out and other jobs done.

1st-31st July

At the last count 132 people had chosen option C, so not far off the 150 target. If you didn’t chose option C and would like to change to that then let me know putting “change to option C” in the email title so I can find the emails more easily.

I’m going to let 20 or so more people take this option if they want, and you do get a £50 credit for being a hero and waiting for July delivery. See you option A, B, C email for more details.

All current outstanding orders should be cleared up completely over the next 8 weeks, and we will then finally be back to normality, after having had the most challenging 6 months I’ve ever faced in 30+ years of being self employed, and one of the most difficult 6 month periods of my life. Which will be something of a relief!

And finally . . .

Thanks for all the well wishes etc. I will get back to each of you individually, but, it’ll take a while due to the many hundreds upon hundreds of messages wishing me well from all over the world. Many thanks everyone, it really has been quite overwhelming at times the huge amount of support and encouragement I’ve received from so many people.

PS make sure you check out some of the new blog posts I’ve put out in the last few days, see below.

James, Salty Revolution - 3rd June 2023