So where were we?? This past weekend we had a wonderful time. We took the kids out on the boat as it’s been in the mid 80’s all weekend and life is good! On Thursday I took the family with me to my meeting with Mr. New Sourcing Agent. Fortunately I have friends that live there in the same town so we made it a less than 24 hour mini-vacation. My meeting went really well and today I Quickbooked a PO for the tooling and my first 100 samples. What sold me on Mr. NSA were his terms. The terms are no money to be paid on the tooling and samples of the 1st PO until I approve the 100 samples. The terms for my original sourcing agent are tooling costs upfront. Both agents came back with similar prices (higher then I would have liked, but in the same range, so cost was not a factor in my decision) but the terms in this case sealed the deal. With New Guy, I am not out anything until I’m happy with the work and see that my project can be done to my satisfaction. I just feel warm and fuzzy all over!? The tooling etc… will take 8 weeks so I’ve got some time to do other stuff that’s been piling up on my desk… like those darn UPC codes!!!

Oh, by the way, the packaging is fine. The University emailed me and said they ran some more tests on it and the strength of the material of primary box and shipping box will be able to sustain the compression of 2 pallets double stacked so I’m good to go. On Friday I took my packaging prototype to my graphic designer and got him working on the graphics. I’m not very creative, so I pretty much explained the “feel” I wanted for the box and let him have at it. I did make mention that in the best legal-ese possible he needed to put the warnings 1) These are not edible, so don’t eat this dummy, cause if you do, it’s gonna hurt coming out! And #2) This is metal and it’s gonna be hot coming off the grill. Don’t burn yourself! It’s a shame that these are things that are necessary in this litigious society in which we live, but hey, I know the game, so I’ve got to be prepared to play!

On a mommy note, it’s so enjoyable to visit friends that have kids around the same age and the same parenting style. We took the kids on a little overnight so mommy could go to her 2.5 hour business meeting and then we just played with our friends. I have friends that I was once close to and now that we have children I find myself not wanting to hang around because we parent so differently. I’m not saying ANY way is right or wrong, it’s just hard when you are so different. I was reminded this past week of how much fun all the kids can have together when you are around friends that parent the same. That’s about all for now!

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charmsâ„¢? www.grillcharms.com