A note about our Pre-sales: from our little democratic company to you
We're a tiny little company and we operate on the horse-hair-thinnest of margins. Since we're small, we don't get the cost savings available with the big guys. And, as I covered in my article about "How to make body wash in one million easy steps,"product development is really hard and really expensive. It can take years to create a product type that we'd be proud to put the Outlaw Soaps brand on.
One of the ways we finance product development is with pre-sales. It's kind of like selling tickets to the concert in advance for less than the price at the door: we use the revenue from the pre-sale to cover the start-up costs of making a product (which, believe it or not, run about $3,000 - $10,000, depending on the product).
We cover most of the cost of development for products that have passed our initial rounds of product discovery (like our spray cologne released in small sizes first, and then large sizes later), but running that horse over the finish line sometimes takes a little assist from you, our Outlaw-lovin' customer.
Which, I must interject, we APPRECIATE SO MUCH. Without you, this product development -- and this whole business -- would be a steaming pile of horse-processed grass.
So we do these presales, and sometimes we're just making our best guess about launch date. We don't have the packaging yet. We don't have the products in bottles (but usually we have the bottles, at least, and have made a few test batches). Often, we've made a smaller version for the good, clean folks on the Clean Getaway Subscription Box or sent out free (or near-free) trials in plain packaging, but sometimes (as in the case with the cologne), we sent out a tiny amount and then reformulated it, so the first edition is the alpha version.
Since it's the alpha, we're:
- Working out bugs
- Asking for your patience
If something isn't right -- if you think the scent is off, or don't like the consistency -- we ask that you let us know (preferably kindly, and without leaving any one-star reviews on Amazon).
We also may slip our production schedule slightly. And by "slightly," I mean a few days, or even a couple weeks, not months.
So if you pre-order something, we request that you extend the kindness of patience for our ridiculous little flailing as a tiny little company just trying to get its footing in this crazy, crazy world.
If you have questions, comments, or complaints, please feel free to contact us using the form here: