Want to hear about the exciting Friday night of an entrepreneur? I spent all night - and I mean all night - searching around on the internet. Let me explain, if you will, for a few minutes.
This is an interesting time for my business and I honestly feel as, yet again, we're 110% ahead of where we were last year with regards to the learning curve. Everyday this little dining room business is starting to feel more and more like a real business. The biggest evidence of that, to me atleast, is the fact that right now not only do we pretty much have the 2008 marketing plan and product launch schedule laid out, but the 2009 one is starting to come together as well. I'm starting to feel like we're a little less flying by the seat of our pants and much more trying to make strong strategic decisions that will hopefully pan out in the short-term but the focus really is about long-term brand awareness and, ultimately, brand trust.
Last night the "muse" struck me and I was inspired to try and figure out some of the nitty-gritty pieces of the 2009 product launch which includes trying to figure out a way to more easily make the new product. As much as I love all the energy and detail that goes into my current products, the new product is less detail oriented and I want to make it as operationally efficient as possible while still keeping everything inhouse.
So I spent all night online trying to figure out what type of equipment would be needed, what those costs would look like, and then trying to figure out if it's possible to get a used one at a cheaper price. The beauty of the internet is that you can find pretty much anything and after several hours of locating a few of the identified equipment I finally found one that was located on this side of the Rocky Mountains. In fact the closest I found was up in Canada just a few hours away. Gotta love the internet.
Even more interesting though was that I found an old Ebay listing for one that had been on sale here in the Seattle area that didn't look like it had sold. However, since it was an old listing I couldn't get any of the sellers information. So instead I put an ad on Craigslist under "Wanted Items" and lo and behold - the seller contacted me today! I'm still getting all the details of the sale but if it works out it may save me a trip across the border (not to mention I wasn't sure how I was going to explain the machine to border guards on the way back. It's not dangerous but I'm pretty sure I'd have to pay a tariff on it). So today's favorite website #1 is Craigslist - even for business stuff!
The second one is docstoc.com. Essentially docstoc is a user generated repository of business documents available for free download after you sign in as a member (membership is also free). A friend had asked today about finding a terms and condition document for the sale of her business and another had asked about a loan document and after I directed them to docstoc they both apparently found a boilerplate they chould change and apply to their respective businesses. I've played with it a bit and have been really happy with it thus far. Best of all, I haven't received any spam from them!
I'll throw in a third just because I received the samples today and am really impressed with how they look. If you're interested in "green" printing of any marketing materials take a look at greenerprinter.com. Let me reiterate that I haven't yet used them and they certainly are more expensive them just going with your normal everyday printer - but from the samples I received you can tell these guys do a great job of "green" printing (soy based inks, recycled paper, the entire company wind powered, etc) and are the printing company of choice for companies like Clif Bar. I'm trying to run through my remaining marketing material this year and will then get new pieces redesigned and reprinted next year so I will most likely use them. Check them out and order a free sample if you think this type of thing may be of interest to you.
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