Heygumball

Let me start by apologizing for not updating this more frequently! I've really intended to document the milestones and roadblocks of this journey, and just have not followed through. And for that, I'm sorry.

The first big update is that we did in fact complete the migration to Vue/Laravel in early 2023, and that has allowed for much more rapid feature growth!

Feature Updates

Since there's a gap in updates, I'll start with a bullet list of features we now support:

• Calendar Integrations: Sync directly with your Google/Apple calendar
• Appointment Management: Along side calendar integrations, you can now create/schedule/cancel/etc appointments and link them directly to a submission; giving you a breadcrumb from what the client asked for, when they asked for it, all the way to when they should show up!
• Automated booking windows: Set and forget when your booking link will show as available.
• Custom Form Builder: Customize your booking form to get the exact info you need to make an informed decision!
• Client Profiles: View a client's info and any previous submissions
• Artist Portfolio: Artists can add images of finished tattoos to display on their Heygumball portfolio, which also shows a real time updates on whether the artist is taking new clients
• Tagging: Create tags and apply them to submissions, making it easier to filter to the ideas you're interested in
• In-App Chat (this one was huge!): Communicate with your clients directly from the platform and straight to their phone/email

Whew! That was a mouth full.

To follow that up, here's a list of upcoming features [this list is shorter--for now]:

• Payment processing
• Email/SMS Notifications
• Mobile App: This is actually close to the finish line, but has been back-burnered for now

Marketing/Business updates

We've slowly grown to $46/mo with almost no marketing. I know, $46/mo isn't a lot; but the reason I'm proud of that $46 is that the people who make that demographic up are diehard users.

I'll be honest, I've almost sunsetted the project a few times. But, these users live and die by using Heygumball as their booking platform now. One going as far to say "whatever you do, do not ever turn this off! Please!" And if only a few users have that strong of a conviction to the product [even at this stage], then there's something here, and I'm going to keep on keeping on.

We've reached out to a few early-stage investment firms and were obviously rejected (which I completely expected). The rejections were a mixed bag of reasons. Some were because of how little we current generate, and some were honest in that they didn't feel they could be useful in the industry we're in. You gotta respect that candor.

Lastly, the next phase of Heygumball will be on growing our marketing efforts and trying to grow the platform. I've spoken with a few people and we're scheduling talks about potential partnerships, some being shop owners/convention runners. I've been active in a rather large facebook group of professionals in the industry and have been slowly building my credibility in there. I try to add value to conversations a few times a month, and limit myself to mentioning my product to only once a month [for now].

Well, that's the big update for the last two years. We've been busy and (slowly) growing.

Would love feedback, or hit me up if you'd like to grab a coffee and chat!

Cheers!

2022 has been a wild ride. We hit a miniscule $8/mo but we're extremely proud of that $8.

Feature development has been slow as of late for a variety of reasons. We did implement a full tagging system- which we didn't anticipate this early- and we also have a few more lined up ready to go.

We've worked closely with a few artists to get feedback on the platform, made some huge improvements based on that, and we're in the process of trying to resolve a bug that keeps puzzling us- but that's the game of progress, right?

Oh, and we're completely rebuilding the platform! Well... behind the scenes- the new build will have full feature parity but rather than leveraging Vue/Supabase, we'll be Vue/Laravel.

What this means for users is improved stability all around. What this means for us a more refined ability for custom features.

The only piece left is to plot a path for the migration to take place.

Look out 2023. We're coming in hot!

Heygumball is live and in alpha-testing!

The MVP was built behind closed doors until it was ready to open up to alpha testers. We're collecting incredibly valuable user feedback on improvements and additional features while ironing out bugs we find a long the way.

The highlight of this journey so far is that the testers have been very excited about the product and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive- both in regards to design/feel of the product and the excitement our testers have at the prospect of our tool making their lives easier!