Fellow Adventurers!
Welcome back, we hope you're doing well! We really love it when you stop by. Today we'll be giving a summary of where we currently are as an organization and where we will be headed in 2019. We have a number of exciting goals we hope to meet which will strengthen the cooperative and position us to serve you guys better!
We've been quite busy in 2018, beginning with founding the cooperative this fall! We've been busy bees working on launching a great website, creating understandable bylaws, identifying awesome manufacturers and products, and establishing relationships with several amazing companies and service providers. We've sliced, diced, chopped, mixed, blended, hammered, wrenched, welded, and here we are! We're fully functional and slinging orders, helping you and your furry friends find your adventures.
Believe us, we won't be slacking in 2019. There's still so much to do! Look at this to-do list!
Personnel Growth
We're committed to providing great service to our members and as we grow it'll be important for us to find and keep some awesome employees. They're mythical creatures, like unicorns, fairies, talking mice, or sasquatch. We want them, we want to feed them and water them and pet them and hug them and tell them we love them! We want to treat them like human beings and tend to their growth and greater wellbeing, and we will. We're creating a culture and workspace to be envied, life is too short for anything less.
Reduce Inventory Cost
We're currently working with a distributing company to bring you guys some great aftermarket parts. This is good because we can make available a number of manufacturers and items that we otherwise wouldn't be able to if we had to put our eggs in one basket with a single manufacturer. However, working with a distributor comes at the penalty of increased cost. Increased cost directly impacts the dividend we're able to offer our members. As we're able, we will be making direct connections to manufacturers in order to reduce inventory costs and expand product offerings.
Introduce Member Toolset
One of our goals is to merge the cooperative concept with 21st century technology. We will be working on expanding our website (and eventually a mobile app) to enable interactive member participation in the governance of the cooperative! We want to hear your voice and we want to create a platform where it will be heard. Also, wherever possible, we want to eliminate paper mailing for digital substitutions because we love trees.
Establish Storefront / Warehouse
We're currently operating as transient vagabonds with no physical location. While we considered maintaining this model through the use of third party logistics companies for warehousing/fulfillment and using coworking office spaces, we felt that this may result in higher overhead costs and reduced member satisfaction. In 2019 we hope to lease a space in Lincoln, NE where you can come visit and show off your toys. Pet friendly, of course!
Increased Social Media Presence
Social media is crazy cool. We love Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter. We also love that it it can bring amazing communities together. We have accounts set up, but our GM isn't the most savvy at social media. It must be all those gray hairs! Speculation aside, we want to hit these channels and be more engaged with you. We want to revel in photos, videos, hashtags, and dank memes with you!
Holy cow, we have a lot to do. We hope you're as excited as we are to see this cooperative grow and transform. In any respect, we appreciate you. Thanks for reading. Have a good one!