Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

It has been a long and challenging summer, but well worth the effort… www.RedKoala.com is open for business! Now the fun begins: Branding, Marketing, Sales, Partnerships, etc…

This week I am preparing for a large tradeshow at the AmericasMart in Atlanta over the weekend. Many of the major boutique owners from the East Coast will be there shopping for items to sell in their stores. This is a great opportunity to get my products in front of them without having to travel from door to door. People are amazed by the outstanding quality of our art and I’m confident that many of these boutique owners will feel the same. I have worked frantically to have samples produced and brochures printed.

It took me a while to develop a plan for retail and I think I have come up with the best solution. I am offering retail outlets access to my online canvas designer to create custom designed pieces of art, at a wholesale price, to sell in their stores. The store owner, or a designer, will create art to match the store’s other offerings such as crib sets and drapery. The custom designed art will be showcased on the store walls. The store itself will be able to sell the art for a premium because it was custom designed to match a particular bed set or room decor. This system allows for some personalization by the customer and no inventory for the store to carry.

In addition to retail, I will market my services and products to interior designers who are always looking for fresh and innovative products for their clients. Not only is our art fabulous, but you can find something to match any room. We currently have 6 artists that all have unique styles and provide exclusive images for the Red Koala Canvas Co. We will work with designers or customers to commission our artists to paint an image not currently offered on our site. It’s a one stop shop for custom art.

In total, there are three major markets for our business: retail, interior designers, and customers/moms who like to design or want to give a special gift. This market will be challenging to reach through all of the clutter in magazines and online. However, there are plenty of moms out there that would love this service so I will work hard to make sure they know about the Red Koala.

Each segment in of itself is a large market. In the next month I will put together a detailed marketing plan on how to reach each of these segments. I am really excited to have some great conversations with my mentors and get their advice on marketing and partnerships. So please go visit www.RedKoala.com and give me your feedback or even better buy some art!

Here I am on vacation in Florida with good friends, family, and sunshine. The kids are having a blast and my friends are enjoying their time away from work. All the while I’m thinking about everything I need to get done to get my website up and running. The kids run around me as I work away on my laptop responding to e-mails, talking to artists, and putting together graphics. Will there ever be a time when I can go on vacation and actually RELAX? Those days seem so far away to me right now. I am in a constant state of GO, GO, GO! However, I know the day is coming when I’ll have time to spare and I’ll think about how much I miss my three small children and the excitement of starting a new business. Life is all about perspective. Most people would love to be in my shoes and I am grateful every day for all of the blessings in my life! Next week will be a big week as I get my site functioning and start selling products. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say, but for right now I’m going to close the laptop and try to enjoy some time with my family.

I have always valued advice. Even constructive criticism can be tough to swallow, but so valuable. Starting this business and winning this grant have opened my eyes to the amount of resources available all around me. Since I was a kid I have always asked my Mom for her input. As I’ve gotten older, this hasn’t changed. She is a very smart and experienced business woman and entrepreneur. I’m not sure I could have gotten this far without her. However as I get deeper and deeper into the different aspects of the Red Koala Canvas Co., I realize that learning from a larger group of people is exponentially better than trying to take on the world with the advice from just one other person (no matter how great that person is). My advice to other entrepreneurs is to develop a network of intelligent people, some in your target market and some in your industry, to assist you in making the tough decisions. I have really leaned on my family, my friends, and my mentors to guide me through the process.

Another great source of information is books authored by people you admire. I have read two books in the past month written by two of my mentors: Cathie Black’s “Basic Black” and David Vinjamuri’s “Accidental Branding”. Both offer great information in very different formats. Cathie Black, based on her own experiences moving up the ladder, gives valuable insight into dealing with people from bosses, to co-workers, to clients. In any business, building relationships with people is probably the most important skill you can learn.

David’s “Accidental Branding” left me wanting more. I was so intrigued by the entrepreneurs he interviewed that I wanted to learn more about their stories. They are an inspiration and a confirmation of my dreams to build a great brand. I think a separate book could be written on each one of these amazing people.

I am now looking for the next great book to read that will continue to teach and inspire me to fulfill my dreams. If you have any good suggestions please leave a comment. I hope to someday be an inspiration to other people starting on their journey, just as these people have all been such an inspiration to me!

Everyone knows that starting a business isn’t easy, but you are never fully prepared for all of the decisions that need to be made.

My biggest challenge right now… developing a product to sell! My website is complex and taking much longer than expected. The crew at Fast Pivot, my web partner, challenged me to come up with a product to sell NOW. One weekend of constant brainstorming and finally a light bulb moment: why not sell our artwork on infant and toddler tees? I’m not talking cheap undershirts; I’m talking really nice, high quality, super soft tees that every mother will love for their child. It’s like wearing ART! Don’t get me wrong, I am still focused on selling canvas art, but why not have other options? I love the idea of packaging a Red Koala gift card and baby tee as the perfect gift for an expecting mom! After a full week of designing shirts and sourcing manufacturers we are ready to sell, and I must say they are pretty darn cute. This is why I started my own business. Making these types of decisions is so invigorating and fulfilling. However there are many more decisions to be made… like how to grow my brand.

I have worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, but I don’t have much experience with the smaller ones. There is a big difference between the two. How do I take an unheard of brand and turn it into something great? That was my question for David Vinjamuri with ThirdWay Brand Trainers. He had some good advice: tell your story as an expert. It seems so simple, but so smart. I am a mother of three with a family owned art gallery. I’ve decorated plenty of rooms and understand the frustration of looking for the right piece of art. By sharing my experiences with others, I build credibility. He suggested that I start blogging on topics related to children’s art. Not to plug my company, but to build trust. I am not a professional blogger. These Seeds for Success program blogs have been my first and only blogs so far, but my blogging career is about to take off.

I’m feeling pretty good about our shipping system. We have tested many boxes and packing methods and have chosen the best option. As far as a preferred shipping vendor, there is a balance between the cost and the simplicity of each method. After talking to several providers and considering a third party logistics provider (thanks for the official term Rosemary) we have decided to do the shipping ourselves. We chose a provider that charges slightly higher rates, but offers the best benefits including daily pickups and integration with our Yahoo! Small Business website.

Last week I spoke with Nina Kaufman (www.AskTheBusinessLawyer.com) regarding several legal issues. I’ve been struggling with LLC vs. S-Corp status for the company. Apparently there are benefits to both, and it’s not a clear cut decision on which way to go. I also need some advice on trademarking and writing a licensing agreement for our artists. In summary, I need help. Most of these things have already been started by me, but its time to bring in a professional. I think Nina quickly realized that I needed a local intellectual property lawyer to guide me through these topics. She advised me to check out the State Bar and look for a lawyer that sits on a committee. Her reasoning: anyone that takes time to work in the community is probably a trust worthy person. Seems like good advice to me. I struggle with paying people to do things for me, but I need to get over that pretty quickly. As the company grows, I won’t have time to do everything myself. So first things first, get a lawyer and a CPA.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, but it’s fun to see the impact of all of these decisions! Please visit www.RedKoala.com this week to see the new and improved look, logo, and fabulous tees!

So much has happened in the past 12 days that I almost don’t know where to begin. Some has been good, some has been bad, and some has been just plain scary!

Let’s start with the good. On Friday, May 16th I spoke with my primary mentor Christina Blenk. It was a great “get to know you” conversation. I think we are going to get along really well. I had two great take-aways regarding my website: 1) make sure your customer “gets it” within 15 seconds of landing on your homepage, and 2) don’t give them too many decisions to make at one time. The first one is so important for a product like mine that requires some education before a purchase. People ask me all the time to further explain my products. I have decided to include a flash component on my homepage that will visually explain what we have to offer at www.redkoala.com. It will require some additional dollars spent, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end.

Her second piece of advice applies to the number of options we give our consumers when designing their art. Instead of taking away some of those options, we decided it would be best to use categories to reduce the number of decision made at one time. For example; I want to offer a large number of size options. However, a long list of sizes can be overwhelming for the average consumer. The solution is to offer small, medium, and large categories and within each of those list 7 sizes. Now the consumer is choosing from one out of 7 instead of one out of 21. It reduces the number of choices that have to be made at one time, without reducing the number of options available. This is great advice for anyone with a complex product being offered over the internet.

I also had a great conversation on the same day with Matt Ledford from Fast Pivot. He’s a very energetic and fun person. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm about my company and his genuine desire to help me achieve my goals of owning a business, while also raising a family. He challenged me to really think about what I’m offering and what people would be willing to buy. He suggested that I offer a lower priced product that consumers would be willing to purchase to “test the waters”. I am working on this, but haven’t come up with the answer yet.

Now on to the bad; my dog needed surgery last Tuesday and has required a great deal of attention. No problem with three kids and a business to start….yeah right! And here’s the scary, on the same day of my dog’s surgery we were hit by a tornado. YIKES! It has been a solid week of cleaning up the mess. I watched them use a crane to lift my beautiful old oak trees over the house for the logging trucks to pick up. Someone was watching over my family when all of those trees fell and only one hit the corner of the house. It was the scariest day of my life, but I feel blessed because no one was hurt. The kids have been slightly traumatized and I’ve worked very hard to get things back to normal for them. So between the dog and the tornado there hasn’t been much time for work. I’ll be busy this week catching up. It always seems like work gets it the way of life and life gets in the way of work. My quest to balance the two continues!

I met with Fast Pivot, my web development company, yesterday. They shared two new website designs with me. Both look great! I really like their vision. Hopefully we can complete the design process soon and move on to functionality. My coder, who wrote the canvas art designer application, is waiting for the new website so he can start the process of putting the application in it. He needs to make sure it works seamlessly with Yahoo’s merchant solutions. This may take some time and I’m anxious to start the process.

This morning my husband, Davis, and I met with Red Koala’s first mentor, Rosemary Coates from The AKA Group. She is an expert in manufacturing and distribution. She’ll be a great asset for us as we begin selling products. Our current production system hasn’t been tested yet, so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of questions for her as our business grows.

For now, we are focused on packaging and shipping. Our products are ordered one-by-one and are all different shapes and sizes. Rosemary suggested we call the big shipping companies and negotiate a rate. I had no idea you could do this. I always assumed that a shipping rate was a shipping rate, end of story. Our homework is to make those calls and position ourselves as a small business, with great growth potential, that needs a discount to meet budget constraints. We’ll see how that goes, but shipping is something we really do need a good rate on. She also suggested that we call around to local box companies to find the best packaging options. After we complete these two tasks we’ll schedule another meeting to go over next steps.

I have a meeting tomorrow with my primary mentor Christina Blenk of AFS Web and WomenOwned.com. I am very excited to speak with her and get her initial feedback of our company and vision.

Stay tuned!

Yesterday was a great day. I have decided to change the entire look and design of my website! I basically told the Fast Pivot team to re-do it all. I want it to be more interactive and have a simple design with a splash of color and GREAT pictures.

The original design was not what I had envisioned, but I didn’t have the resources to change it. My plan was to get everything up and running and at some point down the road (when I was making some money) redesign it. I now have access to a great group of women at Fast Pivot who are going to put together a new look. I am so excited to see what they come up with! Hopefully I’ll have my first peek next week. The planned launch date for the new site is June 30th, but I am going to do everything I can to push that date up. I am SO ready to sell some art!

Speaking of art, I have been working hard on getting the images ready for the site. We have several artists creating hand-painted images just for us. I take each image and painstakingly extract it from the background and get it prepped to be used in the design process. I need to make sure all the detail of the original is maintained. Technology today is truly amazing. When printed, you seriously can’t tell that the image is a reproduction. You can see each paint stroke. This is very important to me. I want the finished piece to look like an original. All of this takes time.

My husband, Davis, who is also the Chief Operations Officer, has been working on the production process. We hope to get to a point pretty quickly where we can buy our own equipment and manufacture these pieces from start to finish. We currently use a printing vendor and each piece is hand stretched at Davis’ family’s art gallery. Hopefully we’ll get too big for the gallery to handle the load. That would be a great problem. Packaging is another big one for us right now. The canvas’ will all be different sizes, and although not breakable like glass, they can be dented, dimpled, or punctured if not properly protected. Our goal this week is to meet with a couple of packaging manufacturers to figure out the best way to ship our products.

We keep moving forward!

It has already been an incredible trip. The response from friends, family, and strangers has been overwhelming. The best thing so far has been the number of people who have been inspired by my accomplishments. It makes me want to work harder and really succeed, so others know they can too!

Since Monday when the announcement was made, I’ve been busy. All three of my kids had the stomach flu – that was fun. I had two meetings with my web developer and an interview with a local newspaper. I spent chunks of my days trying to respond to the unbelievable number of phone calls and e-mails. In between all of that, I’m working on a detailed 90-day plan. It’s a lot, but I have had a huge smile on my face through most of it. I couldn’t be happier.

I had my first call with Fast Pivot, the company that is going to take my website to the next level. I know they are going to do great things! Keep watching and you’ll see a whole new www.RedKoala.com unfold.

On another website topic, the application that will allow you to design art on my site is almost complete! This has been a long road. I started working on it back in November of 2007. Unfortunately, I was told by a couple of people that they could handle this project. Turns out they couldn’t. I did not count on spending so much time looking for a custom coder. Long story short, I am so happy that this part of my journey is almost complete! The day someone purchases a custom canvas on my website, will be one of the happiest days of my life.

The traffic on my site this past Monday and Tuesday was the highest it has ever been. I was so excited to see how many people visited RedKoala.com after the announcement was made. I hope some of those people come back when I have a product to sell. I added this blog feed and a newsletter sign-up to the site. When we are ready to launch our fully functional site we will send out our first newsletter. Please sign-up at www.RedKoala.com.

I also had an interview with the Wall Street Journal, so look for that article in the beginning of June. I’ll share the exact date as soon as I have it.

I’m looking forward to meeting my mentors over the next couple of weeks. There is so much to do and I’m ready to get started. Thank you to everyone who has sent encouraging words. Each message is very special to me.

I am so excited about this program and the opportunity to share my experiences with you. I live in Woodstock, GA and have three wonderful boys - 6, 4, and almost 2 - plus a VERY supportive husband named Davis. My family is the most important thing in the world to me, but I also strive to be successful, both for myself and as a role model for them.

I’ve worked in Corporate America since the day I walked out of graduate school 10 years ago. I was fortunate to land some exciting jobs in Sports Marketing, but they weren’t enough. I always felt stuck. I wanted to build something from the ground up and make it successful.

After my third child was born, I decided it was time to focus on what I really wanted to do. I wanted a flexible schedule so I could spend more time with my family. That of course means early mornings and late nights, but at least I can go to the school play or take cupcakes on my son’s birthday!

The idea for customizable art came to me one night while sitting on the couch talking to my husband about what I wanted to do. We knew that whatever we did should capitalize on our background. I have a solid marketing and business background while he has an art gallery and frame shop. So we naturally decided to do something with art. But I didn’t want to just sell it. We needed to offer something unique and cutting edge. Then we came up with the idea for customizable canvas-based art. We knew this was “it”.

I started the business plan and found a web developer willing to write the program for a reasonable price. We then looked for talented artists and suppliers. When I applied for this grant, we had already developed a concept and logo, reached out to several suppliers and artists, and the website was under construction. I knew my company would be a perfect fit for this program. Every element they offered, I needed! The web site services provided by Yahoo! Small Business couldn’t have come at a better time. I was in the process of researching my options for product cataloging, merchant solutions, and web hosting. I will now have guidance in all of these areas and even some help with the design. My website is my company, so this element is very important to me. You can visit my site at www.RedKoala.com . It is not fully functional yet, but I hope to have it up and running soon.

I am also very excited about the mentoring. I’ve worked for both big and small companies, but I’ve never been responsible for every aspect of running one. The mentors will be a huge asset as I navigate the ups and downs of building a company. Carolyn Kepcher has done some amazing things in her business career, but I really respect her desire to balance work and family. I think it’s great she wants to help other women find that balance too. It’s not an easy thing to do, but if you work hard at both, you can do it. Bobbi Brown, the CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, will be a great mentor. She has built a business and watched it flourish. Can I have a better mentor than that? She will understand everything I am going through and have the wisdom to guide me through it. Cathie Black, President of Hearst Magazines, has probably seen it all. She manages some the top magazines in the country. Her experience says it all. She is a very intelligent and capable woman, and I can’t wait to learn great things from her.

The process of winning this grant was amazing. I think I had panic attacks every night after receiving the first e-mail from Yahoo! asking for more information. Every day I felt great about it, and every night I worried about it. I guess that’s part of starting your own business — and not the last time I’ll feel like I’m on a roller coaster ride.

Even though I felt in every ounce of my body that I would win this grant, I’m still slightly in shock that it actually happened. I have worked hard and have had big dreams for this company. Now I’m on the fast track to making my dreams a reality! YAHOO! has been my favorite saying for the past week, and I’m sure that it will continue to be my favorite for a long time!