At Joyya, we want to maximize the opportunities for those in need in our community to find sustainable employment. That is why we try to ensure every order is made by our team in-house. However, there are times where due to capacity constraints, we partner with like-minded manufacturers to complete orders. This is an essential part of our sustainability as a business, and we will always let you know if any part of your order needs to be outsourced. There are 2 KEY REASONS we believe these outsourcing partners are essential to our business.
1) Business Seasonality
Like any other business, demand for work changes dynamically. There are months where we are so full that we must turn orders away, and some months where there is not enough work to call in our staff. We have looked at inventory planning systems to smooth this impact, but seasonality is a fact of life.
Many businesses employ seasonal labor to manage the impact to their bottom-line. However, seasonal labor is a challenge for us. First and foremost, our staff and their families rely on a predictable and regular income, and seasonal employment denies them that predictability. Seasonal work makes it hard to pay school fees, buy food and pay rent. Furthermore, we invest substantially in training and equipping our staff, which makes seasonal work less cost-effective.
Therefore, we currently focus on full-time workers. Therefore, to manage business seasonality we either have to over-employ staff to account for peak demand (which is VERY expensive and would raise our prices), or we utilize vetted and certified outsourcing partners to help us manage peak demand. Our hope is that our customers recognize this seasonality and work with us to transparently manage outsourcing when demand can't be met in-house
2) Very Large Orders
As a business, we want to grow. Large orders are a great way to generate lots of employment, but they can also be lumpy and one-time. While we would love to hire lots of people to manage a 50K unit order, we can't guarantee another one will come, so we can't make the full-time commitment. However, we also don't want to turn away large orders, as they are often the foundation of growth. Therefore, we find it essential to use outsourcing to manage the large orders (especially initially) and once the business becomes more predictable, we're able to bring those orders in-house.
We love it when our partners and clients want to order massive volume for major events, promotions or a sudden need. However, in those moments, we know we will have to supplement our in-house capacity, and its something we will do transparently with you. And over time, the ability to serve the big orders will give us confidence to hire more staff and bring the employment to those who need it most.
We don't want to pretend this is an easy topic and that everyone will find our choices acceptable. If you want to learn more about this and how it might impact your order, please contact us at hi@joyya.com.