Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Only two things left

Well, it's all come down to this, we're about 3 days away from attending the Crossroads gun show in Phoenix and we only have 2 things left to get accomplished.
  1. Take delivery of the final foam product - 200 pieces
  2. take delivery of the "Blue Gun" display units so the gun show patrons can try out the display Fammocans for themselves. 
We were just informed that our foam is ready and all we have to do is figure out if they're going to ship it to us or if we're going to drive down on our own and pick it up.

The "Blue Guns" are a different story altogether. The short version, the first warehouse that we ordered them from has been less than helpful and has not been able to confirm or deny the possibility of our shipment arriving by Thursday so I've canceled the order with them and found a new supplier that will allow me to go to their office and pick up what they have in stock. It's not what I originally ordered but it'll do for now, plus I know for sure that I'll have them in time.

Here's a picture of the final foam product -

Monday, February 15, 2010

Keeping Busy

So last week I had a few things on my "to-do" list.

Here's what got accomplished.

T-Shirts - Done
Stickers - Ordered
Shipping of product to Phoenix - Done (going to get a Uhaul trailer and then borrow a friends pick up to get it out there)
The foam prototype was finished last Wed and I went down on Thursday to check it out and I had hoped to have those samples back at the house that day in order to take some photos but, there is a slight adjustment that is needed and a new set of dies needs to be tooled. I hope to have that process completed before mid-week this week, we'll see. On a good note however, they looked awesome! I can not wait to bring these things out to Phoenix next week. I think I have a winner on my hands here but, you never know. I keep looking over the numbers and the price is right, the product is right and it fills a need for people in a cost effective manner.

Moving on...
I placed an order for the first round of "CanCaddy's" and should have them by the end of the week next week.
Once I have the photos of the actual foam I'll have the mailers completed. I've set a date to send those out by next Monday and then I will e-mail all of the same places on Wed. and then also send out a follow up mailer with a reminder and a sticker on Wed.

Other things I completed last week -
I got the idea for a table display so people could "try-it-before-they-buy-it" kind of set up. So  got a 2x2 board, made a couple of legs so it's angled, screwed 2 ammocans to the board I'll have 3 demo "Blue Guns" chained to the board so people can see how the system works. I think this will be a huge impact on the individual sales for the weekend. I also went to Kinkos and printed out a 22 inch display with all of the prices for each product.

Below are of the pictures of the display case, the display prices, and the t-shirts.



Thursday, February 11, 2010

On the road to completion

I gave the final approval for the CanCaddy yesterday and place the first production order for that. I should see the finished product sometime next week. I just got back from the foam company and had to make a minor adjustment to the magazine slots so a 2nd prototype is needed and that should be completed by Monday or Tuesday next week. I was told once the final approval is given for the foam the first production run of each size foam piece should only take a day or two. That being said I should have all of the products ready (foam and CanCaddy)by the time we head out to Phoenix on the 26th.

Preparing for Phoenix -
So this week has been all about preparing for our first product launch at the Crossroads Gun Show on the 27th and 28th at the Arizona Fair Grounds. Since it is the first time we've gone out to the public we needd to think about the table display. On Tuesday I picked up the display sign that will be placed on the table and lists all of the prices for each product. Unfortunately I did not do a great job of spell checking as the finished product lists Fammocan as "The Orriginal Ammo Can Accessory" (2 "r's" in Original) Opps! I think I'm just going to print out the tag line on paper and tape it to the sign. Moving on .... I purchased a table cloth that drapes in the front of an 8' table and only comes down 6" on the back, this should be good to store the product under the table.


Plans for the next 2 weeks -
So for the next two weeks I need to do the following -
  • Get the final foam product and have some photos taken of all of them separate and put together. The pictures on the website right now are taken from my iPhone and look like crap. 
  • Take videos of the final product to show best uses and typical applications and post those to the Fammocan YouTube channel.
  • Finalize the mailers to send out to Phoenix area Army/Nay surplus stores and to Local gun shops.
  • Look into how to ship the foam to Phoenix - I think this is something I previously overlooked as 200 pieces of foam will NOT fit in my little Volvo. 
  • Finalize T-Shirts with EmbroidMe company. (I should have the sample by the end of this week. 
  • Contemplate the need for Stickers (I think I'm going to get 100, but that's a cost i did not intend to dish out and if the shipping of the foam is going to be expensive then that might take up my "unforeseen" cost estimates)
Well that's where we're at with the launch of Fammocan. 'm glad i have time to get all of this together and not have to rush. But also thankful that I have a deadline to meet. Looking forward to seeing all that the public has to sap about this little product. 

Monday, February 8, 2010

Moving along

So I got the Tshirt printing set up today at a place called "EmbroidMe" they have a ton of products to print on and embroider to and all of it is in the store so you can feel it, see it, etc. That makes it souch better than wondering how the product is going to look and feel after purchasing off the net. Looking forward to the sample shirt they will have done by the end if the week.

Also getting the table displays printed at Kinkos today, should be done with the art for that this afternoon and will be printed by Thursday.

I'm getting the final prototype fir the "CanCaddy" today or tomorrow morning, but I hope it's today. I'll have photos posted here by the end of the week of everything.

Sent from my iPhone

Friday, February 5, 2010

linked up

New Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages have been created and linked to each other. Check it out.

Up And Running

It's been a long 7 months of trial and error, of searching for manufactures that can not only provide exceptional service but also a good price. Starting off is not easy as any business owner will tell you but at this point I'm in the home stretch to getting this product off the ground. I'm about a week away from finalizing all of the prototypes and should start full blown production on all products by the end of next week.

I'm looking forward to heading out to a few gun shows and really start ramping up on marketing and sales. 

It's pretty exciting for me to be able to run with this idea and I can't wait to see the reaction from the public once it's released.