well thnigs are moving slowly, but still moving.

Submitted by somedaysoon on Tue, 21/11/2006 - 18:42.

Hi,

Well here I am again, it's been a weird time actually.
I have no idea where I am in regard to flying start ups book.
But as some of you know I have a Name Flash Jack's.
I have a logo and stationary all designed.
I have my domain names www.flashjacks.com and co.uk

And thanks to funky puffin's fantastic advice I've signed up to ekmpower shop and now I'm in the process of designing the webpage/shop front.
I'm using there templates but I'm finding it really hard to find one to stick to ( i've got a little obsessed with playing around with them)

And I've just sent my first payment to china to a supplier so fingers crossed it doesnt disapppear with the wind.:(
I've had a meeting with a very nice and helpful bank manager whom I feel really comfortable with and a meeting with a business adviser who was nice but thoroughly unenthusiastic about my idea....:)
Although she hadnt given me much more than the basics to go on, she revved me up a bit which was a good thing, after all I dont know all the answers so I thought I had better go and find them.

So as it stands I'm waiting for confirmation of my payment to supplier 1 - so that they can tool up my samples and then send them on to supplier 2 (also in china)this could take up to 20 days. Supplier 2 are going to make up the final part of my product this could take up to 14 days.

I'm hoping I will receive these before christmas (but I know that is probably asking too much of them) that's my target so we will see.

I havent really thought about the next step (silly I know) seems a little scary because that's when I need to find the money to ship the products in bulk.
incidently I only have 5 (all the same design and size)samples coming and have no idea what sizes or colours I will need to have made ahead of any orders I may have, but I'm guessing (again) that the feedback from the samples will tell me this, and how on earth will I keep customers if they have to wait up to a month for delivery (thinking out loud sorry)

I also have'nt done anything really with cashflow and businessy stuff like all the legal bits, but I'm going with my instinct and will set up shop online get going with marketing and PR and take it from there.

so it's all a bit higgledy piggledy but somehow I feel I getting somewhere!

love to hear any comments.

thanks

Vanessa ;)

Winter always turns to spring

Protecting your product idea

Submitted by annasmedgard on Tue, 21/11/2006 - 22:25.

Hi Vanessa,

If your product is really unique you should consider protecting it before showing it to lots of people. The patents office can guide you on what you need to do and if they can help you if your idea is a truly new way of doing something. It might be that you should have some sort of confidentiality agreement in place so that others can't copy when you are showing your samples, especially important if you need lots of investor finance perhaps. It might also be that this isn't applicable to your product at all, but you might as well check it all out before putting the website live because then it is too late. You should protect it before it is in the public domain.

Good luck with delivery times...! Lets hope you are getting them by airmail :)
Anna
Moderator, flyingstartups.com

Anna
Moderator, flyingstartups.com

Yes thanks Anna

Submitted by somedaysoon on Tue, 21/11/2006 - 22:47.

Hi :)

Well actually have been thinking about that, thought I'd wait for samples to arrive so I can take pics and so on, but may just go ahead with it.
Have'nt told too many people about the ins and outs just a few hints.
My product's technicalites are not invented by me and is being used around the world but not inconjunction with my products it is used in a different way. So I'm not sure I can patent it but will look into it tmw.
Also I just found a competitor (well kind of) there kind of doing what I aim to but they are only b2b and extremely hard to find also they are not offering a brand more of service. I know this all sounds quite cryptic but once I have everything in place I shall be singing it from the roof tops.

I just want to say thank you sooooooooo much for all your support it can be quite hard when you cant really tell people all about your idea.

I shall get to it tmw and report back.

Bye :)

Winter always turns to spring

you listened!

Submitted by funkypuffin on Wed, 22/11/2006 - 20:59.

Heck someone acted on my advice lol!

I had a nose at your live site (knew where to look!)

Love the logo and your tone of voice. Can't wait to see the products. You done well!

A couple of things to note with EKM...

When ready to go live - do fill out the marketing stuff, it really works and gets in froogle and good listing on google.

Also in ukreg create a subdomain that points to store.flashjacks.com or something similar. Just means you keep the flashjacks.com in the online store as well.

Finally play with your email config, so you get all the details emailed, just means you don't have to log in to see who and what has been ordered.

Good luck

Andrew




www.funkypuffin.com




www.funkypuffin.com

thanks Andrew

Submitted by somedaysoon on Wed, 22/11/2006 - 22:04.

Have you thought about being the web shop moderator on here, you advice is great.

How did you find flashjacks store didnt know anyone could see it yet.

I tried to transfer domain name from uk.reg to ekm but didnt go through.

What were you saying about creating a sub-domain on uk.reg. (sorry not great with this stuff)

does that mean I dont have to transfer name?........ help!!!!

slightly confused.

I just want people to be able to type in www.flashjacks.com and get my shop.

By the way I really like your shops.
why did you choose those templates.

Vanessa:)

Winter always turns to spring

Hi Vanessa, I only found it

Submitted by funkypuffin on Thu, 23/11/2006 - 07:51.

Hi Vanessa,

I only found it because when you log in to the shop and you look at the web address, it was fairly easy to guess given that mine is the same except for the funkypuffin part.

Regarding the name, there are 2 ways of doing it.

The simple way is to transfer your domain to ekm. This cost £25 i think and effectively takes uk reg out of the loop. Then if people type the name it goes to the front page of the store.

The better way, but is a little more complicated is to keep your domain at ukreg and to point it to ekm, but i think for simplicity your best bet is to do the above (it's in the advanced settings of the shop).




www.funkypuffin.com