Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Ah, Day 2


I'm having a hard time getting started today. It's one of those times when the coffee doesn't seem to get up to my brain fast enough yet the caffeine has my heart pounding as if I just ran a marathon. Really, a frustrating mix. Yet, I'm stubbornly trying to power through like a hamster on a wheel.

Today we decided to work from home. With the astronomical gas prices it doesn't always make sense to drive 15 mins to the office when we have everything we need for the day here. I mean spending $20 every 2 days on fuel is ridiculous! But the car is paid off so no sense in taking on more debt to get better fuel economy. During the few non-rainy days in Oregon we opt for the motorcycle but have misplaced the key and now can't open the gas tank. Pretty ironical since we make a hide a key, don't you think?

But enough of that, this morning is starting off rather busy although we haven't had a sale come through yet today. Lots of writing to be done. I’m beginning to realize that 99% of marketing is writing. Good thing I liked in English class in High School;) We have been creatively working to get the word out about the RocLok anyway we can possibly think of which is tricky when you don't have any money to invest.

Last year we hired a product relations guru to help us get some much needed media attention and since we're still in the process of paying that off, he was nice enough to trade commission for some more exposure which is very cool. The difficult thing now is keeping track of where leads are coming from because we at the same time we have a similar arraignment with some other people on top of the wholesalers. The increased exposure is awesome though. The problem is when we get an order from Amazon for example, we don't know where their sales came from. We can't tell if they sold product from advertising they did or from the new exposure we've been getting on our end which makes it literally impossible to know who gets the credit. So there is that little hiccup in the plan.

Already today we had an email request from a blogger who wants to post a piece on Ryan and I, not just RocLok, which is a first so far and really exciting. Now I need to write something that will hopefully intrigue other writers to want to learn more about us and the business. This makes me nervous. I don't want to loose any potential leads on a rare opportunity. So I'm going to hold off a little longer until that caffine that has my heart going finally gets my brain into the game.

Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Welcome to Day 1

Hi World, my name is Melanie and like a lot of us out there, I'm trying to Make It In America. I decided to start this blog as a way to document my trials and tribulations building a business from an obscure product idea my husband came up with back in 2008.

It's been a hard 3 years and sometimes I feel like giving up. But I hopefully by spilling my guts everyday for the next year I will find some clarity and learn a little in the process. It can't hurt... I hope!

So where to start? I guess the best place is at the beginning. Before the Real Estate market tanked in 2007ish, my husband was a prosperous Broker with RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. I had just quit a job as the head Graphic Designer for Microsoft and Cisco Systems at a Trade-show Design House and was starting my own gig from home as a freelance Graphic Designer assisting Realtors with there personal branding. We had a large house, several vehicles, 2 dogs and a cat but we never saw each other and when we did it was working on fixing up the house aka the never ending money pit! We are both creative people who don't sit still for very long and with the impending market doom in the air instead of brushing off Ryan's newest invention as a hobby, I decided to try and make it into a business. In 2008 we started investing in The RocLok Hide a Key and now 3 years later we're still trying to scratch and claw our way into the marketplace.


Over the next year both Ryan and I are challenging ourselves to write in this blog about our experiences as business owners struggling in today's market to Make It In America. Some days will be better than others, but hopefully in the end we'll learn more about what we want out of this business and our lives.

Welcome to Day 1.