Early Forays Into Entrepreneurship

I found Otter Pops in the grocery store today and just had to buy them. The rationale was not just because it's been pretty warm (for the Pacific Northwest) but that those surgary pops also bring back great memories of lifeguarding in Vail, Colorado (obviously a job I did in the summer). While lifeguarding itself is not necessarily entrepreneurial, one of the things we did was purchase boxes upon boxes of Otter Pops to sell to the kids who came to hang out at the pool all day. In short, we'd buy a box of 100 Otter Pops for - let's say - $3.25 - and then sell off the individual Otter Pops for $.25 a piece. In short, netting ourselves a profit of $21.75.

What's not to love about that idea - you have a captive audience who loves frozen sugar on really warm hot days, a low price point, and some really healthy profit margins. Let's just say we sold enough Otter Pops to not only fund an end-of-season staff party but also send the entire staff to an amusement park for the day.

Questions I'm Pondering

I'm reading the Alpha Dogs book - only maybe 40 pages into it - and I've already had to go find a highlighter and a notebook with which to take notes. Here are some of the questions the book is making me think about. Keep in mind that these questions aren't necessarily ground-breaking but they are the type of questions that sometimes slip through the cracks with all the 1001 other things that go into running a business:

1. What is my company's current customer service strategy? I know what it is in my head but it needs to be "vocalized" and written down some place.
1a. What can we do better
1b. What can we do to make life easier for our retailers
1c. Is there anything we can do with regards to customers service that is just head and shouldars above the competition in that regards
1ci. What exactly are our competitors doing/not doing with customer service

2. Is there a 'game-changing' innovation I'm not taking advantage of
2a. What do my competitors do/do not do
2b. What do my retailers want

The answers to these are floating around in my head but I need to spend some time next week committing the ideas into solid written form (preferably as part of the ever-changing business plan and operations manual). And I need to coninue reading...

One other thing I picked up that I really liked - don't be afraid to experiment becuase that's how you learn. There's one idea I've had for a long time that I really need to commit to working on. Actually it just dawned on me that a good friend of mine is currently inbetween work and may be the ideal person to help me work on the idea. I wonder if she'd be interested as she is just the type of person who could do this and do it well. Hmmm...

Oh Glorious Day!

Yes, the stock market dropped 300+ points yesterday and oil has reached an all time high. Some would argue that armaggedon is around the corner and yet...today I am in the world's best mood! Perhaps it's because the sun is shining brightly and it's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps it's because I have my new Photoshop CS3 software and am loving it. Or perhaps it's because I'm tapering for a race next weekend and that always has a way of bringing out the highest highs and the lowest lows in my emotional state. What ever the reason, I am happy!

Things with the business are also going well - especially given the state of the economy. I'm still getting in orders and am getting in a few requests for information every day or so which leads me to believe that people are still interested and still purchasing merchandise. Best of all, we are *almost* at the point where the orders I'm getting in monthly are enough to cover our monthly fixed expenses. Let me explain:

For the past two years 70+% of our sales come in third and fourth quarters as retailers make purchases in advance of the holiday season. This means that I typically have very few orders for the first 1/2 - 2/3 of the year so any money made at the end of the previous year starts to get very very tight this time of year. Don't get me wrong, things are still tight and I've had to inject a little personal cash into the business (written as a loan so that when we make the money back I can take it out tax free - or at least that's my understanding of the tax code) but I've noticed that this year the orders we've been getting in on a monthly basis have been inching closer and closer to being able to cover our montly fixed costs. Right now my dream goal is to be able to cover monthly expenses with montly orders so that when the floodgates (hopefully) open in the later part of the year it is "extra" money that doesn't necessarily have to be put towards future monthly fixed costs. We're getting closer to that point...ever closer...

I also started the new business book "Alpha Dogs" the other night (after finishing off the Revolutionary War in 1776. Though am I the only one who didn't remember that the war actually didn't end until 1783? I will be contining my Revolutionary War summer reading through by picking up Founding Brothers today from the library). So far Alpha Dogs is really good even though I haven't actually gotten into the meat of the book yet. Let's just say I'm already dog-earing pages so that I can go back and reread sections later. Once I get a little more into it I'll report back but thus far it's the type of book that makes me really excited to be an entrepreneur and is giving me things to think about in how I run my business.

Hey Big Spender

Turns out I didn't get the job at BIG company. Not that I was really surprised after all this time. In fact I was more surprised by the fact that they even contacted me at all to let me know that I didn't get it. I thought the rule of thumb was when you haven't heard anything from the company in over a month it was pretty much a given that you weren't exactly their top choice for the position.

And I'm feeling...just fine. Really. I was running a bunch of errands this morning - things like picking up my brand new professional photos (so pretty - so very very pretty!) and getting some office supplies and I was thinking about how hard it would be to do all of that and run the business if I was actually also working fulltime. So I'm pretty happy with the end result.

I did end up purchasing a pretty big ticket item for the business shortly after I got the news though so I'm joking that it was my 'feel better spending spree.' What is said item? Photoshop CS3. Yep, close to $700 later I am now the proud owner of the latest in Adobe technology.

I had actually already made up my mind to purchase the software before the BIG company news came in since I use the software to create all my print ads, direct mail, etc. I had been thinking that I could just use the version available at FedEx Kinkos but then realized that the amount of print pieces I need to pull together between now and the end of the year would cost me more to do piece-meal at FedEx then to simply buy the software outright.

Best of all, as I mentioned before, my new professional photos are here so I'm going to go play graphic artist.

Bikini or Bust

I came home from my workspace today and was zoning out infront of the tube for half an hour before getting back to work and saw a promo for a new show on TLC - Bikini or Bust.

Aside from the very obvious play on words, it looks like the jist of the show is following a young and critically successful fashion designer (apparently the bikini is fashion...who knew!) as she struggles to make her business actually work.

(From their press release found on PR Newswire) "Ashley's story is unique yet relatable. As a talented fashion designer who struggles to run her business, this series is really about following your dreams, learning from the mistakes, and leaning on the people in your life for love and support," said Brent Zacky, VP of Programming at TLC. "Each episode will be a great adventure as Ashley works to make it in the fashion world, while juggling all of life's challenges and rewards."

Granted, I wish my business had the problem of being a well-known name in celebrity circles but I thought it might be interesting to check this out a time or two to see what it's all about.

Series premieres July 11th at 10 PM & 10:30 PM ET/PT on TLC

To Add On To Yesterday's Post

Just as an add-on to yesterday's post I want to make it clear that I COMPLETELY blame myself for the tax screwup (and it's only because I'm lucky that it turns out I'm not going to be hit with penalties). I do have a payroll service but they were very clear about what they did and did not cover at the rate I'm paying them so it was up to me to figure out the rest which, it turns out, is as simple as going to the IRS website (who would have guessed it would actually be readable and informative!).

And while I do blame myself, in my mind it's also just one of those lessons I think small business owners learn along the way. For us uber-small businesses working out of our homes/small offices/dining room tables, we don't have the capital to hire the HR director, the on-staff accountant, or any of those other luxuries that bigger companies have. If I did then I would expect those experts I hired to know exactly what was going on and what was due when.

Instead, it's just me and the dogs who, while I love them, aren't really too much help with the tax code or other business issues. But if you would like someone on staff to bark at squirrels then let me tell you there is no one better! That means though that I'm going to miss stuff from time to time as I figure out what needs to get done with each new level of the business. Sometimes my mistakes will cost the company money (cough...cough...the pr firm i hired last year...cough), sometimes some of the experts in my "extended staff" will catch a mistake before I make it (my accountant catching a potential mistake prior to filing taxes last year), and sometimes I'll simply get lucky and the mistake I make won't have any negative ramifications (such as depositing the monthly payroll taxes). My feeling is that I am always going to make mistakes but the important thing is to learn from mistakes past and not remake the same mistakes. That way it frees me up to make new mistakes! :)

Hmm, Who Knew?

Ok, well I'm sure a CPA would know but let's file this blog note under "Lessons Learned."

I'd been fearful to hire employees due to the associated tax and payroll headaches that come along with them. I subsequently found a great payroll service that I can afford who takes care of 95% of the stuff for me. However, in going through my records this morning I realized that the 5% they don't take care of is monthly federal tax deposit I'm required to make. Um yeah, my employee started back in April so that means I've been delinquent on the May and the June payment (due the 15th of each month). Oops!

A frantic call to the payroll service and I'm told to take a check down to my bank with the "yellow deposit coupons you got from your bank" and make the deposit via them. As for the fact that the payment is late, well the IRS may or may not come after me for that.

Turns out that's not quite right. First of all, no yellow deposit coupons from the bank but the bank tells me to go to the library which I do and find no tax deposit coupons who then tells me to go to Office Max which once again I do to find no tax deposit coupons. At wits end and starving because I haven't yet had breakfast (which makes me very very cranky) I finally head home and check out the irs.gov website because can't you just download everything these days?

Turns out that you can't download the form I need (which apparently is a Form 8109) but you can call up the IRS and they will kindly send you the form in 4-6 weeks. At the same time though I also learned that if you estimate your federal payroll taxes to be less than $2500 for the quarter then you can actually simply pay in full when you submit your quarterly payroll tax form (Form 941). So I've ordered up the Form 8109 which will show up in a few weeks and in the meantime have an email into my payroll company to confirm that I can simply pay all the associated payroll taxes at once. I'm hoping that I can but worst comes to worst I can apparently just e-deposit the money owed. Since I am thinking I'll be under the $2500 mark I am happy to report though that I shouldn't get penalized for the fact my payments thus far are late.

Course that's all based on my understanding of the tax law which is, at best, very very shaky. Here's hoping I'm right!

It's pretty much turning into a tax day though since last night my husband and I realized we overpaid our county taxes (oops - but better then underpaid!) so I spent this morning figuring out how we can get a refund (apparently they'll just apply the overpayment to the second half of the year payment so we won't owe anything in October). Ahh - taxes...what fun!