Visual design about to begin March 17, 2008

Back to updates about the site I’m developing.

I’ve been feverishly writing the PHP/MySQL to make this thing go.  Luckily, I’m about 85% there with regard to functionality.  There are a few small gaps, but they’re not mission critical at this point.

The big issue at stake now is the visual design.  I’ve known since day one that I wouldn’t be doing the visual piece of this site, so thinking of how I’d get that done, for cheap, and from someone I trust, was weighing heavily on my mind.

Luckily today, the answer revealed itself and we’re off and running.  A colleague of mine that used to work for the same organization I work for will be doing the design.  He’ll be doing a templated visual treatment that I can use to plug all the functionality into.  I’ll still need to build the HTML/CSS to make the site go, as well as plug in my functionality.

So far, according to my scope document, I’m ahead of schedule slightly.  I had blocked out March for function build, April for visual design, and May for integration of the visual treatment into the functionality (i.e. the actual build).  If we start visual design this week or next, we may be done by mid-April, which will put us about two weeks ahead.  This is good, because I anticipate needing every bit of May for the integration tasks.  Being that I’ll have to get everything working perfectly during that period, having a couple weeks of “slide time” may prove to be very, very helpful.

Luckily, this works out in a perfect arrangement.  In exchange for the visual design he’ll do for me, I’ll be helping him with some coding tasks.  A nice trade of services.  Incidentally, this will be my first real time doing work as a “freelance” developer, so I’m understandably anxious.  I’ve got no doubts, but it’s certainly a step off the road of normal into the kind of life I’m trying to build.  Doing this work for him, however small, is going to be a gigantic mental leap for me, and I hope (I know) it’s going to change things pretty drastically in terms of my future attitude and apprehension about going out on my own.

I’ve still got the safety net of the day job, but this is going to be a fun introduction into what it’s like to manage your own work and be a freelancer.  I’m incredibly excited…and incredibly terrified.

More updates as we progress!

Another “How to Start a Business” workshop January 9, 2008

Last night, Mollie and I attended a workshop on how to start your own business, put on by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.  Now, I’ll admit, I feel a bit silly attending these workshops – it seems strangely akin to attending a workshop on “How to Ask Someone Out”…if you can’t do it somewhat by instinct, maybe you aren’t cut out for it altogether.  However, sometimes you pick up a morsel or tidbit that might help, and sometimes it just makes you think a bit deeper – and that’s well worth the price of admission (which, in this instance, was free )

So, what I took out of this particular class was a renewed urgency for writing a business plan for launching this product.  I’m not new to writing summaries, plans, abstracts and all that – I’ve done half a dozen of them for various business ideas I’ve had along the way.  The valuable part of it, for me at least, isn’t to get funding.  I could care less about funding/loans/investors.  This is a debt-free startup that will be bootstrapped from the ground up.

The valuable part is instead the feasibility testing that writing such a plan allows.  When you start to write out a detailed plan of action about how you’ll develop, market, sell, postion, and grow your product/business…you start to see any holes in the net, and you can start plugging them.  This is precisely what I hope to accomplish by writing out a plan.

I’ve got a nicely abstract view of our development/marketing/sales approach to this product.  That said, I haven’t gotten down to actual numbers, true marketing strategy (down to the detail level of which media outlets to utilize) and real sales projections.  Since I have a goal for leaving the 9-5 for my own company by the end of this year, it’s paramount that I assure the numbers will support the idea by Dec. 31.  Enter the plan.

So, that’s what I got from the workshop.  Did I learn anything new?  Nah, not really, pretty basic stuff.  However, it made me think, and that’s worth a hell of a lot.

More updates later.

Vendor irritation, as well as some good thoughts January 8, 2008

Just got off the phone with one of the vendors who may be able to build our prototype/do production runs.  I’ve got some mixed feelings on using this vendor.  The general tone of the phone call was one of “Uh…we want to make sure you really want to build this product before we spend time doing estimates”.  Well…that sucks.  Hate that you feel lazy enough that you don’t want to do about 20 minutes worth of work to potentially have a lifetime customer.  Bad customer service if you ask me.

Now, he did raise a good question for me.  Again, since I’m not saying much regarding the product itself, I’ll try to elaborate unspecifically…however unsuccessful that may be.   The general question he raised is one of this: “The price of the product will end up being higher than the value it delivers, at least in terms of actual hard dollars.”  Hmm.  Good point.  Our product isn’t a necessity.  The price point of the product will probably end up in the $30-40 range, and will provide anywhere between $2 and $100 of value to the customer each time it’s used.  Most customers will fall underneath the $30-40 value/price range.

So, does this count this product out?  Does this imbalance between value and price mean that the product doesn’t have a place in the market?  Certainly not, and I might be biased, but let me explain a bit further.

Take, for example, one of those liquor bottle spinner things that holds your bottle upside down.  These retail for anywhere between $285 (kegworks.com) and $25 (some random seller on eBay).  The value of the product is simply that you don’t have to lift your own bottle up and pour it.  Honestly, that’s it.  If someone paid you $285 to lift your own liquor bottles to make a drink, would you?  I certainly would.

So, why do these sell?  Obviously they do, I’ve seen them all over the place and for sale at tons of places.  Well, the value of product isn’t in the dollar-to-dollar savings, it’s in the novelty aspect of the product, as well as some perceived benefits.

For one, the product looks pretty cool.  If I had friends over a lot, they’d probably be impressed and ooh and ahh over my liquor dispenser.  Starting to rachet up the value here.  Also, it (somewhat) saves me some space.  Now, granted, it really doesn’t save much, and in fact, might actually take up more.  However, it’s advertised to save you space.  And that’s worth a bunch.

Remember something here: people doubt themselves the most.  If you tell a potential customer, convincingly, that they need a particular product although the actual value may not make sense logically, they’ll think “Hmm…maybe they’re right.  There must be something I’m missing out on that I just don’t get.  I should buy one and see what it is”.  Now, yes, I understand this doesn’t always work.  Few people are running out to buy Ginsu knives because they think “Man, those knives must really be better than my Henckels.”  I know that’s not the case, but enough people HAVE bought them to keep those wonderful late night infomercials running.  Bless their hearts.

So, what’s all this rambling come down to?  Well, it proves the importance of good marketing and positioning.  Not everyone is going to have a need for your product, but someone will, and if you speak to the right people, in the right way, they’ll buy it.

Does this mean you can create anything and put it out?  Well, it definitely worked for the guy who marketed the Pet Rock.  However, no, it’s not an excuse to flood the market with crap products.  Simply put, it means that to a customer, there is more to just dollar-for-dollar value.  That’s the whole reason Mercedes-Benz is in business.  They convince you that the stature is important…and that has little to do with what the car is intended to do – transport you from one place to another.

Ok, that rant is over.

The last point I’ll make is this.  Vendors, and I think this is important, are in the business of manufacturing products.  (By vendors in this case, I mean contract manufacturers).  They are not, and should not be, involved with product feasability and marketing questions, unless it directly relates to a manufacturing process.

For instance, this vendor told me this would be an expensive product to make, and when I asked him what part of the design would be particularly expensive, he couldn’t really tell me, but simply stated he thought it would be more expensive than the value it delivered, on a dollar-to-dollar basis.  Not his place to say, if you ask me.  Do I appreciate feedback?  Sure, but not baseless feedback.  If he had told me that the way I designed the product would make it expensive to manufacture for reasons x,y, and z, then I would have appreciated it.  He’s in the business of manufacturing, not me.  This is why I would hire him.

To wrap up this insane rant, I’ll just underscore that people should evaluate products and services within the purveyance of their own expertise.  I wouldn’t tell a hot air balloon manufacturer that the materials they use for their baskets don’t make sense.  I have zero experience in marketing and manufacturing hot air balloons.  Seems so simple, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, this vendor already has an uphill battle getting me to do business with them.  Just give me the damn quote and stop bitching.

Monday Morning Update January 7, 2008

Well, we’re back around to another Monday.  Here’s what we’ve been doing, and what we’ve got planned:

Over the weekend, we didn’t do a whole lot.  I did, however, test one design idea out (an engineering type thing) to find out that what I wanted to do won’t work.  Part of our product uses Velcro to attach removable elements.  I wanted to employ the use of magnetic strips, for various reasons, to replace the Velcro.  Come to find out, however, the magnetic strips simply don’t have the strength that Velcro does.  In fact, the magnetic strips won’t even stick to each other at all.  Guess I’m back to the drawing board on that one.  I’ve either got to find stronger magnetic strips, or go with Velcro.  Using the Velcro won’t be a deal-killer, the magnetic strips would have just been a nicer, sleeker design.

As for this week, here’s what’s on the docket:

• Finish emailing contract manufacturers about prototypes and secure some solid quotes.
• Finish working thru the design and commit to a concept that we’ll submit to the manufacturer for prototyping.
• Tomorrow (Tuesday), Mollie and I are attending a free class called “How to Start Your Own Business” put on by the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.  Now, I admit that these classes can be somewhat simple in scope and I’ve attended my fair share of them.  However, it’s always nice to throw our idea against the wall and see what other people think.  Networking, tips and tricks never go out of style.  Never think you’re beyond going back to learn basics – don’t get cocky.
• By the end of the week, I’d also like to have commited to a name and start the logo design process.  We’ll need a logo design for stamping on the product, as well as for the website.

So, by the end of the week, we should have a name, start on a logo, have a prototyping manufacturer in mind and have a solid design to give them in the next two weeks.   I’d say if we get that done (and we’ve got a short week…going out of town on Friday-Sunday), I’ll be pretty happy.

Need to search for patents? January 4, 2008

Just stumbled upon this and thought it was worth mentioning.  If you’re coming up with a product idea and need to check for existing patents, use Google’s patent search at www.google.com/patents.  Awesome site.  It appears, at first glance, to be pretty comprehensive, and searching through patents allows you to view the text of the patent including any drawings.  Great for seeing if you’re trying to market an already patented product, or for generating ideas and improvements to your own products.  Check it out.

Friday…eventually I won’t care! January 4, 2008

Well, we made it to Friday.  This is the epitome of why I want to work for myself.  I never want to utter the phrase “TGIF” again (I guess it’s more an an acronym, not a phrase…anyway).  The idea that my work week won’t revolve around an arbitrary set of days called the weekend is a nice feeling.

Last night we were kinda lazy.  Didn’t get much new done, but then I’m sorta in a holding pattern until a few more folks get back to me regarding prototypes.  (Note: I realize that you’re never really in a holding pattern, as there’s always something that could be done.  However, considering how productive I was yesterday afternoon…I felt ok just relaxing.) I received a voicemail yesterday from another company who will do a prototype for $80/hour, with no commitment to purchase and a 1-2 turnaround (that’s nice).   The woman who left me the message said to give her detail info on the project and she’d quote to me what she thought it would cost, so I plan on sending that information over today.

Comparatively, the other company I contacted quoted $125 flat fee (although they noted it could be more expensive depending on complexity of design.  My design is pretty damn simple, so I feel pretty good.  However, this is a bit of a red flag regarding their ability to raise the price as they see fit…I mean, who defines “complex”?).  They have a 2 week lead time for prototypes, and can offer estimated production prices in 3-5 working days.  Not bad.  Redesigns of the prototype are free IF they interpreted the client’s specifications incorrectly (another red flag…who’s to say my directions were clear?), however changes will incur additional cost.   Logo setup cost is $40.00 per logo/color.

Now, here’s the real catch on this one.  Production orders have a 5-7 week lead time!  And, they’re busy now and running a full 7 weeks to ship.  That’s ALOT of time, and in my opinion, way too much.  If during the initial rollout of the product, we end up short on volume because so many people want this thing (which would be a nice problem to have), I definitely don’t want my customers having to wait 7 weeks to be able to get the product again.  Honestly, 2 weeks is about the maximum I’m willing to go.

Now, it’s early in the game to be thinking about the details of manufacturing and production lead times, however, beginning with the end in mind will allow me to make smarter decisions and serve the customer better once we’re in production.  So, right now, we’ll keep those production lead times in the back of our mind, but concentrate on the prototype for right now.  Once we have that in hand, test marketing done (and successful), we’ll think about production.

Look for another post coming up about the student projects and our thoughts about timelines regarding that.

Email back from the Universities January 3, 2008

Looks like at two of the universities I emailed yesterday are moderately interested in working on the project with me.  Here are the emails I received this morning (names have been removed):

We will be happy to work with you on your project. Just I need a further details about the project so I have a clear idea about what I am talking about with my students.

Thank you very much

and:

Thank you for your interest in our engineering program & the senior design project. Professor *********** is the instructor in charge. Please get in touch with him regarding the possible incorporation of your product with this course. I think the projects already been chosen, but we may be able to contribute in other ways.

Please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Sweet.  This is definitely promising.  I’ve emailed the first back and will email the second back with information about the project in detail.

There is one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, and as a student at a university for 6 years: use students as help whenever possible and practical.  Student help is a veritable goldmine of possibility.  First, the help is almost always free.  Also, the quality is generally quite good, despite what you may think.  Anything from graphic design, web design, copy editing, audio/video editing, prototyping….anything that is project based can generally be used by a student for a project.

The advantages for using students aren’t just for you, the entrepreneur.  The students also benefit greatly: they get a project idea handed to them without having to scrounge something up, plus they get the experience of working with a real life client.  Arguably, the latter is perhaps the greatest benefit in the mix.

Continue reading to find more information on how to find students for projects.

Redesign and a name January 3, 2008

Last night was productive.  Two things we (by the way, the “we” is myself and my wife Mollie, who is also working hard on this project) got done that I feel really helped us:

• Redesign of the product
• Name for it

As I’ve mentioned, this product was designed for the craft beer drinker, and eventually would also be tailored to the wine drinker.  I realized yesterday that it’s probably better to go ahead and make this version of the product accessible to both, to increase our total potential market.  As much as I want craft beer drinkers to buy and use this, I have a suspicion that we’ll have a much higher response initially from the wine crowd.  In an effort to give ourselves the best starting position, we sat down last night and went thru a redesign that made it work for both.

The redesign process was good for several reasons.  First, it allowed us to include wine people as a potential target market – a huge audience.  Second, it took the product from what was earlier quite a clunky, inefficient mess to a nice sleek design that I think is far more appealing.  Third, we started sketching drawings (I knew those years in architecture school would come back to benefit me) and really got into discussing the nitty gritty details of how this thing is going to work.  That was a very helpful process, as it proved to inform the design per the function (form follows function).  So, overall, the redesign was a pretty awesome experience and the hour’s worth of work it entailed produced a much nicer and more effective product.

Secondly, we came up with a name.  I’ll let everyone in on the name as we get a bit closer to production,  but again, to protect the idea I’m not revealing too much right now.  Suffice to say, I think it’ll lend itself nicely to a logo and advertising/marketing materials.  I’m still all about coming up with other options, but we’ve certainly got something to run with for now.  A working title, if you will.

The only problem with the name is that an initial search for domains brought up a ton of domains that are already taken (damn cyber squatters…it really pisses me off).  Time will tell if that’s a deal killer for this particular name, as having a domain that is easily attachable to the name is pretty important, in my mind, for marketing and positioning.  A couple of the domains that we wanted expire within the next month (Jan 12 and Feb 8), so hopefully I’ll be able to jump on them and scoop them up.  Unfortunately, domain names are one of those pretty important things these days.  Not to mention, our plan is to focus solely on web sales initially, so it’s paramount for our purpose.

Today, I’m working on building a crude 3D model and producing some CAD drawings of what I sketched out last night.  This will help to get further into the nitty gritty, and should expedite the prototyping process quite a bit.

As for the prototyping, I’ve received a few replies, but not many.  One wanted $2500 for a prototype….ha!  We’re talking about a product that’s going to retail for around $30, so that’s WAY too much.  Another quoted an average price of $125, which is totally doable.  On that one, there’s no production commitment, so that’s also very nice.  I’m going to give it a few more days until I start talking to folks about actually getting something built.

That’s it for now…I’ll probably have another update later once I check my email (only checking email at 11 AM and 4 PM daily).

Figuring out the next step – prototyping? January 2, 2008

Well, we’ve hammered out the design concept for the product, and even attempted to build a very crude prototype of it over the Christmas break.  When I say crude, I mean, it’s pretty awful.  It involved me having to learn how to sew, which didn’t go so well.

At any rate, building the very crude prototype at least proved to us that the concept is solid.  It worked just as expected, just looked like hell.

So, now we’re onto figuring out the next step.  We’ve got two things we think need to be done, and are trying to figure out how to do each for as little money as possible (this whole thing is going to be done without debt) and in the most appropriate order.

The two things we’re thinking need to be done next are:

• Test Marketing
• Real Prototyping

Following suggestions laid out in Timothy Ferriss’ book The Four Hour Workweek, we’d like to test market the product using some Google Ads and Facebook Ads, all linking to a one page website for the product.  Once we monitor traffic to the site over a week long period, we should have a basic idea of how many folks are interested in this thing.

So, we’ve got a problem.  We’re planning on building the site, linking ads and measuring how many people click thru to the purchase link (which will lead to an “out of stock/on backorder” message.  We’ll collect email addresses and email people who clicked on the link as soon as we have actual product).  However, to build this site and run an effective and realistic campaign, we need something to show to potential customers.  Enter the prototype.

Short of bribing someone to create a digital 3D model of the product, I’m not sure how else to get images for the website other than having a prototype built and taking pictures of it.  I’d rather test market first, then prototype, in order to save the bucks on prototyping, but I don’t know another way around it.  I also have no clue how much it costs to get a prototype built.

So, here’s what I’ve done today in order to try and figure this next step out:

• I’ve emailed 11 contract manufacturers, asking about their prototyping process.  It’s important to me not to get in a deal where a company will only do a prototype on a guarantee of later orders.  If the test marketing fails, I want to be able to abandon ship without having a rope around my neck.
• I’ve emailed 3 universities here in the Nashville area, asking if they have industrial/product design classes.  My hope is that I can convince a student to use my product as a class project, and have them do the designing, feasibility testing and prototyping.  Obviously, this would be awesome.  The only downside would be the time requirement, as that seems like a semester-long project.  I was hoping to have this prototype built and have test marketing done within 4-6 weeks.  However, if it’s free, I’ll be willing to bend on some of the time requirements.
• I’ve also emailed three other successful entrepreneurs, begging them for guidance and mentoring.  Since these three I emailed have all created products and successfully marketing and sold them (most of them have companies now making over $1 million), I figure they’d have some words of wisdom.  Most of them that I emailed are also around my age (27), so it’d be a nice commonality.

The other task on the plate is a name.  We’ve been attempting to come up with a name for the product, which we’ll inevitably need for test marketing.  I’m considering coming up with three choices, building three identical sites using different names, running three different Adwords campaigns with the different names and seeing which name garners the most response.  Test, test, test!

That’s it for today.  Once I receive responses from the aforementioned, I should have a better idea of where to go next…I hope.  If I can get a prototype built for less than $100, I’m game.