Technolodgy today.....

A neighbors little three year old was over the other day and she saw my dad's OLD black dial desk phone... and asked what it was. I told her it was a phone... without skipping a beat she asked if you could 'text with it' ....

Made me start thinking!  What DID we do in the 'olden days' ?  We couldn't email, text,video chat, BLOG, Play games where ever we were....

There might even be less violence! Certainly less identity fraud & more shopping local??  Less obesity and more playing outside?? More actual birthday cards with real stamps??  We'd  have the money we've spent on computer and cell phone service to spend on going to a movie or renting a movie and watching it at home with the family! 

More face to face REAL time... instead of video chat?  Maybe even conversations between family members... instead of everyone having their faces in the computer or phones... ??

Just had to get that off my shoulders this AM.  Just something an innocent three year old made me think about!!

Yeah... we have come a long way... but at what cost?  

Taking a breather...

It's always nice to step back and take a deep breath.... that is what this weekend has been for.  I thought I was overwhelmed before, but when I wrote it all down and realized what all I had to do,  I was emotionally drained!  This weekend has been quite relaxing...  NICE!  We ALL need to take a weekend like that once in a while!  NOW.... on Tuesday, I'll get back to the grindstone with a much calmer attitude! ( This is a 3 day weekend for Gov't employees and hubby has the day off tomorrow... good timing for the need of a relaxing weekend!) 

SERIOUSLY?

I feel like 'Dave' ! You know the Staples commercial??  Wearing the many hats of Moon Talk !  I was wide awake at 1:00AM thinking about everything I have to get done this month. I finally fell back asleep...exhausted!  I need a team, however, I am the type of person that needs to be 'in control' of all aspects of my 'baby' (Moon Talk)   I DID finally give up some control and hired an on-line company to put my website together..
That was out of desperation! They aren't doing anything I couldn't do. I just don't have to sit for hours upon hours putting it together and making changes etc! ( I've already spent countless hours trying to do it and never got what I was looking for... so now I wait for an email sending me to the test page and send her suggestions when I need a change made, or a complement on what she did!)  I am anxious to see the finished product!

And this little piggy went to market... That is just the way I feel !

Marketing 101!!

I have spent the entire month of January preparing for 2012! Not only organizing files and the DREADED tax papers, organizing supplies and computer files ... (I haven't even touched the household taxes yet!) And wrote my business plan FINALLY!   I've also put a lot of time into research as to WHERE I should be marketing.  Everyone says, you should try here... or there... or God forbid...here AND there...It's very easy to spread myself too thin!

SO... I decided to devise a plan to try to keep my sanity while pitching my product to as many places  I truly felt would be worthwhile places as I could. I listened carefully to 'where' people were saying and noticed there was a common thread to most of the cities....

This is where OTHER THOUGHTS comes into play!

Only in a small town could you wave to or be waved to by at least 8 out of 10 cars! And then stop in the middle of the road to visit with a friend without being honked at... because the car behind you wants to say hi to them too!

Only in a small town can you walk in the diner and sit at any one of the full tables and visit with an old friend....and the waitress brings you our order without even asking you what you want!

Only in a small town can you miss the director of the chamber at their office, drive past the coffee shop and notice the only Prius in town and know that they are there!  ( and stop in to let them know you missed them and maybe even join them for lunch! )

Only in a small town can you go to the bank every Friday and know they will have either lunch  (an employee cook off of some sort) OR cookies and brownies waiting for you! 

IN HOUSE !!

In setting up business, you’ve read that I’ve had to locate ‘manufacturers’ of the items we chose to sell for MTD …  and in doing this, we have to pay a ‘middle man’ to do the work for us. This is a huge chunk of money out of our bottom line.  Having someone do the printing on our clothing for the past year has cost us approximately $3000  already! And that is just samples, store stock, inventory on a handful of items and filling the orders we’ve had. Needless to say, profit is coming very slowly at that rate!  And that is just the clothing printer! If I add in the jewelry and household gift printer then the photo lab for the artwork and the other printer for the note cards. Well, you get the picture! That is where some sleepless nights and hard decisions came into play! Many phone calls and web searches to find the right machines. Talking to a lot of different people that use the machines to compare what their thoughts were on them, trying to decide used or new…  a LOT of sleepless nights!   ...
    

Charity Pink

In going through the selections of clothing for Moon Talk, I ran across a color selection by Anvil that was ‘Charity Pink’.  In reading about their line, I found that Anvil donates a portion of the sales of ALL their Charity Pink clothing to Cancer Research.  That motivated ME to think along the same line… Why couldn’t I do that and make a difference too?  I know Moon Talk is a small company but if everyone thought that way, no one would ever donate to any charity.  RIGHT? SO WHY NOT?

Catching up....

I think everyone is caught up to date,  as far as previous 'start-up' goes.  There is a LOT of work going on right now that will be shared.  Thanks for your patience and interest while I made up for lost time!  Now it's time to start logging 'real time' and seeing where we go from here and what if hard work is paying off!

I was able to take the time to visit with my daughter and grandson in Oregon ( and do some marketing) .... now it's BACK to REAL TIME!   Keep checking and I'll have new posts on a weekly (may be pushing it!??) basis now! 

Thanks again for following us and keep the comments coming! Moon Talk has been built on the interest and comments of our friends!

Have a GREAT weekend!!
B~

Lead or follow...

I read this today on Seth Godin's blog and thought it was worth sharing! 


Keith Richards tells a great story about Charlie Watts, legendary drummer for the Stones.

After a night of drinking, Mick saw Charlie asleep and yelled, "Is that my drummer? Why don't you get your arse down here?"

Richards continues, "Charlie got dressed in a Savile Row suit, tie, shoes, shaved, came down, grabbed him and went boom! Don't ever call me "your drummer" again. You're my ... singer."

No drums, no Stones.

Who's playing the drums in your business?

Now for the hard work!

            NY opened my eyes! I found out I still had a lot of work to do to get Moon Talk out there!  Marketing, pricing, ordering, storage, record keeping ALL OF IT!  SO back to the drawing board with my business plans!  As mentioned before, I know I do not have the mark up I need to have, so in order to make this work for me,  I’ve got to lower my costs!  This is one of my first steps, purchasing the equipment to create all work in-house!  In order to do that, I need to reorganize the studio, rid of anything out there that is blocking my vision and cluttering my mind.  SO I set about advertising all my studio equipment.  I sold my overhead lighting, back drops, back drop hanging system, everything!  NO CAMERAS were harmed during this stage!!    I kept all my cameras! That is one thing I will NOT part with! It would be like cutting off my own arm! 

The Real deal… New York!

 You’ve read the facts… now for the rest!

Once we decided that the NSS was really going to ‘happen’ we were already deep in preparing for the show, as mentioned before.  SO much happened during this time! We were very emotionally involved with our daughter and an adoption that fell through, our printer that HAD been doing our work was pregnant and decided not to do any more printing for the duration, Bob’s car broke down, I had kidney stones (first ever!), My friend that was going to go with me decided she couldn’t manage it…. and everyone else was busy.  Money was a HUGE stressor!  Sleepless nights continued!

NEW YORK…. NEW YORK…. !!

 Just the facts!

The National Stationary Show in New York, was the first show that was highly recommended  to Moon Talk …. I wasn’t sure if we were ready or not, BUT WE started planning!

First came contacting the NSS to find out more about the show, what was expected, booth size, dates and most importantly COST! YIKES! Was I ready for that? Patti was a great help with all my worries! 

I had to make a go of it! It took a LOT of planning and sleepless nights!  Not to mention all the $$ we had.... not only for entry and travel but also for product to show!  But through perseverance it all came together!...

Cropping out the CRUD….

Photography has been a huge part of my life! From the time I was a child, I was always taking photos of my dog, cat, pet mouse…. My dad’s horse….  Etc…..

That eventually grew in to a love of photography as an adult. I honed my passion into a talent and learned to ‘see’ things totally different than other did. 

As I learned more about photography and the ART of creating what you want to see, I quickly learned that you can make something beautiful out of something you see every day!   This is what I call “cropping out the crud’   It is something that we can all learn to do in life in general! 

AHHH… Time for the real thing! The CATALOG!

Talk about time consuming! I don’t have a major in graphic arts, I don’t have a program on my computer that can handle a large volume of photos and text and do all the work for me. IF I’m going to do it, it’s going to be ALL ME… it’s going to be work!  As far as things with Moon Talk go (to this point) I’ve done the actual work myself. I like it that way! The logo design, the photos, the tag line, the product research… etc…. I am a very independent person. If you know me… you will agree! I DID NOT say stubborn! I said INDEPENDENT!  There is a difference! ;-) 

My computer was bogging down and giving me ‘issues’ as I was working on my poor attempt of a catalog.  I was rather proud of my ‘poor attempt’ but I was getting no where with it and my laptop was threatening to crash! NOOOO!!!!!

Models …. And the catalog shoot!

I LOVE FACEBOOK! What can I say!??  It has been such a boost for Moon Talk! I have used it for every step of  growth for MT!  When it came time to start thinking about putting a catalog together, I just put it ‘out there’ that I was going to have a ‘shoot’ at out local library on a certain Saturday and needed ALL AGES of models… Everyone showed up; Mom’s and Aunts with infants from 2 months old up, toddlers, school age kids, teens & adults!  I piled clothes on a table, they chose what they wanted to wear. We walked around the library and shot away! Some models lasted longer than others, some took longer than others… I DID make sure we got a model release from EVERY one that was there!  SO if you think of doing something like this yourself, make sure you cover your behind… put together a simple model release, have them sign it!  Then KEEP IT!

FaceBook …Twitter.….LinkedIn…. and may God bless…. !

Many decisions have been made with the help of FaceBook. I will put words out there and ask for ideas…. thoughts… preferences….  I’ve put product out there and asked what people think of it,  would they buy it…. Would they rather see something else?  A LOT of things have been tabled because of lack of interest!  I have told my ‘friends’ that they are the ‘foundation’ of Moon Talk and together we are building a strong foundation for a strong future!  I hope they DO realize how important their opinions are to me!  They are my buyers… I can like… LOVE something, BUT IF they DON’T, it isn’t going to sell!  It’s as clear as that! You have to please your customers !   They will let you know what makes them happy!  It may be a simple ‘like’ on your page  or a page full of comments! 

Pricing and profit margins…

That was a toughie! I have dealt with selling to the general public before and made a decent profit with a minimal mark-up. BUT this is a different ball game all together!   It’s even in a whole different ballpark!  Here is how it’s SUPPOSED to be done!  Take the cost of the item that YOU PAY… PLUS ANY packaging, printing and incidentals…multiply that total  cost by 2 – 2 .5 times…  THAT is your WHOLESALE PRICE… Then the retailer is going to take THAT price and mark it up at least  100% if not 150%!  OUCH!  Is the end price going to be a price point that the consumer will laugh at??  It’s a fine, fine line that you are walking here. IF you have a sales rep that you have to pay… in the gift market, the real reps charge 15% of sales…  you HAVE to have that margin built in! IF YOU DON’T…. the fees are going to eat your profit and you will go under real quick! That is where I am stuck!  My product is high quality and Made in the USA. You pay for that!  I won’t lower my standards. I believe in sticking with what you believe in. I believe in 100% cotton and organic whenever you can…. As well as Made in the USA. I KNOW I can get cheaper products buying from China, but what is that doing for our own country? ....

LLC, Inc, CEO, IRS, IRA, M-O-U-S-E…

Let’s take a step backward…  Before the launch, a lot of other decisions had to be made!  I had something really cool here. I plan on doing something with it, I KNEW that… but HOW do I go about it, LEGALLY  and protect my ASSet’s…. 

Well to start with, I looked at our circle of friends. An old and dear friend of ours was an attorney, Mark. Another was our tax and business advisor, Brett. Another very good friend was our bank manager, Debbie then there is Steve ( more about him later!) !  We had all those bases covered.  Now we just needed to talk to all of them, get their advise and diligently follow it. They were ALL very successful business people and would steer me in the right direction. I had no doubt! ...

The 'launch' and how it happened.....

 I had been wearing one of my "Faith" Tees one day and a good friend that owns a local pharmacy.... "Day's Healthy Living Pharmacy" asked me about it.  I told her about the design and the products and she got goose bumps! She asked me if I had thought about selling them. I told her, Yes, but I wasn't sure just how I was going to go about it. She responded that she would like to carry them in her store!  The door was opened! The light bulb went on!  More planning....more preparing....& more money spent! A LOT more money spent! Inventory had to be purchased... a price point had to be worked up. Printing had to be done!!  Selling wholesale to retail is a WHOLE lot different than selling direct to the customer!  You have to allow yourself to make money and there still has to be a margin for the store to mark  product up to make money themselves!  VERY tough! Needless to say... I worked it out, but it all took time. I DO NOT "keystone' prices ( that is 2-2 1/2 x's the wholesale + any packaging material costs)  so I am NOT making what the suggested profit is.  And I DO NOT recommend  the stores "keystone" their mark up either. BUT I cannot control what they do!....

Lessons learned early ...

I was the last of 8 children born to Jean and Fred Diersing, so needless to say, my parents were 'up there in age'  My mom was one of 13! Death was something I learned about early in life.  All 4 of my grandparents died when I was 6-7 years old.  With my grandmother dying in our family room one week after my 7th birthday, the day after my communion.  Then my favorite uncle... the first time I heard the word CANCER...  My favorite aunt.. I could NOT understand this one! She was a NUN! She devoted her life to GOD! HOW could HE do this to her? AND BRAIN CANCER?....