Show to Watch

Have you watched The Big Idea on CNBC? I've caught it a few times but I have to say it's a GREAT show for entrepreneurs. If nothing else, everytime I walk away from the show I feel inspired to keep slogging along. I highly recommend checking it out.

Rewriting the Plan

It's a common enough saying that entrepreneurs fail more times then they succeed. But I'm sitting here today wondering what exactly they mean by fail.

At dinner the other night with another entrepreneur, she mentioned how her original business plan is being essentially tossed out the window due to raw material price increases which drive up her products price far too much. Her husband, who was also at dinner, reminded her that most entrepreneurs have to write and rewrite their business plan and strategy many times before getting it right.

In my case, if I looked at my original business plan and where I am today one could definitely say I failed at my original objectives. But I don't think of it as failure so much as a learning exercise which taught me a better way to approach the marketplace. As a very wise business school professor once told me, business plans are fluid documents that constantly need changing. And I have to agree. Now as I approach the 2 year anniversary of my company while we're not necessarily on the same path originally intended, I have still accomplished the "major" goals (building brand equity and brand recognition) I set out to even though I've had to change course more than once. So is it failure or does that just mean it's time to sit down and rewrite the plan?

Playing The Numbers Game

Every so often, when I'm feeling a littel brain-dead or stressed, I play the numbers game. How do you play? All you really need is an Excel spreadsheet or a good calculator.

In the numbers game the goal is to see how much revenue you would make if you sold X number of products. You can start with your breakeven but, truly, that's not really the point of the game. The point is to play with the numbers. For example, if I send out 1000 marketing pieces in April and have 3% of those people contact me to take advantage of the 10% off offer then it means I will net $X. Then I tweak all the numbers and see how the final figure chages.

Yes, I agree, it's totally nerdy, but it's also kinda nice to dream about on days when the money isn't exactly rolling in

The Argument for Not Throwing Things Away

I'm not a packrat at all. Despite the fact that I tend to have "piles" of stuff around the house, it actually drives me crazy and I spend half my time trying to get myself organized (yes, I fully see the irony in that). In fact in the last few weeks I've undertaken a massive spring cleaning and am in the midst of putting essentially 1/3 of our household possessions on Craigslist purely because I can't handle the clutter.

But there is an argument for keeping stuff from time to time. For example, a few years ago I bought a small, relatively expensive machine I thought I would need for my packaging. It turns out that I didn't need it but didn't want to toss the machine either so it's been with me for two years and one move cross country.

However, as I've been developing this newest product, I was working on the packaging and realized that what I needed was said machine. Not only does this mean I save the cost of having to order a new one, but - and more importantly at this time - I save myself the time of finding and ordering the machine since I'm under a rather tight deadline. So instead of waiting for the machine to come in and hoping that it actually works in the way I need it to, I've been able to test it out right away and determine that yes, it does work! Now let's hope I don't find I need any of that other stuff I sold on Craigslist.

Flexibility

One of the huge benefits of being a small company is the flexibility I have to quickly change course as options present themselves.

About a week ago I had an idea for an interesting new product that I think could be hugely successful with both retailers and customers. At the same time I received a very interesting direct mail offer. Without giving away too many details it looks like I'm going to take advantage of both by advertising said new product in this direct mail piece. Ofcourse that means that the new product will go from idea to real marketable product in a matter of five weeks. Five weeks to do all product R&D, legal and federal oversight, develop packaging, get professional photographs, and be ready to go with artwork. That's a lot on one plate while also keeping the normal course of things going but it just makes sense to me and my business advisors so we're going to work to meet the deadlines we're now facing.

If we can get it all together though it's a really, really neat new product. Then combine that with the new product line we're planning on introducing this fall and I think we've got a good mix.

Company #2

A while ago I mentioned that I was working on a second new company (because, you know, one just wasn't keeping me busy enough!) and said that when it launched I'd post a link to it here. Well, we're now officially up and running so check us out online at www.fuzzyfacefashion.com.

The reason I'm posting this company and not Business #1 is two-fold. 1. This is more of a "hobby" business (if I can say that) with a friend of mine. It was an idea that sounded good to both of us from both the product and the mission standpoint (more on the mission standpoint in a minute). But it's not a business I'm going to blog about or get wound-up about because my first love really is Business #1.
2. Part of this new company's mission is to donate 5% of sales to nonprofit animal organizations. For that reason I figured as many people as possible who see the link the better chance we have of hitting our goal of raising 10K for charity.

So check it out and let me know what you think.

Entrepreneur Meltdown

It seems like the other entrepreneurs in my workspace are in the midst of having a meltdown. One is trying to sell her business and hasn't yet found a qualified buyer so that has her very nervous, one is realizing she's not completely happy with the lifestyle her business has created for her and is trying to figure out the right direction for the company or whether she should just shut it down, and another literally threw a small fit the other day because her business isn't going the way she imagined it would and finances are tough (and I actually do work with men as well but if they're having meltdowns they are being a lot quieter about it).

For what it's worth, my take on it is that we're in the post-xmas blues when you realize it's a while until the next HUGE chunk of orders comes in and now, with a tight economic situation here in the US, retailers are more hesitant than usual to place new orders.

I'm trying to stay "zen-like" because I prepared myself (mentally at least) for the fact that we'd have fewer orders for the first half of the year. So instead I'm focusing on new product development which truly is my favorite aspect of entrepreneurship so that keeps me happy and keeps me from focusing on the fact we have no money coming in at the moment.

Google Adwords

In truth, Google Adwords was something my husband apparently recommended to me a few months ago but, for whatever reason, I didn't listen to what he was saying. And for whatever reason yesterday, while in my workspace, I was listening when some of the other entrepreneurs were talking about how great Google Adwords had been for their business. So even though I am trying to cut back expenses, I decided to go ahead and start a little Adwords account for the next few months to see how it works.

I think the benefit of Adwords - as I'm sure everyone else already knows - is that you can limit how much you have to pay out each month. This way I'm sure I won't be paying more than $50/month for this service until I see how it performs for me. My fingers are crossed it works out well despite my own skeptacism of search engine marketing. But I've certainly been wrong in the past so here's hoping I'm wrong again now...

Bringing In the Money Tree

I'm in the midst of trying to cut back expenses whereever possible. Not that we have a lot of expenses by any means but there are a few places we can cut back so I'm trying to pull back. For example, I've found that it's cheaper for me to use the PayPal virtual merchant terminal for credit card transactions then it is to use the one I currently have so I'm in the process of getting that all changed over.

We're also in the midst of doing some minor home improvement stuff and while stopping in Whole Foods the other day (on a search for marshmellows!) I saw that they had a Money Tree plant for sale. It was an impulse buy but it was so pretty and I'm trying to bring more living things (other than dogs) into the house. Plus, according to Feng Shui, money trees are supposed to help increase financial wealth! I checked a Feng Shui website and they recommended that for businesses the Money Tree be placed near the cash register. Since I'm using a virtual merchant terminal I figured if I put the Money Tree on the dining room table near my laptop that should count, right?