Kickstarter fulfilled (“the good news”) and bringing goods into the UK (“bad news”).

That’s it!! 161 MUROs have made it out into the world and despite being quite a few months later (September...2...3...4...5...February) than intended, I’m still putting it down as a massive overall win and having resisting the urge to fall to my knees heroically!

The stock arrived on 12th February at my UK distribution hub (aka Attic self-storage) and after 2 days of intense boxing, interrupted by a trip up to Nottingham to discuss a potentially exciting educational partnership, the 30% of MUROs that didn’t make it home in time for Christmas were collected by a very helpful DHL driver (who loaded slowly so I could finishing boxing the last couple!) and shipped all around the world.

The final hold up was a big one, it took trading standards more than 30 days to finish their inspection. This inspection resulted in 3 things: the Beaded Rope being rejected/recalled, a long-delay for our customers and an eye-watering bill for storage.  The first two are what they are; the third however came as a devastating shock.  

It turns out when goods are imported into the country they have to be stored at an accredited warehouse.  5 days are provided for free after which you’re charged at £25 per m2 per day at one these warehouses, this means that it only takes 6 pallets to rack you up a bill of £6500 in 28 days to be paid before the goods are released and wiping out the already bootstrapped budget in the process.

The warehouse company actually took pity and issued a £2000, but that still means that I badly need to release some capital from my held stock. So it’s time to start selling MURO properly, I’m almost happy with the website and will be donning my trusty salesman's cap and hitting the road - first stop The Baby Show at Excel in London next weekend (2 - 4 March).