Wednesday, June 22, 2011

One thing you have to have

As I am making my way closer to the launch of SassaB™, I am finding that the one thing you have to have when starting a company is tenacity.

When I said (or kinda yelled) to my Husband "This is SO hard!", he calmly replied, "That is the reason most business owners do not make it. They give up because it is NOT easy." How true it is...

I have suppliers that threaten not to make something I need for SassaB™ if I ask them "how much longer will it take to receive my goods" one more time or suppliers refusing to accept any other type of payment other than a money order (which costs me $50 each time) so I am forced to go on the hunt again for another supplier. All of which is very frustrating.

Then there is the logo...I wish I was even a smidgen talented in graphic design so I could work on this myself...I know it'll be worth the wait but it is a lengthy process.

Without having any previous business experience, I am learning all of this as I go and that alone is enough to make me throw my hands up in the air and say "FORGET IT!" but...I refuse to do that because of...tenacity.

If you are going to start your own business, launch your very own invention, please learn this from me...you CAN do it but do not think for one second that it is easy or will happen quickly. It isn't and it wont. BUT all of your hard work, hours of frustration, bouts of pulling your hair out will one day pay off...so make the word "tenacity" a part of your vocabulary...you'll need it!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Lots of name dropping and money being spent!

 Thank goodness I set a deadline for launching SassaB™. 

This is not easy...but I have to say, it is FUN! Getting SassaB™ to market is a great challenge and you all know I love a good challenge. 

Here is where I am at (grammer?!): The decision on the logo and background color for the die cuts (the 3x5 card SassaB™ will hang on) has been quite the dilemma. This decisions is taking weeks. Do I use a black background with vibrant colors/logs? Or lime green? Or white, maybe. Do I create some sort of cute animal/person/design for a logo or just use our name and font/color as our logo. *Sillybandz did that.
I have hired my second graphic artist and hopefully he will just show me something wonderful so I can stop fretting about it. Yep, I said "fretting." That is truly how I feel. 

Shoot! I forgot to go to the bank today to pay for a part of SassaB™! I LITERATELY just remembered! Ugh. See...it's that deadline but SO much to remember!

Moving on...I have been studying the Boogie Wipes website...these Ladies have a "resources" section that is so full of info that it would take all week to read! Thanks Boogie Moms!

I officially have my LLC set up and TM SassaB™. *If you want to know how to put ™ next to a word you are typing, it's Alt 0153. Thanks Jen Cannon! Not only is it an effective way to "claim" your name, it's fun to do!

Did I tell you that out of the blue I figured out how to put SassaB™ (is it totally necessary to ™ every time I write SassaB™?) on a part of my product? It's a very cool way to keep branding the product! I am waiting for that item to get here any day now. And I ordered 10,000 of them so I hope they look good!

Lots of money going out now for SassaB™ but that means we are getting closer to launching! Yay!

If anyone is interested, I found the below link...wanted to share it with you on Product X (aka: SassaB™).

XO,
Tracy
 
www.submitmyinvention.com

Monday, June 13, 2011

Shark Tank and the EM

It's funny, when I found out that Shark Tank was auditioning for season three, it never occurred to me to submit The Everything Marinator. I guess that I am so busy with SassaB™ that the EM has slipped to the back of my mind.

That is until last night when I caught a re-run of Shark Tank and saw a woman pitch her Turbomarinator to the Sharks. The beauty of it is, she was pitching her prototype...her brilliant idea and like myself, she did not want to invest the money it took to manufacture her product. And then the money to promote it. And ALL the work associated with it. She simply just wanted to see her product on store shelves and make some money in the process.

She, the Turbomarinator inventor, ended up licensing her product to Kevin Harrington for $35,000 and a 2% royalty. Cha-Ching!

This scenario would be my blueprint for the EM...so bright and early this morning, I sent in all my info and then some...I attached the video of me pitching the EM. Fun!

My plan is simple, sell the EM and use that money for SassaB™. A win win for both inventions!

If you are interested in submitting your invention, go to http://www.abc.go.com/site/casting to read the fine print and find out how to apply.

Good luck!

Monday, June 6, 2011

SassaB™

It feels great to type it, say it, talk all about it and put my little ™ by it!

Product X IS SassaB!

When I was going through the process of trying to come up with a name for my product, I thought the obvious choice was to name it something "obvious." However, per my Attorney and several other Inventors that I had spoken with, what you really want to do choose a name and not have it describe your product at all. Good examples are Jibbitz and Spanx.

Two reasons...one, you want the consumer to be curious as to what your product is and approach your product to find out. Hopefully that will result in a sale. The other reason is that you want to have a "good story" about your name and how you actually came up with your invention so you can connect with your consumer. Oh yes, and it also should be fun to say!

I love my story of how I came up with the name SassaB!

When my Mother became a Grandmother, she did not want to be called Grandma, Nana, Granny or any other typical (translates to "old" in her book) Grandparent name so she came up with "Sassy." If you knew my Mother, it suites her perfectly and the kids love calling her Sassy.

My Daughter's name is Brooke and she and her Sassy are very close. So close that they joke about one day opening a restaurant named "Sassy and the B." I was reflecting on this sweet idea that they have while brainstorming about what to call my invention, the word "SassaB" came to me and I thought, "That's IT! That is the perfect name for my product!"

I love the fact that this whole invention is a family effort. If you remember, it was Brooke that came up with the actual idea of SassaB so it is only fitting that some part of her name is in the product name. "B." I'm close with my Mom so it's fun to have "Sassa" (Sassy) there as well.

My Husband came up with one very important component of SassaB which I will talk about when we launch. It was my son that gave us the idea of how to incorporate a boys line into SassaB which turned SassaB from a one item product to an entire line. My Cousin Michelle is my right hand (wo)man so as you see, SassaB is a family effort!

And a fun one it is!

We plan on launching in August and it will be here on Product X - aka: SassaB - that I will announce it first!

Thank you all for your support before, during and after SassaB ~ I appreciate each and every one of you!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The "official" name for Product X is...

Alright Product X people, per the request of my attorney, I will be announcing our Product and Company name in the next post ~ stay tuned!