Ever since the wedding season started last year, I have been brainstorming for a way to make my production schedule more visible to my potential customers as well as to myself. Because while everyone on my schedule last year received their cake toppers on time, a lot of them also didn't get their cake toppers until a few days before their events. Not only did I overbook myself, I also sadly had to refund deposits for many who didn't know my schedule was already full.
To make sure that kind of chaos does not happen again this year, I have come up with a calendar using a "block" system. Basically I allow myself only a certain amount of blocks each month to be available for booking. The amount of blocks people need to reserve my time depends on the style they are after as well as the number of figurines on the cake topper. This greatly reduces the guesswork I have to do when filling up my schedule, as well as making my schedule more transparent to my customers.
Here is something else new that I will be implementing into my schedule. A portion of my time every month will now be set aside for some R&D work I have been longing to do for the workshop. However, should the booking calendar ever get completely full, some of that time can be reserved for orders (at an additional fee of $35). I will only do one such order per month and its availability is represented by a pink block called Overtime on the booking calendar. This will give the people who find me a little late a chance to still get on the schedule if they really like my work, and a little incentive for me having to work over time. :)
So without further delay, here is the new booking calendar. I hope you guys find it a helpful addition to the site!
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