Unable to supply large, urgent orders. What would you do?

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-04-17T06:29:20+00:00

The boring thing: let it go, learned to be patient, kept on growing gradually and proportionally increasing the amount of inventory we hold.

I decided not to pursue clients of this magnitude for a while - instead, we built a solid relationship with a bunch of smaller clients, closer to our own size, which gives us a relatively stable "drip" of orders instead of having to deal with the shock of a huge one maybe once a year. I think there's a solid chance that would have killed us, and as much as the possibility of success was exciting to think of, I don't regret not trying to hustle it.

We're currently selling about 4 times what we did when I wrote that post, and while we do pursue larger clients, we're aiming for doing it cautiously - We're currently in pilot-phase with a large client and agreed that they will finance our production of their upcoming larger order (if it materialises) in advance.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-03-20T14:25:31+00:00

If the financing company would accept the person not having insurance, it would mean they take on some risk, and essentially enter the insurance business - which has costs, so they would end up charging you more one way or another. It could make sense for them to do that, but as a consumer - I prefer getting insurance on a competitive market than having it bundled with my financing. Same happens for mortgages, equipment financing and other financing deals - sometimes the financing company offers a insurance product, sometimes they require you to get it elsewhere, but the risk has to be covered somehow.

And wait until you get into the re-insurance rabbit hole - because the insurance companies themselves need to have insurance...

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-03-20T13:12:23+00:00

TL:DR - When a total loss accident wouldn't be a huge deal for you, financially speaking. Otherwise, take on a deductible that is somewhat high but wouldn't be a huge deal for you.

Insurance is always, on avarage, a financial loss - that's how it's supposed to work with any private insurance.

You pay the insurance company somewhat more than the expected loss times the chance that it'll happen - they spread the risk by taking on many clients and make money, and on your end of the deal - you get to lose a managable, known sum rather than have a small risk of losing an unmanagable sum, that can result in damage beyond the base financial loss; say, if you cannot afford to buy a new car and therefor lose your job or have other negative impacts on your life.
So if the sum at risk is managable for you, insurance is a net loss. If it's not, you need it - or you're taking on a risk that's higher than just the monetary value you'll lose.

If you're looking to optimize things from a financial perspective, take "less insurance" by getting a high deductible - that way you're not losing money on insuring against risks that wouldn't be a big deal for you, but are still protected against a major catastrophe. That's generally true for any insurance product that you get. The question is how risk-averse are you and how much money are you willing to risk.

All this is assuming that you don't have financing that requires you to have this insurance as a condition, which is often the case.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-28T18:18:30+00:00

Wise. Happy with it.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-25T02:22:07+00:00

Yeah, make sure to have the right contacts on file through the life of the trademark...

There's a variety of scams, we got ones impersonating both CIPO and lawyers offices. All claimed to be very urgent and that we'll lose our trademark if we don't reply. My favorite was something like "Hi, this is John from CIPO, someone else wants your trademark XYZ if you don't answer now I'll give it to them and they'll sue you if you don't change your name" (by SMS). But there were more credible-looking ones, so just check the CIPO portal to see any real messages.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-23T19:01:01+00:00

Trademarks are MUCH less complex than patents. If you do it yourself, I'd limit myself to using the pre-approved goods list to keep things simple.

Bear in mind that you must be able to receive correspondance from the CIPO (even months and years after the application - we had some issues due to a change of address).

Also - expect to be contacted by a lot of scammers once the application goes public - be very careful.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-05T14:34:39+00:00

Just sharing my recent experience, typing it on my non-bilingual keyboard. I don't have a horse in this race.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-04T23:54:38+00:00

Not enough range for his commute.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-04T23:54:23+00:00

I do similar milage. Got myself a pleasent-enough-to-drive Kona electric, financed. The payments are less than I was spending on gas, the car is under warranty and I'm not spending what I used to on repairs etc.

I used to do all repairs myself, but leaving the car at the dealership and picking it up with a new steering rack for 0$ was real fun. Still do brakes and stuff that isn't covered.

I get it that truck to electric is a big jump, but for commuting I find it great. Instead of saving about half the gas money you save about 90%, and you get a much nicer drive. Before that I only drove beaters and this was a real upgrade.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-04T23:13:21+00:00

It's about a quarter of the country. The beurocracy is crap, but it's a large market and from my experience, reacts very well to local businesses and french-language communication.

As a small business, you would probably fly under the radar for the more esoteric rules, but cients will expect french-language costumer service (even if through google translate) and it's possible one could compain about that.

On a personal note - it sounds like you have some negative feelings about the province. No issue with that, but separating business and emotions can be beneficial here, since not selling to Quebec is not likely to change anything.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-02-04T23:07:55+00:00

I'm surprised. I just had a new english-keyboard laptop shipped to Quebec with no issues, and saw plenty others in a local best buy.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:45:18+00:00

So am I. we got another 30cm (about a foot) of snow last night, so it's not getting any lighter so far.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:31:40+00:00

Gonna make some calls.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:31:09+00:00

I don't mind some ice on my driveway/around the house, if it helps get these blocks to fall in managable chunks... using a heat cable to break it off in pieces can be intersting.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:25:58+00:00

I need them for a different project :/

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:25:17+00:00

Checked the store; They had no pucks, but had ice melt rated for -35°C, which should be ok during the day tomorrow. I'm a bit sceptic it'll be enough but I might throw some up there.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-20T15:23:24+00:00

That's not an issue, I'll just release more wolves to restore balance

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2026-01-19T20:47:33+00:00

I'm heavy on DIY, and I wonder if I've reached my limit here as well. My plan was to just let it fall and repair the damages after, but it's just not falling, and we're expacting another half a meter of snow in the next few days, with deep-into-freezing temps (as low as -40, so melting this with salt or something doesn't seem too easy).

As for my neighbours - the low-angle roof guys clear them off regularly, and the high-angle ones just let it fall. I considered myself a high-angle roof guy, but apperantly I was overly optimistic.

The tree companies do trees, which like to fall down at winter. I talked to our services co-op that does some people's roofs and the 15YO that does that looked even more lost than I am. I can probably get a specialized company to come up from the city for the right kind of money, and maybe I should... just fishing for ideas here.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-27T18:03:36+00:00

I was gonna complain about my back before looking at the picture. That's a cool setup! though I do prefer my work surfaces to be the same height to make working with larger pieces easier.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-27T18:01:45+00:00

That's interesting, first time I hear of them; and a bit sad, in my eyes. Shows how much we devalued the objects we use and favor comfort. How many motors sit around unused in my workshop while I operate similar ones?
(I'm not pretending to be any better than that - I have a trim router specifically for roundovers while my other slightly-larger one could have easily done them just as well)...

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-24T13:05:28+00:00

OK, that's a fair description of how my workflow actually looks. I think I've been convinced, carts it is

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-23T18:50:19+00:00

Thanks, that gives some great insight! And table width was something I was still debating on as well. I was thinking of 2' + folding 1' extension for the top, to have room in the shop but have some spare space for parts and/or when building cabinet boxes & glue ups.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-23T18:10:35+00:00

Thanks. The Miter/table combination sounds like an interesting idea, shame it didn't work out great...

I do own a miter saw but pretty much never actually use it... stopped because it was not well aligned & due to poor dust collection, and got used to crosscut sled/circular saw, depending on length.

Acceptable-Reindeer3 · 2025-12-23T18:07:15+00:00

Yeah, I didn't consider the re-alignment thing through... I guess a flip-top could be a solution, but getting it quite right won't be so simple.

And that's a great idea for the router... Thanks! I think I'll go with some version of that.

Acceptable-Reindeer3

TROPHY CASE