The Realities of Social Media - Part One

I'm busy working on our new website - it will actually be published soon! Just need to get the domain switched from one registrar to another - and realized that for all the social networks we belong to, there are still so many more we haven't even touched. Since we're an internet based company, this means we need our digital footprint to be a manly size 13 instead of a girly size 5, but there's a limit to how many sites we can update daily. I've already quit my day job for the glories of self-employment and spend more time online now than I have in the last five years combined. Okay, that's a bit of a misnomer, but you get my point.

I know blogging is still the number one place everyone advises people to use as a way to disseminate information, as well as earn money through click ads, yet it's also the biggest chore because as much as I love to read and talk, I'm finding it difficult to come up with things to say/write about. It is both an excuse and a reason why our blog is somewhat sparse given we started it in March (to be fair, however, I did work full time for a few months after creating it).

Thus the reason the scope of my recent blogs has more to do with things I randomly discover online as opposed to strictly business related. I have found the rabbit hole of links that take me from the relative safety of my sites into the Wonderland of the Wild Internet Frontier.

Example #1: Because Holy words can't describe how divinely stupid that was. - Imgur

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales

I hate shopping.

There I said it.

As a both a woman and an American consumer, I should be alight with glee at the upcoming deals bonanza that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday; but because I do loathe shopping, I tend to look year-round for deals to buy for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays (we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas). As a result, I rarely need anything by the time these hallowed days roll around, and as such, I've noticed many times the so-called "deals" we're supposedly getting aren't always what they seem.

Case in point - we stopped off at Wal-Mart (yes,it's a horrible employer and I should avoid it like the plague but it's RIGHT THERE) tonight and the store had already started their Black Friday sales at 6 PM. I have never seen so many people in one place buying big screen TVs - every shopping cart we passed had at least one in it. I listened as people cackled gleefully, positive they'd pulled one over on the Man because they got their products at 30-40% off. However, when I looked closer, a lot of the brands they were buying weren't big named ones (i.e. Samsung, Sony, LG, or Panasonic) but ones I'd never heard of in my life (Sceptre, Seiki and Cielo to name a few). Those who had snagged the brand named HDTVs didn't seem to realize they were buying older versions; technology moves fast, so the bells and whistles that were cool last year is soundly defeated by the new bangs this year. 

I was curious enough to check the ads prominent on two of my favorite websites - Amazon and Newegg - and soon realized their "deals" weren't so great I just had to have the item. In fact, they were pretty much on par with their usual coupons and a lot of the items they were unloading was older stock; after all, many of the big companies are releasing new items in time for Christmas and the new year.

Savvy shoppers would do well to avoid the frenzy of this weekend and don't end up like my friend who was ecstatic she managed to scoop up a Samsung Galaxy S3 for $0.01; I didn't have the heart to point out that the S4 is already out.

Eagle vs. Water Chevrotain

So I was flipping through YouTube for a few how-to videos (we're trying out new soap and candle recipes) and somehow I got into a spiral of animal videos. I quite enjoyed this one because it showed the ingenuity of Mother Nature in creating the Chevrotain - an ancient herbivore land animal related to Antelopes, Pigs, Deer, and Bison who can hold its breath for 4 minutes. I can't hold my breath for that long, but I guess I'd learn if I was trying to sneak by a predator.

NASA: Amazing Experiments with Water in Zero Gravity

This was a fun and amazing experiment done by an astronaut; makes me wish I could do this too!

Fun with Bath Fizzies - Experiment #1

We decided to start making Bath Fizzies as part of our beauty and more strategy, so we found a few recipes to try. This was our first go at it, and we modified it a bit because we weren't getting the results we thought we should (going by the pictures accompanying said recipe). As a result, though we achieved the shape, it wasn't very attractive so I decided to capitalize on it and make a quick video to demonstrate the appropriate level of fizziness one could expect.

This was both a test of my narrating skills - I still haven't managed to eliminate "uhs" and "ums" despite numerous public speaking classes, dangit - and the Galaxy SIII as a video camera. I probably should've reshot it as I made a few verbal mistakes, but decided to clean it up via notes flashing across the screen at appropriate moments. I also found it was a good way to give a few random bits of trivia/knowledge as well. Not bad for a minute and change of off the cuff rambling.

Now to figure out how to upload and edit the videos - when I tried to do it via USB connected to my laptop, it wouldn't recognize the file which means I probably don't have the right program to open it - and we might actually have a viable marketing tool. 

Along the Bumpy Road

Since the beginning of our journey into DIY lotions and body butters, I've wanted to try out a natural deodorant as I'm sick of the store bought brands because they work for a while and then suddenly my body starts rejecting them.

(Possibly the ingredients are causing the problems?)

We scoured the internet and library books for good recipes before settling on one that had all of the ingredients we already had at home so we wouldn't have to make an extra trip to the store.

It was July when we made our first batch and the perfect time to try it out since just stepping outside can make you sweat (dry heat or not be damned). It worked! I was sweating around my bra band and the crease of my panties, but my armpits were as dry as the moment I spread on the natural deodorant. I was exultant but tried to rein in my excitement since I was only ten minutes into the experiment.

Three days later, I was still riding that high because I only had to apply the deodorant once a day instead of two or three times. This stuff really worked, and it was made with chemical and preservative free ingredients which really spoke to the new lifestyle I'm slowly cultivating.

Two weeks later, my pits were still dry when I used it, but when I didn't, there was an odd smell, and the right axilla odor was stronger than the left. I panicked wondering if I was dying, infected, or reacting to the ingredients. I went back to the websites touting similar recipes and discovered in a lot of the comment sections that people complained of the same phenomena. Supposedly the stronger than normal pit odor was due to the body unclogging pores of the aluminum present in most store bought brands - though it could also be due to a change in diet. The only change in the past month was my deodorant, so I tended towards believing that was the cause. Fortunately, the smell dissipated within a few days and I continued using our product.

Then I developed a rash.

Apparently my sensitive skin was reacting to the baking soda, an ingredient used for its excellent deodorizing properties. My business partner was also trying it and didn't experience the same problem, but since I refuse to endorse a product I couldn't or wouldn't use, we've had to experiment with the recipe and see what else could be substituted in order for it to work.

I still haven't lost my enthusiasm for using natural deodorants, but I do have to adjust my expectations and needs in order to find one that works. Right now we're working on a recipe with less baking soda and more bentonite clay; I'm really psyched to try it out as I hope this be the one.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Office Improvements (aka Milestone #2)

We took an unanticipated two month break from our business preparations as other parts of life interfered much to our detriment. In order for us to really commit and truly make this a worthwhile enterprise, we must not allow outside influences to distract us from our purpose. That being said, I've taken steps to eliminate certain aspects of life so disturbance will be at a minimum. Part of my pledge to rededicate myself to our business involved redoing the work space we deemed as RooBee Box HQ.

If you remember, this is what it looked like at first:

We agonized for weeks over the colors we'd paint the walls and debated tile vs. laminate flooring vs. carpet. Since our business is a Do-It-Yourself mentality, it can't be surprising we opted to go to YouTube and find out how hard it would be to lay our own flooring.

This video and others like it, while extremely interesting and helpful, were ultimately useless because when we consulted with a friend who actually remodeled houses for a hobby, he told us for our needs carpet would be the way to go. Tile was too prone to problems in an upstairs room and the subfloor would have to be fortified for laminate flooring, which seemed too much of a hassle and too expensive compared to putting carpet down.

Surprisingly, carpet was the easiest decision for us to make as we both had similar ideas for the look, and all we needed was the perfect paint color to match. We ended up using Lowe's for a good portion of our needs because it was simple and a little cheaper than Home Depot. I wanted something with a short nap and decent color that would hide any stains fairly well; they were running a deal so we ended up buying Stainmaster carpet because of a) the cheap installation price and b) the guarantee of quality.

My partner had a fabulous idea - we'd use a paint sprayer and just do the walls ourselves without any problems as a 10x15.5 room would be a snap to finish, give or a take a few hours. All we needed to do was putty the walls and lift the carpet. So, with hope in our hearts, and dreams in our eyes we started off.

Now for anyone who's ever stripped carpet, you'll know how annoying it is to tear up both the top layer and the pad beneath it; now add 30 years, former smoking roommates, and several cats and you'll completely understand how disgusting the job really turned out to be. Fortunately we developed a routine which involved my partner pulling up the disgusting mess and me hauling it away to the dumpster. Neither of us wore protective gear, unfortunately, and the gunk got into our lungs so we decided to wait one more day to paint.

The next day came early - 6 A.M. to be precise - and Roo was first in line at Lowe's for this beauty:

One hour later - after prepping the gun and tank plus reading the page length directions - we discovered the stream wasn't very strong and prone to clogging when we used the paint. It took two determined women, a half gallon of white ceiling paint, and a little cussing for us to realize the paint sprayer was defective and needed to be returned for another model. So back to Lowe's we went.

Unfortunately their other paint sprayer - the larger one - was checked out for the day and we needed it a.s.a.p. since the installers were coming the next afternoon (nothing motivates you more than a deadline involving brand spanking new carpet you don't want messed up), so off to Home Depot we went (but not before getting our money back and a free can of paint from Lowe's for our troubles). We rented this bad boy from them:

And finally we were done!

The finished product - once the rug went in.

Now all that's left is for us to furnish it properly.

And so it begins...Milestone #1

We are officially a business in the eyes of the Federal and State governments as of March 26th, 2013.

This is a great accomplishment because it is tangible proof we did that! This is the first in many milestones and ones I will document as faithfully as possible for us to share on our journey.

Paperwork, smaperwork

So one of the more confusing aspects of setting up your home business is figuring out the paperwork and the necessary licenses for the city, state, and federal. We decided to use a credible legal document procurer recommended to us to help suss out what is needed to establish ourselves. We decided to go with an LLC for liability purposes, and many of the websites/books we read said it was good to get an Employer Identification Number.

According to the IRS website, the purpose of an EIN is:

• Start or Started a new business.
• If your business has hired or will hire employees, needs to open a bank account, has a change in entity ownership, or purchased an established business. These are just a few examples there are additional situations that would require a Tax ID to be in compliance with The IRS.
• Your EIN will identify your business accounts, tax returns, and many other business related documents.

We pinged a few of those listed reasons, so caught up in great swelling of entrepreneurial spirit, I made sure to apply early this morning and felt very accomplished to have a tangible footprint in the business world.

Except.

Except.

We might not need an EIN this early - especially since our LLC isn't even registered or trademarked yet, though it's in the process now. Guess this can go into the lesson learned category?

The Ins and Outs...

Since my partner and I are novices in the (small) business arena (as mentioned before, we're usually on the employee/worker bee end of the spectrum), we've been scouring the internet and bookshelves for information that will help us learn how to become smarter entrepreneurs.There are a list of books that have proved to be especially helpful - at least in this stage of our venture - in no particular order:

1. The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online by Kari Chapin
2. How To Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business by Jeremy Shepherd, Revised & updated by Nicole L. Augenti, Esq.
3. How To Start a Business in Arizona (2nd Edition, part of the SmartStart Series)
4. Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women by Clara Villarosa with Alicia Villarosa
5. Business for Beginners: From Research and Business Plans to Money, Marketing, and the Law by Frances McGuckin
6. The Complete Idiot's Guide To: Starting Your Own Business (4th Edition) by Edward Paulson
7. Starting an Online Business for Dummies: Promote, Secure, and Lower the Cost of Your Online Site by Greg Holden
8. The Ultimate Small Business Guide: A Resource For Startups and Growing Businesses (Basic Books)
9. How to Make Big MOney in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know by Jeremy J. Fox
10. Cyber Rules: Strategies for Excelling at E-Business by Thomas M. Siebel and Pat House

 There were a bunch of other books we checked out of the library, but the information therein was similar to the books listed above, so not worth mentioning. We are still in the kiddie pool part of the online business world, and gradually each day gather the gumption to wade in further.

The Big Picture

This is a big picture day.

 Sometimes it's good to push past the small details and look at the whole picture instead of focusing on the paint strokes, just to keep in mind what exactly we're working towards.

The Thing Is...

Creativity is exhausting.

Ideas are abundant, but bringing them to fruition is a long and frustrating, sometimes overwhelming, process. Of course, it could be the result of a long day and a very long week (yes, I'm aware it's only Tuesday).

Today's assignment was to research paint and flooring costs. Since we do not have any measuring tools, we resorted to using what was at hand, or in this case, foot (size 12).

So the room's measurements were figured out (more or less) and then we started thinking about the colors we wanted which would reflect the company. After all, the whole point in redecorating the room was to make it into our company HQ. We were smug knowing our business colors already, one of the first things we thought of when we conceived our company.

Then we used the Sherwin-William paint program that allows you to daub paint on virtual walls so you can see how it looks. Suddenly our company colors weren't so great after all because two of the colors were too close together on the color wheel and the third was always too something (bold, light, dark, etc). Plus the color scheme is important because, like flowers, every color represents something.

Research has shown that color influences our emotions in a variety of ways, but perhaps most importantly, it's the first sensory touch point with a customer or client. "The first point of interaction is shaped by the color, and color is the most memorable sense," says Leslie Harrington, the executive director of The Color Association and a color consultant. "Before anything else, they see color." (1)

Case studies have shown that a consumer's decision to purchase products can range from anywhere between 60 and 80 percent based on the product's color.  Color has the unique ability to make or break the success of a product, Harrington notes. "It doesn't cost you any more to make the right color decision for your product. But if you choose the wrong color, from the onset, you're not going to communicate what you want to your customer.' In other words, if you get it wrong, it can really impact the overall performance of your company. (2)

Who knew?

Guess we'll have to go back to square one and make sure the colors we choose are for the customer and not personal preference.

R&B = RooBee

Today an artist will be working on a few rough drafts of our company logo.

We have a general idea of what exactly we're going to use, we know what colors we want, and we've narrowed down the size to be used.

I can't wait for Wednesday when it'll be revealed!

Update: Well, we received three rough drafts and narrowed it down to one that we both could agree on. The artist will hopefully have it completed by Sunday. 

Cognito Ergo Sum

As we're scouring the internet for great ideas for office furniture, I'm becoming more and more convinced we need to repaint the walls. Right now they're a dingy white and extremely boring; it stifles the creativity which is a cornerstone of our company's goals.

Thus paint samples and curtains have moved up the list to "necessary part of our office makeover" and it "just as important as scoping out the best deals for equipment." Naturally that should've been the first thought - after all why buy new stuff that will inevitably make everything else look even dingier and more boring? - but it wasn't. I'm just glad we had the thought now instead of after we already did the back-breaking work of setting up the office only to realize it would look better with different colored walls.

This blog has some good tips on what to do when choosing the right colors for your rooms. We have a certain color scheme in mind for our company and I think if we can find the right shades, it might behoove us to use them to paint the walls. Even if we're working from a home office, at least we can make it seem like it's Roobee's headquarters once the door closes.

Office Space Saver

Based on Jaime's timely suggestion, research into the Expedit line of space organizers has revealed a virtual treasure trove of great ideas to do with the easily constructed shelves.

Upgrade Ikea Blog has a great tutorial complete with pictures to show the process and end result of building a series of different Expedit shelving units. The pictures below are from the Tanya's website which was discovered after I searched the web for Expedit images.

This is probably the best option for RooBee's needs, and is relatively inexpensive, which is a much needed and desired quality. Happily there is a much needed supply run coming up in the near future, so this may soon find a home with us!

Office Space

Office space is more than just a quirky niche film; it's the bread and butter of any company, much less a fledgling up-start of a start up.

We are fortunate enough to have a low cost solution (dog mascot sold separately):

Once it's spruced up and given the good ole RooBee (TM) makeover, it will be one step closer to global online domination.

Brainstorming

Being procrastinators by nature and habit, it is a daunting prospect to start up a company in this faltering economy. Even speaking the words aloud - "I want to make money and be my own boss" - feels as if we're intentionally inviting the gods of Failure and Humiliation into our parlor with a smile. It is a lot easier to work for someone else and allow ourselves to be cogs in the wondrous machine of Corporate America.

Easier, certainly. Better, not so much.

Growing up we were taught we were intelligent females with educational prospects and limitless opportunities for careers. What we weren't told was how hard it was to start said careers once we graduated with those shiny degrees clutched in our clammy little hands because our resumes were identical to thousands of others who also graduated with the same dreams. The urban jungles of modern society are as deadly to navigate as  alligator-infested swamps, albeit with slightly different rules: instead of the fittest being those most suited to their environment, it's those who embody the old adage "it's not what you know, but who you know."

Fast forward ten years and you find us sallow-faced, carpal-tunnel cramped, and bleary-eyed as we defensively make our way through hour long commutes so we can do our jobs for adequate pay which covers the bills and not much else. We acknowledge we are fortunate to be employed in a state where 8% of the population is unable to find work of any kind and can't be supported by the local government because the till is empty, yet the soul-draining monotony of each day is cruel in its own way.

Hence the need for something new to dig us out of our ruts despite the seeming comfort and security it provides.

Regardless of his politics, Barack Obama was completely correct when he said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change we seek."  It is this sentiment, this cry to battle, that drives us to turn RooBee Box from a wistful dream into a money-making reality despite a) never owning a business before, b) lacking the practical knowledge about owning a small business, and c) operating with shoe-string budgetary concerns.

If anything, this next year should prove to be more entertaining, educational, and scarier than the preceding ten.