I thought I would give a little update about Penny Wood and whats happened over the last year as well as news on our new YouTube channel.
We started 2022 as a team of 4 - myself, Damion and Jake in the workshop, and then Rosie in the showroom. We remained relatively busy until around March when orders simply just died down and it was no longer feasible to carry on with four people working full-time. I had to make the difficult decision of letting Rosie go and dropping the guys down to part-time hours. The threat of 'cost of living crisis' I believe was the cause of downturn in sales not just for my business but most businesses.
By June things were back to normal (Damion and Jake back working full-time) and I was able to bring in a new member to the workshop part time, Shane.
This is where things take a turn for the worse for me personally. My father was given just months to live after battling cancer for 10 years and in August he sadly passed away. Suddenly everything was turned upside down and the business just wasn't a priority anymore for me. Damion was left in charge from June to November and in that time he oversaw the busiest period Penny Wood has every experienced. On my return, beginning of November, it was clear we were understaffed and we're now a team of 6 full-timers
- myself, Damion, Jake, Shane, Harry and Paul. The showroom had to be sacrificed and is now the packing area. The period from October to December was three times as busy as the previous year!
Due to my neglect of the business in the second half of '22, it did mean that although the business was three times as busy - it wasn't as profitable as '21. This was down to rising costs of literally everything and me not adjusting our prices to reflect this. I think it had been two years without increasing our prices which in hindsight is silly and dangerous when running a business!
I'm coming into 2023 fully focused on Penny Wood with lots of ideas and goals to help grow the business. I have started a YouTube channel and hope to upload videos every couple of weeks so please check it out, like & subscribe and all that stuff. I would also love to be able to move into a bigger workshop and bring in some more workers. I am worried about the year ahead financially though so not getting ahead of myself!
Thanks,
Sam | 🌲