Saturday, September 26, 2009

5 Minute Business Lesson

Bob Parson, the founder of GoDaddy.com gives you a five minute business lesson.



Microsoft Store

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Hurry up and wait

So as you noticed I haven't written in a while. I had the contract manufacturer look at the drawings and prototype, answered their questions and they have sent off to the factory in China for initial pricing. I am still waiting! Ughh! How frusterating.

One thing to remember is when you find a qualified factory to do your work, you will also be the smallest customer they have. I know they have not received one dime of revenue from me yet, but have also indicated how serious I am at the moment.

My advice, is don't get steamed up. I have to calm myself down as I am trying to maintain a schedule. Take the time to work on other things. Meet with your attorneys and understand your obligation for sales and use tax, for filing your trademarks or tweaking your corporate structure.

I am trying to meet with a trademark attorney next week, a sales and use tax attorney and a couple CPA's to do my sales and use tax filings. I will let you know my experience with that and my cost when it is said and done.

I am trying to have a working prototype by the time I leave for a wedding in Napa a the end of October. It is important to have prototypes as I will have a working session to get everyones take on the product and changes.

Microsoft Store

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

GoDaddy.com - Rules for Success

A new video by Bob Parsons, the founder of GoDaddy.com on the rules for success in entrepeneurship and business.



250 Free Business Cards at PrintRunner.com

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Monday, September 7, 2009

Contract Manufacturer - Update

As you reach out to contract manufacturer's, there will be up days and there will be down days. Frankly, my conversations with the first two contract manufacturers, left me disheartened about this project.

The first company I talked to said, go find a designer to make a prototype then we will see if we can make it for you. And oh ya, budget $5,000 for tools, dies and forms. Hmm, if I am gonna go out and have my own prototype built, then I will bid the business to the lowest bidder. At best this was a, if you run through all these obsticles, maybe we can do business with you.

The second company, I had more hope for. This is a product they are supposed to specialize in. Their website was beautiful. I provided drawings, and they came back 3 days later and said, sorry, we are not going to bid this project. To complicated. At this point you start to second guess your idea. Stop! This is normal, but will admit, I was at a low point.

Finally, I found a local company, in all places a state manufacturing directory. It is close to where I live too. Sent an informational request, and set up a time to go in and see the sales manager. Already I got good vibes.

The sent me a copy of their Non Disclosure Agreement that was surpringly in my favor. I made some slight changes, and prepared for my meeting. I created cardboard prototypes and sent an agenda for the meeting.

I sit in the meeting, we each sign the NDA, and frankly, it was a breath of fresh air. The salesperson knew what I wanted, we talked about minor changes, material selection, and marketing strategy. We discussed the pro's and con's of various materials, and even better, I got him excited about the product as well.

It doesn't stop there. As we discussed more, he mentioned since it will be a virtual business (no storefront), they can warehouse the product for me at a nominal charge, and even handle mail fullfillment. This is great as I had planned to fullfill myself until I had enough volume to talk to a fullfillment company.

Even better, he offered to put me in front of third party retailers that order through them already, with the hope of getting a spike in sales volume early. They mentioned bringing the product to trade fairs they participate in. They do this to show their manufacturing abilities, but it is also free marketing.

At this point I am completely stoked. I couldn't ask more from a partner. Right now, he is having their designer take a look at my crude prototype and drawings, to figure out pricing. Once that is determined, it should cost me a few hundred dollars to make a few production prototypes and then it is off to the factory for production.

Meeting in person allowed him to see my passion and seriousness. It allowed us to talk about the design philosophy, target customer, and for him to see I did my homework. Go into the meeting, with a crude mock-up. The salesman told me, people seldom come to meetings with them, and it is very helpful at determining intent. It also shows you are serious.

While production costs are important, find a good partner, and try not to nickel and dime them. Be honest and upfront as they may be able to help you more then you think. As for payment, he mentioned a deposit up front. I agreed we had not progressed enough to look at trade terms, my only request is to pay by credit cards to get my points.

As it is, I should hear in a week about initial production cost estimates. We can then tweak design or materials to lower costs. Once we have agreed, they will build a shell prototype, and send material samples. I will then decide on material, and have a production sample created. I expect this to take a month so will update you as things change.

Charge ahead and conquer!

250 Free Business Cards at PrintRunner.com

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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Rules for success - GoDaddy.com

Those of you who follow the technology scene, or have your own websites and blogs, know about godaddy.com. For those of you who don't godaddy.com is a site/company where you can purchase domain names. If you want to purchase yourcompany.com you can go to godaddy, search for availability and purchase it. Godaddy.com is actually Bob Parson's third company he has started. Watch his video where he lays out the keys to success.



Ally Bank

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Contract Manufacturers - Update

I have now talked with three contract manufacturers. Of those three, one essentially will not be able to do it, but was good enough to put me in touch with their independent design person if I wanted to pay them to design a prototype. One is currently having their product engineer take a look at the idea and figure out how and how much it would cost to produce. The third one I am meeting in person at their design center this week.

The one mistake I did make with the first two, is not getting a Non-Disclosure Agreement in place. It is quite easy and you can either 1) find one online or 2) alot of companies have general ones in place that they will sign with you. This is particularly important for companies that produce product overseas.

The biggest thing I underestimated was tooling and die costs. One company quoted me close to $5,000 just for tools and set up which surprised me. I will see what the other companies have to say. I will keep you informed.

iBuyOfficesupply.com Inc.

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