I received a reply from the manager at HotWired just now. The email said:
“Hi Joseph,
Unfortunately the intricacy and amount of work needed does not make this something we can do for a minimal budget, this is about a R2000 job.”
Damn.
I have one of three options now:
- Reply to say that is fine, I will pay the full amount.
- Say no thank you, I will try find someone else or build it myself.
- Reply, asking if there is anything I could do to the model to reduce the cost of manufacturing and make it more affordable.
I decided to go for option 3, as I definitely did not have the budget to pay for a box that expensive, and I do not know of anyone else who can build something like this, or if they’d give me a better price. And lastly, I have no idea how to build one myself and I don’t really have the time to make one.
So I replied to the manager asking for some help in the matter, however I am not expecting a reply. This means that either I have to find a lot of funding fast, or I have to learn how to intricately cut Polystyrene and Sondor and piece them together.
I took a break from thinking and decided to start filling in some of the journal entries from my period of procrastination. This got me reading through some of my old entries and while reading them I stumbled upon a title called “funding”. “This is worth a look”, I thought to myself, seeing as my situation was rather dire. In that entry, I mentioned crowd funding, which would involve opening my project up to the world and asking it to help out. At that time, I didn’t think I would need it, and quite frankly, was terrified of opening myself up to the world. I still am. But I think it has reached the point where it might not be such a ludicrous idea to start a campaign. What’s the worst that could happen? I get zero funds. Well, that’s where I am now, so it can’t exactly go downhill from here (Touch wood).
I think the time has come for me to start a crowdfunding campaign to try and juice some extra funding for my project. However I know that it is important to go into it with no expectations. Expect the worst, that way I can be surprised. If it works out, I should be able to pay for the manufacturing of the housing.
I will start making the campaign later today but will probably only finish tomorrow as tonight I am going out with friends for the first time these holidays.
