Which Dog Bone To Follow?

Remember my buddy, Rusty, who lives down the street? I blogged about him about a year ago; he was working on this idea for a toilet seat for cats. Well, it’s taking him a little longer than expected to get his financial ducks in a row. With the state of the economy, and the banks tightening their belts, he’s having a difficult time finding the start-up cash that he needs. That got me thinking.

In these tough times, when it comes to investing in your own ideas, how do you know whether to tighten your paw strings (purse strings) or to chase the squirrel (take a chance)?





For example, we just launched a new product called, Little RasCools. Kids and adults everywhere are going crazy for them. Squeeze each character and watch their animated eyes pop out of their cute and funny faces.

Hold . . . Squeeze . . . Pop!

Now, not only did my human, 8-year-old Hannah, and her friends really like the prototypes, but my human, Lauren, took some of these early Little RasCools to a night out with the girls (a monthly dinner with the moms on the street). The other women loved them. But what Lauren also observed was that, while waiting for dinner, the other women were holding the Little RasCools and squeezing them like a stress ball. Here was a new marketing perspective that we hadn’t thought of. Not only did kids like them because they are colorful, playful, and fun to collect, but adults liked them too for a completely different reason.

So, we decided to reinvest our own money into this new venture. We also added a new website, RasCools.com, to our existing stable of CoolZips.com (Zipper Pulls), HannahsCoolWorld.com (ZooMania Pencil Tops and other collectables), and HipToTheSkippy.com (Japanese Erasers).

Did we really need another website and another expense? Probably not, since our target audience is the kids and adults who visit Hannah’s Cool World looking for fun and inexpensive collectables. But the moms using the Little RasCools as a stress reliever gave us the idea that we can also market them a second way.

By optimizing RasCools.com for keywords such as stress balls, we can drive more people to our websites to experience this great and fun toy. And let me say right here that it’s not just about making money, but believing in products that we like and that we think others will enjoy. When you follow through with an idea because it’s something you would buy for yourself, then good things are bound to happen.

Three years ago, if you would have dangled any old bone in front of my nose, I would have followed you anywhere. But now, it’s got to be the right bone. If you do your research, analyze the costs involved, get good feedback, and believe in your idea, then why not take a chance and go for it. You may find that your investment is just what you, and the economy, needs.

Hip To The Skippy

Here we go again. Let's just put it out there. My own uncontrollable urges have just cut into "Me Time".

The other day I was chewing on one of Hannah's (CEO of Hannah's Cool World) favorite pencil erasers. Well, my humans went on the Internet and did a search to replace the eraser and, low and behold, they discovered a new product. They're called Japanese Erasers. And before I knew it, my walk was cancelled, and they had created a new website called, Hip To The Skippy.

I have to admit that they're actually pretty cool. These fun mini Japanese Erasers are also puzzles. Once we received our initial shipment, I watched Hannah take apart the erasers and put them back together over and over again. She even discovered that she could mix and match colors to create her own unique creations.

Another cool thing is that they are made in clean, environmentally friendly factories. They are recyclable, non-toxic, lead-free, and meet all international standards in safety and environmental care. For me, this is critical. As you dog owners know, sometimes we canines just can't help ourselves and start nibbling, okay, inhaling things that we shouldn't. Unfortunately, in my court, I don't have a royal taste tester and this has caused me many a late night hunched over with an upset stomach.

Furthermore, Japanese Erasers come in many styles including animals (such as hamsters, pandas, and penguins), vehicles (such as cars, motorcycles, and helicopters), sporting goods (such as bowling pins and basketballs), and even food (such as pizza and hamburgers) and tons more on CoolZips.com.

Now, my intention with this blog entry was not to just push a new product. But to let you know, once again, you just never know where a new product idea comes from. We need to keep our eyes and ears open and, sometimes, our mouths too.

Anyway, Japanese Erasers are Hip To The Skippy! So, Dive In . . . Have Fun . . . and Chill Out!

Keeping It Fresh

I have a confession. The You Tube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddnaRoID4FU) that I recorded and subsequent negative publicity campaign I waged, in which I created CoolZips and that the Altmans stole my idea was not quite accurate. All right, it was an out-and-out lie. It was done during a phase when they were spending too much time on business and not enough time taking me on my accustomed walks. The fact is, with the addition of Hannah’s Cool World (http://www.hannahscoolworld.com/), free-time is at a premium and everyone has had to make sacrifices in our family.

And with the current economic climate, who knows what tomorrow will bring. That’s why it’s critical to come up with new ideas and to look for new products to keep both your online and brick-and-mortar businesses fresh. Sure, we’ve been selling Zoo Mania and Sea Mania pencil toppers (10,000 of them within the first four weeks of operation through Hannah’s Cool World), but to survive and grow you need to bring valued customers back again and again.

That’s why we’ve added Foofnicks, Monster Pals, Jungle Pals, Alien Invasion, BlockHeadz and Urbanzees collectable figurines, 3D Skateboard Erasers, and signed a licensing deal with the makers of Zoo Mania pencil toppers to produce a line of fun T-shirts, tote bags, and accessories. And it’s not just about finding any old product; it’s about finding ones that we believe in, ones that we think are cool, and ones that we would buy with our own money.

It’s about finding the right products at the right price point and at the right time. We have created a successful business where parents can buy their kids items they want for only a few dollars. And we offer flat-rate shipping of $2.49 whether you buy 50 cents worth or 50 dollars worth. Now that’s a deal.

So, once again, I apologize dearly for my smear campaign against my humans. And while I’m ready to make sacrifices during the current state of the economy, I am not ready to eat stale cookies. I want to keep it fresh.

Hannah's Cool World Pencil Tops - New Venture

Happy New Year!

I know I'm a little late in my responsibilities of moderating this blog, but I'm now managing another website called Hannah's Cool World. The humans wanted to branch out, so we're selling Zoo Mania and Sea Mania pencil tops. Some people call them squishies, pencil toppers, or just plain pencil tops. All I know is that kids are crazy for them.

Anyway, I'll get back to posting on a regular basis. It's important to branch out with new ventures; you just need to make sure that they don't interfere with your primary responsibilities, such as running CoolZips.

Peace Out.
Joey

CoolZips Mutts Speak Up

Sometimes you can only take so much injustice. View the following YouTube video for the real story on how my family stole my idea for CoolZips® Zipper Pulls.

Collections

I want to let you know that I’m very pleased with the enthusiasm and effort that Tucker has shown in learning the family business over the past few months. He has shown such savvy in revising current processes and finding new business, we decided to let him deal with collecting money from our wholesale customers and distributors who refuse to pay us for the CoolZips® Zipper Pulls that they have ordered and received.

Now, Tucker is a little guy. He’s 17 pounds; fit and trim. I’m sure you’ve heard stories of small dogs or maybe have even witnessed their ferocity in action. Therefore, you would think that Tucker would be a mean SOB. And that was what I was expecting; you should see how he reacts to someone coming on our property. But Tucker is very sensible.

Anyway, as we’re learning, collections is the worst part of owning our business. It’s certainly no fun demanding payment from a person that you entered into a business relationship with, filled with excitement that they actually liked your product and viewed them as a partner in growing your business. However, as we’re finding out, some people are just dishonest and will do anything they can to cheat and steal from you.

Tucker says that if a customer is not paying their bill, for whatever reason, then they are simply not a good customer and one that you can do without.

Here are a few suggestions that Tucker has used to help us avoid collection issues.

1. Ask the customer for a valid credit card to be charged before the order is shipped.
   
   
2. Shorten the billing cycle from 30 days to 15 days or due upon receipt. This way, you know sooner if the customer is not going to pay you.
   
   
3. Make sure that the billing terms on your invoice are visible and clear. If not, there is a good chance that your invoice will go into a stack of other invoices that will be paid only when you initiate your call for collection.
   
   
4. Add a late payment fee to the invoice. If money for a customer is tight, they’ll prefer to pay the bill that will cost them the most if they are late. Again, if there is no penalty for being late, your invoice will go to the bottom of the stack.

Finally, Tucker realizes that if the person is unresponsive to your invoice, numerous follow-up emails, and repeated phone calls, then you should not be fearful that if you push collections you will lose them as a customer; they’re already gone and, with them, your product that they are profiting from without compensating you for your hard work. It’s time to turn them over to a collection agency. And if this doesn’t work, small claims court is your last resort.

In my opinion, not only should these people’s business licenses be taken away, and be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but you should sic the dog on them. Luckily for us, we’ve got Tucker. And all I know is that I get a good night sleep knowing that he’s on guard.

Training New Employees

Has it really been a month since I last posted? I apologize. We decided to adopt Tucker; he’s a cross between a Dachshund and a Miniature Pincher. His previous human, an elderly woman who had him for five years since he was a pup, had to go into assisted living and could not take him with her. So, it has been up to me to not only help Tucker adjust to our family (showing him how to let someone know that he needs to go outside, proper eating etiquette, his sleeping arrangements, etc. – not to mention providing emotional support), but also indoctrinate him into the family business.

I’ll tell you, it has been very tiring and initially took me away from my efforts in customer service. And while Tucker has a lot of playful energy and is a pretty good listener, how many hours a day can one play fetch?



Anyway, I started to think about what happens when a company grows and needs to train new employees. This is an area that is often underestimated and, consequently, can become very stressful. With growth comes the need for evaluating current processes and identifying how to improve on the way one does business. One of these areas that companies should focus on is how to more efficiently fulfill orders. We thought that this was the perfect area for Tucker to head up – since he does like to fetch. So Tucker and I held a Kaizen event to help identify areas of waste and to develop solutions to streamline our procedures.

As Tucker and I documented our current process, we noticed that we were keeping our entire inventory in one place which, while at the same physical address, was 112 feet away from where we packaged the product for shipment. Therefore, if someone ordered one CoolZips® zipper pull from our web site, we would have to walk 224 feet roundtrip. Fulfilling 25 orders a day would be the equivalent of walking over a mile. And while this may be good exercise, this is not an efficient use of one’s workday or a company’s valuable resources.

The solution that we came up with was to keep a smaller amount of each style of zipper pull in the same immediate area where we package the product for shipment. By keeping only 50 of each of the 10 styles in arms reach, we can more quickly fulfill the order. Then, once a day, we replenish this stock back to the original quantities of 50 of each style. This is a true cost saving which allows us to spend more time in areas such as marketing, customer service, and new product development.

In the short span of four weeks, I can honestly say that Tucker has been a great addition to our family. I could also say that it wasn’t so hard to teach an old dog a new trick, but that’s cliché. Let’s just say that identifying and leveraging one’s skills is the first step in helping a new employee adjust – both personally and professionally.