Hello friends!  You’ll have to excuse today’s blog if it comes across a little disjointed.  My older daughter had her birthday party (she turns 5 tomorrow) and at her party she got Dora’s Dance Party DVD w/ maracas and interactive floor map.  She is in school right now, so this is the one opportunity her little sister has to do it without a fight, so while I’m typing away over here, in my ear all I can hear is the shake shake shake of the maraca’s and her yelling at the top of her lungs “SWIPER NO SWIPING!!!”.  I’ll try to keep it together though.  I do have a lot to say so go get some coffee and sit back and relax.  You might be here a while. 

I have had an epiphany since the last time we met.  It’s something I knew all along because it is clearly stated in my business plan from way back when; I just didn’t know how right I was until now.  Are you ready for it????  Okay, here is my earth shattering news…  RETAIL IS HARD!!!!  I’ve always known that my bread and butter and the way out of my $50,000.00 start up deficit and my path to millions would be the wholesale market, but it was never as crystal clear as it is today.  Hat’s off to all you retailers both brick and mortar and online.  I am now in my 4^th local store, I am about a day away from being in a store in
Denver and I am now in 2 online stores.  John Q Public however… he is a tough nut to crack!  In my head, I thought as soon as I sent out my email updates and emailed every friend I have ever had in my whole life and notified the people on my waiting list that the online orders would FLOOD in!  Not so.  Online sales have been soooooo slow.  Then last night I was a vendor at the girl’s church preschool craft fair and again, my expectations were crushed (and not in a good way).  I sold 10 all day.  Yep… 10.  I had brought 50!  As the inventor and manufacturer of the product, it’s hard not to get your feelings hurt when people don’t like your “baby”.   

As I said, I always new direct to consumer sales was better left up to the professionals (the REAL retailers) but I am now more sure then ever that my business plan was right on track.  Obviously my profit margin is highest retail/ but I just don’t have what it takes to be a successful retailer (nor do I want to be).  So far, I have not been turned down once by a retailer customer/ store.  Every single buyer or owner I have met with has bought AT LEAST a case right on the spot.  With the stores I am hot hot hot.  With the public directly…I am not not not.   Here’s my take on why.  With buyers, their job is to spend money.  It’s a relatively easier sell, because they must spend the store’s money on new products.  As buyers, that’s one of their primary focuses; therefore, you are simply competing against other products.  The buyer is going to buy, period.  It’s just a matter of convincing them that your product is better, more worthy, a more perfect match, etc… then the next product that walks in the door.  With John Q Public, your 1^st objection you have to overcome is just getting him to come off his money AT ALL.  (I’m the worst consumer… I am Mrs. Frugal McDugal, so I know how hard it is to convince him to even spend money in the first place!)  THEN if you can get him to agree to spend money at all, you have to deal with how much he wants to spend, THEN you are in competition with every other product in the store.  There are so many more layers of objections with retail that you have to overcome.  HATS OFF TO YOU RETAILERS!!!  The public is a tough tough sell and I now know why I don’t want to rely on it to make my millions.  It is an art better left to the professionals.  I get such a thrill when my online orders trickle in, but being a manufacturer, I don’t have the time it would take to have a truly successful online retail store.  (Again, I KNEW this, planned for it, and want this to be the way it is, I just could not have predicted how right I was)  It really takes a TON of time and effort.   

Okay, now, to put my “manufacturing hat” back on.  I got samples for the next 2 collections and they are sooo cool!!!  The Spicy Collection is coming and the charms are awesome!  I am now also working on finalizing the 6^th design of the Charmed Life Collection.  I’m thinking the Spicy collection will be ready to launch in time for Valentines Day (what a great guy gift for Valentines Day!) and the Charmed Life Collection will be here way before Father’s Day, which will be one of my biggest PR pushes of the year.  So… there you have it.  If you are an inventor, pick your distribution channel and stick to it.  You can’t be all things to all people.  Know where your bread is buttered.  It absolutely can be direct to consumer sales; you just have to have a completely different approach and game plan then if you’re going to focus on wholesale.  I now have a new heighten appreciation for our friends in the retail industry.  You guys rock!  Keep those Grill Charms flying off YOUR shelves and I’ll keep you supplied, one case (or pallet… or container) at a time.  And to my loyal friends out there, I don’t care where you get your Grill Charms… as long as you get them!   

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

I know!  I know!

We are all busy.  Crazy busy!  I read the blogs.  I read the online forum entries.  I know that each of us is multi-tasking like there’s no tomorrow………..

But, when was the last time you scooped your child up onto your lap (or cuddled next to him or her if they are past the ’scooping-up’ stage!!!) and read a book with your child with not one interruption?

Believe me, I am no Poster Child for this daily event!  Once I get past sunset on the lake, dinner with the family followed by clean up and showers I am ready to call it a day (and I mean a D-A-Y)!

But, after reading my own abstract for an upcoming training with Head Start staff, I felt compelled to make the cry-out and the kick-in-the-pants to not only my fellow Moms who are busy running their homes as well as their businesses but to myself.

Let’s make a pact here - a friendly agreement - to read to our young children and instill in them the love of reading.  It’s crucial to their success, our nation’s success and the future of this United States of America!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays!  I hope you all enjoyed yours as much as I enjoyed mine.  We had 15 guests for dinner, 3 fried turkeys, 8 bottles of wine, watched 2 football games and had only about 2 temper tantrums.  A banner day over here at the Haywood house!  The girls are at such a fun age.  They are now really getting into the holidays and they have their mother’s appetite, so Thanksgiving is one of their favorites.   

Yesterday was also a very special day because my new website went live at about 2:00.  Right now I’m procrastinating hitting the “send” button to all of the people on my waiting list for Grill Charms.  At 9:00 this morning the FedEx guy brought me 400 more broken down boxes of Grill Charms to assemble so I am RIGHT on schedule for my big launch today, Black Friday.  I had given my web guy and my merchant account people today as a goal, and my OEM fell right into place and all the planets have aligned to make today’s BIG OFFICIAL launch of Grill Charms a reality.  This is a monumental moment for me… and I’m freezing up.  Here I sit typing to you, because it’s “safe”.  I really don’t understand a lot of the technology that goes into making this whole thing happen so instead of pulling the trigger and emailing the list of people who have so faithfully supported me throughout this process, I’m babbling on here, with my run on sentences and safety net of knowing that until I hit “send” and just type away here, I won’t have to jump into the deep end of a full fledged, real business. 

I can’t believe this is all really happening.  Once I put myself REALLY out here, there is no turning back.  Up until now I have been filling orders from friends and family, and even with 3 stores, it’s been manageable.  It’s all been local stuff and again… safe.  Soon I’ll be “out there” for the entire world to see.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I am terrified!  What if there are “bugs” in the system that I have not foreseen?  What if I can’t fill orders fast enough? What if NOBODY is interested in Grill Charms?  What if I don’t get the stupid SC sales Tax right and “they” come after me?  (Seriously, I could go on forever with all the crazy things that plague me).  I feel like this moment right now is the REAL do or die moment.  This past week or so has all been for “play play”.  Most of the orders were from friends or acquaintances, the stores were not “cold calls”, and it’s all been so…. Safe.  (I wish I could think of a better word, but that pretty much sums it up).  I’m about to unleash my baby on the big Ol’world and see if she can fly. Okay, here I go…. If you were on the waiting list…. Here I come!!!!   

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

Here I am at a local WiFi Hotspot trying to get some work done.  It seems like if I miss even a day there is just so much to write about, I don’t know where to begin.  It’s Monday night so that means the girls are in ballet.  That will give me just enough time to give you a brief rundown of the past few days’ events.  I barely had time to eat today, so I feel a little light headed.  I’m scarfing down a yogurt with fruit and granola inbetween sentences so pardon me if I get blueberry junk on you. 

First of all, the little one is in a big girl bed and we are trying to do away with the nighttime diaper.  I am so proud of her.  The first night was a disaster, but the past 2 nights have been GREAT!  I think we are so close to being done with diapers FOREVER!   

Well, I really did it.  As of Saturday morning I officially got into my 3rd store.  I can’t believe it was only 1 week ago exactly that I delivered my first case to my first store.  Now I’ve 3 under my belt.  It was so cool.  Saturday night we had my sister’s 30th surprise birthday party at an establishment downtown a few doors down from the store.  I was taking field trips with all my friends and family down to the store to ooooohhh and ahhhhh over my shelf placement.  It was a riot! 

Today I got samples from the second collection (The Spicy collection) and they look great.  I put in a
PO this afternoon for 1200 more Steak and 1200 Spicy.  It is going to be excruciating to write that check when that PO comes due, but when dealing with overseas, they really don’t like small runs (and actually, even 2400 is still considered very small by overseas’ standards).  I want to keep my OEM happy and I’m really hoping to blow through them quickly.  I was so conservative in my sales forecast, that according to those figures, this order should last me well over a year.  Should I dare to put a goal of 6 months out there???  That would mean 13 units a day, every day… hmmmmm…..  Okay, I’ll try.  You gotta have goals huh? 

Today while the girls were at mothers morning out I had an accountant who is versed in QuickBooks spend about an hour and half with me making sure I had everything set up right.  I’m still so confused about so much.  I really really wish I had taken more accounting classes in college.  Note to all college wanna-be inventor entrepreneurs types.  TAKE MORE ACCOUTING!   

Along the lines of having ambitious goals, I reached an agreement with a friend who does PR and another gal I met with months ago about doing PR work for me.  I might be making a mistake, but I want to really get out there in the Spring and make some serious waves, so we all came to a PR agreement and plan.  My friend is going to handle the local stuff and the other gal is going to focus strictly on national attention and placement.  All of these things including the services I have not paid for yet (the website) will about max out my start-up funds.  I have been so wishy washy about paying to have someone do my PR or just do it myself, and although I think I could do “okay”, I kept thinking this was one of those things maybe a professional should do.  I tried to get a press release out  and 1 very small paper did pick it up, but I have been told that a lot of times, if the media doesn’t recognize the sender, it’s hard to get them to take a second look.  This is certainly not a manual on how to do things “right”.  It’s just the way I am choosing to do them.  It was a 50/50 kind of decision for me and in a moment of already feeling overwhelmed; I gave the PR away and agreed to fork out the moola.  Check back in 6 months and let you know if I made good decision. 

That’s going to do it for today.  I’ll be making a big announcement about Grill Charms in the next week when my really cool, totally revamped ecommerce site is up and running…and I figure out how to use it!  Terminals, gateways, processors, shopping carts, sales tax for SC only, different rates based on counties, ahhhhhh!!!!  

 If I don’t talk to you before then, Happy Thanksgiving!!!  

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com 

Believe it or not amigas/friends…they are here!  It’s official when you start shopping at the ‘DoorBuster Specials’ and are greeted by Christmas music in JC Penney Stores!  I felt so very American, so very ahead-of-the-game and so weird to be out shopping early this morning (I have never given myself this much of a jump start on the Holidays since I was single)!!!

Nonetheless, here we are, with Thanksgiving only 6, six, seis days away.  Hold onto your many hats that you wear or they will blow away at lightning speed based on how quickly the Holidays came upon us and now 2007 will whisk itself out of sight before we know it.

So…………..instead of groaning about cooking and lamenting about cleaning up…………..let’s make it a time to bring in some second language fun with your little children.  You are saying, “Beth, how?  I don’t even speak but a few words of high school Spanish?”  It can be painless, easy and you might even find yourself saying the “F_ _” word (FUN!!!) after is all said and done!

Below are some creative ways to weave Spanish and English together in the kitchen as well as at the table - assisting young ones with the acquisition of a second language:

• Using an inexpensive bilingual children’s dictionary (Usborne) or free language cards off our own Boca Beth web site’s resource area, begin to introduce some fruits or vegetables names in both Spanish and English.  Not sure of your pronunciation?  Both resources provide excellent pronunciation guides!
• As mealtime begins encourage the children to use por favor (please) and gracias (thank you) and de nada (you’re welcome) at every opportune time for those three manner words.  Today’s society needs to go back to the basics with manner words, and experts agree it’s just as easy for a young child to learn two words for the same concept as it is to learn only one.  The younger the better it has been proven!
• Go around the table during mealtime asking the common ¿Cómo estás? question, encouraging each family member to reply with an appropriate response based on their feelings at the moment.  (Bien/fine, fabuloso/fabulous, magnífico/magnificent, or simply no bien/not fine) . . .  most of these responses are heard often throughout our communities, schools, workplace or tv so that previous language lessons are not needed.
• Have each family member addressed by their title within the family (mamá or madre if formal, papá or padre if formal, hermana/sister, hermano/brother, bebé/baby, abuela/grandma, abuelo/grandpa, tia/aunt, tio/uncle and so on).  Again, with more than 45 million people in our country alone having Spanish as their native language, it’s easy to come across these family member terms and their correct pronunciation.  If not, we have many of these words, their meanings and their pronunciation guides on our web site at all times in our free resource area.

As that old  saying goes, “Try it, you’ll like it!!!”  And Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!

Happy Educating!  ¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

I’m not sure how much one brain can take.  Everything is happening so fast and life is so nuts.  It’s all good though.  My little one has put her fangs back in her mouth and has been such a good girl.  This afternoon my husband made her a “big girl bed” so right this second, she is taking her first nap in her new bed.  It’s not going well though… she’s in there talking to herself and I’m not sure how much of a nap she’ll be taking now that she has sweet sweet freedom!  I liked the confinement of the crib, but she’ll be three next month, so I guess it’s about time.  I just remember all the roaming that was involved with the first one, and honestly, I was just pure and simple procrastinating.   

I am now officially in Store #2!!!!!  This morning while the older one was at school, my husband took the little one for about an hour while I made my sales call on another local retailer and she took the case of 12 right then and there!  It was not cold call, the owner is a friend of a friend, but still, I’m now in 2 STORES!!!!!  I made a phone call to a 3^rd store today, and I think I’ll have an appointment Saturday with the buyer.  She saw my website (and again, this is a friend of a friend… of a friend) and she has already committed to buy over the phone.  I’m going to personally deliver them this weekend.  I won’t count that chicken until it hatches this weekend, but it looks like I will be in 3 stores all in the same week!!  What a week!!!!   

The little one is STILL TALKING!  Hmmmm….  Big girl bed… hmmmmm…. My husband and his brilliant idea!  Why can’t she stay in a crib until she’s 18??!! 

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

Yesterday was a crazy day, but I’m beginning to think that when crazy is the “norm” it’s no longer crazy right?  My afternoon wasn’t off to a good, but it turned around QUICKLY!  When I picked up the girls from school there was a note about my little one.  She had engaged in a “behavior” that I had thought we were totally past.  She BIT another student!!!  Yep, I’m THAT mom… the mom of a biter.  Last year she was almost kicked out of school (at 2 years old) because whenever she was provoked, biting was her first reaction.  It started when she was bit repeatedly by another child and within a few weeks, she had adopted the behavior as her own.  It was HORRIBLE!  We tried EVERYTHING to stop it and eventually she did… until yesterday.  She’s older now so I came down pretty hard on her in an effort nip it right here and now.  We can’t have another year of wondering if today’s the day she’s expelled!!!  So all that had me a little blue.  I hate being angry with the girls.  She was sad, mommy was sad, my 4 year old was sad because we all were sad.  After the reformed / temporarily relapsed biter went to nap time, I checked my email and got some news that put a spring back in my step.   

Taiwan emailed me to say that they could have another 100 sets (broken down again) air freighted to me by next week!  I was worried I would not have enough to fill holiday orders AND to any wholesale biz, but now with this news, I really could get into stores.  The first call I made was to that store that I stumbled upon during Monday night ballet class.  (And wouldn’t you know it… it was Monday!)  I said, “I’ve got a case of Grill Charms™ with your name all over them if you want them” and she said YES!!!  So, while the girls were at ballet, I hand delivered my first case of Grill Charms™ to my first retail store!  YIPEE!!!! I’m actually in a REAL STORE!!!  It seems like for so long the days just blended together, with nothing REALLY earth shattering happening, and lately, it’s just one thing after another.  I can’t to get my website done!! 

About the little one… today is a new day and we had a talk about yesterday and I’m very hopeful that was a one time relapse and everything is now right with the world again. 

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

It’s so funny… nobody would believe this if I didn’t blog all this crazy stuff.  I hope my girls enjoy reading about mommy’s crazy adventures someday.  Today (being Friday) of course I scheduled another appointment during my window of 10:00-1:00 but this time it was personal.  I had my final “procedure” if you will, for my reconstruction.  You know I’m the queen of TMI but even I won’t come right out and say what the gal did, but it involved tattooing a new part a nice pinkish brown color.  As you can imagine, I have known these people for over a year now pretty intimately so in an effort to help me think about anything other than what she was doing she asked about my little project.  I worked.  It instantly forgot the discomfort and gave her the complete rundown of Grill Charms, ending with; I have a set to show you in my purse over there!  By the time she was done waving her buzzing magic wand all over my girl parts, she said “I need 5!!!”  I pretty much jumped off the table, (still ½ dressed) showed her the set out of my purse and right then and there, with my cell phone calculator (yep, still topless) I totaled up everything + tax and she wrote the check on the spot.  After our business was done, she helped me with the bandage; pad etc… and I put my clothes back on.  I can’t imagine any other sale being quite as “interesting” and this one.  See what I mean… If I don’t write this stuff down as it happens NOBODY is gonna believe me! 

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

I’m just going to have to write every day… TOOOO much is happening too quickly and I’m afraid I’m going to forget something. Today I received my little certificate saying that my trademark has been registered with the State of South Carolina. My trademark attorney is still working on the Federal, but at least I’m all set in the State of SC.

 Now that I have a product (I have no way yet of accepting credit cards or participating in E-Commerce yet, but that’s soon) but never the less, I always have some in my car (and 1 set in my purse) at all times. So today while the girls are in Mother Morning Out (it’s hard to believe that one can actually run a company from 10:00-1:00 M, W and Friday, during naps from 1:30-3:30 and after 8:00 at night, but hey, that’s what a “Mompreneur” has to do!) Anyway, I had a 10:15 appointment with my Product Liability Insurance guy today to sign the final paperwork on my policy. This was CLASSIC! (I swear, someday I’m going to write a book!) He gives me my total for my first year’s coverage and as I’m stroking that big ol check, I tell him how much I appreciate what he’s done and said “Now if you know of anyone that would like a holiday grilling gift, just let me know!” He said, “Oh, put me down for one, I’d love to give it to my father, he’s a big griller” And doing what every other red-blooded American mompreneur would do I said “There you go, you can have THIS one, do you have your check book here?” He said “no, I don’t” and I said “Not to worry, I’ll email you an invoice real quick when I get home, I hope your dad enjoys his gift!” and out of the office I strutted feeling so HAPPY! Now granted, the check I wrote him was about 50 times as much as the check he’s going to write to me, but I’LL TAKE IT!!! My first REAL sale!!! You just never know when or how it will happen. My insurance guy… go figure!

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com

It feels like a LIFETIME ago.  There have been milestones and setbacks, and proud moments and gut wrenching issues…. MAN… it’s only been 5 days??!!! 

Later on Nov 1, I made an awful discovery.  I friend emailed me out of the blue and just said “hey, I just signed up for your waiting list”.  I thought to myself… “That’s funny… I haven’t received any notification she signed up”, so I tested that feature myself on my website and lo and behold, NOTHING!  Come to find out, the feature has not been working for what we now figured out to be 3 weeks!!!  It acted like the information was sent, but WASN’T!!!  During that time, as you know, I had an article in the paper, an interview after Race for the Cure, the Mompreneurs getaway…  I was (and still am) just SICK that people have signed up, and I’ll never know.  It’s hard for me to think about.  I have had my web guy, the server people, the domain people, you name it, on this issue to try to find those names and email addresses somewhere in cyber space and they are just GONE!  Oh no… I’m getting depressed again… can’t think too much about it.  My web guys is supposed to put a statement on my site apologizing and asking everyone to sign up again if they signed up in the past few weeks.  You and I both know however that a lot of those people won’t be back to the site any time soon.   

On to other, happier issues, we had a friend come over Friday night and Saturday morning and we put ALL 100 boxes together!!!  I must say, it was a lot of fun and I got a real sense of accomplishment from seeing those stacks off Grill Charms on my dining room table.  (We took lots of pictures)   

Saturday afternoon we went to my mom’s house for a Grill Charms photo shoot.  Now that I have my product to sell, I need pictures! I went to the best meat department in town and bought about $100.00 worth of groceries.  My sister dabbles in photography just for fun, so I thought; why not let her take a stab at it.  We grilled out in my parent’s backyard and I must say, I was/am completely impressed with the pictures.  They look FANTASTIC!  I am sooo happy!  That will save TONS of money.  Also this weekend I purchased one of those light tent thingies on eBay so I could do my pictures for my shopping page.  The “lifestyle” artsy ones my sister did were for the other parts of the website and advertising, brochures etc…  I can do catalogue type ones (I think) myself.  So now I have my web guy working at warp speed to try to get my ecommerce site up and running by early next week so I can tell all of the people I actually DO have on my waiting list, that Grill Charms are really really FINALLY available!   

THEN… yep, more stuff… (See… I can’t believe it’s only been 5 days) Yesterday while the girls where at ballet I went into that store that wanted to buy some sets (see October 10, 2007 Blog),  to visit the owner and show her my pretty pretty packaging.  She had said to come back once I had a complete set, so of course, I did.  She LOVED it!  She wants them ASAP!  I had told her last time we talked that wholesale orders would be available after the first of the year.  I have to take care of the customers I have already promised sets to for Christmas.  (And again… that makes me think about all the people that THINK they will get a notification and won’t!)  Aaaaagggghhhhhh!!!  Head-spinning, stomach-turning…want to throw up!!! 

I think you are now up to speed.   I’m sure the next 5 days will be just as crazy.  Yep, I just looked ahead on my calendar.  It’s gonna be another whirlwind week!  I’ll be in touch soon! 

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com