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