New e-book on the way!
I am working on creating a new e-book,
The Student Entrepreneur's Experience, based on (a) the contents of this blog, (b) my own past experience, and (c) the current experiences of the
IMET Corporation,
Juterphusion Recording Solutions,
Holcombe Chassis Works, and whoever else comes along. It'll contain both a chronicle of those companies' development and some how-to information based on what we have learned from them. I hope to have this book ready for downloading in about a month. :-)
In the meantime, if you would like to see excerpts of these companies' business plans, let me know and I will send you info.
Labels: internet
I needed a hiatus, and I got it...
I haven't added anything to this blog in nearly a month, and it's time to get going again. It wasn't that I was out of ideas; it was more like I was out of motivation. I thought about taking it down. Nobody should feel sorry for me about this, however -- I really don't write it for others. It's a knowledge management tool. A way to organize thoughts and events that I don't want lost. And it's a chance to put new ideas in practice.
During the time I was off the air, I was considering what was going on. (If you do read this, please bear with me just for a minute while i talk about myself -- something I don't do so much in this blog.) I found I was not a very positive person. I found I didn't really believe in the "power of positive thinking," considering it as being something mainly limited to professional positive thinkers like insurance agents and chiropractors.
But whether positive thinking really works for most of us or not, it's clear that negative thinking works for all of us. By assuming the worst motivations in other people, and assuming
Murphy's Law to act behind events, I am essentially bringing this negativity into the world. I give it a life of its own. How does that happen? Because people sense it, and if they sense it they don't want the source of it nearby.
What's in your heart finds its way out of your mouth. And I think people can sense that even if they don't know what it means.
So it's time for an attitude facelift for me. Whether positive thinking actually "works" or not probably doesn't matter. I must find out how to bring it into existence. And maybe bring a more positive spin to this blog, as it gets going again.
Labels: diversions
Anatomy of a Strap-Mate failed negotiation
Steve Gable of
Strap-Mate (I know, they're actually called "LG Accessories," but I like the name of their flagship product better) sent me the play-by-play for a failed negotiation he had with
Spanx, one of the companies I recommended he contact as part of the
"sample ploy". Steve originally tried to contact CEO
Sara Blakely, but the contact was expanded to a specific office when Blakely, now a star thanks to
Rebel Billionaire, did not respond. It's really disappointing that the Spanx representative was not a bit more open-minded about Strap-Mate products, but you'll probably guess that she has a company strategy to follow and she followed it closely. She does deserve snaps for being prompt with her rejections. :-) :-) :-)
UPDATE: Steve also tells me he went after Spanx with LG's laundry bag product instead of the flagship Strap-Mate. His feeling was that the laundry bag was a better match.
Hi Stef! Just got your samples. Thank you for thinking of SPANX with your patented laundry bag, but at this time I don't see that we are interested. Good luck with everything and thank you again for showing me!
Jadideah Duckham
Product Development Manager
SPANX, Inc.
Thanks for your quick response.
I really wish you would consider running a web-site test. I currently have about 500 of the 15x17inch divided bags in bulk, not individually packaged, which would enable you to have a supply on hand. You could run it as a limited introductory product. Suggested Retail about $7.95 or $8.95.
We would be willing to sell you bags in bulk, not individually package. This supply for your resell of 500 is $1.95 per bag plus shipping from our warehouse in Dayton, New Jersey. Of course, we are willing to sell you less or more. The beauty of your web-site is that you do have the ability to test to your audience.
Jadideah, one of the reasons, I thought the Easy Care Laundry Bag would do exceptionally well is because you also sell specialty products for people who care about their products. There are those who do not do well selling soap type products but do selling mesh bags.
The Easy Care Laundry Bag with all of its features really is ideal for your audience. They will buy and say thank you.
Hi Steve. I really appreciate your email. But honestly as the designer of the products and packaging, this bag isn't really up to my standards of what I would make or sell under the SPANX brand. We just have really high quality and design standards that are more unique then many of the items out there. With retailers such as Saks and Neimans, we constantly have to keep the values high. Plus when we decide to introduce laundry bags, I would have one of our manufacturers make it for us instead of going through a middle man and paying an upcharge. I know you understand that [...]
So thank you again for thinking of us and I do really appreciate your efforts. I wish you the very best!!
I would only want you to have the highest standards!
What is unique is the divided bag. I hope that you will consider at some point utilizing the patent which could generate some royalities for Lisa.
Please know that the door is open if you want to test with our existing product, which really reduces your time line. You really don't know if it will go - was giving you a way to sample the market, reducing your R&D costs.
Thanks for your candor. I am so very happy that you provided the opportunity to have a frank discussion. Please keep in touch.
Thanks Stef. To this date we have never paid any royalties for someone's idea. I know that it's hard to get patented ideas into a large company because usually no one is willing to pay royalties unless it's a really huge idea. And although I understand the concept of the divided bags, it's not unique enough for us to use it and/or pay to use it. Again I appreciate your time.
Finally, Steve writes to me...
Just wanted you to see that I followed this to extract the core of how the organization operated. If I wished to pursue it further my role would be to convert it into a hugh idea for Ms. Duckham - for now, I will work on the other suspects.
What's disappointing about Duckham's responses is
- While showing the utmost politeness, it's clear she's cutting Steve off as though he were a Jehovah's Witness at the door. Maybe she gets a bucketload of such proposals every day.
- She doesn't say how Strap-Mate products fail to meet Spanx standards, and I frankly question that statement altogether.
Labels: rhetoric
Trudeau doesn't think much of bloggers
Today's
Doonesbury gives Garry Trudeau a chance to tell the world what he thinks of bloggers. We're all underworked, bitter losers, he says. He does beg the question, though: how is it knuckleheads like HIM get paid for telling the world what they think?
He's an example of the reason that I, having politically liberal leanings myself, don't hang around with other lefties. They're often just not the kind of people you can have a beer with. And right now, I'd rather be reading
Mutts or
Frank and Ernest than
Doonesbury.
Labels: internet
"Chicken Capital USA?" I rather think not.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is, as you can see, advertising itself as "Chicken Capital USA." Ahem. My hometown of Barberton, Ohio, has for the entire duration of my life been known as the "Chicken Dinner Capital of the World." KFC cannot change a fact with a new promotion.
If you ever end up near Akron, stop into Barberton and you will find several restaurants, such as
Whitehouse Chicken (pictured), serving fried chicken such as the Colonel only hopes to be able to serve one day when KFC grows up. Whitehouse even gives you a 15% off gift certificate on its home page, and will spot you a $5 gift certificate for taking a monthly newsletter. Yum.
How should the city of Barberton respond to this 800-lbf gorilla of an upstart? Well, there is legal precedent for simply suing KFC for "confusing the customers." Heaven, and most of the state of Ohio, knows Barberton is hard-up for money these days (heck, who isn't?), and could use the dough an almost-certain KFC settlement would bring. That might even save the school system.
There is also the option (this one I prefer) of not allowing KFC to locate a franchise in the city limits and calling that an exercise of civic pride. For me, the lesson is that we entrepreneurs should not allow large corporations to muscle us out of our uniqueness. Barberton chicken merchants, band together! Get the lawyers to write the letters! See what happens!
UPDATE -- a fellow Barbertonian told me this:
While I was stationed in TX with the Army I had friends FED EX me Barberton chicken... and I would not walk across Wooster Rd. North [where the town KFC franchise is] for KFC! So you know my stand on that subject!
Labels: diversions
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