Where to start ..?? ...Well, right now I have more than 300 skin designs completed that are just waiting to be coded into actual working skins, but the average skin with few edits takes about 30 hours to complete from start to finish once the actual layout/design is already completed in photoshop. The actual design process can take anywhere from a couple hours to a few days depending on how well the imagination is working at that moment I guess.) So needless to say, we probably wont see all of those skins make it into the skin shop, no matter how bad I wish I could make it happen.
I've realized these past couple of weeks that the reason we're all finding so many bugs in the few skins that I've released for 3.0 is because I'm trying to do too much at once. I've got post-it notes covering more than 75% of one wall here in my office and files with notes in 2 different filing cabinets. I have on average about 5 custom skin orders come in each week and about 30 or more custom logos each week as well. This doesn't even include the website designs that are backing up from my local clients and also a few from around the world that have found me on the net. On top of all this, there's fixing bugs, custom edits for customers who have 3rd party mods, answering more than 100 or sometimes more than 200 support emails each morning from the moment I turn on my computer and last but certainly not least, there's the phone support. I spend more than 4 hours a day on the phone handling support. This leaves me about 3 to 4 hours each night to sleep if I'm lucky. Sometimes I'll go for 48 hours straight just to make sure I don't get too far behind on things. Then that's when I start screwing things up because I'm so tired. See the domino effect?
What really pisses me off is when someone sends me a PM or email in the morning, then a few hours later, like right after lunch, I get another PM or email saying "I keep trying to get a response out of you but I'm being ignored." You've GOT to be kidding me. I'm not this huge corporation with 20 people working in my little 15x15 office. I'm just a girl, working out of her home and giving 300% of myself to my customers and leaving nothing of myself for my family. Why? Because if I don't bust my ass 30 hours a day, then I get people submitting charge-backs though paypal and taking back the money I was paid and already worked hard for, so then I have to work twice as hard to make up for that money that was taken away because people have no patience or understanding, let alone any compassion. Everybody wants to order something today and they expect it all to be delivered yesterday. Imagine that.
So, I've decided it's time to make a schedule and stick to it no matter what, and if I get any more chargebacks, I've got two choices. Sell IBSkin and let it go so I can concentrate on my website designs and oil paintings or raise my prices to compensate for all the chargebacks. But, if I raise my prices, sales will drop. So it's a never ending battle and all I can do is bend over and take it up the.... (you get the point) lol
My daughter has had strep throat for 4 days now and my husband just left to go out to sea for a month. I haven't been able to take time off to take her to the doctor and I wasn't able to take any time off to spend with my husband before he left to go this morning at 4am. He told me that I'm giving too much of myself to this site and it's not worth it. Maybe he's right. I dunno.
Anyway, as you can see, I've got a bit of a problem. So, my next blog entry will explain what I'm gonna do about all this. (hopefully)
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