Hi Flow Team
I was wondering if you have considered offering a part payment option.
I think this would increase your perspective customers, such that those who don’t have cash reserves could pay off the Flow Hive over time.
Best wishes
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Old fashion “Lay by” - it would help some people
Surely people could just use a credit card?
Why would you ask a new start-up company to accept the risk of default?
Not everyone can afford out right payment or has the use of a credit card - Some people don’t even want a credit card
The closest I have to a credit card is my bank card. I won’t ever have a CC again.
That being said usually you don’t get a lay away item until it is paid off so there is no real risk of default. But on the other side of the coin just save your money every month like you would with a lay away and pay cash/debit card when you have it saved up. In my mind it doesn’t seem to matter if Flow holds your money or you do, you still have to save the money one way or the other.
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Ah…I didn’t understand the Lay By concept. So Flow would keep the money and let you have the Item when they had the full amount.
I have never bothered with credit cards either. The only thing I ever bought on tick was the house.
I feel like I should say that it could be a useful budgeting tool for some people though. So just because it wouldn’t help me I can’t say it wouldn’t help others.
One option for potential customers would be to start off with a single locally sourced hive, build it up to a double hive in time, get some flow frames at a later date after that hive gets up & running.
Dee Lay-by or Americans Lay-away is sort of hire purchase agreement - a bit like Littlewood’s were only you get the items when it is paid off.
Quite common in Australia and US - you put a small amount each week and they guarantee to hold your goods in store.
I suppose the one main reason I could see this being beneficial that I just thought about is price guarantee. Generally speaking an item on lay-away locks it’s price to the time of the agreement. So if you were going to buy a Flow hive the price would remain fixed until you paid it off. With the price of the Flow hive I could see it being a 6-9 month lay away for many people, and in that time the prices could possibly change.
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Here is a simple yet effective lay-away plan:
Take an envelope and mark “Flow Hive” on the outside. When you have spare change or cash just stick it in the envelope and write down the amount you put in and the current balance. When the balance matches the cost of the Flow Hive + shipping, send it to the Honey Flow team.
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A business model such as that is a complicated one for the company offering it and adds a considerable layer of overhead and complexity to the accounting system.
This is the 21st century. 50 years ago lay away plans on small local scale might have been common. But on a larger scale? Not anywhere I have seen. And not for decades now. A credit card is how to manage to leverage purchases now.
It’s fine if you don’t care to use that tool, but I don’t see a trend back to ole time layaway plans anytime soon. Just doesn’t make sense in this age.
Myself? I leverage my crefit cards for all the rewards they are worth and have left establishments that choose to run on a cash only basis. I require the ease of accounting and purchase protection offered by my card company.
I have debit cards but rarely use them except for cash withdrawls overseas. I don’t get any benefit when I do. I want my miles or rebates!
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That is why Spreadsheet and Databases are used - They do the work for you if anything it is quicker and easier. I used to teach application software - I also run my own books - way better these day as you can add complex accounting in and press a button to update - that is what you use every time you update a shopping cart on the internet - Databases linked to servers.
Hi Dee
Of course anyone could try to save the money up by themselves, but people with less disposable income who are living from week to week, will more easily be tempted to dig into the savings.
best wishes
There are savings and savings. Savings for a flow hive and savings for something else. Interchangeable if you change priorities. It’s a free world, in that respect.
Hi Dee
You like to state the obvious, don’t you? 
You maybe different from me in this respect, but sometimes I buy things on impulse, without considering future consequences, or considering them, but choosing the pleasure of short term gratification and sometimes I pay a cost for that later. So, for people who do that too and don’t like it, or want to work for longer term benefits, giving up some short term ones, the money being held where it is not accessible, is useful.
For me spending the money on impulse for short term pleasure, is not called ‘savings’, but ‘spendings’.
best wishes