- Launch a physical product in 2009
- February 16th, 2009: Little Duck Organics is our product. We are going to create organic snacks for kids. More Info Coming Soon!
- March 8th, 2009: I uploaded preliminary packaging design this morning. You can check it out here: Little Duck Packaging REV. A (Updated To Rev. B on 3/19/09)
- March 23rd, 2009: Found a great packaging manufacturer. They are willing to work with us to do a pre-production run of 100 packages. We are going to pick 2 of our fruit combinations and use them as samples for buyers. Hoping to have pre-production quality samples ready to distribute by the middle of April.
- April 20th, 2009: Initiated the bank transfer for our first run of production packages. This is the biggest investment I have made in a business so far. I feel anxious, nervous and excited all at once. Cant wait to see the production packages.
- May 13th, 2009: Packages and sample run fruit both arrived this week. Packages look really good. There are a few things that I would like to change for production, but overall i am very happy with the quality. We will be packing fruit this weekend. If you would like samples of the product, e-mail me and I will get them out to you next week.
- May 30th, 2009: We now have around 50 of each of our fruit blends packaged up at our offices. 15 sample boxes were shipped out last week to friends and family. Feedback has been extremely positive from our testers. I feel confident that the product will do very well once it is available in stores.
- June 4th: The focus this week has been on getting our website designed and published. I finished a preliminary design last night and I plan on making some finishing touches this afternoon. This weekend we will be taking lots of pictures to use for print and web design. My goal is to start coding the page on Monday.
- July 20th: Launched the Little Duck Organics Website.
- August 3rd: Samples going out to stores this week. Preparing for our production order (20,000+ Units!)
- September 15th: 30,000 production packages on order. We’re all in at this point.
- October 19th: Things have been crazy busy. Our production is currently in progress (Expecting an early November delivery). We have commitments from 12+ stores here in New England to carry products from Little Duck Organics. In addition, our snacks will be available Nationwide through Amazon.com. Whole Foods, H-E-B, & Publix are all in the works. Hoping to get things moving quickly with each outlet. I’m happy that we have come this far without going broke…
- Learn spanish
- June 2nd: The way things have been going, this will definitely not be a reality this year. Wishful thinking…
- Spend two weeks in a foreign country with my wife and girls
- Finish my basement
- February 27th, 2009: Met with the electrician this morning. Looks like we will have the entire basement wired by the first weekend in March. I need to call the insulator this week to schedule.
- March 7th, 2009: Electrical completed this morning! I still need to run coax cables and cat 6, but should be finished with that by Monday. Insulation coming this week & drywall the week after.
- March 14th, 2009: Insulation is complete. I need to spend a day running tubing for the baseboards. The entire basement (And Upstairs) is now networked with Cat 6 cable. Next week is a big week…
- March 20th, 2009: The guys were here early to start hanging sheet rock. The basement will look like living space by tonight. Although I will be tempted to move my desk down there tonight, i will have to wait at least a couple more weeks.
- March 24th, 2009: Second coat of mud going on the walls this morning. Everything will be finished by tomorrow afternoon. This means that weekend = painting.
- March 26th, 2009: Basement drywall is complete! Will begin painting this weekend. Cant wait to get the new office set up.
- April 2nd, 2009: Ordered carpet this afternoon. One week to deliver and one week to install. Looks like we will have everything finished by the end of the month.
- April 20th, 2009: HUGE weekend. I flew my brother Josh in from North Carolina to give me a hand with the basement project. We painted three coats of paint, installed the flooring in my office, and moved furniture downstairs. Carpet was installed today as well. Everything looks awesome. I’d say we are 90% complete.
- June 1st, 2009: It’s now been over a month since the carpet was installed. Absolutely nothing else has been done in the basement. I still have flooring to finish in my office, moldings to install in all rooms, a chair rail to put up, lights to put up…… The list goes on and on. I don’t want to bore you with the details.
- October 19th, 2009: The blue tape is still up where we cut in the walls. I’m surprised that Kathleen has not said anything about it yet.
- Begin learning the Ruby programming language
- June 4th, 2009: Pipe Dream…
- Start a weekly online video show
- March 17th, 2009: Tossing ideas around for a regional online cooking show that showcases local Chef’s and their specialties.
- August 25th: I wish I had the time to do this right now. Hopefully I can make it work once we launch Little Duck Organics in stores.
- October 1st: I would love to do a weekly start-up/entrepreneurship show. Once I have some office space, we can make it happen.
- Read at least one book per month
- April 7th, 2009: Falling behind on my reading. I have been going to bed between 1-2 AM every night because I have been spending tons of time designing packages for Little Duck Organics and painting the basement. I have been listening to Seth Godin’s Tribes via Audible.com for the last few nights. Does listening to an audiobook count as reading?
- June 4th, 2009: Still trying to get through Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. We have a vacation coming up in July, so hopefully I will be able to catch up on some reading then.
- August 25th, 2009: Started reading Once Your Lucky, Twice Your Good on a flight from Denver to Boston this past weekend. Already halfway finished with the book. Great read so far.
- October 7th: Finished Once Your Lucky, Twice Your Good on a flight to Chicago. My laptop was dead and I ran out of stuff to write down on paper. Great book. Easy Read.
