Running a small business is no easy task. I suppose it’s not meant to be otherwise we’d all be business operators, we’d all be living the “Australian Dream” and we’d all be cruising through life with little care about what is around the corner.
Throw into the mix that my business model is literally use the profits I make to do good things throughout the community, it not only upsets the accountant it also upsets planning and cash flow when there are little things ‘unexpected’ that pop up.
Adding to this, as someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, when my mind and heart are filled with hopes and dreams only to suffer a setback which shatters them… it can be difficult to reset, refocus, and return the mind to where it needs to be to continue being the Dad Man I want to be for the community.
Set Backs
Life truly is like a roller coaster. We all have our ups and downs, our challenges that we need to endure with each twist and turn giving us OUR story to tell. Simply put – Setbacks are a way of life that when faced with them we need to find a way to overcome them.
Anyone that lives within South East Queensland knows how bi-polar the weather has been lately. Really hot days, cool nights, cloudy over-cast days with rain, muggy nights – not only does it play havoc with sleep patterns, or planning ahead with what you are going to wear the next day, in the world of 3D Printing it plays havoc with your set up.
Printing with PLA Filament, as we do here at Dad Man Trading, the weather directly effects prints. To try and put things into an easier understanding (and trust me I don’t mean to attempt to mansplain) think of an old wooden house; in different weather you can hear it creak as the wood expands and contracts in the different weather – the same sort of thing with printing.
In some of my timelapse videos you will see the door on the printer alternating between open and closed, this it to try and combat the weather at Dad Man HQ.
Off course this ultimately leads to its own set backs. Prints scheduled to take 1 1/2 days failing a whole day into it. Over night prints that should be done by the time I wake in the morning stopping and failing as it has gone cooler and the filament has stuck.
As someone who likes to plan ahead, be organised, and tries to time things so the printers are forever working… this is a set back as you have not only lost time, you have to set up to print again and lost the money in the filament that was wasted.
In typical “LIFE” fashion, you know when you get one set back there is usually another one or two waiting around the corner just to ‘test’ you.
That is no different here. In addition to the filament being a little temperamental in our efforts to advertise the Dad Man Trading brand and offerings we have faced the uphill battle with local community groups to have posts approved – requiring us to instead take funding away from community initiatives and direct them towards paying META (Facebook/Instagram) for advertising promotion.
Some hold grudges from a sporting association I ran prior to, during and immediately after COVID. Their partners/friends were involved, due to COVID and the start-stop nature, it resulted in me being responsible for the WHOLE association as office bearers left, despite my requests for help no one playing within the sport offered assistance.
When I had my incident, playing that sporting code, that resulted in my neck injury that rendered me disabled in the days afterwards a leadership group that had established behind the scenes asked for the association, I handed it over as in the days after my incident I was struggling to get out of bed, thus allowing those associated, even through friendship/relationships to hold the grudge that I ‘destroyed’ the original association.
In addition to those who hold a grudge about this some other pages have moderators or administrators who also do 3D Printing and are trying to sell their own products on the pages and therefore they take the opportunity to not approve our posts.
While this is obviously a setback to our continued push to let the local and surrounding community know about us, it just leads us to focus more on making better products, and ensuring the things we do in and around the community continue to be successful – the mantra used is simply; it says more about them than it does us.
Cancelled Markets
How disappointing that the hard work by the team at Mingle Markets Yarrabilba has been undone due to weather in recent months.
Gabi and the crew work hard on providing Mingle Markets twice a month to the local area, and all month long in different areas, it must be disappointing for them with all the planning and promotion that they do for Mother Nature to have different ideas when it comes to Market Day.
Considering that Dad Man Trading currently only appears once a month, primarily at these events, they are so disappointing for us and another little set back that has been affecting us recently. As this is a hobby business, I am disabled, my anxiety/depression, it is my precious wife Carla (Meet the Team profile coming soon) that operates our booths; therefore we don’t overbook.
Finance wise, we don’t really care about the markets. Sure they can be fun and rewarding, but our whole set up is about spending each month printing new toys, then arriving at the markets and seeing what children and adults a-like are drawn to – this helps give us an idea of what to possibly print more of in the future.
We like to hear feedback on what people think, like to see people pick up and touch – kids sometimes amaze us at what we and their parents think they will like and they turn out being drawn to (and at times obsessed with) other items completely unrelated… that is what the markets are for us.
With all the fantastic effort the Mingle Markets Yarrabilba team put in, not to mention all the performers and stall holders like us, we have our fingers crossed for some stable weather in the coming months so the community can get out and enjoy the fantastic Market event they strive to put on.
New Beginnings
Wow! Going through this it seems a fair bit of a downer. I admit that; Basically for those who are bored and read through these little ramblings… oops I mean blog posts, I want to be upfront and straight forward.
I am not some corporate company with interns who is here to present a Rose Coloured-Glasses view, this is a hobby business and these are my little writings from what is happening behind the scenes, what is upcoming etc.
But let’s look at some exciting things that Dad Man Trading has upcoming. As we always say all of our profits go towards community initiatives; we attempt to make Halloween awesome, we set up a local Grinch (a nice one) for families to come get some free goodies and take photos, we have given out football tickets, paid for peoples groceries who are doing it tough, handed out gift cards to struggling families, gift packs/hampers – the list just goes on.
Dad Man Trading are currently finalising plans for our Dino Day. Off the back of the popularity of our dinosaur toys, including our new Dinosaur Fossils including the Xtra-Large versions, we are busy planning and printing for our next community initiative – Dino Day.
While we are currently booked in for the Mingle Markets Yarrabilba for the next couple months we are considering taking a couple months off, we don’t want to grow stale to the visitors of their great event. Taking a couple months off however doesn’t mean we will be quiet – we are already planning and printing for our Dino Day.
Dino Day will be held during one of the months we are not booked into markets, while not all the details are yet finalised think:
- Dinosaur related freebies.
- Dinosaur related giveaways.
- Dinosaur Fossil Excavation Digs*.
- Large Printed Dinosaur Fossils to play with/take photos with.
- Dinosaur Costumed Character.
- Heavy Discounts and Specials on all things Dinosaur.
While still in the planning stage and nothing cemented in millions of years of rock – the idea is a fun gathering for everyone where no one walks away empty handed.
New Products
Part of our new beginnings include a large range of new products, not just new versions of dinosaurs, dragons and the regular we are looking to push ourselves and include new products this year including some art work, more custom opportunities and just trying to push the boundaries.
No matter how cool these products are we are sure, such is the nature, some will be hit and miss and we are truly excited to see what you our loyal supporters and followers like. In addition to the new products we are looking to re-do some of our older products bigger and better.
So keep an eye out on the Social Media accounts and right here on the website as a host of new products are added. Your feedback on what you like is greatly appreciated.
For now though that’s all from Dad Man HQ – back to printing and preparing.
~ DadMan