Isen workshop: adventures in batch production (or not...)

deposit if waiting for batch, full payment if in stock (obvs)?

That sounds similar to the system adopted by everybody's local frame building bike shop some time around 1925. It will never work :)

Stanton work in a kinda-batch way but they hide it. And use interest free credit to avoid the deposit stuff. I'd imagine it's difficult and expensive to get a credit arrangement with a retail finance org when you are just starting out. But I imagine its a fair way of dealing with the problems associated with deposit arrangements.