IN THE WORKS 11/25

A monthly update from inside PREST Works.

Hello,

Before I get into this month’s update, a quick welcome to anyone who’s joined after seeing PREST in Paynter’s newsletter. That feature meant a lot. Paynter were one of the brands that nudged me back into making in the first place, so appearing in their Celebration of Small Businesses round-up felt pretty special. If this is your first newsletter, I’m glad you’re here.

So, here’s what’s been in the works at PREST this month.

TLDR: Batch 001 learnings. Batch 002 delays. Postcard problems. Shipping progress. Taxes. Custom Orders. Pizza.

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🎓 Learnings from Batch 001
Batch 001 went well overall, but there were a few things I needed to fix. A few book covers picked up small dents during pressing, so I’ve switched to using MDF boards between each book to avoid this. I also upgraded my guillotine part-way through the run, which led to a few minor spine tears whilst I was getting used to it (pictured above). On the fulfilment side, packing orders in bigger batches will save a lot of time, and I’ll be packing the Risograph postcards straight away next time to avoid any ink transfer. All small things, but useful lessons for future batches. I’m thinking about doing a sample sale in January for the books with tiny imperfections. They’re still fully usable. Let me know if you’d be interested.

⏳ Batch 002 Delays
I was hoping to launch Batch 002 in December, just in time for Christmas, but delayed materials have pushed things back more than expected. I’ve got them now thankfully, so the new release will likely be February, if the January sample sale goes ahead. If you were hoping to pick up a notebook for Christmas, there’s still about 7 books left from Batch 001 available on the website, so don’t wait. One silver lining to the delay is that it freed up time for a couple of custom orders (more on that later).

💌 Postcard problems
Every Batch 001 order included a limited edition Risograph postcard. The idea was to give you a small piece of art, and a gentle nudge back toward analogue communication. I reached out to a few illustrators across the past 2 months and heard nothing back, which was a bit disheartening. Until yesterday. I think this next maker will be a perfect fit for Batch 002. If you or someone you know would like to be featured on a future postcard, I’d love to hear from you.

🌎 International shipping
Some bigger news. I’m hoping to open orders up to the U.S. for Batch 002. Royal Mail now offers prepaid customs fees, which should (hopefully) reduce any unpleasant surprises on arrival. I’m still figuring it all out but it’s looking promising. I’m unable to ship to the EU still due to the new GPSR rules, and the need for an in-country representative. I’m working on it, but I can’t see an easy solution to this one yet unfortunately.

💸 Taxes and registering
PREST has now passed £1,000 in revenue, which means I’ve reached the point where I need to officially declare it to HMRC. I’ve been registering as a sole trader and getting on top of tracking expenses properly. It’s all pretty boring frankly, but a necessary part of running a real business. Fingers crossed it’ll start to make some sense to me soon.

📚 More custom orders
While waiting for the Batch 002 materials, I’ve been working on a few custom orders, creating personalised books for a couple of birthdays. I can’t actually reveal these just yet, but keep an eye on PREST’s socials in the coming weeks to see how they turned out. It’s been a nice challenge working to a brief and bringing someone else’s vision to life. And I got to try some new papers and book structures in the process too.

🍕 Pizza making
Many of you will know by now that I like to share a bit of personal making outside of PREST too. This month it’s pizza. I got an Ooni for my 30th birthday and managed to fire it up on what felt like the only dry day we’ve had. It was a bit haphazard, as it always is when you’re learning something new, but the results were surprisingly good. Looking forward to experimenting more with it.

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