We've Bet the Farm!

Okay, the title is a bit misleading. We didn't really bet the farm, but we decided to take a run at the local farmers markets.

Our advertising strategy isn't producing as much as we expected. So Ben and I decided to think of something new. Our goal is to produce at least six new customers each during the next two weeks. I started looking on the internet for ideas and came across the different historical societies in San Diego. The first one I called was the Ocean Beach Historical Society. I talked to a gentleman for about 20 minutes about some ideas. I want to make a 30 minute documentary about some piece of Ocean Beach, possibly about their ties to the Theosophical Society. Once that film is produced I can use it to promote the business. Some possible sources of promotion would be KPBS, presentations to the historical society as well as other community and senior groups throughout San Diego.

As I was searching through websites on Ocean Beach, I came across the page that mentions the farmers market. Now I know that most farmers markets sell produce and crafts, but I thought that becoming a vendor at this farmers market would allow us to show many people (maybe not our prime demographic) about what we do. So we are going to be there on Wednesday from 3-8PM. By the end of the day today, I confirmed our vendorship with two other farmers markets: the Clairmont Mesa Farmers Market on Friday and the Scripps Ranch Farmers Market on Saturday. I'll make sure to write in with info on how those went.

So now I need to get going and make a demo video for the markets. We also need to get a canopy, extension cord, TV and tablecloth for these events. It should be an exciting week!

Two Good decisions

The first good decision: Doing a postcard mailing campain. By far the most money spent to date on any one thing for the business has been mailing 6000 postcards into La Jolla, CA. Today at least a good amount of postcards reached their destination. We recieved three calls from this source! And one sale was made. I think that's pretty good. Hopefully more people will call from the postcard during the next week or so.

Second good decision: Figuring out what me and partner are good at. I think that people are naturally good at some things and not so good at others. When Ben and I started this business, neither of us had any real experience with a business on this scale before. So finding out what we are good at is something that has taken a while. We are learning which part of business operations we like and are good at. Something seems to be catching on...

One Fine Day

DVD-Photo-Memories.com has just started its real marketing campain. Today our postcards were mailed from Postcardmania.com. They are a great online company. Also, Ben is starting to give out our brochures in La Jolla. I was thinking of getting our foot in the door by offering a promotional video for businesses. If they turned that big offer down, we should be able to step it down a notch and at least get them to let us put some brochures with a holder in their business. We'll see how that idea works out.

I'm going to make a promotional video for Vine Ripe Market in La Mesa. This will also serve as a sample DVD to show other prospective clients.

Live and Learn

I haven't had caffeine in a while and I had almost forgotten how much I can get done after a large frappucino. I just got back from Borders in Mission Valley. Borders has the largest selection of computer magazines anywhere. I just wish I could have gotten there ealier in order to have more time to explore.

So about the business. We printed 500 copies of the brochure last friday. And tomorrow we will start figuring out where to put them. This really is a big experiment for us, since neither me nor Ben has any marketing experience. Heck, I was a psychology major. Today we met with a couple guys who work with insurance and annuities. They were impressed with the sampler DVD that I made last night. It is only a two minute video, but it took me four hours to produce it. I think it will go on the website soon.

Speaking of the website, we only had one visitor today. That does not make me very excited about the marketing we've already done. The ad in Senior Life magazine has been out for about 10 days now, and we have yet to get one call from that ad. Hmmm..... live and learn I guess....

I guess we'll see how next week goes

So it's Friday night and I just got back from working out at Bally's. It makes a lot of sense to work out on a regular basis. Good for the body, good for the mind, good for your co-workers.

On the business front, we haven't gotten any calls from anywhere. So it's a bit discouraging. Ben just finished our new brochure today. So I can't wait to get some printed at anybudget.com. They have great prices! So on Monday we'll get our brochures printed and start giving them out.

Somewhat Productive

So today was somewhat productive. Ben got another order from our most consistent customer. And he met a new physical therapist who has a bunch of old film to scan.

I did some internet advertising on craigslist and merchantamerica. We are in four categories on merchantamerica and we've got the best looking ad on craigslist.

I went around PB all day today to find a Senior Life Magazine, but I could not. Our contact at the magazine told me that I could find them all over, especially around banks. I went to every bank on Garnet Ave. and did not have any luck. Hmmmm.... We better get some good business from this publication.

The brochure is almost complete and then we need to decide on a printer. Oh, and yesterday I fanangled ourselves an office on Garnet Ave for a great price!!! Just a couple more orders and we'll be ready for our first office!

What perspective to take?

Our new business, DVD-Photo-Memories.com, is about to cross a few different paths.

One path is whether or not the business will take off and flourish or just wither and die. We have invested all that we are really able to into advertising. The first ad should have come out yesterday. It runs continuosly for 6 months and there is supposed to be a story on us during the third month, November, perfect timing for holiday shopping.

So that is the financial, business path. The other path is what perspective to take on the business in general. Everyone does things for a reason. At first my reason to start a business was because it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I loved to do this type of work, I was curious about the business world, and I had a business partner and friend that was as stoked as me on the idea.

But after putting more and more work into it, I started to feel invested in its sucess. I spent all my energy on making the business suceed and lost sight of the other things in life that are important.

Luckily after just realizing all of this I now can make my focus something other than the business suceeding. Now it is time to focus on having fun creating a company. I have a good friend that just happens to be my business partner. We have so much fun creating something together. But, we have to not take the projects we work on personally. It is so easy to work on something for so long and then have someone rip it apart because they don't like something about it.


Lesson of the Day: "Do not rely on your projects in life for happiness. Your projects do not become happy or sad based upon their approval rating, so why should you?"