How Much Does It Cost?

There's a great "real life" article in the New York Times Small Business section about the financial end of starting up a small - mostly unfunded - business: http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/behind-a-start-up-one-familys-choices/

So That's What Color My Fridge is Supposed to be!

One of the huge benefits of working for yourself and from home is the flexibility it gives you to take care of all the little life/household things that inevitably crop up day in and day out. We were having some work done on the house last week so Monday and yesterday we moved everything back into the first floor of the house. The benefit of having everything moved out is that it's the perfect excuse to spring clean like you've never spring cleaned before so after doing about 5 hours of actual work yesterday I spent the next 5 hours scouring every corner of the first floor. I'm not quite sure when I last cleaned out the inside of the refridgerator but let's just say it's now a different shade of white then when I started.

Turning the Dials

I took the weekend off from work (more or less - aside from a few crackberry email messages to a few retailers) to head out to Washington wine country for a long weekend of wine tasting and a little race. Before I jump into the entrepreneurship end of this post let me first get on my soapbox and just say that anyone who loves wine should take some time to try out some of what Washington has to offer. Or perhaps you're looking for a unique vacation but are worried that the dollar is worth pittance overseas...come visit Washington's wine region. Specifically I was in Walla Walla, WA and it really is what Napa/Sonoma was 15-20 years ago - a very quant town that has a few good restaurants and some great wineries but a very down to earth population and the majority of the town is still agriculturially based. It's great fun and I highly recommend it.

So now onto the entrepreneurship end. Believe it or not, this stems from a wine tasting we went to. It was actually a private wine tasting with one of the vitners who just started up a year or two ago and he was telling us that a lot of what he's currently doing is "turning the dial" on a variety of factors to see what makes the best wine on any given year. This idea stuck with me and today while in the car back home my husband and I were talking about how this stage of my business is very much about "turning the dial." Specifically we have the product mix dialed in but I'm trying to find the perfect recipe of trade advertisements, direct to retailer via direct mail/tradeshows, outside sales reps, and wholesale website.

Originally I thought that the way to get into the most retail outlets was to go the outside sales rep routte but I've been vastly underwhelmed with this crowd (note: I'm talking specifically about those reps I've met in my specific industry and not all reps in general. I actually believe that sales reps can do a fantastic job but they can make much more money working in the medical or technology field then working for little ol' me and as such I can't afford to hire the really good ones). In a sense I turned that dial up to a 7 or 8 (out of 10) and didn't get the results I was looking for so I'm now dialing that back down to a 2 or 3 and turning up the direct to retailer via direct mail/tradeshows while also simultaniously adding in the wholesale website in another month or two. So those two are getting cranked up towards the 7 mark and I'm turning up the trade advertising to perhaps a 5 but am thinking that in 2009 perhaps that will have to be turned up even further.

I could go on forever here about tweaking this one thing just so and adding in a dash of that thing but you get my point, right? So much of entrepreneurship I'm finding is not just straight trial and error in that if something doesn't pan out the way you imagined then it's just a no-go. Instead, it seems to be a matter of turning the dials on a multitude of moving pieces until you hit just the right match. Course my fear is that entrepreneurship may be just like fine Walla Walla wine and that as soon as you have this year figured out you have to go back to the beginning and start all over to figure out the right mix based on a variety of new factors for the next year.

What Am I Missing?

I finally got around to getting my QuickBooks caught up to date. Well almost completely caught up to date if it were not for a suspect charge I came across on last month's statement which then forced me to call 801 different agencies to try and get the issue resolved. The nice folks at Alaska Airlines are now looking into the issue for me since the charge came from them.

But that minor drama aside - getting my QuickBooks up to date made me realize that sales year to date are currently 44% behind where we were last year at this time while right now costs are pretty much staying even with last year. On the bright side - at least costs have risen drastically given the current economic environment! Plus, a lot of what i would consider our "mistake" spending from last year happened in the second half of the year so I've hopefully learned from that and will be making wiser choices about where to spend our money. I'm hoping that means at the end of the day we'll have kept costs at par, at the very least, while also increasing sales.

However, I feel like I'm missing something. Do you ever have that feeling where you've walked into a room for something but can't remember what it is? Or that there's a voice in the back of your head trying to tell you something but you just can't seem to hear it? I've been feeling like that for a few weeks now and I just can't get a good handle on it. I swear it feels like I'm missing something business-wise - something obvious that's right in front of me - but I just can't seem to put my finger on exactly what it is.

I'm a relatively smart person who's managed to surround herself with a group of really smart people but yet something's not quite right. What I can't tell if whether I'm too focused on short term results and success that perhaps I'm negating the long term goal of building a brand or whether I'm too focused on building a brand that I loose sight of the fact that something needs to be done today to get money flowing back into the company. I'm not really sure what it is but something's missing...

What Impact Has the Economy Had On You?

I stole this blog topic from a forum I read as it's definitely something that's been on my mind with regards to the business.

Right now it's actually a little hard to tell how the economy has impacted my business since my business is very seasonal. I will know more after the Fall tradeshows since if retailers aren't buying then it will be a very good indication that people are incredibly worried about the economy and holiday buying season.

Right now we've actually been doing ok business-wise given the seasonality in our business. I can definitely tell that retailers are less apt to make new product purchases now and are sticking to "tried and true" products but our new products are getting a lot of attention from retailers but most are telling me to come back to them in the Fall.

At the same time, our new product seems to be generating a lot of buzz in the industry trade publications. I already know that we're going to be in the upcoming June edition of one publication (or so I've been told - we'll see if I make the final editorial cut) and it's looking like we're going to be spotlight in another publication in July. I've also sent in material to a few other industry trade publications so I'm hoping they bite and perhaps do a little more press towards August/Sept timeframe as that's getting mighty close to tradeshow season so I want our products/company top-of-mind for retailers.

So while right now the company is blowing through a decent chunk of change - it's not necessarily so much that it has me totally bent out of shape (only midly bent out of shape). I was hoping that we'd break even this year and while I do think that we still stand a chance of doing that, this economy may make that goal a little harder to reach than originally anticipated.

Playing the Lotto - Business Style

I'm not a lottery player with the exception of when the jackpot gets above $200M and I happen to actually hear that it's above $200M and I actually have $1 in cash in my pocket (interesting fact I recently learned - you have to buy lottery tickets with cash). As anyone who actually knows me will attest - typically having the $1 in cash on me is the deciding factor against buying my chance at $200M+.

I do happen to play the business lottery though. For example, today I sent a product sample off to a large company that is incredibly well known and has an equally high brand image though they don't typically carry products like mine. Heck, I didn't even have the name of the appropriate person so it's literally addressed "Dear Sir or Madam" - since hours of internet searching turned up nothing. But let's just say that on the off-chance it actually makes it to the right person and they buy into my carefully crafted and hopefully persuasive cover letter. Imagine the results!

And post memorial day I will be sending a sample to a well-known tv personality who has a famous "list" in her magazine that also typically makes the "list" she broadcasts on tv. It's one heck of a long shot - in fact my odds of winning that $200M+ lottery are probably better - but just for a moment imagine what would happen if someone did think it would be a great new feature for their publication.

I don't do a lot of this "business lottery" sample sending since, at the end of the day the probability of actually winning are next to nil and the money spent to send samples out the door could be put to better use. Though in two instances it actually has paid out for me. Like the above two scenarios, one was to a large well-known retailer (I did have a contact name that time) which actually ended up being the first retailer my company signed. And the other was a PR move where I sent samples to "Dear Sir or Madam" and it actually made the cut. So I believe these things can happen despite the fact that the odds are not in my favor. But again, just imagine what would happen if you won...

Week In Review

It's been a busy week with a ton of balls in the air so I apologize for not writing too much. Here's a quick recap and then I'm going outside for a ride in this first beautiful weekend in the Northwest (hallaluhia summer may have actually arrived!)

I've been getting a few calls this week from people who are interested in working with the direct mail group I worked with for my spring direct mail piece asking me what I thought of the group/results/etc. It made me go take a look at the ROI and I realized that we're at about a 75% ROI for the campaign which is really pretty good. We don't have the sales figures I thought we would (there's still another week left on the promotion) but I keep remembering that at it's base I wanted this to be more of a brand awareness campaign first and a sales campaign second in the hopes that when people see our ads & second campaign this fall and then see us at the trade shows it will spark them to come over and check out the product offerings (and place orders - big orders!)

The new website is underway and I'm ecstatic. After much searching I finally found someone - well really two people - who I think are going to do a bang-up job on the new site and really help us bring the site up to the brand image of the company as a whole. We're also going to have some great new componants for retailers so that they can quickly and easily get all the wholesale information they always need and place orders directly on the site. I'm very very very excited.

Our house is in the midst of being torn apart to have the wood floors on the first floor redone. That means we've been moving everything out of the first floor of the house which includes the dining room table/my office. We're actually moving out to a friends house for a few days so we're also trying to pack up what we'll need for a week, etc etc etc. In short, it's chaotic around here right now so next week is definitely going to be a shortened work week. I'm bringing my accounting to-dos with me to the friends house and if I get that taken care of and nothing else I'll be really happy since I also have to be at the house part of next week playing constructon foreman and then spend a day cleaning the house post floors/pre moving everything back in and then off to a race on Friday in the eastern part of the state. Phew!

I also submitted my application to join the Board of a local nonprofit that is connected to my industry and, obviously, in line with something I believe in and love. I'm excited to meet with the Board in a few weeks to talk more about the position/responsibilities/and goals of the organization to see if it will be a good fit.

Many in my industry are at a big tradeshow this weekend on the east coast and while I'm not there - obviously - I'm interested to hear from friends in the industry how it went. It's in a new venue so people were a little skeptical of it not to mention the slowing economy so I'm glad I didn't go but am anxious to hear how things panned out.

Lastly, I did have the first round interview with "Big Company" which I don't think actually went too well since I haven't interviewed in over two years so am a bit out of practice. It's still an interesting position and if I get a callback I'll probably continue the interview process to learn more but am leaning towards sticking it out fulltime with my company rather than hiring someone to run it for me for a few years. But who knows...we'll have to see how this all plays out.

I was talking to a good friend the other day and after doing the quick "what's happening in your life" rundown he said it sounded like I had my hand in a lot of pots. I don't disagree with him for a second and while things are going really well I'm definitely reaching my limit on what more I can take onto my plate and think I may need to start taking some stuff off/delegating some stuff off.

Being Beaten by my own Employee

I think my employee may be better then me. Seriously. She's been working with me for about a month now - just part time two days a week - and I honestly think she's better at the production end of things then I am.

This is actually a huge relief for me. I won't lie that as the typical entrepreneur I was (and sometimes still am) pretty much convinced that I am the only one in the world who can do this as perfectly and with as much care as they need to be done despite the fact that this is not brain surgery. And then within the course of a month she's not only picked up on everything but is probably doing it better then I can/do.

I could be upset at the realization that I'm really not as special as I'd made myself out to be in my own mind (sarcasm), but it does give me something to think about as I start down the road of talking to this other company about their fulltime position. At the very least, it's reassuring to know that with the right staff this entire business doesn't have to rest solely on my shouldars.

Belated Mother's Day Musings

I've been thinking about Mother's Day for the last few days. The first thought was brought on by the fact that I could either use A) a better organizational system or B) a personal assistant since my mother's day card didn't get mailed until Saturday adn didn't show up until today. Oops - sorry mom!

But I've also been thinking about how this business really is like my "baby." Here's the similarities I've come up with so far:
1. It is always on my mind
2. It has the ability to frustrate me to no end but I love it regardless
3. It's a sinkhole for money (I don't yet have kids but I've heard they can be little moneypits)
4. I'm constantly wondering if my business will grow up to be a productive member of society (ie - add something positive to the world in some way or another)
5. It keeps me up at night
6. It requires babysitting when I'm away

But in truth, this business is my 'baby' and I love it.

Supporting a Cause

My husband and I went to a charity dinner and auction event last night. And how exactly does this pertain to entrepreneurship? There were actually two items up for grabs in the silent auction that I bought for use for the business. The first was a 1/2 day professional photo shoot (product shoot - not personal) with the person that is actually the business's professional photographer which I nabbed at 1/2 the normal price. The second item was a bit unusual for an auction in that it was 1000 color copies from a local copy place. Not surprisingly I was the only bidder on the item so I got it for a steal which is wonderful as I'll need to copy my existing company brochure in advance of the tradeshow season this fall.

So it was win-win as the charity got a bunch of money at the end of the evening and I got a few things that are needed for the business and potentially also some good karma as well.

Back To Work

It's been back to work at my business today with a few sales calls to make. Sadly none of them turned into any sales though I wasn't really expecting any from the retailers I visited today so I wasn't surprised in the least nor was I disappointed. If nothing else I got to meet the retailers face to face and they all said that my products might work for the holidays so I'll try back again in a few months. Yes, sadly, as one of the retailers and I were talking about, "the holiday" planning starts for all of us in just a few months while the weather is still warm and the big box stores haven't even put their Halloween merchandise on the shelves yet. Sometimes that's the odd thing about being in this industry - you're constantly mentally a few months ahead of the current season.

Tomorrow a bunch more retailers to call to set up for visits next week and I have to start pulling together all the graphics for my new website (very excited!). Hopefully the weather will stay nice and I can do some of the work from my deck.

Yeah, it would have to be the perfect job

Resume sent, contacts contacted...and after a day of pondering the "what ifs" I realize that it really would have to be the perfect job for me to leave all this. Sure, there are days this entrepreneurship thing drives me absolutely batty - but I do love the challenge and I'm really not sure I'm ready to give it all up. But who knows, perhaps I will find out that this is indeed the perfect job. In the meantime, it's back to business as usual at the dining room table.

Things I said I'd Never Do

I just did what I said I would never do again - I created a resume.

This morning I was looking for something online and literally stumbled upon a job posting that is "exactly" up my alley based on my experience, education, and interests. What's more, it's for a large company located in my hometown that is renowned for treating their employees very well.

So I hemmed and hawed for a little bit because I honestly wasn't looking for a job but eventually pulled together a resume and submitted it to see what happens. I'm sure it's just going to go into the recruiting black hole (though I have also reached out to a few alums from my school who work for the company to see if I can get an inside track) but I've always been a huge believer in keeping all options open and you can't even have the option open if you don't try. So the resume is out there and I'm ofcourse all a-twitter of nervous energy wondering "what if" or "what if that?"

Ironically, I've taken two new orders while pulling the resume together and even if it all comes to pass I'm not sure I'd be ready to give this up yet. Obviously I would need a ton more information about the opportunity before I could move forward so for now I'm just going to go back to running my company the very best that I can.

Not the best odds

I just got done calling up 11 of the local companies (of the 42 I have to call today) and here is the current rundown:

1 store closing up their doors
1 store selling to a new owner so not interested right now
1 store I can't find the phone number to
2 stores doesn't think my stuff will work for her (fair enough)
1 store doesn't think my stuff will work but invites me to come in anyway (getting better)
3 messages left
2 tell me to come in but aren't exactly overwhelming enthusiastic about it


sheesh - this is emotionally exhuasting...

The Glengarry leads

(If you haven't ever seen Glengarry Glen Ross I'll apologize for the reference but also recommend that you go out and rent it - or add it to your NetFlix list - asap as it is truly one of the greatest movies of all time)

"I need the good leads...the Glengarry leads"

I'm actually in the midst of compiling the "Glengarry leads" via the inquiries which are coming in to me from the direct mail piece that went out last week. We're getting a few inquiries every day and even have a few orders already so I'm hoping the trend continues.

However, right now I'm in the process of finding the phone numbers for my true Glengarry leads - my local retailers with stores within an hour radius of me. Tomorrow I have to step out of my introvert shell and call these people to essentially invite myself into stopping by to show them my wares. Not being the most outgoing person this is an incredibly hard thing for me to do but I also realize that it's something that needs to be done. If not for the "personal growth experience" opportunity it presents (yeah, I'm so uncomfortable stepping this far outside my comfort zone that I'd prefer to keep my growth stunted) then for the financial health of my business. So tomorrow I'll be calling on my Glengarry leads with the words of Alec Balwin ringing loudly in my head:

A-lways
B-e
C-losing

For What It's Worth - Customer Service

Things are starting to pick up re: the direct mail and we're getting a good handful of inquiries daily over the last few days and even have an order and several saying they're going to call next week to place orders. So far I'm pretty happy with how things are going though am still pretty far from (as my husband puts it) "500 boutiques and $200 worth of sales to each one" but ya gotta start somewhere, right?

However, I had a few calls come through today that made me think about customer service. The first call came in first thing this morning from an east coast retailer who obviously didn't know we're west coast and thus three hours behind. I called her back about an hour later and she said she was shocked to have someone call her on a Saturday. And shocked in a good way.

I didn't really think anything about it until I got another call from another retailer later in the day. She was calling with a question but told me how impressed she was that we sent her an email with the information she requested within a few hours of her sending her initial email. She told me that it sometimes takes other companies a few days to week or more to get back to her. I'm a little shocked by that. Sure we all get busy but at the base of it if we don't offer good - no, superior, customer service how are we going to get and keep retailers. Actually, I hope my competition continues to take a few days to get back to retailers as that will just make my job that much easier. But it is something worth keeping in the back of my mind so that once we do manage to grow beyond just me, one part-timer, and my dining room table that every employee knows that the customer is always first. Cliche I know, but it's true!

Remembering How Not To Fail

Last night, after coming down off my sales high and slumping back into my pit of self-doubt and worry about the company, I came to a pretty significant revelation. In short, I don't know how to fail so why am I so convinced that this business will?

Let me explain. Of course there have been things in my life that I've failed at (golf being one of the first to come to mind) but in reality whenever I've really put my mind to something I've made a success of it (success of course being a relative term). Most importantly, I was an athlete growing up and competed at a pretty high level. In all of that I would have good days and bad days but I ALWAYS had the mental strength and fortitude to continue on regardless of what happened. I never once went into a competition thinking that I was going to fail regardless who I was up against. I ALWAYS went into everyday with the mindset that I was going to give it my own best. I continue to do this now in my current chosen sport and regardless of the how the day goes I stick to the rule I initiated as a young 10-year-old: "You Never Cry On Deck"

My revelation was that I obviously still have that emotional strength within me but lately with the business I feel like I'm setting myself up for mental failure before anything even happens. Yes I want success (again, being relative) but before I can achieve that success I have to remember that I refuse to know how to fail. Simply, I refuse to fail. Yes, my game plan and strategy may change from time to time but that's just smart business sense and keeping an eye on the changing marketplace.

So here it is, I refuse to fail. I KNOW that what I'm doing is so different from so many of my competitors on so many levels so I just need to HTFU (a nod to any slowtwitchers - to those who may not be, basically I need to "harden up") and get the job done!

Everyone is feeling the stress

Apparently everyone in the household is being affected by my current stress level. How do I know? I came home from my workspace yesterday to find that in the timespan which my dogs were actually left alone - which in all honesty was maybe 2 hours max given that they were hanging out with the dog walker yesterday - one of them (and I know which one!) managed to eat one of the couch cushions. I'm not talking a minor accessory pillow - I'm talking about the ginormous pillow that goes at the back of the couch. It honestly looks like a school of piranas tore into it. Crate and Barrel just kindly informed me it will cost close to $400 to have that replaced since, sadly, there is not even enough fabric left to try and salvage something with the help of an upholsterer. My dogs have NEVER eaten any household object - even as pups - so apparently it's my stress affecting them. As punishment I've told them they have to sleep on the couch sans cushion for the next 4-6 weeks it will take for a replacement to arrive and I am taking the cost out of their salary. Sadly, they don't appear too concered and after I told them trotted outside to lie in the sun.

But the direct mail has "landed" as I've had 9 requests for information thus far. 9 out of 12,000 sent - that's not the best odds I've ever seen. But it is still early in the game so I'm still hoping to one morning waking up to finding 50 emails in my inbox. We'll see...

In the meantime though I started to be proactive today and went out to one of my retailers to show her the new product. She was very excited and purchased a bunch of the new products and reordered some of the old. Very nice to see her reaction to the new pieces. Now I just have 41 other retailers in my area to visit in the next two weeks.

I have a couple of goals with this launch:
1. Make more money from this launch then I did all of last year (ok - an ambitious goal but a good one to have, no?)
2. Sell more myself then my reps have sold for me the first half of the year. This one I'm a little more confident can be done which doesn't say a whole lot for my reps given I am a horrible sales person (though it's very slowly getting easier and I'm getting slightly better at it as time goes on).

Ok, I'm going to go out and join the dogs for a nap in the lawn...