Kickstarter

Bake Sale!

How many of you have ever been to a bake sale?  Chances are that you have, and you had no problem opening up the wallet and spending a few bucks on yummy goodies.

It's for a good cause and you know it

Why would you pay $3 for two cookies or $5 for a piece of cake when you could buy a complete package of treats at the grocery store? Because the high school marching band needs new uniforms, and you want to support your neighbor's kid. And you can spare your spare change  for something meaningful.  

That's what Kick Starter is...
A bake sale for business.
And that is what I am doing online with my business.



Click the play button on video below for a quick video

Here is How Kick Starter Works

In a traditional bake sale you would go to the annual 4th of July event (or some type of city event) at the city park and see a booth with homemade signs that say something like

"Help the marching band play in style with new uniforms"

So you buy a couple of treats.  You feel good.  The marching band feels good.  Everyone wins.

Or...maybe you don't want to consume all of that sugar and you ask,

"I really don't need the treats.  Can I just make a donation instead?"

No problem.  You still feel good.  The marching band still feels good.  More treats for the next person to buy.  Everyone still wins.

And...then, every once in a while somebody comes along who feels like being rather generous.  Maybe it's an alumnus who marched in the same band 20 years ago, maybe it's your grandmother who just loves you like grandmas always do, or maybe it's the town mayor who wants bragging rights that the high school in his town has the chance to perform in the Rose Bowl Parade and wants to just rub it in the face of the other local mayors.  So, for whatever reason somebody strolls around and says,

"I see that you are close to your goal.  Can I give you more than what you're asking for?"

Sure.  Why not?  Anything leftover will simply go into our account for other useful items.

Kick Starter is very similar...and a little different

If the marching band was full of deep pockets they would just buy everything they need themselves.  The same is true for small business owners.  If they were independently wealthy there would be no need to ask for financial help.

But most small business owners--including me--are not independently wealthy, and so we need a little financial "kickstart"

With Kick Starter there is no 4th of July picnic.  Instead, you go to www.kickstarter.com  

Once you get to the website you will see all sorts of awesome projects on Kick Starter with cool videos describing their project. There are people all over the country who have these innovative ideas about new products or ways to make existing products better.  

Topics range from little-known musical artists who want to make their debut music album to big companies who want to make new and improved smartphone cases.  Most projects are just like mine...not necessarily the same products per se, but starving artists who would love to get their ideas into the hands of the masses, but don't have enough money to get things started.

When you see something that interests you you click on the button that looks like this

That's the digital version of giving your money to the bake sale booth.  

And if you have every made a purchase for anything on amazon.com then it should be smooth sailing from there.  You just decide the amount you want to give, click ok, and you immediately start to feel good about yourself for helping a starving artist.  And if you don't have an Amazon account you can quickly create one.

Do you have any spare change? 

Most projects--including mine--start as little as one dollar.  You don't have to give away your life savings to help.  The folks at Kick Starter say the the most common amount donated is $25.  And some projects--including mine--have great rewards for your contribution...or as Kick Starter says, for backing the project.  And these rewards can be more than a hug and a kiss.  You can get real, tangible items as if you were at a bake sale.  

It's not a charity

It's also not a cheap request to do all of the heavy lifting for me while I sit back in the easy chair.  Quite the contrary.  I still have all the work to do that any small business owner would have to do.  In fact, let me tell you a little bit of my story of why I have a Kick Starter project and what I want to do with the Kick Starter funding.

I came across the Bua Bhat Factory while I was in Thailand earlier this year.  I was in Thailand on a fact finding mission, a bit of an exploratory trip to find companies who produce great quality home decorations and home furnishings.  The Bua Bhat Factory produces 100% homemade cushions, rugs, seats, and a whole lot more.

Everything you see in the photo above is all handmade.  And, they all come from recycled materials.  They actually come from old garment remnants used in the fashion industry.  Isn't that cool?  It saves waste, it prevents dumps from getting larger, it is safe for people of all ages to use, and it just happens to have awesome colors and designs as an added bonus!

The picture above is a cushion measuring just about 5 feet by 5 feet (that's  150 cm by 150 cm. for my international friends) Who wouldn't love to cuddle up and take a nap or watch a movie on one of those pillows?  Again, it all comes from the same eco-friendly materials with the same awesome benefits.

And I want to market these items in the US

But the problem is that I can't shove a 5 foot cushion into my suitcase. And I can't buy just one item.  There has to be a minimum order. That's why I have started a Kick Starter project.  Once I secure the funding I will place the order, arrange for shipping, and make sure that the products get here safely and legally.  

Then comes the fun part.  That's when I get to meet with interested customers who want to buy.  I let them see it, touch it, maybe even play around with it for a minute or two, and make a sale.  

And here's the even more fun part for those who have already backed the project.  Your funding help has already allowed me to secure some of these items for you.  So you get your reward sooner than anybody else.  Instant Karma!

Where's the catch?

Yes, there is a catch.  Unlike traditional bake sales where the marching band keeps whatever they raise, the Kick Starter projects are all or nothing.  That means that after a certain amount of days--for my project it was scheduled for 30 days--if the amount has not been fully 100 percent funded to the requested amount--and for me that amount is $10,000--all of the money has to be refunded back to the people.  

Yup, that's right.  At the stroke of midnight it turns back into a pumpkin.

Sucks, but only if we fail.

So let's not fail!  

Please help a starving artist

There are 23 days left to go before this project ends.  Can you please go to kickstarter.com and take a look at my project?  I have included many of the details on the website about what it is I am offering to those who contribute, and I can answer any of your questions on the blog.  

Remember that every little bit helps so if all you can spare is an extra dollar that's okay!  Take that dollar that you were going to use at the dollar menu or at the video rental box and put it to good use.  And if you want to give more you can certainly do that, too.

And I understand that if right now you just can't spare any extra money.  That's okay, too.  You can help by spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, emails, blogs, or just good old word of mouth advertising.  You can share, tweet, link, and ask people who can help.

And, for those of you who have already funded something to my project you're not done yet.  Remember that this is all or nothing.  You won't get your reward unless the full amount is funded.  So share your good news to others and help them to  help you get your stuff.  

I want to give you a thousand thank yous for reading, for helping this project to succeed.

Andrew

The Story of the Blue Orchid Logo

Introducing the new logo to Blue Orchid Imports, LLC
And just in case you were wondering what LLC is, the letters stand for Limited Liability Company and it is required by law to have those letters next to the name of the business.  Yay!  Thank you American legal system.

But how did I come up with the idea to make this logo?

I think the greatest challenge any designer has is to take something that is rather complex and translate that into something much more simple.  I learned in school a long time ago that the key to a great icon or logo is the ability to shrink it down to size of your thumbnail and not lose any value of what it stands for.  In other words, if you have to explain what each little piece or element of what your logo is to others then you have failed.

A real orchid is a beautiful, lush flower.  But if I wanted to shrink that down and put that on my business card it would probably look like nothing more than a purple blob with specs on it.





So let me rewind back in time to when we started the business.  I have always wanted to have my own business buying decorative goods from Thailand and selling them here to the US market ever since my first visit to Thailand way back in 1999.  But naming my business "Andrew's Home Decorative Imports from Thailand Business" is just too plain and, to be honest, it's boring and it takes up too much space on a business card or website.

So when it came time to naming my business I wanted to create a name as unique as the products I offer.  I also wanted it to appeal to the largest group of people who were most likely to have any interest in my products...women...so I needed a name that was distinctly feminine and also professional and marketable.  

After asking for advice from some female friends and colleagues I was sitting in the living room chatting with my wife during a lazy Sunday afternoon throwing some ideas back and forth.  She came up with the name Blue Orchid Imports and I liked it.  Orchids are not naturally blue; rather, they are more naturally purple in color.  

That's one of the primary reasons why I liked the name.  Orchids are an essential representation of Thailand.  I like that part because it gives credit to the place of origin of all my goods.  The process of dying the orchid petal blue is unique.  I like that, too.  It makes sense that if my decorations and furnishings are of high quality, if they are rare, and if they are unique...then this name suits the business perfectly.

But now comes the hard part

How do I take everything that I have just described and put it into an image that everyone will understand?  

Logos are around us everywhere, and sometimes they just bombard us with so much meaning.  

Fortunately, for me,

the first step was already done when I named the business.  

Why not make your company logo look like a blue orchid?

That's exactly where I started, and thanks to google, I made a quick image search for blue orchids.  But, here's the problem.  There are,  I think quite literally, a million google images of a blue orchid, an arrangement of blue orchids, or something else blue orchid related. 

 Uh-oh.

So I outsourced it.  One of the troubles of being 100 percent involved in 100 percent of your own small business is that you develop a sense of tunnel vision.  You can quickly come up with an idea or concept and fall in love with it.  And everybody else around you hates it but won't tell you because they love you.  

Perhaps it's similar to when a teenage daughter brings home a boy from school who you can just tell is a complete loser, but you don't say anything at first because you're the mom.

Anyway, I had to take myself out of the project.



I hired a graphic designer who wasn't that far removed from design school.  We chatted around for quite a while while I described my back story for my business, and my designer took great notes and even came up with a few sketches.  

I think that was one of the best moves I have ever made
Why would a designer hire another designer to make a design?  It freed up so much of my time because I wasn't constantly thinking about it like designers do.  As a small business owner starving artist I could focus my attention on other essential parts of my business. 

 I paid my designer half of the agreed amount up front at our initial meeting.  It showed that I was serious about what I wanted and what I was willing to offer.  The second half of the agreed amount would come when the project was complete.

At first I would let her show me some sketches by using email and Dropbox, and I would give feedback as I saw fit.  But after a while  I could tell that my designer was just too busy with her day job and we just stopped communicating.  I also got a little impatient and started to dabble on my own with a few sketches.

This is a copy of a rug pattern project I did in school.  I was cleaning up in the basement when I came across this old project and it caught my eye.  I thought, "hey, here are some 'petals' I have already created it.  Maybe I could use that for my logo."

So I grabbed my trace paper and went to work.  My college professors would be so proud of me because that's what we used to do in class...for everything.

I started with the basic elements of the petal and singled it out.  I asked my facebook friends what they thought.  The best response I got...it looked like an kernel of popcorn exploded.  That's not what I was looking for. 

So I tried again.

I was convinced that I was on to something with my insight.  I was on to something, but this was not it.  

So I cut the idea of the "popcorn popping" idea and tried to implement something that combined more than one "piece of popcorn." 

I came up with these.  They were just as ugly, buy my mind started to explore with a circular sense of balance.  

I was getting closer.  Finally, I just went back to the idea of making a flower with the idea of making something round or circular.  I wanted to create a sense of wholeness or being complete...and I didn't want anyone to confuse my logo and accidentally turn it upside down.

 I came up with this.

And I started repeating it a bit until I drew one that I liked.  I tried some with a dot in the middle to tie them all together, and then I tried some with nothing holding them in the middle.  I liked the latter of the two concepts.  

Then I gout out my blue painters tape because that was all that I had with me.

I came up with this...


and after some actual cut and pasting...

Voila!

My new logo.

I asked around again on facebook, and nobody said that it was an ink blot test or anything else too vague so I kept the idea.

Then I hired another graphic designer to put on the finishing touches.  I don't mind having to pay two designers for the job that I ultimately did by myself.  The second designer lives very close by and is a friend of mine. When I showed her my logo image and asked if she could do the final computer work she agreed to finish it off for the remaining amount that I was going to give to the first designer.

And that's the story of how I got my logo.

Lessons learned:

1. I was so right to hire it out.  It saved me time.  I didn't have to re install Adobe Illustrator onto my computer, I didn't have to refresh my computer skills, and I didn't have get frustrated by making trial and error mistakes.

2. I had the right idea to hire a new designer and give her a chance, but I don't think either one of us realized what we were getting ourselves into.  She had a day job to take care of, and I was getting impatient.  

3. Ask questions and get lots of feedback, especially if it hurts your feelings.  I'm so glad that I didn't keep all of my ideas to myself and make a logo that looks like the devil with his zipper down.  

4. I was a little nervous to ask my friend to finish the job because I have a policy with working with friends.  It's difficult to tell your friend that she's fired, but I trusted my friend because I have seen her work and I know her personality.  It just worked out this time.

5. I stuck to my gut.  Whether you call it an instinct, a gut feeling, or anything else stick to that impression.  Be willing to try new things, but when all else fails stick to your gut.

Thank You
I give credit where credit is due.  Check out the following websites and blogs of people I have referenced:

My wife's blog

my friend's blog

Table Runners

I am a believer that if you can't have a big and fancy home you can still have a clean and organized one.  Here, you see our dining room with a simple yet elegant table runner.  A table runner is a fabric that lays down the length of the table. 


 It not only adds just a little more sophistication to the ambiance of the room, it also serves a functional purpose as well.  It easily divides the table into sections with a little buffer zone in to middle to help accommodate conversation, especially at large gatherings such as Thanksgiving meals.

Here you can see our dining table and table runner
that, if it could talk, would say
"You are cordially invited to dine
on macaroni and cheese with leftover meatloaf
and have the time of your life doing so."

This is a close up shot of the pattern of the table runner, also available in black

A beautiful display of fresh flowers makes a fabulous
 and inexpensive centerpiece.
These flowers come courtesy of
Sweet William Floral & Design
in South Jordan, Utah.

Right now these table runners are available for purchase in both black (not shown) and white (as shown above) for a fantastic deal.  However, there are not many of them.  Feel free to contact me for more details. 


 And remember, a beautiful dining setting makes any meal taste better.

How Much Paint Should I Buy?

Tell me if this has ever happened to you. Let's say it's a Saturday afternoon on a three day weekend and you spend a little bit of your extra time watching one of your favorite design or home remodeling shows on that nice HDTV in your living room. Can you imagine it? Great!

Lo and behold you feel some inspiration to paint a room in your own home. Naturally, you go to the paint store (I say, naturally because you read my blog) to go buy some paint. When you arrive, the supper-friendly-happy man at the store greets you and you tell him just how excited you are to paint that room. Now, because this man is not only friendly and happy he is super friendly and happy, he wants to make sure that you get all of the paint you need.

So he asks, "how much do you need?"

Has this ever happened to you? It has? Okay, if this has happened to you or if it may happen to you in the near future (again, because you read my blog and you are as excited about paint as I am) here are some tips to getting enough paint to put on your walls and ceilings.

Thanks to technology, I have some visual aids that will assist in describing each step of the process. Keep in mind that there are other factors involved, but in most circumstances this should help you out.

Step 1. Get a plan view sketch of your room.

I know the photos are a little rough, but it should sufficiently illustrate the concept

Above you should see a bedroom sized 14 feet by 11 feet with a door swinging into the room and a window.

Step 2. Measure your room for width, length, and height.

And remember that one gallon of paint

will provide you with anywhere between

300-400 square feet of paintable surface

Is "paintable" even a real word?

Step 3. Don't be scared about the math.

The perimeter times the height

will tell you how many square feet is in your room.

The width in this example is 11 feet

and the length is 14 feet.

Look at the image below.

The perimeter is 50 feet.

Make sure you add the width and length on both sides.

Step 4. Now that you have the math add a little extra...just in case.

The perimeter is 50 feet and the height is 8 feet

so the total wall space is 400 square feet

(50 feet X 8 feet)

Adding 10 percent extra should be enough for those oopsies

or other unexpected mishaps when you paint.

In this example, there is an entry door and a window

and you don't want to paint your window so sometimes

the window space can be included as your ten percent extra

without having to do any extra math!

The entry door can also be part of your ten percent

if you don't want to paint it; however,

if you want to paint the door

with the same paint as the walls

you need to add ten percent

Step 5. Calculate the amount of paint you need for the ceiling

if you're going to paint the ceiling.

Don't worry, this one is easy.

multiply the width by the length.

In this example, shown by the picture above,

11 X 14 equals 154 square feet

Add ten percent extra and you have 169 square feet

Step 6. Do a little bit more math.

Some folks like the walls to match the ceiling

And if you do than the math is simple

440 feet plus 169 feet equals 609 feet

Remember that anywhere between 300-400

square feet can be painted with one gallon

So, to make the math easy I have used 350 square feet

per gallon in this example.

Here's a recap of the math, it's okay if you use a calculator

After all, that's what I did

609 square feet divided by 350 feet per gallon

equals 1.74 gallons

You can't buy 1.74 gallons so you round up to 2 gallons.

Step 7. Determine how many coats of paint

you want to put on the walls & ceiling

In the image above you see that all of the math has shown us that we need 2 gallons of paint to cover the walls and ceiling. Keep in mind that the 2 gallons is just to cover the surface once.

If you want to put a second coat of paint on the walls & ceiling (and I'll explain when and why you should in a later post) you need to add more. In this example we need 2 gallons for the first coat. Depending on what type of surface you're painting and what paint you use you may need to only buy one extra gallon or you may need to buy 2 extra. When in doubt buy more...you can find a use for the extra paint later.

And if you're not going to paint the ceiling

the picture below will show you how much paint you need

So that should help you as you start on your next painting project.

It should also help you keep more money in your pocket

and prevent you from having to make multiple

trips to the paint store.

Enjoy!

Life Throws a Curveball Sometimes

Well, first of all I wish to apologize for not posting anything since August of last year. Blogging is still new to me.

I'm so sorry, will you please forgive me?

But, hey, it's a new year. We can all start new. At least, that's what they tell us, right? I mean, how many times have you heard "New Year, New You?" For me, the month of January, or at least the first week or two of January is better themed as "New Year, So What?"

So...this year might actually prove to be the beginning of a new chapter in my life. There's a saying in the world of entrepreneurship, "don't quit your day job." It's actually really good advice for anyone who wants to start a business and doesn't have a lot of extra money around to fund it.

Well, I did not quit my day job. My day job quit on me. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the curveball that life (or karma, or the universe) has thrown my way. I went into my job one morning last month and I was told to gather my things and leave my key at the desk.

No, tell me how you really feel

Shocking? You betcha. Now, I'm not here to rant about a former employer and get defensive or start pointing fingers. What happened has happened and there's no point looking back. I have often told people that the best revenge is living well. I guess it's time for the physician to heal thyself.

I didn't realize it until this morning that today marks 30 days of my, let's just call it my "extended Christmas vacation." We have made it a month and that is good reason to celebrate! Thanks again to so many people who have helped in the past 30 days.

Plans have changed. I originally planned on using my allotted vacation time from my day job to keep the household running while I was off adventuring in Thailand, searching far and wide to buy some inventory and bring it back here to sell. Since I have already bought the plane ticket I might as well use it.

I'm still going to travel this March and make connections with manufacturers and sourcing agents. I'm also going to buy some home decor items and custom artwork to begin my business, but I'm just going to have to adjust some plans and make a few sacrifices...like switching from first class to just business class for the flight. Just kidding, flying coach will be just fine.

I love it when a plan comes together

Here's what I have in mind for the meantime. I used to paint for a living. I like to paint. No, that's not right. I'm passionate about painting. I'm so passionate about painting that my wife compares me to Hank Hill (the fictional cartoon character from King of the Hill) that I love paint as much as Hank Hill loves propane and propane accessories. Look it up, it's a true story.

I'm also pretty good at painting. And the best part is that I'm cheap...compared to the other guys. If anyone out there is looking to paint a bedroom or bathroom I am the man you want to hire. If you are tired of your existing paint on the wall, or if you want to spice it up a bit, or if you want to paint but have no idea what to paint it...once again, I am the man you want to hire. Just contact me and I can give you a quote. I can also help you pick your color. After all, I am a designer, too.

And, back by popular demand, is the Sherwin Williams deal of the day. Click here for more details.

So it truly is a new start. God's delays are not His denials. We shall celebrate each success and learn from each failure. Here's to the beginning of small business ownership!