From 2012_05_18_House_Weather_Trees_Coop_Garden_Flowers

Our spring storms just pass on by, dropping rain that evaporates before it hits the ground.  They typically look like this:

From 2012_05_18_House_Weather_Trees_Coop_Garden_Flowers

Projects

There are a few main projects around here:  tree planting,  our chicken coop and our garden.  We eventually plan larger scale agriculture, but are starting small to figure out how to do it.

Tree Planting

The first thing we did this spring was get our potted evergreen tree seedlings into the ground.  We planted about 30 of them, with most going in along the south driveway and along the road.

From 2012_05_18_House_Weather_Trees_Coop_Garden_Flowers

Chicken Coop

The neighbor’s chickens that we were taking care of since December went back home last weekend.  We finished a bunch of repair work on the coop before they arrived last December, which included fixing the roof, doors, adding windows and gutters.  We will get it painted here in the next week in advance of chicks arriving (by mail) so we can have our own birds to raise.  Heres a photo of the coop in its present state – as you can see, it needs to be painted.

From 2012_05_18_House_Coop_Garden

We’ll have to build a small cage for the chicks, which will go inside the coop.  I’ve come across a few bull snakes in the coop and they would love to snack on a few chicks.  I am not sure how they get in, but they do.  They don’t mess with full grown chickens.

Garden

We are putting the garden in just east of the upper barn.  Its 1/10 of an acre – small, but plenty large enough for us to grow vegetables for us and perhaps to sell a few.

We had to start first by cleaning up the area, which had old planter boxes, fencing that was falling apart and some retaining wall work from old concrete pieces.

From 2012_05_18_House_Coop_Garden

From 2012_05_18_House_Coop_Garden

We are keeping these concrete pieces, as they will make good stepping stones for walkways that we intend to build.  I placed them right next to the upper barn in a little depressed area that is perfect for storing them.  There were a lot more of them than we thought and it took awhile to get them hauled over.

From 2012_05_18_House_Coop_Garden

Once we got the area cleaned up, we put in fence posts and support beams.  We managed to used left over wood from the piles around here to complete this.

From 2012_05_18_House_Weather_Trees_Coop_Garden_Flowers

Here’s a picture of one of the wood piles that we are sorting through to obtain decent slats to complete the fence.  Romeo helps out by watching for any bunnies that might come out of the wood pile so he can chase them.

From 2012_05_18_House_Weather_Trees_Coop_Garden_Flowers

We started the fence 6 weeks ago and still have a ways to go before its finished. Its taking longer than we want and we’re not sure we will be able to do much for planting this year. Even when the fence is completed, we will have to till the ground and smooth it out. Right now, its a mess with digging out the old planter boxes and irrigation lines.

I know consumer products, so can only answer from that perspective:

1. Do your research against competitors and the category to find the price range. If you plan to go to retail, you do in-store research and your online price is then dependent on your retail price. If you will sell online, research your competitors and category as you would for retail, but you might find a much wider price range.
2. Research the product size/unit count. There is generally an optimal size that allows for sufficient shelf turnover/product movement and maximizes your revenue. You do that by looking at what is on-shelf already.  If your product size is too large, then consumers may not need to purchases as often, leading to slow shelf movement and possibly product spoilage.
3. If your product benefits/features are considered to offer premium value to the consumer, then you might lead with a higher price for the category.  If not, then you might have a lower price for the category.
4. Always try to price higher, because it’s a lot easier to come down in price. Also, you will need every margin point you can squeeze out of your product, especially if you are a start-up or small consumer product company. Without the benefits of leveraging your fixed costs and your COGS over a larger volume of products produced, you will barely eek out a profit, if that. Additionally, price higher so that you can cover yourself from having to make any price increases for the next few years, if possible. That way, you have more breathing room to absorb raw material price hikes, instead of passing along to consumers, which would likely affect sales.
5. If you are selling online only, then you have wider latitude to test your price. This week’s buyer is probably different from next week’s buyer, so you have less to worry about in distorting your brand (unless you are already an established consumer brand). In this case, test to get your optimal price/volume that you want, and re-test occasionally. I tested a product once from a low of $20 to a high of $80, while also altering the benefits/value/quantity that I communicated to the end buyer, just to see which set worked the best. Or, if you have direct marketing resources, either because you have a list of past customers or you have purchased a list of prospects, you can test with much less brand distortion effects.

Additional answers were provided by others, here.

• Why its good to keep getting punched
• Chicken fat and death

Links

Consumer Products

• TV remains the top advertising choice for 54% of advertisers (highest proportion since 2009)j.mp/IPxR8s
• RT @brandchannelhub: Walmart Announces Crowdsourced New Product Winners:bit.ly/KRIAgv Disappointing that they only selected 3.
• RT @retail_sails: Brazil retailer using Facebook likes… on its clothing hangers bit.ly/Lw4GImGreat idea!
• RT @retail_sails: Costco makes plans to significantly expand its #online business bit.ly/ISbaP1 #retail $COST; and, discussion around Costco’s online push: ow.ly/aLZjN
• There’s More to Oreo Than Black and White ow.ly/aLWbo
• Really nice summary here retail and good takeaways for consumer product companies. ow.ly/aLZZ0 from@instoretrends
• Insightful article about the power of traditional TV to sell products. ow.ly/aMkxv
• Geofencing in its infancy, but I think it has potential to help retail stores with creating a customer experience: ow.ly/aNNys
• A Study on Brand Loyalty: What We Can Learn From Trader Joe’s: ow.ly/aNO9N
• How To Convince A Retailer To Look Past Margin ow.ly/aPYLZ
• Amazon Add-Ons: ow.ly/aQ1gs More innovation from Amazon, via @keith_rng
• Private Label Brands: The Future Leaders Of Retail? ow.ly/aSd69
• May trend report examines 10 Ways Marketers Are Using the Second Screen ow.ly/aSdPx Nice examples in this report.
• Ikea and Apple – powerhouse retailers: ow.ly/aSE9R Great article.

Miscellaneous 

• Great article summarizing what a VC really cares about (or should) by @bfeld: ow.ly/aKvxu Warning: foul language alert
• Buffet to buy newspapers: ow.ly/aKFVf Signif. of this is that this biz may have hit bottom – Buffet is a value guy

Other Posts Across the Net

• Kraft is doing a great job of “Glocalization”Kraft is doing a great job of “Glocalization” - LinkedIn Group comment thread
• Ikea’s dominance

My wife’s first book has published!

Fresh chickens out of the oven, with the skin already consumed. Have I grossed you out, yet?

It has been a year since I went on the diet and my recovery has been awesome.  Things still aren’t perfect, and I continue to work on some nagging issues, but they are minor.  I am currently working on a series of posts that chronicle the health issues I had, my experience with doctors and drugs and my experience with the diet after a year.  I hope to have that out in the next month.

I basically eat meat and vegetables, with a few nuts and a little fruit mixed in.  My diet is predominantly organic, with free range/grass feed/wild caught meats and eggs.  I eat lots of meat.

Since I can’t have the really tasty foods, like cinnamon roles, donuts, ice cream, milk chocolate – basically all of the stuff that it appears we as humans should not be eating anyway – I delight in more simple pleasures, like fat.

Yes, I love meat fat.  My favorite ritual is to eat the cooked skin off a fresh chicken coming out of the oven, or to pound down a full 8 ounces of bacon, and save the grease for cooking in other meals.

Heart attack candidate, you think?  Well, something will eventually kill this body, and your’s, too!  but I can tell you this: the primal diet and my indulgence in fat won’t kill me as quickly as all those other foods that the government, doctors and pretty much most everyone else says are good for you – whole grains, beans and legumes.   Those buggers are poison to me and so is dairy.

A typical meal - meat and a ton of vegetables. The bowl has a few berries

So you’re probably wondering how bad my cholesterol is.  Or, bad relative to the current way that doctors and labs seem to interpret it.  Yes, without a doubt, I am a red flag. And, I need to get on an immediate IV solution of Lipitor, or whatever the latest drug of choice that the pharma companies are pushing.

However, if you consider my cholestrol levels using a different method (links to one of my favorite primal content websites), I am as healthy as a horse. And in fact, when I run my cholesterol levels through this method from tests done 3 years ago, I have a few toes in the grave. That cholesterol test was included in my annual physical and my doctor gave me an A+ for health.

I don’t go to that doctor anymore.

Last Saturday night, I went to church.  I usually go on Saturday nights.  Sue and I have date night on Friday’s, usually, and I like going on Saturday because Sunday’s tend to be crowded. Plus, going Sunday breaks up my day and lately I am rather enjoying spending Sunday’s at home.

So, how does punching Ed and church fit in this post?  Well, the sermon was about Moses and his obedience to God.  We covered a lot of ground in the book of Exodus.  But, one thing the pastor said during the sermon landed me right into a conversation with God.

God asked me this:

If your life were easy, would you rely on Me?

I mean, if you stopped getting punched and you had perfect health, a fat bank account, a high paying job, no conflict in your marriage? Would you rely on Me?

Ed…would you rely on me?

No, God, I guess not, when you put it that way. I mean, why would I need you?  This world seems pretty easy to me – everything is perfect.

So…Ed, you are willing to settle for easy in this life rather than hard and letting me help you, which lets you get closer to me, and lets you know my ways and how I work, and how I see more than you.  You’re willing to settle for easy, when hard means you’ll let me  work in your life and accomplish bigger things through you than you could on your own.  You’re willing to settle for easy for the remaining 40 years you have left here, rather than hard, and turn away the chance for you to know me so that we can spend it together for eternity.    Is that what you want?

Ed…do you want the punches to stop?

• Some book marketing ideas in this post: ow.ly/aJ22B
• I get creative social media marketing ideas from @MichaelHyatt: ow.ly/aJ1uQ Here are a few around his upcoming book.
• I luv Amazon, but this seems to be getting way out of their focus: ow.ly/aHN5d
• 2012 food innovation product predictions: ow.ly/aHN42Not sure if these will be hot products/trends, but still interesting to…
• Private label food use climbing, but consumer satisfaction declining, finds survey: ow.ly/aF1Pq nice data on private label
• Five Tips to Optimize Your DRTV Media – American Market: ow.ly/aDOXj Some nice tips here for companies that use infomercials.

LinkedIn/Quora Answers

• Trouble spots to watch for in growing a consumer products company (subscribers)
• Sales Operations Calendar (subscribers)

Links

Products (food, farming, pets, outdoor, technology)

•  C-Stores Morphing into QSRs: ow.ly/ajdaG
• Dollar Stores Take On Wal-Mart, And Are Starting To Win: ow.ly/alKAL I’ve never sold to them; can’t remember when I was last in one
• RT @i2packaging: Tetra Pak is looking at entering #food & #wine markets; if done “properly” could account for 60% of company sales….
• RT @retail_sails: The Black Ops of #Retail: How startup predict what consumers want even before the product exists bit.ly/IkArjR
• A potential source of capital for start-ups and small companies in the CPG space.ow.ly/anfN7
• Introducing The Shops at Target: ow.ly/anXFtThis is interesting. Target using its estate to become more like a mall.
• RT @retail_sails: Expect more famous#retailers to disappear amid ‘strategic failure’ of big-box model bit.ly/HYuCMp
• The top 10 fastest-growing U.S. industries (Hint: Think hot sauce): ow.ly/aqo7h
• Is Retail Quietly Trending Away From Bricks and Mortar? ow.ly/asm6T Some insightful comments to this question
• ow.ly/asn99 I don’t work in fashion, but am fascinated how this industry shrinks concept-to-market timelines. Any lessons for food?
• Neat: “New Farmers Market to Include Small-Scale Backyard Farmers” bit.ly/I89C69 cc @EdibleSF @BKHomesteader@SlowMoneyNYC #urbanag
• Trend Briefing’s monthly: ow.ly/avDGa Covers retail trends.

Dogs

• These bulldogs know how to have fun:ow.ly/apKxq Awesome video!

Training (run, ride, hike,  alpine-telemark-XC ski, shooting, weightlifting, rock climb)/Outdoors/Health/Food/Weather/GPS

• Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved!ow.ly/aniAC This is significant.

Miscellaneous 

• RT @brandchannelhub: What Makes Pebble the Most Successful Kickstarter Project Ever:bit.ly/JbkAoK This is amazing!
• Wefunder.com: ow.ly/apN4M In the crowdfunding space for start-ups.
• Got my access to Google Drive! I may have to say goodby to Mozy, who has been my 90 gigs backup source for 3 years now.  Follow-up:  Won’t work as backup, as it appears MS Office files are converted to G Drive files.  

LinkedIn/Quora Answers

• Anyone have experience with the sporting/surfing industry? I have patent and TM a product thats “changing” the industry. Need help with distribution or licensing
• How is Landed Cost computed by online retailers? 
• Can anyone suggest the best Conference/Trade Show in which to exhibit?
• How does a new product join shelves of large retails chains?
• Product Sampling… I’m looking for companies interested in sampling at large sports and entertainment events. Who makes the decision at CPG companies?

• Strategies and tactics for selling to retail category buyers (subscribers)
• Project plan methodology for bringing a consumer product to market (subscribers)

Links

Consumer Products (food, farming, pets, outdoor products)

• VC capital finding opportunities in consumer products: ow.ly/ahKoF
• Cash mobs swarm local shops to generate community spending: ow.ly/agnhk
• Earth Fare Sold to Oak Hill, Seeks New Growth ow.ly/afzFJ Looks like growth capital to be injected into this high end natural…
• Grocers launching mobile, digital couponing system: ow.ly/afzzO
• Kroger Doctrine Is Changing the Channel: ow.ly/a6d0e
• RT @kenclaflin: Wal-Mart pulls out all the stops in its competition with Amazon bit.ly/HO0qkH#in #retail
• RT @retail_sails: The radical transformation & innovation in the world of #retailentrepreneurship huff.to/HRgCzp
• RT @retail_sails: Why Cabela’s Has Emerged as the Top #OmniChannel #Retailerbit.ly/HKMsgW $CAB
• RT @kenclaflin: Creating Brand Gravity….Excellent Read! Mark Bonchek – Harvard Business Review: s.hbr.org/HM8bF6
• Smarter consumer products marketing:Understanding consumers, building brands: ow.ly/a3dQo Some interesting data in this IBM study

Miscellaneous 

• Word of mouth vs. online reviews vs. paid advertising: ow.ly/ad6H2 No surprise in this survey, but still good to know.

LinkedIn/Quora Answers

• What are good ways to sell generic brands products (in bulk quantities)?
• What is the retailers markup on men’s razor blades? If a pack of 10 costs $20, what is the retailers gross profit?