CHAPTER 1: Announcing & Planning The Original Hundred Dollar Business/Kiosk Project

The Announcement: Thursday, December 1, 2006

The Hundred Dollar Business Experiment

For the month of December, I’m doing an experiment to test concepts I’ve been learning in my entrepreneurship class at BYU, as well as from our amazing local business community.

Limits of the Experiment

A budget of $100, 30 days, and I have to go to sleep by around midnight every night.

Minimum Goal

Set up a well functioning business, pay all business/personal expenses for the month, and make at least $100 back in order to (possibly) start a next Hundred Dollar Business in January.

Core Ideas to Test

1. Networking: Who do I know? What do they have or know, and who do they know?
2. Negotiating: Use principles of good negotiation to create win-win situations.
3. Money Is The Last Thing Needed to Start a Business: If something costs money and I must have it, find a way that will pay for itself. Don’t carry overhead or stock purchased inventory.
4. Be smart. Learn about the options, do the research, and make calculated decisions.
5. Be focused. Have a plan. Spend time only doing the things that further the plan. (If the plan changes, that’s ok– just don’t spend time & resources on distractions).
6. Keep it balanced. Run, get reasonable sleep, and eat. Work hard and play hard. And then take a break when it’s done. (Mark your calendars now– I’ll be on vacation the first week of January).
7. “Franchise” the business. Streamline essential functions and set up systems so it can easily be run by someone else and could be replicated 5,000 times.
8. Be Resourceful. What do already I have that I can use: ideas, skills, things, and tools?
9. Get Around Obstacles. Have a plethora of contingency plans–at least three additional suggestions or options in case the ideal doesn’t happen. Don’t accept the challenges at face value.
10. Think Virally. Use cheap, effective marketing tactics– word of mouth, viral marketing and natural traffic.

The concept is not completely unique (I didn’t steal it, just didn’t realize I wasn’t the first to come up with it until after the fact). Similar experiments have been done in September 2006 by local Matthew Reinbold and November 2005 by Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock.

Additional inspiring, but somewhat unrelated, projects include Blendtec’s amazing “Will It Blend?” viral marketing campaign, LogoWorks’ “Date Lance” campaign, and local MBA student, Ryan Byrd’s “Green Paperclip Experiment”.

I’ll be blogging about my experiences here on www.hundreddollarbusiness.wordpress.com, as well as on The Carolynn Blog and BizImpresario.

Wish me luck!

Part 1 Overview of Experiment Planning: November 25-27

I had the idea to start this experiment last Saturday, November 25th. Before I went public with the blog, I wanted to make sure I had a viable project opportunity.

So, to catch you up to speed, here is a basic summary of the process I went through to plan out the business I wanted to start:

First Step: Find a Problem to Solve That Will Make Sales Fast
There was no end to the ideas, but I wanted one thing to be my ultimate priority: what will make sales as quickly as possible?

To start, I brainstormed a list of typical problems for people in this area (Utah County) during the month of December. The reason being that if something is a current problem, someone is more likely to purchase a solution to it.

I considered doing an online product or service, but realized that the learning curve would be greater for me to set that up, so I decided instead to build the project locally.

Potential Problems I Could Solve

Among the prizewinner ideas were: scraping ice off windshields, giving rides to students during the snow, entertaining fussy kids at the mall, or providing a fun environment for people to come to while doing boring holiday tasks, such as addressing Christmas cards, wrapping presents, etc. If you think those are idealistic, you should see the entire list–maybe we’ll post that for fun later…

So, I settled on the “fun environment at the mall idea”, and decided to approach both local malls and determine what was available.

Report of Planning: Monday, November 27th

To be honest, Monday was not the most effective use of time. I spent a lot of time thinking more about what I could do, and probably also a lot of time questioning my experiment. You know, the usual fear spectrum– “what if this doesn’t work, what if it’s lame, what if I can’t make it happen quickly enough, etc.”

I also mapped out a quick “business plan”, which frankly, was only used that day, and hasn’t been relevant since. (I had good intentions, but it seems that especially for this experiment, that things would change too quickly to keep a formal plan.)

I did spend some time doing research on both local malls– the University Mall and Provo Towne Centre. On both websites, you can find leasing information, demographics on traffic, specs on current tenant stores, etc. I also set up appointments with both management teams for the next day– with the idea, believe it or not, that finding a space would be no problem and we could even get the mall to donate the cost. Now that is optimism!!

Later that night, I re-hashed the business concept with Rachelle Anderson, who is also involved with the project, and who has been an excellent co-worker for several months.

We changed it from being a “holiday-event center for bored shoppers with selling our products on the side” idea to that of being a “Secret Santa Delivery”, where we would offer 5 core holiday products (candy canes, hot chocolate, bundt cakes, Santa hats, and Christmas cards) that someone could purchase and have delivered to a friend by someone wearing a Santa Suit.

With the new plan in place, and the mall appointments set up, we were ready for the next step!

Part 2 Overview of Experiment Planning: Tuesday, November 28

The Ideal….versus The Reality…

Report of Planning: Tuesday, November 28th

Well, with the concept in hand, Tuesday morning began with a trip to the Provo Towne Centre mall, where I learned that there was an available kiosk, but it came with a hefty price tag.

(You do not want to guess how much!! Let’s just say it was slightly more than $100.)

On one hand, that seemed like a complete shut-down to the mall idea. How can you come up with thousands of dollars when your budget is only $100, not to mention, who as a student has thousands of dollars sitting around?

But on the other hand… principle 3 of our experiment says that “Money is the last thing needed to start a business”, and principle 9 says “Get around obstacles.” So with that tucked away, off I went to an appointment at University Mall in Orem.

At this point, my idealistic notion that a mall would just… I don’t know… “donate” some space to us, at the busiest, most profitable month of the retail year… was becoming less idealistic, and more “what is plan B? plan C? plan D?”

I had a great discussion with the management at University Mall, but discovered that there were no empty spaces, and they’d been booked for months. So, back to the drawing board.

At 2 p.m., Rachelle and I met with a mentor from BYU’s Center for Entrepreneurship.

Two key things he said were:

1. Don’t think about if it will work or not– just do it.
2. A good business has three things: Sales, Finances, and Product. Make them work together, or you’ll bomb.

At this point, I had come up with a plan– we had 5 products in mind, why not see if any of their owners would split the cost of the kiosk? For 1/5 of the normal lease, they could get their products into a mall at the busiest month of the year.

One of things I’d done over the weekend was to compile a list of the people I know, and what businesses they’re involved with, and how they could be included in our plan. As we got started, it was amazing how principle 1, networking, is seriously underestimated in its value at growing a project.

The good news was that by Tuesday afternoon, we’d developed agreements with 2 vendors to feature their products in our business– books & other miscellaneous, nuts & gift trays, and had leads to at least 5 more vendors.

But, when we approached vendors, the sponsorship idea was a no-go. So the roadblock continued, for a little while!

By the end of Tuesday, we were gradually gaining a more solid concept– that we would assemble holiday-type gifts (whatever we could find), and then offer the Santa delivery service as a fun extra. The only things left to get were: a Santa suit, more vendors & products, the cost of the kiosk lease, not to mention business licensing, bank info, etc.

Yikes. On to Wednesday!

Part 3 Overview of Experiment Planning: Wednesday, November 29

First, I was seriously tired Wednesday morning. There’s no doubt about that. But, welcome to life in a startup. (Even a 1-month startup is still a startup, right?)

Anyway, our first appointment was with Granite Publishing & Distribution, our book vendor, to see what inventory would work well. One thing that absolutely needs to be mentioned, is that everyone who has agreed to be a supplier for us, has been really encouraging about the experiment, and also extremely generous with their time and willingness.

Since we knew we couldn’t pre-purchase inventory, we asked all of our suppliers to work with us on consignment, with the option to return unsold merchandise. And miraculously, we have succeeded, largely because this amazing business community has been so supportive!

After the meeting, we started to get really enthused, because it seemed like things were coming together. Though, we wanted to launch on December 1st… and that was really coming fast!

The big accomplishments for the day were adding on two additional vendors, one for SignBabies sign language flashcards, and the other for Channing’s Bundt Cake Factory.

We still needed a Santa suit, as well as more products, so we trekked out to Costume Craze, a Lindon-based online costume supplier I’d heard about when their owner, Katie Maloney, spoke at my entrepreneurship class. Once we got there, we set up an appointment for the next day, and then poked around some shops in Lindon/Orem, looking for additional vendors.

During this time, we approached several stores looking for people who had an applicable holiday product, but didn’t have a mall presence and could benefit from the inevitable brand recognition they’d find by being in the mall.

It was a little more difficult than I’d anticipated– I guess I thought that all I had to do was ask the original five shops I had in mind, and we’d be set to go. At one point, probably Tuesday or Wednesday night, I drove up and down State Street, looking for candidates– and assembled a list of about 20 backup shops in case we needed them. (A throwback to principle 9, by “having a plethora of backup options”.)

Among the ones we tried were a candy cane/chocolates store, a paper store, a Christmas card supplier, another candy cane/trinkets shop, a ceramics shop, a mistletoe-poinsettia supplier, and more.

As a back up option, my friend Channing had offered the use of her store, Channing’s Bundt Cake Factory, so we at least had somewhere to set up shop to sell the gifts and arrange the deliveries. What a generous thing to offer!

At this point, I realized that the mall kiosk had way too much overhead, and that based on the resources we had available (frankly, only $100…), it would be an extremely poor risk, one that I certainly couldn’t justify. I was disappointed that our ideal was unreachable, but determined that to continue putting my time into trying to find a way was actually slowing the project down, so I gave up on the idea– but also saw that instead, we could turn our efforts to marketing to help drive traffic.

I think Wednesday is the only night so far that the 12 a.m. curfew has been a realistic option. But, at least I’m striving for sleep! (January 1-8… I’m planning a nap that will last about 168 hours).

And on to Thursday!

Part 4 Overview of Experiment Planning: Thursday, November 30

Thursday was the day we got over the major hurdles. No question about it…

I started by meeting with Katie from Costume Craze. To be honest, I was really nervous.

She gave a really fantastic presentation at my Entrepreneur Lectures for Women class, and from that, I had seen how detailed and organized her business is. So I wanted to present her with some really thought-out options, and see what she would be willing to do.

We were interested in having her Santa hats in our kiosk, as well, that the Santa Suit was seriously crucial to our delivery concept. And so, I invoked principles 2- utilize negotiation to create win-win situations and 3- find a way that required costs can pay for themselves.

A note about the negotiation: personally, I think there is a world of difference between negotiation and manipulation. And it’s all about the intent and how you treat the individual and the transaction.

George Ross, of The Apprentice-Donald Trump fame, taught a lecture at BYU a few weeks ago, and gave us a really thorough look into how to negotiate good deals. The most important thing is that both parties feel comfortable, I think, and happy with the end result, and that you’ve created an ethical situation.

So anyway, we did work out an arrangement that was agreeable, and I realized that when we’re done with the suit, it can likely can be re-sold, thus paying for itself. Which is definitely nice.

We also found an additional vendor– Sweet & Charming, a line of really cute princess/fairytale-themed clothing, books, and toys for children.

After that meeting, I had another meeting again at the Provo Towne Centre mall. By the way, just in the few talks I’d had with them already, I was really impressed with the efficiency and organization of their staff. I have never really thought about what it takes to run a mall, but I’m sure it’s a hardy effort. And they do an extremely nice job.

I went to this meeting knowing that it wasn’t really financially feasible for us to secure the kiosk, but I wanted to see what was possible. At the end of the meeting, I had some really amazing options, which essentially consisted of a refundable security deposit and flexible payments, or a lowered monthly lease if paid in full.

During the rest of the day, amazing things happened. We found a sponsor who, after making sure that our concept and sales strategy was sound, and that we would provide an ROI, offered to provide the deposit. That in itself was a miracle.

After that, two of our vendors agreed to split part of the lease agreement, leaving a smaller cost to be paid at the end of the month by revenue generated by sales.

Now, that’s still kind of risky. It just is. (And I’ll talk more about this in the next post).

But, consider these options side by side:

Option 1.

The opportunity to sell a variety of extremely sell-able holiday items, in a bustling mall during the month of December (though involving a degree of personal risk, as I would assume the responsibility to sell enough to cover the remainder of the lease).

Option 2.

The opportunity to set up a display table in a store in a local shopping center that gets decent traffic, but that would require a huge marketing effort to draw in customers, as well as more emphasis and organization on the Santa delivery-service as part of the business.

The clincher was when I asked the mall management for some stats on average holiday traffic and kiosk sales. By no means is that a guarantee that we’ll be wildly successful, but it does provide a context for making the decision.

Essentially, the traffic in the mall on a holiday weekend is about 50,000 people. So, being in the mall over 30 days including 4 weekends… would dramatically increase our chances of doing well.

The low average sales for kiosks… do very well, and besides that, being in a high-visibility location would provide each of these vendors’ products with a great audience– especially as some of them are fairly new/local projects that can definitely use more attention and brand recognition.

To make a long story short, we determined to move forward with the plan of acquiring the kiosk lease, finalizing inventory orders with all of the vendors, completing the necessary paperwork, the mall lease application, bank and tax forms, and anything else that came up.

Friday was looking like it would be pretty busy…

CHAPTER 2: DECEMBER 1- DECEMBER 5

Launch Day! December 1st, 2006

Most startups don’t launch on time. That would… include us.

But, a launch delayed by only one day… not too shabby. Today was an exercise in problem-solving, time management, schedule coordinating, details arranging– you name it.

The morning started off by getting the blog effort going. For principle 10– Think virally– we’d established accounts for The Hundred Dollar Business experiment on Facebook, MySpace, Gmail, WordPress, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube and more. (If you’re in our contact list & got suspicious-looking friend requests from 100dollarbusiness, please accept our apologies!)

On one hand, some of those services aren’t totally applicable, but they might come in handy, plus– they’re free. We did learn the other day that Facebook will distribute a “banner-ad flyer” to 10,000 BYU students for 1 day, for $5. I don’t know if everyone at BYU is staring down the Facebook ads all day, but if they are, that seems like a pretty cost-effective way to reach them.

Within a few hours of launching the blog, we’d been blogged about by local Ryan Byrd and had a pretty good day, traffic-wise, on the site.

And oh, the mountain of paperwork! DBAs, tax forms, bank forms, ID cards, two copies of the mall lease agreement, and that was only a part of it. We also have decided to use principle 7- “franchise” the business. This is especially critical as we have added potentially 2-3 more vendors to our pool of products, and have different detailed agreements with each company. We made vendor agreement forms and inventory checklists, to make sure we are keeping the nitty-gritty as clear and simple as possible.

I’d also like to add, that up until this point, we hadn’t spent a thing from The Hundred Dollar Business’ $100 budget. I find this amazing– because like principle 3 says, “Money is the last thing needed to start a business.” It’s TRUE! It is really, really true. All of these transactions and opportunities had been established without spending anything. Of course, there are plenty of things we could have put money into along the way, but it ultimately wasn’t necessary.

Part of that, without doubt, is because of the nature of the experiment and the support of the business community. And on the other hand, I think often that entrepreneurs limit themselves either because they feel that their idea must first have huge monetary backing, or else that there are many overhead expenses that they need in order to launch a business.

And those are both true and untrue.

It seems that ultimately, it’s what you’re doing with your total resources– not finances only. And we have been extremely lucky and had doors open right and left, which also does help quite a bit. Though, you have to work hard and see the doors as being openable, too.

Anyway, we did spend $22 for our DBA (gotta be all official!) and $4.96 for constructing/printing vendor agreement forms, and $2.55 for xeroxing the inventory checklists. But, to spend $29.51 to make our legal pathway smooth… pays for itself.

So, now we’re down to $70.49, and we’re moving into the mall tonight! And… I’m didn’t make the midnight bedtime. Again.

Opening Day At The Mall December 2

Well, so much for “go to sleep by midnight!” I guess that part of the experiment failed, because not only did I stay up all night Friday night, but I had a one-hour nap at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and kept going until–yep!–midnight last night.

But, enough of that–we are at the mall now, and things are going fantastic!

On Friday night, we got the go-ahead from the mall to move in our inventory and set up shop. Kelly Anderson from Sweet & Charming and I were up, punchy as all get out as we loaded the inventory onto the kiosk– we’ll be adding pictures to our Hundred Dollar Business Flickr account soon, so stay tuned!

By 5 a.m. the kiosk was set up with Kelly’s princess/castle retail items for children, so I headed over to Channing’s Bundt Cake Factory to pick up her cakes for the kiosk. I will tell you that when I buy a Baby Bundt cake (small personal size), I usually eat the whole thing ASAP because they are sooooo good. And guess what– we have them at our kiosk!

The mall opened at 7 a.m. For the first hour or so, I was there, and I was nervous!

Because all of a sudden I realized, I have no retail experience! None! Rachelle Anderson joined me at the kiosk a little after 8 a.m., and we were so excited! I think we probably frightened our first customer, Julie. (Picture to come!)

She works at another kiosk selling cosmetics, and purchased some of Kelly’s princess items as gifts for her nieces. We took pictures with her, and it took about 10 minutes for us to figure out how to process her credit card– eek! Luckily, we got better at that as the day went on. Thanks, Julie!

Our second customer was a big surprise– my friends from my church, the Daniels. They were shopping at the mall and happened to see us! They have a number of grandchildren, and got the sweetest tutu sets for them. We took pictures of them also– look for that later, as well!

Within a few hours of the mall being opened, we had over $100 in sales! It was really exciting, especially because when we were doing the planning for the business, the ultimate priority was “what will make sales as quickly as possible?”

Something to note is that even though we are making sales, it doesn’t mean we have made a profit yet. I know that may be a simple statement, but it is only something that really hit me as I crunched the numbers at the end of the day.

For one thing, even though we haven’t spent any money to get the business started, we will have some obligations to the mall lease at the end of the month, though we will pay off as soon as possible, because this is a “no-debt, no-overhead-killing-us ” kind of endeavor.

For another thing, the items we sell are on different consignment/commission arrangements with the vendors, so they will be paid first, expenses (taxes, employee compensation, lease, other obligations, etc.) paid next, and then the actual “profit” of the business will show up as dead last. I think that’s important to note, because it means that if I want the business to do well, then I need to plan for that with the whole picture in mind.

I left for a few hours to take care of some bank account/lease matters, and Rachelle and Kelly manned the booth for a few hours. When I came back, things were going great and we were getting a steady stream of traffic and business!

Four additional things that were interesting to experience throughout the day:

1. Inventory

We are not at full capacity yet– in fact, we still need to order and pickup product from 5 other vendors. Part of why this hasn’t happened yet is because of the busy-ness of getting everything set up this week. Another reason is that we wanted to see how business would go.

Since we know now that it is busy, we can plan what to order. In the meantime, we may have lost opportunities to sell, simply because we don’t have the inventory available yet– so that is priority one for Monday morning!

2. Salesmanship

We noticed that each kiosk salesperson has their own style of manning the kiosk and trying to make sales. The main difference was that those who are employees were bored, waited for customers to walk up, show interest, and ask questions before engaging them in the sales process, whereas the owners are proactive, setting up special events for the booth, handing out marketing materials to other kiosk owners, stopping mall traffic to give them deal coupons, etc.

Since I’m an owner– you better believe I am setting up ideas and approaches that are proactive! We want to do well, and we want all of our vendors to feel that their investment and the opportunity has been a great success. If you have any suggestions, definitely e-mail those to us at hundreddollarbusiness@gmail.com or post a comment here!

3. Financial Processes

In the course of one day, we had to learn how to use the cash register, a knuckle-buster credit card scanner, take an accounting of inventory as it was sold, for which vendor, sales tax info, cashing out the register, setting up the business bank account, how to get a money order or cashier’s checks, and how much in change/coins to start the till with.

Because we are taking the approach from E-Myth, to “franchise” the business with organized systems, it was a LOT less crazy than it could have been. Even so, we did make a couple of errors, which we will prevent by having a training with all of us who man the kiosk.

4. Presentation of Products

The products that sold well were the ones that were displayed really well, that were easily accesible & obvious to the rushed customer walking by. By late afternoon, we realized that some products had barely sold, and it was because of the visual setup.

We are fixing that over the next day or two, and will also be have some sample trays and special events to help customers experience the product, both in a visual and tactile manner. Remember– if a customer can pick up an item or otherwise get attached to it, they are more likely to purchase. It was great to realize that right away and correct it, and we expect to see a dramatic increase in sales for those products over the next few days.

And now, it’s time to get back to the mall! For more info about products we will be supplying by Tuesday, check out this post. We will have Nutty Guys nut trays, Santa hats, and holiday books and games, including Max Lucado storybooks.

Come by and see us, anytime– we’re at the Provo Towne Centre mall in South Provo! If you mention this blog, you’ll get an extra big smile and a special treat!

Wow! Tuesday, December 5th

Hi everyone!

I woke up this morning, and saw about 10 new comments on the blog, and then checked the blog stats and was blown away by how many people have heard about the experiment!

We started the blog on Friday, and had 30 visits each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then on Monday, after a couple blog posts by some local bloggers, we jumped to 150 daily visits, and were really excited about that! And today, we had 1,798 visits, with about 2,600 page views!

I couldn’t get the internet all day from the kiosk, so this is my first chance to say, thank you! Thanks for reading, and for your comments of support and suggestion. We’ve heard a lot of really great ideas from you, and it helps us to refine what we’re doing.

I’ll be posting about December 4th and 5th later tonight. For now, we just got a delivery of Nutty Guys products this afternoon, so I’ve got to haul those boxes in to the kiosk. Yep, manual labor– it’s a good thing.

An exciting update is that a local video production company, CopperRain, has offered to do some video interviews for us, which we will be posting here and on YouTube– stay tuned!

And keep reading, and let us know what we are doing right/wrong. We’ve only got 26 days left, and we need to make them count!

December 4: Owners Don’t Sleep In

So, you know that “go to sleep by midnight” part of the experiment?

Yeah. Not happening. (As I write this, it’s 1:32 a.m. And I’m at the mall still).
But in breaking that requirement so often, I finally learned why it’s so essential. Sunday night, I was up until 6 a.m. I’m not advocating that, I’m just saying it happened.

I was working on our finances, setting up the accounting systems we are using, forms, etc., so that it’s more of a no-brainer at the end of the night. (Principle 7, “Franchise” the Business so essential processes are systematic.)

And so, of course, Monday was the morning that my phone decided to basically explode, so I didn’t hear the alarm nor the frantic phone calls from my worried kiosk people, Rachelle, Kelly, and Channing when I didn’t show up because I was asleep.

I woke up at 10 a.m. Ideally, I was supposed to meet one of our vendors at 8 a.m., bring the spare kiosk keys to another vendor who was bringing in supplies, open shop for Rachelle to start selling, and… go to our publisher-distributer to pick up the books.

There’s nothing like waking up and realizing you’ve already got apologies to make to 4 people, plus reschedule appointments. Argh.

Anyway, so owners don’t sleep in. (Or maybe just, “owners don’t sleep”– anyone like that for a t-shirt?) They just can’t.

But, I did get the books, and met up with everyone, etc., just not exactly on schedule. I’ve always sort of wondered why entrepreneurs and startup business owners are a bit flaky. Must be the sleep deprivation. And the gazillion tasks on your mind 24/7!

So, it was a slow day at the mall. We heard that Mondays and Tuesdays are really slow, and we know now that they are! Most of the day we were under our average sales from Saturday and Sunday, and then at the end of the night, we had abig order which made everyone happy again.

We have set sales goals of $1,000/day. Understandably, that’s not currently realistic, especially not on slow days. But, at least it pushes us forward more than if we set goals of $100/day. And I’m intent to find a way to make that happen.

(That’s about average for a kiosk at this mall during December, anyway– probably later in the month, though).

Also on Monday, we heard news from Nutty Guys, that our order was ready and they were going to deliver it to the mall, saving me a 60 mile round trip. What nice people, seriously!

We are selling their bags of packaged yogurt pretzels, mixed nuts, pistachios, pecans, bananas, and also their gift trays of nuts & fruit, nuts & candy, or mixed nuts. If you’re in Utah County and want to order in advance and pick it up at the mall, we’d be glad to help you out. Give me a call– our number’s on the Contact Us page.

Also, we are learning a lot about visual merchandising. The better our display, the more interest our customers have in our products. It makes sense, but it’s not something I’ve ever done, and it can be discouraging to realize that we just don’t know enough fast enough yet to make our kiosk a Taj Mahal of merchandising. But, it’s night and day looking better than when we first slung our products up that first night.

Alright, on to Tuesday!

December 5: Puppies & Kittens Sell

The kiosk next to us sells sunglasses. I’m not sure how that relates to puppies and kittens, but they have lined up about 10 of these fake-realistic-looking puppies & kittens that have a mechanism that allows them to “breathe”.

If I had ten cents for every time I heard a customer comment on them, or run over to look at them, this experiment would be done and I’d be in Hawaii.

What is interesting, though, is that people look at the kittens– it attracts their attention– but they don’t buy them. (The sunglasses do alright though, but the kittens don’t guarantee sunglasses sales.)

After a few days of watching that, as well as the other kiosks around us, we are getting a sense for what works with retail sales, and what doesn’t. Just for fun, here are my basic observations:

1. Packaging blocks the client from interacting with the product. They need to pick it up, hold it, try it on, etc.
2. A gimmick will grab attention, but not necessarily close a deal. And if you’re obvious about it, it doesn’t even grab attention, it just bugs them.
3. Too little inventory has “ghetto” written all over your store. We only had one vendor’s supplies for a few days, and kept getting feedback that we needed more stock. Check!
4. If you approach the customer the second they walk over to the kiosk, it scares them away. (This usually doesn’t apply to our friends, though.) Give them a second to acclimate, and then be subtle in your approach.
5. Don’t first tell the customer about the products you like or that you would buy. First evaluate what they like, who they’re shopping for, what they like, etc. It’s like a conversation, except that what you have to say is extremely secondary.
6. Be quick about the check-out. Fumbling with credit cards and receipts doesn’t inspire them to come back.

Anyway, that’s something we’re learning–how to approach the customers better in a way that is more likely to lead to sales.

Now then, I already blogged about this for a minute, but when I woke up today and saw the nearly 2,000 visitors, I was stunned!

We are so excited that the word is getting out. (Of course, we wish all of you lived in Provo, UT and could come visit our enterprise…)

And in the meantime, we are trying to think of clever ways to maximize our website and perhaps make ordering or products available on the Internet. Give us a day or two. And thank you to those who have made excellent suggestions, which we are looking into doing.

We’ve heard some comments about why we went with a “brick and mortar” rather than an online enterprise. Especially since I’ve been working for an internet startup for the last several months.

That’s a great question. My first thoughts are:

1. My main skills are not technical, rather, organizational/operational. The learning curve for me on an internet project could be steeper, and I have limited time w/ the 30 days thing.

2. There are great things to be said for making money from an internet business. Great things. But, I think you can lose a lot of what I would consider “traditional” business experiences, and I wanted this experiment to be an application of what I’ve learned about good business.

Interacting with customers. Sales. Opening and closing shop. Taking an idea from just being an idea to being fully executed, operational, and cash-flow positive (Don’t worry– I’ll let you know when that happens!) Using traditional operations infrastructures– setting up the bank, doing inventory, and seeing the concept realized in a tangible, visual storefront, etc.

Who knows– maybe the next Hundred Dollar Business will be strictly on the web!
As for what’s ahead, we’re excited to work with CopperRain tomorrow on the video interview! Look for this soon.

Ok, that’s all for now. See you tomorrow! Oh– one other thing– if you have retail experience, mall experience, kiosk at Christmas time experience… and have any tips, we’d be glad to hear your suggestions. We are doing well, but we want to be doing excellently.

Thanks!

CHAPTER 3: DECEMBER 6- DECEMBER 8

December 6: A Skinned Knee, The Marinara Fiasco & Monetizing the Model

A Skinned Knee

I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure of skinning a knee lately, but I did today. I was rushing from my house when I fell face-forward, and yes, it still hurts, and the two band-aids aren’t doing a lot for me.

Why mention this on The Hundred Dollar Business experiment site?

Mainly because I think the reason behind the skinned knee was my lack of sleep. I’m not really a mystic person who assigns cosmic meaning to normal experiences, I just think I’m running on such low energy that apparently walking is starting to be a difficulty. Not a good sign. But wait, it gets better.

The Marinara Fiasco

A few hours later, I managed to spill an entire tub of marinara sauce on my lap as I was driving back to the mall. I still can’t decide which was worse, the knee or the marinara.

Walking inside the mall with 8 ounces of tomato sauce mashed into my skirt was also highly unpleasant. Perhaps the enticing smell of tomato sauce is the reason we did fairly well today?

Anyway, here’s the deal– I have been staying up grossly past midnight, and according to the experiment, that’s off-limits. So I need to change that.

Skinning my knee is a great, painful reminder of how sleep deprivation can also affect my ability to make and execute plans for the business. So, I’ll make this post as short as possible so I can unplug for a bit.

Sales, Sales, Sales

Someone posted a comment last night about retail holiday sales, which I haven’t had a chance to reply to yet. Anyway, she gave a great suggestion, that instead of worrying about “selling”, that it’s better to create an environment where people feel comfortable to look, pick things up, not feel pressured, and enjoy themselves. That was an awesome concept that really helped today.

Some of the things we are trying include:

1. Pulling the inventory out of the packaging as much as possible,
2. Putting some of the dolls on lower levels so the kids can reach them.
3. Having samples of the Nutty Guys nut trays and Channing’s Bundt Cakes so people will try them… like them… and buy them!
4. Giving the customers some time to browse before approaching them. (If they wandered to the kiosk on their own).
5. Consolidating the products and sorting them, so they are easier to process visually.
And more. I can’t remember the rest.

But I’ll be honest, I’m starting to worry about sales. We’re having sales, and have had them from day one, which is amazing for a five-day-old startup, but I am constantly wondering if it is enough on many levels. For break even. For ROI. For doing as well as we have the potential to do. For making a gazillion dollars, besides.

I guess that’s the plight of every business owner, right? The good thing for us is that for the most part, we don’t have overhead– though each of us has a breakeven figure, whether that is for product, time spent, or remaining portion of the lease. What we have is completely do-able at the pace we’re taking, which is great news. But…

Are We A Lifestyle Idea or A Fundable Idea?

When I was brainstorming the experiment, I remembered reading Brock Blake’s recent post about how there’s a difference between a “fundable” idea and a “lifestyle” idea. The main difference was that a fundable idea would provide a ROI 10-30 times the initial investment, but a lifestyle idea provides income for the owner & some employees, but not much beyond that.

So on one hand, we’re doing really well, as a “lifestyle” idea, and also technically as a fundable idea (with the investment being $100, an ROI of 10-30x shouldn’t be hard to hit). I think The Hundred Dollar Business as a concept is a fundable idea, but running a kiosk is a lifestyle idea. At least, running one kiosk. Thousands of kiosks… could be fundable.

But either way, I want to maximize the opportunities that we have during this month. And what I’ve realized is that even with the improvements we’re making in salesmanship, presentation, etc., there is still a cap to how well the kiosk can really do, so I’m starting to turn my thoughts to other ways of growing business as well. At the same time, I definitely want those new ideas to be a quality effort.

By the way, someone inquired as to how much sales per day we are at. I don’t know if that’s totally appropriate public info, but hey, it’s my blog, right? So far, on a slow day in early December about $150, and on average, $200-$250, and on a great day, $350. Then again, we’ve only been here 5 days, most of them typically sloooooow mall days– Mon, Tues, Wed. Our goal is to get to $1,000/day as soon as possible, however– which is totally reasonable for a mall during the holidays.

How to Monetize the Model?

We’re a business, right? So we want to make profit. As much as possible? Yes and no. For example, we’re trying to determine the best ways to monetize our online presence, as well.

But, I don’t want to cheapen the blog, you readers’ attention, or our concept. Yes, unfortunately, we want to do things the classy way.

We’ve had some great suggestions from you about ways we can monetize the concept more than we are already. Some of them are fairly easy, and we may do them. The winners currently are to:

1. Integrate a shopping cart option on this site so people can order our Nutty Guys holiday trays, Channing’s Bundt Cakes (they’re shippable, y’all!), Kelly’s princess gear, etc.
2. Put affilate links to our vendors’ online stores.
3. Make t-shirts on zazzle.com or cafepress.com or another site.
4. Use AdSense.
5. Write short articles & charge .50 or $1.00 each for them. (This actually sounds fun– I’d like to do something like “The 10 Most Amusing Things That Happened Today”.
(Just as a freebie, today I was handing out bundt cake samples, and one gentleman (mid-fifties? keep in mind that I’m 25.) said, “oh, that looks sweet.” and when I tried to give him one of the samples, he declined, giggling and saying, “I was talking about you.” It pretty much made my day.)
6. Use YouRep to host our pictures, and receive revenue from that traffic.
Anyway, not to run my entire business plan by the entire Internet, but I wanted some feedback from the blogosphere– because I think that there needs to be a meaningful product/service, not just any product or service, and I certainly don’t have free time on my hands to waste.

Do you like these ideas? Would you buy or participate in any of these products/services?

(Would anyone else? Would a lot of anyone else?) And, of course, what are your better ideas?

By the way, tomorrow, courtesy of local video production team, Copper Rain, we are filming a couple of short interview videos to talk more about the ideas behind The Hundred Dollar Business and our experiences so far. They said I couldn’t wear my sweatpants. And here I thought I was the boss.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are fabulous, and I’m answering them as I have time & Internet access! And now, I’m off to sleep!

December 7: Lowest Sales Ever, Best Day Yet

Why So Happy With Low Sales?

Today was the slowest day ever. I know we only sold a few things, but I’m not frazzled by that. The reason is, I realized that the point of The Hundred Dollar Business is not about making sales.On one hand, we want to do as well as possible. But on the other hand, we are really enjoying the experience, and we’ve learned a lot. And there are new opportunities cropping up each day. How wonderful!

And so, after fretting about sales all week, and why we weren’t yet meeting our arbitrary goal of $1000/day, I remembered that sales weren’t on the list of 10 principles to test, and they weren’t anymore a part of our “Make $100 profit for next month’s business” goal either, because at this point, even with slow days we are on track to break even.

So What Are Our Goals?

Well, here’s the list of what we set out to do:

Limits: A budget of $100, 30 days, and I have to go to sleep by around midnight every night.

Minimum Goal: Set up a well functioning business, pay all business/personal expenses for the month, and make at least $100 back in order to (possibly) start a next Hundred Dollar Business in January.

The 10 Concepts to Test:

Networking
Negotiating
Money Is The Last Thing Needed to Start a Business
Be Smart
Be Focused
Keep it Balanced
“Franchise” the Business
Be Resourceful
Get Around Obstacles
Think Virally
How “The Problem” Is Not The Problem

After remembering what we’re supposed to be doing, I realized that the problem isn’t sales… but that the basic principles were being disregarded, and chaos was taking over.

Morale was starting to drain, precluding us from actually pumping up our sales skills & otherwise capturing great opportunities.

Even the mall security staff are starting to pick on me at night & tell me to go home. Isn’t that a clue that I’m working too hard? How can I “Keep it Balanced” when I’m dropping marinara sauce on myself and skinning knees because I’m so tired?

And “Be Resourceful”– what happened to that? As a matter of fact, we’re not the greatest salespeople. We try hard, and we’re not terrible, but not charmers either. (And I’m talking about myself here). But, instead of using the “Get Around Obstacles” option, I sat back and worried about it.

Until I realized today that three kiosks over, there is a team of the best salespeople I’ve seen so far at this mall. They are peppy, pumped, and sell like crazy all day long– and they enjoy it. Hmm… sounds like a resource to me! I spent a lot of time talking with those guys today, asking them for tips, and I really love their approach.

Free Sales Tips From the T-Mobile Guys

1. Get some “pickup lines” to ask customers, to get their attention.

I should have known this one. Sometime when I go swing dancing, and “have” to ask a guy to dance, I use, “Would you like to ask me to dance?” Kind of lame, but 100% effective because it’s an amusing icebreaker. So we’re going to think of a few clever lines to ask customers…

2. Ask open-ended questions rather than yes/no.

If I say, “Do you want to try a sample of our cake?”, they’ll say yes, take one and walk away or say no, don’t take one and walk away.

But if I say, “Are you more of a chocolate cake kind of person, or strawberry?”, I’m setting the groundwork for an engaging conversation.

(Which reminds me, I had a really interesting conversation tonight with a teenager from Mexico, who kept asking me where I learned Spanish, why I’m not married, and if I would consider marrying him and moving to Puerto Vallarta. I told him I couldn’t leave the mall until January, and I hated to turn him down, but at any rate, I think he’d be a great salesman, because of his amazing conversation skills.)

3. Motivate the Staff with Incentives, Goals, & Competition

But how do you motivate on a low budget? For example, today I wanted to tell Rachelle & Kelly how much I really appreciated their participation with the Hundred Dollar Business.

I thought, “I should get them something. I should do something for them.” But I don’t have any cashflow. I don’t have any timeflow, either!

So I just straight up told them, “Appreciation. That’s all I’ve got. Thank you. Isn’t this an amazing experience?” And then we got all teary (sorry! we’re women!) and morale skyrocketed. So, I’m definitely going to look for more ways to motivate us.

4. Enjoy what you’re doing, or customers will avoid you.

Hmm. Big surprise that the customers haven’t been charmed by my weary, marinara-splattered countenance. It speaks for itself.

5. Shoppers want to buy something.

They’re at the mall, aren’t they? And what are they here for? Exactly– to buy stuff. Which is convenient, because I’m selling stuff. So the battle is half won.

6. No one comes to the mall looking for a cell phone.

That was a great point they made, because I sometimes think, “Our products are fun gifts that people don’t really need… how can that be compelling?” But if these guys can sell 20 phones a week each, to people who aren’t even looking to buy a phone, how can we not be compelling to holiday shoppers who are at the mall specifically looking for gifts?

The Sum-Up

These guys have really internalized the concepts behind sales, and are so confident in their skills, that they consistently outperform. They celebrate, apply good practices, and keep it fun. We’re going to try that approach– and I think increased sales will result naturally.

What’s not to love about a day like that?

December 8: Success, Panic, & Making Someone Cry!

Howdy! Here’s an overview of today. Wow, what a day!
Success

As yesterday was our lowest sales day… today was our highest!!! We did so well– thanks also to Kelly & Rachelle, you both rock.

I think that the sales suggestions and the relaxed-but-conversational approach towards interacting with the customers did a lot for us. Also, Kelly’s cousin came down to appear as our “Sugar Plum Fairy” for the Sweet & Charming princess/dress-ups products, which was really well received by the kids and shoppers.

Panic

When I was planning The Hundred Dollar Business, and working on the deals with our vendors, etc., there was really only one time when I questioned whether or not I should move forward with the project.

It was about ten minutes of panic– I was at the mall, things were looking good, and all of a sudden, the responsibility of it all hit me. Now, it’s not like we’re doing brain surgery here, but there are a lot of things to take care of, obligations to fulfill, vendor accounts & payments to make as we make sales, etc.

At the start of the planning, I’d thrown myself into looking for opportunities and piecing together the concept, but not really considered the actual tasks and day-to-day of the project. So when it hit me last week, the night before we moved in to the kiosk, the main theme of my wavering seemed to be, “Can I/(do I want to) take on these risks?” And after a chat with Kelly, I realized that everything had come together so quickly, concidentally, and seamlessly, that it would work out well. And so we got started.

But today, strangely, I had another bout of worry! Even though we are doing quite well, and learning every day, improving, testing the core business ideas, and really, having a blast– I had a stream of “what ifs” that now, seem kind of amusing:

1. What if our credit card payments don’t process and I have to recoup those amounts to the vendors?
2. What if we don’t make enough sales to meet our breakevens and lease obligations at the end of the month?
3. What if the accounting for the vendors/inventory/payments becomes extremely complicated (it kind of is, anyway), and I botch it, and sink myself with having to recoup those costs as well?
4. What if my products don’t sell?
5. What if any of our vendors back out on product orders?
And yeah, the list continued. Really, it was dizzying to consider all of the ways that we could fail. If any one of those did happen, it would be difficult, and probably largely because it’s hard to recover from a setback/discouragement in a short period of time, especially under stress & constraints.

But then, you have to consider principle-9 “Get Around Obstacles”. Thank goodness we’re testing that one in this experiment! Because then, instead of taking a problem at face value, we can look for ways to get directly to the desired outcome, and then chart a path to that end.

For example, with #1, if that were to happen, instead of declaring myself an idiot for not avoiding credit payments mishaps better, it would be more effective to figure out which payments could still be processed and then set new sales goals or develop new ideas to earn revenues to cover the lost funds.

By the way– the emphasis on finance worries comes from three factors today:

1. We ran out of credit card slips at the kiosk (“imprinter sales slips” for knuckle busters), and they seem impossible to find in a local store. We did purchase some rent/receipt slips, but they’re pretty ghetto. (Maybe because we only spent about $3 on them. ) So that made me re-evaluate how effective/ineffective our credit card processing could potentially be.

2. My “Entrepreneur Lectures” class at BYU focused on cash flow management today, saying that the number one reason businesses tank is due to poor cash flow management, which got me thinking about if/what we were doing to avoid large problems, especially as our cash flow increases and becomes more complex.

3. I had an unexpected charge on my personal bank account which was a wake up call, that made my realize that… this is my job now, and if I want to support myself (which would be… ideal!), that I really need to concentrate on making this project successful financially, in addition to educationally.

There’s no doubt that we’ve learned a lot– but at the end, even though our “minimum” goal is to earn the $100 to reinvest in a new Hundred Dollar Business idea, we also want to be able to show that we took the $100 and, after everything is said and done, created a ROI of at least 10-30 times the original investment, a “fundable idea”.

It’s definitely do-able, though if we lost all the credit card payments, I think I really would cry.

Which leads to…

Making Someone Cry

This story has to be told. It’s sad! It made my heart break.

So, we are trying this new customer-approach, where we create a comfy environment for the customers to look at our products, shop around, and have a friendly & fun experience with us. (While at the same time, we are prepping them to learn more about our things & want to purchase).

There was the sweetest elderly woman who came to the cart. She looked at some of the books, and then was checking out the princess things. Since I was trying to think of one of those “icebreaker/pick up statements”, I asked,

“So, do you have any grandbabies?”

She turned away, and with great big tears starting up, said, “I did, but they all died.”

Uh………………….. wow, that was a problematic moment! For a second, I just felt really terrible. Obviously, she was torn up about it, and all I could do was… fumble.

Anyway, she kept walking around the kiosk, and then came back over to where I was, and talked a little more about her situation with her grandkids. I felt so bad that I’d made her cry! So, all I could think to do was to give her one of our cakes and a big hug.

I tell you what, I don’t know which approach is better– asking trite salespeople questions like “Can I help you?” but with lower sales, or starting an actual conversation, making someone cry, and having great sales. Hrm.

So I guess the moral of the story is that if you stop by the kiosk and I make you cry, at least we’ll try to compensate you for it.

A Night Off

One last thought– I have most of tonight and tomorrow morning “off”. Which was wonderful, but challenging because I hadn’t yet stopped to take it all in since we started. Kelly, Rachelle, & Amy are filling in at the kiosk, which I really appreciate.

I went with some friends to Los Hermanos, a local Mexican place, and ended up saying, “What’s your return policy?” to the server when I didn’t like my smoothie. (The secret ingredient is avocado… in a fruit drink?) I guess I’ve been working too many hours lately in a retail setting.

This applies to principle 6- Keep It Balanced. It’s so good to take a break! I’m looking forward to Christmas Day (the mall only closes on that day!), and then my vacation in January.

And I’m really happy that while I’m putting a lot of time in, this is a project I really like working on– which I think ultimately is the underlying concept of The Hundred Dollar Business, that through entrepreneurship, no matter what resources you have or don’t have, you can create a place for yourself and the situations you want in life. How cool is that!

CHAPTER 4: December 9-13

December 9: A Stolen Treo, Record-Breaking Sales, + Chaos Galore

A Stolen Treo

Saturday, December 9th. The day my well-loved Treo was stolen while I was manning the kiosk. For those of you who know how dependent I am (was) on that phone… it’s depressing.

I’m the kind of girl who leaves her keys in the car, unlocked, with the engine running, while I run back into my house (also unlocked) to get my laptop, which is sitting out of its bag in the front room in plain view.

In fact, during the summer, it’s pretty common for me to leave my house doors open, not just unlocked, when I go running or to a neighbor’s house.

So sue me. I lived in Rexburg, Idaho for way too long… one of the truly “small” towns left (even though there are 17,298 friends you haven’t met yet, according to the welcome billboard on one of its two freeway exits). Maybe not thoroughly small numbers-wise, but definitely small in street smarts.

(Yes, I also leave my clothes in the dryer at the laundromat– am I supposed to waste 45 minutes waiting for them to dry?)

So it’s no surprise that leaving a $400 phone out in the open on my kiosk desk, with 50,000 weekend shoppers walking by, didn’t seem like a really bad idea to me. It never occurred to me that one of them was a thug.

Karma has probably been racking up all those times that my car, house, and other misc. were never vandalized. But even though fate slapped me on the face, irony’s got my back.

See, the antenna had recently broken off my Treo, giving it the worst reception ever. I’d managed to wedge it back in generally, but on this particular day, it’d fallen off at home, and I couldn’t find it. Since I’ve always been fond of ’80s TV star MacGyver, I pieced together an antenna made from a paper clip, which was more like a homing device/ear-piercing gun than a cellular accessory, but props to me for trying.

In summary…

Suckers! Some quality phone you ran off with.

And when I found the antenna at my house this morning, it was the one bright spot in the whole experience. They may have gotten my phone… but they’ll never get the antenna!

So now my fellow mall/T-Mobile salesmen friends are trying to take advantage of my vulnerable phone-less status to work their sales mojo. But, since I know their tricks, I’m immune.

What does A Stolen Treo have to do with The Hundred Dollar Business?

Nothing, except that I was really frustrated by it, and it happened at the kiosk. Just more of the adventure, I guess. (Someone once said I’d make a gazillion dollars off each bad experience I have by writing about it. I guess he didn’t understand the economics of a blog.)

And now, on to…

Record-Breaking Sales

Can you believe this– today we broke $900 in daily sales!!! That is just amazing to me. It’s about 3x what we made last Saturday, which is probably a combination of the increased mall traffic + our improved displays, more products, and general awesomeness.

I know we set a daily sales goal of $1000, but I didn’t know how realistic that was. Now that we’re almost there, I can see how it will be possible, and what kinds of things we need to do consistently to hit that goal. (Especially the closer it gets to Christmas).

Way to go, all of us!

Chaos Galore

This “running-a-business” thing is funny. Every time I get past one hurdle, another smacks me in the face. At least, that’s how this is going. We have the sales thing going well, and now the growth-induced chaos has become stumblingly apparent, and I’m working full-speed at taming it.

There are so many details that we just didn’t think about it! Blame it on the lack of retail experience. Or the frenzied immediacy of the experiment. Or whatever you want. But any way you look at it, these details will quickly mount into friction & unpleasantness if we don’t take care of them.

(By the way, things aren’t last minute due to procrastination (whew!), but last minute due to the spontaneity of this whole thing. I don’t know that the results are any different, except that I don’t feel guilty about being a procrastinator, since it doesn’t apply).

For example, when we first opened last Saturday, I didn’t even think about having cash for the cash register. Doh! Kelly brought in some bills, which was good– but we didn’t even have coins the bulk of the day. How does something like that slip by unnoticed?

So, there’s chaos in things like that. Except, multiply it by 8 looong days, and several sleep-deprived people. That’s a huge opportunity for discrepancies, and they are definitely starting to crop up.

Though, I am trying to squelch the chaos through systematizing things. Kind of tricky, especially because I forget that I’m in charge, and that if I don’t deliberately organize things, it’s not going to happen by itself. Argh.

So anyway, I think that is the next phase for us. Getting things to “run themselves” as much as possible. I known a lot of really amazingly organized people, so I’ll be picking their brains. If you have any thoughts on this, let me know!

And, if you see a Treo roaming around with a paper-clip antenna, you know who to call. Er, e-mail.

A Quick Catchup

Hi! I’ve neglected the blog, and I’m sorry!

I spent much of the last three days organizing processes at the kiosk. It’s hard to believe that after only 7 days of business, we already created a mountain of paperwork and chaos.

I know that’s not the most glamorous, exciting thing to report, but it’s what I’ve been working on.

The biggest thing I learned from that is… sometimes there are big messes to sort through at a business… and it’s ALL on the owner, ultimately, to:

1. Notice it.
2. Sort it out.
3. Put systems into place to prevent further future problems.
4. Take responsibility for what isn’t working & find solutions.
5. Take responsibility for fixing the consequences brought on by the chaos.

I also realized that the best way to get past a problem is to dive in and fix it. For example, because things have been so helter skelter just getting started & then our amazing sales growth, things like record-keeping, accounting, and inventory have been more on the back burner.

(And just to clarify, we have been doing those things, but with a somewhat sloppy approach, for which I am completely to blame– either through being the one who wasn’t as careful as I needed to be, or else through not organizing systems in the first place).

So now, instead of working on ways to improve the product display and concentrating on sales (which will ultimately make the business a financial success), I am putting in several hours sorting out details. Argh, indeed!

But even so, especially since we’re having so much business, those things would only grow exponentially as a problem if I don’t dig in now. However big of a challenge it is today, it would definitely not be pretty dealing with this at the end of the month if ignored.

Another thing to note, is that today, I am also sitting here with an additional pile of small problems, and have been chewing on them all day instead of solving them. The strange thing about that is that the major purpose of The Hundred Dollar Business concept is to use innovation, resourcefulness, and a proactive approach to starting and operating a business, and not getting sidetracked by excuses or challenges.

So, why the roadblocks? I think simply because I forgot to apply my problem-solving skills. Seriously, these are not difficult challenges– just for your amusement, I’ll give you an idea:

1. We ran out of credit card slips & since I’m at the kiosk most of the day, I haven’t yet had a chance to get more.
2. My phone was stolen and there’s an inconvenient gap in communication for coordinating with my vendors, employees, etc.
3. We don’t have enough employees to handle a busy kiosk at Christmas time. Seriously, we don’t.

Are those strange, unique, amazing problems? Not really. Isn’t that crazy, that these dumb little things can add up and become frustrating and get in the way of the business going as well as it should?

So anyway, the problem of the credit card slips solved itself– basically, I was talking with Julia (our first customer, who also works at another kiosk and is now hooked on the bundt cakes!), and she told me she had a whole pile of the old school style credit cards slips they never use, that we could just have.

Yet another example of things coming together for us, through networking? Or luck? Or… something? What would happen (or what does happen) for businesses, when they share resources and offer solutions to each other instead of acting as independent competitors?

(Julia, your next cake is definitely on me!)

The other problems, are they really roadblocks? I have calling cards, why am I not using them? Or just going and getting a new phone? Or resurrecting an old phone I have? Or using any of the phones that friends have offered to let me use? I have no explanation.

Why am I not putting the word out that we are swamped and need some kiosk help? I don’t know, it just… didn’t occur to me that I should be simply solving those problems.

And I think that happens a lot in business, and I’m going to keep an eye out from it continuing to happen through this experiment, as well.

Which, to be fair, there are a lot of things on my mind, and that combined with the long hours, is making me less aware than I should be. And as I write that, I think I realize that is probably the very first roadblock to get past, finding a way to implement a less demanding schedule so I can have a better perspective on the challenges we face.

Alright. There’s the catchup. Your thoughts?

P.S. Just as a teaser– we just got our video back from Copper Rain today. They did a great job. We’ll likely be posting it tomorrow.

If It’s Not Selling, Do Something.

We just realized that some of our products aren’t selling well. And frankly, some aren’t selling at all.

On one hand, I could let it ride out for the month, and just blame it on those products, or the market, or the time of year, or whatever.

But the reality is, that if the products aren’t selling, then I am “paying” for them to sit there, at least from the opportunity cost of the profit I could have earned from selling them. And since being a storage unit is not the purpose of a mall kiosk, something needs to change.

So, we went through and looked at the kiosk as a whole last night. There are a lot of great things happening with the display, but definitely some gaps, as well. We evaluated everything based on:

1. Why is/isn’t this product selling?
2. What makes this display successful or not?
3. What is the overall message that is communicated to the shoppers by this arrangement of items?
4. Would people understand what this section is selling?
5. Would I personally buy these items?
6. If we improve the display, could these items do better?
7. Is this the right kind of product to have on a kiosk as anyway?
8. Does this product fit with the overall theme of our kiosk, “Treats & Treasures”?

We took everything off that was a sure “no-seller”– which had been on display for the last ten days but hadn’t generated any interest or sales. It was frustrating on one hand, to realize that the kiosk has been carrying a lot of dead weight, but it was also wonderful to do something about it, and start making plans to get products & displays matched up so we will do better overall.

There are still 18 shopping days left in December, 12 of which are before Christmas. If we move quickly, we can get our new displays working well before the weekend, which is when about 1/2 of our sales happen. With 2 pre-Christmas weekends left, plus the frenzied week before Christmas, and an additional weekend after Christmas, the time to get things improved is now.

It would be interesting to set up two kiosks, both with the same products, but one with a fabulous display/well- strategized visual merchandising plan, and the other with the items poorly represented, and then compare their sales trends. I know the difference would be amazing, but I’m wondering how amazing– would sales be doubled, tripled at the well-presented one?

Even with the improvements we’ve made since the first day, things drastically changed for some of our products. So, I’m hopeful that with some additional changes, the other products will see similar improvement.

Another challenge coming up is that the week after Christmas, holiday items won’t be as marketable, so I’m already thinking of what we’ll need to do to either push the inventory that we do have, or have a “winter holiday” enough theme that we’ll be okay for those last 6 days.

Anyone have some visual merchandising tips… for the holidays, and for kiosks? We’re looking into all of this (I love Google…), but really, your thoughts are helpful as well.

Internet Options Part 2: Thoughts And Reservations

My Thoughts & Reservations About Viral Marketing Tools

I think most of these reservations result from a lack of experience using these tools, combined with my sense of wanting the experiment to be taken as a serious effort, not a hype campaign. So here they are:

1. How Will Monetizing The Site Affect Readers?
In applying anything to our blog which monetizes the content/site (AdSense, Yepic, Commission Junction, Lulu.com, YouRep), what message does this send to the readers– and if we use these tools on our site, will we lose some visitors who are put off by an emphasis on revenue?

2. Do YouTube Videos Convert To Sales?
What will be the effect of releasing our video on GoogleVideo, YouTube, YouRep, and our site? Will there be an increase in the amount of visitors we get, and if so, will they also become interested in what we’re doing over the longterm, or just the day that they watched the video?

3. Does Anyone Buy CafePress Shirts?
Will anyone actually buy one of the shirts/stickers we made on CafePress? And will those products do anything to help spread the concept of The Hundred Dollar Business, or will they end up as a discount item at The Salvation Army?

(Seriously, I’m not a graphic designer… and I used WordPaint for the graphic. I know there are better options out there, but I was strapped for time. And P.S., if someone does buy one of those shirts, we will definitely post your picture on the site wearing it. If you want.)

4. Can Social Networking Sites Promote Business Effectively?

Are MySpace and FaceBook really applicable to spreading business concepts? If I was a band groupie, it could be effective to use those tools, but for this market, what can MySpace & FaceBook really offer us?

5. Aren’t Friends & Family Already Tired Of Hearing About It?

By e-mailing and blogging about The Hundred Dollar Business, what is the benefit/cost on my relationships with my friends, family, and network? (I’m sure a few of you may be little sick of hearing about the kiosk. )

By the way, I sent an e-mail to some friends the other day, letting them know that my phone was stolen & I needed their contact info, and within a few hours, I had 22 e-mails back. So obviously, e-mail can spread word quickly, but is there an annoyance factor that results from combining business interests/relationships?

6. Free Content Versus Paid Content

Are e-books and paid articles presumptuous things to do when there is so much free content available (like our main blog, for example!), or is that really a tool which can provide compensation for the time an author/business invests in creating information for others? And, is there really a demand for paid articles yet?

7. Is Our Business Compelling Enough To The Media?

Will anyone pick up our story from the press releases, and if so, what kind of media attention will we be able to get, and ultimately, will that increase customers at our kiosk, online purchasing of our products, or our blog readership?

8. What Will Be The ROI of Affiliate Marketing?

In publicizing our vendors’ sites or using Commission Junction, will any of them see an increase in traffic & purchasing of their products online, and if so, how great of an increase? And, what will that translate into for our business, in terms of revenue– and will that offset the man hours of setting up those applications?

The Sum-Up

I think there are a lot of great tools we have available, and I’m interested to see what results will come, if any. What we would like to have happen is:

1. An increased local awareness of the kiosk to drive business & improve sales.
2. Recognition for our vendors and their products, as part of our thanks for working with us and also because we really like their products!
3. To spread the concept of The Hundred Dollar Business.
4. And frankly, to have a backup way to generate revenue in case the experiment bombs and we end up owing on part of the kiosk lease.

My prediction is that either:

A. We will have minimal attention from these efforts, but we’ll be more familiar with how these tools work, and our readers will have to cut through more features to read the content they’re interested in.

B. The marketing will spread quickly & we’ll see huge daily spikes that trail off with probably a long-term double or triple increase in blog readership, and we’ll have some revenue, although not much (less than $500 total on all accounts).
I don’t think that our mall kiosk will see an increase in sales, unless a local news station picks up the story & all our friends come down to take advantage of the friends & fam discounts for last minute gifts.

By the way, currently, we are at about 850 visitors/week average, 100+ day, so double would be 1700/week, average of 200+/day, and triple would be 2550/week, 300+ day– if those numbers are off… I’ve had a long week.

And so, let the viral marketing roll!

Chapter 5: December 14-17

December 14: Becoming Stingy, Failing My Class, & Return of The Treo!!

I just realized I haven’t been writing as many anecdotes lately, which is definitely one of the highlights of being in the experiment– the random nature of it all. So here goes.

Becoming Stingy

Rachelle and I decided to beef up our display with a winter-ish theme. It all sounded great until after closing the kiosk at 11:30 p.m., we realized that nothing was open except Wal-Mart. (I know… “quality items for a display” and “the Springville, Utah Wal-Mart” aren’t exactly synonymous.)

Anyway, the funny thing is that we do have about $60 left in “the budget”, and we couldn’t really decide how much to use on the display. The value of a dollar has become just ridiculously expensive to me– to spend $20 for a display seemed like a fat waste of cash. Because really, when you scale it down like that, anything you spend is crucial.

As we walked through the store looking at things, we were like… “$2.77? You do realize that is 2.77% of our total budget?” With the mindset like that, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to buying anything. We were looking for blue & silver winter-looking snowman-ish things, and though we found quite a few… it seemed like selling out to actually spend money.

So when I was driving home, I kept thinking, “Man! I’ve got to know someone who has that kind of stuff that we could borrow, some excess Christmas looking deco in their house.” Then I walked into my apartment, which frankly, I haven’t seen much of for the last few weeks, and realized that all my decorations– jars, flowers, candlesticks, etc. are blue & silver.

Yep. So it’s The Hundred Dollar Business budget, all the way!

Failing My Entrepreneurship Class

So, my Entrepreneurship Lecture class at BYU this semester? I think I’m actually going to fail it. I went to all the classes & lectures, and the extra required events, but with working at the other startup plus everything else, and now this project, things like “deadlines for a one page paper” haven’t made it to the top of my task-list.

The sad thing is, I’ve blogged about all of the events and lectures I went to. I wish I could just turn in a blog post for credit. Maybe I’ll try enacting the “Negotiate Win-Win Situations” principle– I spaced the 5 p.m. “late” deadline tonight.

Somehow, it all seems fitting, though. “I failed my entrepreneurship class because I was starting a business.”

Return of The Treo

…Do you own anything worth more than ten bucks? Just get insurance on it. It is the best investment of $5/month you can make!

After the Treo was stolen, I called Verizon to have the line suspended, so the hooligan(s) that nabbed it wouldn’t be able to run up the bill. I’m sad that the customer service rep didn’t tell me that if I had insurance, it would be replaced the next day– as I’ve spent the last 6 days miserable in a communication-less void.

But even after someone told me to check if I had insurance, I held off. I can’t figure it out–I think my reasoning was “I’m too busy to take care of a dumb thing like my phone being stolen.” And yet, it created big problems for me in trying to make all kinds of arrangements for the kiosk, my employee situation, vendors, etc.

Though, the best news ever is that I did finally call in the theft, and they are sending me a new one! It’s already being shipped, and is coming in later tomorrow afternoon! How cool is that!

Ye Basic Summary

Honestly– I’ve been getting burned out of being at the kiosk. For a gag, we made “I Heart My Kiosk” shirts on Cafepress.com… and the last few days, nothing could be further from the truth. Oh! And someone told Rachelle that they would invite her to some activity, but she’s in a relationship… with a kiosk. (Which made us laugh!)

I guess the challenge is that the mall is open 7 days/week, we’re grossly understaffed (which, I still haven’t figured out how to solve), and with the holiday hours being extended (from 7 or 8 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m.)… it’s just looooong.

As well, I’m trying to juggle the following ideas:

1. Don’t work in your business, work on your business.
2. Don’t hire (or spend money) until you really need to.
3. My personal belief that I *can’t* hire anyone (or ask them to help out a lot) unless I feel confident that I can either pay them (best case scenario) or provide value for their time, and I’m not sure how to provide that yet.
4. Don’t “buy yourself a job”. (Erika Wilde, from StopDirt.com, shared this one with my class a few weeks ago. She was considering buying a franchise, but realized that the ROI for the time managing the business would be marginal).

Anyway, for me to not have time to step away to plan & act on attracting local customers or revamping our product & display, presents an opportunity cost I don’t like to have. I know that the kiosk’s capacity for revenue is really limited, and I want to maximize the time we have. Only 17 days left. Sigh.

So, there are some anecdotes and random thoughts. It really is an adventure. Right now it’s the middle of the marathon, so we need to keep trucking, and move past the setup/operations phase, and into the revenue/growth stage.

If it goes well, that should be the most exciting stage!

December 15: Halfway There!

Is It The 15th Already?

So… we’re at the halfway mark. Only 15 more days of The Hundred Dollar Business, and each day is just as valuable as when we started, maybe even more so. I think really, that the limited time is more difficult than the limited budget. There are so many more things I would do, if I had more time!

(And, I realize I’m already spending a grossly workaholic-ish amount of time on the project, anyway. I’m looking forward to Christmas Day… and of course, my vacation in January!)

Today was a great day. I’m not sure why. Maybe that sounds odd, but it has been particularly beastly the last few days, and that today was even keel, is refreshing.

Nutty Guys & Warehouses

At any rate, I was able to stop by Granite Publishing & Distribution to pick up more Christmas picture books, and I also went up to the Nutty Guys warehouse in West Valley City, UT. That was fun! I wish I’d taken a camera up with me– they have this fabulous warehouse with so many things going on!

It’s an operations-guru’s dream, to see all of the processes & systems that are organized in a setting like that. I asked them if I could have a tour sometime. I’m sure they get that a lot.

(For the record, I also want a tour of a U.S. Post Office sometime. That has to be one of the most processed & efficient operations ever.)

Out of curiousity, anyone ever had several hundred pounds of nuts and nut trays in your car? I’ve delivered magazines for Schooled Magazine before, back when I was doing freelance writing, and afterwards, my car smelled like a print shop. After getting the Nutty Guys stuff yesterday, my car could double as a PB & J sandwich factory.

Stocking Up

So, after the mall closed down for the night, Kelly & I restocked our products for Saturday. Last week, we did really well on the weekend, and we are hoping & planning for amazing sales over this weekend, as well.

When I was getting the boxes from my car, I felt like a stock girl/night crew/truck driver type. I pulled my car up to the loading dock, grabbed a wheely cart, and piled it up with the boxes of books & nuts. (By the way, it was snowing…)

Then I pushed the cart through the mall’s secret maintenance hallways– it’s fun to read “Authorized Personnel Only!” and realize… I am authorized! At one point, there were some double doors, which opened to the inside of the doorway, and it was really interesting getting the cart through there.

Of course, as I was pushing this huge load of inventory through the mall, I was getting some bemused looks from other mall employees & lagging customers. I guess I just don’t have the warehouse look down yet. I’m going to have to work on that.

Our Awesome Vendors!

It was great to visit with our vendors today. Seriously, we totally lucked out with the products we were able to get, as well as how diligent our vendors are.

Interestingly, we just assumed that our products would sell, which seems like one of those assumptions that entrepreneurs make and don’t factor in when calculating risk & projections. When I weighed the lease with the need to sell products, I never considered “what if these products don’t sell?”

Which is probably a good thing, because then our approach has been “what do we need to do so that these products will be extremely marketable” rather than “my products aren’t
selling & there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Well– stick around! More adventures to come.

December 16: From The Shadows of the Everlasting Kiosk

Mall Marathon

I just have to throw it out there– today, I survived a 17 hour shift. On a Saturday, at the mall, 9 days before Christmas.

Yeah… and I never want to have that experience again. I got here at 7 a.m., and around 2 p.m., was already beginning to feel a loss of identity. At 4 p.m., a RockStar was looking pretty good, although, since I have a moral stance against energy drinks, I somehow made it through without one. When I closed, I’ve never felt more happy.

I know there’s something wrong with doing a “mall marathon”, which I’m not applying my problem-solving skills to yet, because I’m really tired–I simply can’t figure it out. I think that is the biggest challenge that I’m facing right now in the project… which I’ll discuss more in the next post.

Visitors Aplenty

I saw 13 people I know today! Many others have stopped by as well during the past two weeks, which I really appreciate.

Today it was wonderful, spontaneous, and pretty evenly distributed throughout the day. I think it was some good kiosk karma, helping to make the marathon less of a burden.

Showing the kiosk is kind of like giving someone a tour of your first on-your-own apartment. You’re proud of it, even though it’s minimalistic (translation: ghetto).

Actually, by now, our displays are looking pret-ty good, and we’re bustling along. First kiosk and all. But we do have that “hey, this is our business!” pride going on, so if you do visit, watch out for that.

Awesome New Products!

Our kiosk is called “Treats & Treasures,” and we’d been thinking that we needed more Christmas-y treats to add, but weren’t sure what or how to go about it. We had brainstormed & wanted to find chocolate pretzels, hot cocoa tins, cookie dough or do-it-yourself cookie decorating kits, Christmas taffy, etc.

So on Friday when I was at Nutty Guys, Nathan showed me some chocolate-caramel covered pretzels and tubs of Christmas caramels… and I was definitely happy. I hadn’t told him we were looking for those types of things, and I didn’t know he had access to them, either.

What a blessing to find the exact things we were wanting, without even looking for them! I am really grateful for things like that which have happened throughout this experiment!
I’ll post pictures of the caramels & pretzels– when I get home, because…

The Mall’s Wireless Internet… An Art & Science

The internet here is seriously finicky! I’ve actually put scotch tape on the kiosk desk, plotting the exact coordinates where my laptop has to sit in order to catch the wireless network.

If more than two people walk by the kiosk, the network cuts off. That I know this, I’m sure, is a reflection on my pseudo-geek status.

Upcoming Carnival…

And finally, get ready for our blog carnival announcement, later this evening or tomorrow… That’s all I’m going to say about that. From the shadows of the everlasting kiosk… goodnight!

December 17: Zero In On The Problem

Ok, so I wrote about how I’m struggling/the project is struggling because we’re working too hard & not resting enough.

So, I’m still not sure how to solve that, but I’ve at least come up with some ideas as to why it’s even a problem, which must be the first step to getting past it.

The Why

1. We seriously underestimated the hours that the kiosk is required to be open during this month, and what that would be like as a reality (the mall was open 93 hours this week… and will be 107 hours this coming week. I’m not sure why I thought that would be do-able, but… turns out, it’s not.).

2. I seriously overestimated my personal capacity to be here.

3. Because we’ve been pushing ourselves, all of us are either highly stressed or sick. (Not good!)

4. I noticed last Monday that being “understaffed” was a problem, and have let an entire
week go by without doing something proactive about it.

5. Going along with #3, sometimes people can’t make it in, and then we have less staff to work with.

6. I simply haven’t put the word out that we are struggling and need staff/volunteers. There are a lot of reasons for that, including:

It can be difficult to find volunteers, especially on short notice, during finals week in a college town, etc.

The unknown legal factors of having staff who aren’t being paid (if we were a non-profit, fine, but technically we’re a business?).

Not wanting to advertise that we’re “hiring”, because it is just an experiment (heck, we’re not even being paid!)

My assumption that people wouldn’t want to volunteer at a mall kiosk. (It is fun, just not when it’s marathon-style for one or two people).

It seems like since this is our project, we should just take care of it ourselves….?

7. I’m too independent for my own good, and I dislike asking others for help.

The Bottom Line

I think at the end of it all, the fact is, we haven’t solved the problem because… we haven’t tried to solve it directly. I can keep thinking it out, or, maybe I could just start coming up with some options for how to find some volunteers.

It is both amazing & frustrating that when we started the project, that we didn’t see any of the”impossible” factors as obstacles, and found ways to make things work… whereas now, because of the effects of fatigue, all that’s obvious is obstacles, in even the simplest challenges.

I read a great article about the health care community/professional nurses– highly applicable, because they typically are overworked, long shifts, etc. It was really interesting to see the connection between fatigue and error.

It will be even more interesting if we can apply principle #8 “Be Resourceful” and #9 “Get Around Obstacles”, and hopefully move past this problem so we can focus on finishing the project successfully.

Your suggestions are definitely welcome…

CHAPTER 6: DECEMBER 18-27

December 18: Leave The Binder In The Car

The Update

Hey! So, things are going better… Rachelle was at the kiosk this afternoon, and I vegged a bit & took care of small fires that have been adding up into big blazes. And I even managed to get a short nap.

The Biggest Problem… The One You’re Letting Slide

Isn’t it amazing how quickly things go from just being small inconveniences to major problems when not attended to!

I think what I can most take from this is to not minimize any challenge and think that it’s “not a big deal”, even when it obviously is a big deal! If the same problems crop up day after day and just get pushed to the back burner… they just compound.

Yes, that’s common sense, but on the other hand, it’s the most dangerous kind of challenge to have– the one that’s being ignored. Even though it was just “small things” that got done today, getting them done feels gooooood.

The Understaffing Update

I’m appreciative of the encouraging comments, and have been working on getting the understaffing challenge eased.

Some friends passed around a volunteer signup sheet, so we do have a couple people coming in this week to help. Next week is looking a little scary with Rachelle heading home for Christmas, but you can bet I’m going to be working on solving that this week instead of waiting until we’re right in the middle of it.

Leave The Binder In The Car

I had a couple of social work jobs right after I graduated from college, and in that intense working environment, I learned that I had to keep things separate from being at work and going home.

We had a binder with the information we were planning for our clients, workshops, their needs, and how we could help them. Sometimes I had appointments with clients after our office was already closed, so I still had my binder with me when I went home.

It was kind of silly, but I always made sure I left the binder in my car, instead of bringing it inside with me– in social work, it is too easy to be concerned for your clients all the time…

So anyway, that’s something that I’ve been forgetting to do throughout this project– to have some time that is not being consumed by work. One of the guest lecturers in my entrepreneurship class at BYU said that a new business will take everything you can give it… and more. We are finding that to be completely accurate!

It looks like we’ve been bombing Principle 6–”Keep It Balanced”, but we’ve got about 12 days left, so I’m guessing that if we can start finding ways to apply that concept, things will finish off well.

The Hundred Dollar Business Video!

A big thanks to our friends Cammon & Lorri Randle at CopperRain.com! They did an excellent job interviewing & filming us, and have really provided a great way for us to share how The Hundred Dollar Business got started.

Cammon & Lorri found us through our friend Janet’s blog site, Newspapergrl, and offered to do a video for our project– which we really appreciate! And, that’s another evidence of how blogging & being connected to your network can bring wonderful opportunities.

We decided to put the video up on Revver, so it is available on the right side of our site, on every page, and also can be e-mailed with this link:

http://one.revver.com/watch/123564/flv/affiliate/49468

or shared via blog by going to that link and clicking “Grab code” under “Share this video with others”.

If you like the Hundred Dollar Business, and you want to let people know about our project through the video… well, we’re definitely not going to stop you!

December 24: Larry King Stops By, Mall Friends, & A Day Off!

Hey, Happy Christmas Eve, everyone.

Larry King Visits The Hundred Dollar Business

Well, not exactly. Though, yesterday Larry King was at Provo Towne Centre. I’d like to think he was coming by to check out The Hundred Dollar Business, but rumor is, he has family in town and was just shopping.

And, he didn’t really stop by the kiosk… He did walk past, however. I was wearing one of our tiaras (cringe), and he gave me kind of an awkward look, and then commented to the people he was with, “What exactly does Aeropostale mean?”

(We’ve been wondering that, too. At least, what the right pronounciation is. Since they’re the store right in front of us, we should at least know how to say their name. “Air-o-paw-stul?” “Air-o-po-stall?”

We could go ask them, but when you’re pulling a long shift, you need some brainteasers. Here’s some official info on the matter, in case anyone’s interested.)

Friends At The Mall

We have met some really nice people this month! There are too many to write about, but
here are some of the wonderful people here at Provo Towne Centre. (Apology: I don’t know their last names, but I do know their kiosk.)

Marcie, mall management office

Marcie has been SO great to work with. She was our primary contact for getting our lease set up, has sharp business sense, and is just plain nice to boot. Being able to work with Marcie is one of the persuading factors that might convince us to stay.
(Side note: all of the mall management has been great to work with as well! They really run a tight ship here– can you imagine what a project it must be to manage a mall? We’re doing good just to get our kiosk going.)

Tasha & Kay, sunglasses kiosk

The sunglasses kiosk is our left next door neighbor, and they are awesome. Tasha is the manager, and she has given a lot of tips as we’ve been figuring out this kiosk thing. Kay is from Mongolia, and I get a chance to practice my Russian every once in a while!

The Tmobile Guys

Not only have they given us quite a few sales tricks, but they also me use their phones during the no-phone fiasco. Plus, they’re just fun guys.

Greg, gift-wrapping kiosk

One of our original ideas for the Hundred Dollar Business was to provide a gift-wrapping service to mall shoppers… So when I went to the other mall to inquire about a lease, and ran into Greg’s kiosk– it was pretty isappointing to realize one of our ideas had already been started.

Greg also has a kiosk at our mall, and it’s been fun to chat business with him every once in a while. He’s been doing gift-wrapping for over 30 years now!

The Security Guards

The day after the Treo was stolen, the security guards faked me out that the keys to our cash register had been stolen. (They hadn’t heard about the phone yet). Since there were several hundred dollars in the register, it was definitely a moment of panic.

Needless to say, we’ve been more careful since then. Not just with the keys, but also to not believe the security staff.

A Day Off

The mall closes at 6 pm on Christmas Eve, is closed on Christmas, and re-opens Tuesday morning at 7 am. That’s 37 delightful hours of “a day off”! I am so excited– I am never going to take weekends or normal working hours for granted, ever!

After Monday, we only have six days left, and then it’s vacation time. Have a good time, wherever you’re at & whatever you’re doing– I’ll be with some good friends for Christmas, and will be seeing family in January.

Happy Christmas Eve!

December 26: Narrowly Escaping Death, Goodbye Christmas Music, & Misc. Thoughts

Narrowly Escaping Death

Ordinarily, “death by kiosk” isn’t high on the list of OSHA’s occupational hazard concerns. Ordinarily.

However, this evening, one of the mall’s 25′ x 1′ holiday garlands, replete with large glass Christmas ornaments, and a 4 foot plastic bell, crashed down right beside our kiosk. Missing us by inches, possibly centimeters. (No exaggeration).

I’m glad there weren’t any customers looking at the princess items on that side of the
kiosk. Further, I’m glad I wasn’t looking at those items, either.
But, it was awesome! We called security & everything. When you’re at a mall for 14 hours straight, any small chunk of entertainment really helps, even if it’s somewhat life-threatening.

Goodbye Christmas Music

Something was different today– the mall was kind of eery. It was definitely the lack of Christmas music.

This month, I have heard an unhealthy amount of versions of “Frosted windowpanes… la la la la la…. and this song of mine, in three quarter time…” and other Christmas classics.
I’d started subconsciously planning my day around which songs were playing. “I like this one, and it won’t be on for 3.27 more hours. I can’t take my break yet.”

I’m not sure how I’ll adjust to life without Christmas songs, but it will probably be a short & welcome recovery.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

At any rate, that the Christmas music has finished is a reminder that the month is almost over. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about that, and most of them center around being grateful to go on vacation.

I know it’s almost over, but it is still really difficult to stay motivated. Twice, I have seriously considered closing the kiosk early– the first was a few weekends ago, during the “mall marathon”, and the second was this morning.

I guess having the day off yesterday reminded me of how extremely tired I am! I crunched the numbers this morning, and I’ve been putting in an average of 115 hours a week, for 4.5 weeks straight.
Except for yesterday, I’ve had only two blocks of time really “away” from the project– a couple hours on a Friday evening early in the month, and then last Wednesday morning.
And even then, it was tough really being away, although I wasn’t at the mall.

If we continue the concept of “The Hundred Dollar Business”, we will seriously re-evaluate what is a healthy & reasonable amount of time to devote to the project. I’ve definitely made errors in my decisions in that area, and when we are done, I’ll be rethinking my approach & making changes.

If I were the only one to be affected, I definitely would have packed up by now. This month has been more intense than is advisable. However, there are things to honor, which would not be helped by leaving early.

This includes the people who have been generous to the project, our responsibility to the mall (not just for the lease, but also in terms of building a good business relationship), my overall commitment to the project, and ultimately, my belief that difficult things should not be walked away from.

It is currently pretty hazy whether or not we will actually be “successful” in the outcome of The Hundred Dollar Business, in terms of our goals to:

-Make a lot of money.
-Have a successfully operating business.
-Spread the concept of The Hundred Dollar Business so others can learn to start businesses more quickly than they would have otherwise.
-Make a profit of at least $100.

In fact, we may end up with a loss, which is discouraging. However, if we can stick it out until we’re done, and do the best we can to face challenges responsibly, I think we can feel content with the experience.

And hey, if does turn out to be a complete bomb, at least it was only 30 days and $100!

December 27: News Flash & Hanging In There!

News Flash!

“Carolynn Duncan gets 11 hours of sleep…read all about it!”

The mall is back down to regular hours (10 a.m. to 9 p.m. instead of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.), and thanks to Kelly Anderson coming in for today’s morning shift, I actually got some decent sleep last night.

About 60 more hours of sleep, and I think I’ll be back to my usual peppy self.

Hanging In There

So, what do we actually do all day at the kiosk? That’s a great question. When you’ve got a long day & not quite enough energy, life gets tricky. So here are some of our secret tips for maintaining sanity all day long at the kiosk.

1. Do Paperwork!

This includes the daily accounting and inventory/sales reconciling. If we’re selling a couple thousand dollars of merchandise each week, and the average price of an item is $10 or less, you can imagine that’s a lot of items to track. Especially across 6 different vendor-suppliers. Egads!

2. Rearrange the Displays

It’s amazing how the products do not stay put on the kiosk. It’s probably the several hundred children per week that pick up the dolls, books, puzzles, etc. An organized display sells better, too.

3. Sell Stuff!

When all else fails, talk to the customers and make sales. That’s what we’re/they’re here for, right?

4. Blog/Write

At some point, it made more sense to use some of the down time during the day to write about our adventures than the post-mall hours when sleep is a better option. Go figure.

5. Problem Solve.

There’s always something to figure out. Why are sales better/worse than the day before? How can we maintain or change that? What are the trends? What are the current challenges? How can we maximize the time & resources that we have?

6. Take “Mall Field Trips”

This is by far the most fun thing to do at the kiosk during a long shift. It’s something we learned from one of our mall friends– when all else fails to entertain, take advantage of the quirky things in the mall. Some of the favorites include:

The Dance Dance Revolution machine inside the arcade…
Free samples at the makeup counters & Bath & Body.
A jaunt up the escalators and a loop around the mall.
Taking a no-purpose 5 minute break.
Stopping by the food court.

It’s not that working at a kiosk is the most demanding occupation (although there are a lot more details to manage than you’d think on first glance). Rather, it’s the 7 days a week/most waking hours of the day nature of the holiday season/this experiment that is tough.

But sometimes you just have to hang in there! Thanks for your positive comments. It’s really helpful and reminds us what we’re all about anyway.

We’ve got about 4 days left, and I realized today, that means we still have 4 days to “make something happen.” So, what are we going to do with that?

CHAPTER 7: December 27-31

December 27: How Quickly The Market Changes!

Two days before Christmas, everything on our kiosk was flying off the shelves. Two days after Christmas… you have to almost give the merchandise away– at least, that’s what customers are expecting.

When I was making projections for this last week, I estimated that we would be back down to our starting average of about $150/day. So far, that has been completely accurate.

It’s definitely been interesting to predict & notice the trends in the mall. I’m really glad that we didn’t have any delusions of crazy sales for this week– it would have been a serious reality check if our assumption was that sales would continue growing the way they had been.

Here are other things that have changed just in the last few days:

There are more teenagers at the mall.
People feel entitled to a substantial discount/sale.
The mall is slower-paced with a different feel than it was for the holidays.
As a whole, people are more grumpy. (It’s true– I’ve heard more rude things today than all month!)
Customers are more picky with what they are buying, what it costs, and if it is really worth it to them.
There isn’t an overall “reason” to buy our products anymore, so they are only purchased if the individual has a specific need for them, such as a birthday gift, late Christmas present, etc.
Customers stop at kiosks less & don’t wander through the mall as much.
Customers are looking for a place to use their giftcards.
One of the most common things I hear parents tell their kids is, “But you already have one of those, remember?”

When the market changes, a sharp business should change its approach as well. We’re not as proactive as we could be in this area, but it’s still interesting to note the shift in buying habits, and realize that it is something a retailer should adapt to.

I think the takeaway on that is: find out what your customers want, and give it to them. If you don’t, someone else who’s paying attention will.

December 29: Choose Your Own Adventure

Even with only a few days left– 2 days and 3 hours!– it’s interesting to see how much of a “choose your own adventure” things are.

(Remember those books, where by choosing option A., you go to page 46, 71, 89, you get the results on page 153? Or by choosing option B., end up somewhere else? I love those.)

Well anyway, the concepts we chose at the beginning of the project are as applicable today as they were when we started, although after a long month, it’s pretty easy to forget about them.

For example, Principle #9. “Get Around Obstacles: Have a plethora of contingency plans– at least three additional suggestions or options in case the ideal doesn’t happen. Don’t accept the challenges at face value.”

When we were getting started, we really did find ways to move past obstacles– isn’t that as handy a tool at the end of the project as at the start, especially for dealing with tough problems?

In the past few days, we could have made choices with unpleasant consequences. For example, closing the kiosk early would have resulted in:

Early-termination lease fines.
Loss of potential sales for our vendors.
Acquiring a reputation for not fulfilling our responsibilities.
Affecting whether or not we would be welcome for future projects (both with the mall & our vendors).

I’m glad we stayed open, not that it’s been easy. Already, we can see the results from other shops that closed down early, and the effects that has had on how their business is perceived.

That doesn’t mean we’ve made all the right choices. I’ve made some personal blunders, that may bring results I’m not anxious to experience. But even with those errors, there is still a choice. Maybe not to take away the unpleasant results, but a choice in how to approach and handle the situation.

I can take responsibility for the mistakes & act quickly to do what I can to correct them, or I can blame myself & situations, and let things play out how they will without trying to direct it into the best long-term result possible.

Essentially, we can still choose to apply the concepts. “Get around obstacles.” How can we do that with only a short time left, and several unknowns, possibly big mistakes?
Not sure. But you know what? Why not give it a try– that’s the whole point of The Hundred Dollar Business… that if you apply solid principles, something good is bound to happen. And hopefully, it will.

December 30: Preparing to Rejoin Society

Sometime this morning, I checked out CNN.com, and was surprised to read about Saddam Hussein’s execution. I’m hoping that’s not too controversial to mention on a kiosk themed blog…

I guess it’s been a while since I read anything, but that’s a pretty huge international event– why is this the first I’d heard about it?

So then I was talking to Rachelle later (she’s in California), and I mentioned it to her, and she said the same thing had just happened to her! She was out somewhere and heard about it, and thought, “Where the heck have I been?!”

Just one day left. Then we’ll return to our pre-kiosk lifestyle, whatever that was. For me, that will be taking some serious down time, and figuring out what we want to do next.

Any ideas? We’ve got a couple of things we’re thinking about, but, of course we’re not going to tell you yet.

Mall Memories 1: Favorite Blunders & Quasi-Disasters

There are many blunders & quasi-disasters to choose from– these are just my favorites. It seems we’ve been just as resourceful with finding innovative ways to have mishaps this month, too.

Blunders

Leaving my Treo on the counter and having it promptly stolen.
Not tracking sales and inventory adequately for about 9 days.
Running out of credit card sales slips and cash register tape at the same time, not being able to leave to get more.
Neglecting to bring cash for the register on opening day.
Finding out my car was the one obstructing traffic in the middle of the parking lot. (After tuning out customer service pleading over the loudspeaker all morning for some idiot to move their car.)

Quasi-Disasters

Crashing at warp speed, spilling my laptop case, skinning a knee, and then landing in mud (all at the same time).
Dumping marinara sauce all over my car & clothes, and then working at the kiosk in tomato-spattered style.
Getting an un-patch-able flat tire, driving on the spare “donut”, and consequently getting my car stuck in the snow.
A hefty garland crashes, but amazingly, doesn’t harm anyone/anything.
The security guards pretend that the keys to our cashbox had been stolen.
I avoid an envelope that was propped up against my front door, thinking it could be an eviction notice I’ve been somewhat anticipating from my landlord. (Turned out to be a Christmas card from a friend who couldn’t track me down due to the stolen phone incident.)

Have we had a good time, or what!

Mall Memories 2: Candids from the Kiosk

A lot happens when you’re meeting new people and working hard…

It took us 20 minutes to ring up our first customer– not only did we not know how to work the register, we also didn’t know how to use the credit card machine, and then we made her take pictures with us.
One morning I was laughing with Kelly for about half an hour, just because we were both so tired.
Taking silly pictures with Rachelle on her last night at the kiosk before heading home to California.
Being offered a job by a Famous Footwear manager at midnight, “Need a job? Hey, if you’re here this late, you must be dedicated.”
Making enemies of our Tmobile and Verizon kiosk friends by acquiring a prepaid Cingular phone to replace the Treo.
Unloading a car full of books and nuts during the heaviest snowstorm this season.
The goth teenager who came by almost every day to ask if we had any black tutus.
Being proposed to twice– once by someone on the night crew, and another time by someone I gave half a sandwich to.
Finding a new grandmother (the woman I’d made cry). She stopped by a second time, and I was glad she was able to leave without bursting into tears.

I wish we’d thought to take pictures of all of these things. Hopefully the imagery will do.

December 31: Closing The Kiosk In 15 Minutes

It’s true– the marathon is almost done! 15 minutes longer, and then we’re packing up the kiosk, cleaning, and heading home. It’s New Year’s Eve!

I just realized that I started and am ending my first business all in the same month. Well, I don’t know yet what we’re really going to do with The Hundred Dollar Business, but I do know we’re done with the kiosk lifestyle, at least for a while.

Did we make any money? We sure sold a bunch of stuff! The general ballpark of what we sold is around $10,000 for the month. (I don’t know if that’s classified info, but heck, I’m the owner, right?)

It’s going to be a few days yet until we get the inventory & accounting worked out, so we’re not sure about profit. I’ve been vague about some blunders that may result in a huge personal loss– don’t worry, I wasn’t kidding. We are still working on that situation, and when it’s resolved, I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it, no matter if it turns out well or not.

Whether or not we actually earn any money, isn’t it wonderful that with only 30 days and $100 starting capital, we created a situation where that much product & cash could be exchanged? (That’s not a personal pat on the back, by the way, I just think that’s the most amazing part of entrepreneurship– how much it drives the economy & creates opportunities).

I just wrote a post over on my blog about the things that I’ve learned & experienced this year. Throw that kind of energy into 30 days, and it’s pretty close to what we just barreled through. Can you believe we stuck it out? (I can’t!)

So, we made it through–holiday season, sleep deprivation, no retail experience, and all. I’m sure there’s a lot to reflect on, things learned, what we did well, and what we’ll do better next time. I’m definitely going to let things gel for a few days before I come up with any solid pros & cons– probably need a couple days of sleep to clarify my perspective!

Thank you for your kindnesses! This project was started on a stingy budget but with a generous network & support base. That has gone a long way in keeping us going, and we appreciate it.

If we “succeed” or if we “fail” in meeting our goals, ultimately, it doesn’t matter because we did start & run a business for 30 days, and we applied our concepts as much as possible.

As I was thinking a lot this week about the results, and anticipating facing a loss, I found a statement that basically said,

“If you punish an entrepreneur for starting a business & failing, how will they be encouraged to start again?”

I like that. I don’t want to be so hung up about results (good or bad) that it precludes us from continuing another business, or being pumped up about a new experience.

So instead of thinking about the outcome (which we won’t know for a few days anyway), I’m going to think instead about how amazing the experience was. In short, I’m happy with what we accomplished.

Read more on The Hundred Dollar Business Blog Archives, beginning January 1, 2007, to hear more!

Ryan Jenkins, StarPointe Marketing

I believe in honesty and hard work. I’ve always been entrepreneurially-inclined but when I first got into this business, my purpose was not to make a lot of money.

I worked for a small web development shop and heard countless stories from small business owners who had gotten shafted by their original web developers. It was not uncommon to hear comments like, “We paid $8,000 for a website and it doesn’t even do what we want it to do.” As a website developer, I could do my best to provide quality services at affordable prices but there was something missing…guidance.

These are people who were just trying to make their business work and had had some bad experiences along the way. They deserved better than to have some programmer convince them that they needed a message board, and Flash animations. So, I resolved to do my part to help these business owners.

I opened StarPointe Marketing in April of 2004. My purpose? To provide small businesses with just the right mix of services to help them be successful on the web. No bells. No whistles. No fancy coding. Just the tools that would actually contribute to the success of their organization.

I signed as a reseller with the local hosting company ($100) and bought a cheap graphics program ($25 on Ebay). It wasn’t Adobe but it was plenty powerful for web design. I already had a computer and Microsoft Office so I got to work. I started telling everyone I knew that I was starting my own web development business. People came out of the woodwork. There was a real need for a quality company with reasonable prices.

Fortunately, I haven’t had a nausea-inducing crisis. Sure I’ve had a couple of frustrating experiences when services didn’t work correctly and vendors began to blame each other, but luckily I was able to quickly resolve the problem and get things running smoothly again.

My dad (John Jenkins) was laid off from his corporate job in 2003 and started his own business coaching practice. He took time out of his schedule to have coaching calls with me and let me report on my progress. I can’t tell you how valuable that was. All he had to do was ask just the right questions to get me fixing my own problems and clarifying my business’ vision. He taught me the importance of having a long-term plan and not getting too distracted by the day-to-day details.

Technically, because I didn’t have to invest much to get started, profitability was achieved with my first completed job. However, it was still several months before I was able to really pay myself. There were other costs that I had to incur before I could really call myself a professional including an accounting system, some better hardware, etc. Now I’m looking at doing more outsourcing so I can focus on growing the business.

I really enjoy the fact that I don’t need to “get permission” when I want to go on vacation for a week or two. Don’t get me wrong, vacation isn’t what it used to be. I still get emails or calls on my cell now and then from leads, clients, vendors, etc. but I’ve got a system for dealing with them. If there’s something that needs to be taken care of right then, I call someone who can do it.

If I were starting over again, I would focus more on sales from the beginning. It’s so easy to get distracted by actually running the business that you forget to build the business. But with a constant flow of new customers coming in, I would have been forced to become more efficient, sooner.

The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is convincing my wife that I have a real job. She just can’t resist coming into the office (spare bedroom) and interrupting me several times an hour. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. It’s just not the most productive use of time.

Advice I’d offer to someone getting started? “Just do it.” If you think you have a good idea, start researching it and, if it’s feasible, do it. Too many would-be entrepreneurs think they need to have a world-changing idea to be successful. Just do something common, but do it 5-10% better than the next guy.

Brady Flower, Kiosk Expert

I help people get started and succeed with a mall cart or kiosk business. I got started doing this in quite a round-about fashion. Almost by accident.

I was visiting my folks in Montana for Christmas. My dad gave a little hand held heat pack that he bought in the tiny mall in Kalispell, MT.

They didn’t even have carts or kiosks in that mall. The vendor was selling his product off a table set up in the middle of the mall.

After Christmas my dad told me where he bought it. I remembered seeing the vendor when I was shopping. I figured there was a business opportunity associated with it. It didn’t appear to be a franchise.

So I called the phone number on the product to get more information.

They sent out a business start-up kit that explained how you could sell as much as $100K in heat packs from a little cart at the mall, in just two months at Christmas time.

I had always wanted to have my own business. The supplier said I could get started for about $15K. And make a profit of $10K – $30K after only two months during the holidays.

That sounded like a good deal to me at the time.

I opened the following Christmas season in a suburban mall in Minneapolis. That Christmas, I worked every hour the mall was open for two months. I also brought on and trained a sales staff of thirty people.

When the dust cleared at the end of the holiday season, I had sold over $100K in product in just two months.

And earned a profit of $30K in during that time.

Working all those hours at the mall allowed me to learn the business from the ground up. And made it easier to take my business to the next level.

The next season I operated my own cart, and four partner locations. The next season, seven locations.

My supplier was so impressed with our success that they asked me to help train all their distributors.

Together we created what we called out ‘Boot Camp Training Session. Literally hundreds of their cart distributors flew into Minneapolis to get trained.

In those “Boot Camp Training” sessions, I found a lot people were very similar to me when I first started in business.

They wanted to own a business, but didn’t really have any idea what to do or how to go about it.

As famous marketer Jay Abraham puts it in his book, ‘Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got’, most people are “… silently begging to be led.”

For many people in that situation, the mall cart or kiosk business is a perfect way to get started.

The capital required at start-up is low compared with many businesses. And they get a quick return on their money.

It allows someone started to get started in business, without requiring a long term commitment.

I thought I could help people get started.

I first offered an email newsletter with success tips for cart and kiosk operators at my website, http://www.kioskexpert.com.

That was the springboard that led to a number of other offerings within the last year and a half:

A tele-seminar series with programs for how to profit from the mall cart and kiosk industry;
An interview series where I feature proven products suppliers talking about their mall cart concepts;
An automated system designed to help mall leasing reps follow up with the inquiry calls they receive at the malls.

Now, I get regular offers for joint venture projects.

What has been most fulfilling are the daily emails that I get from cart operators thanking me for my help.

It’s been said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

For me in business, that first step was starting my first mall cart. That’s led to all sorts of bigger and more expansive opportunities.

Have YOU been thinking about starting your own business?

My suggestion: Take the first step.

Register for Brady Flower’s cart and kiosk success tips at http://www.kioskexpert.com.

Nathan Hale

A pioneer heritage stokes an entrepreneurial spirit that refuses to stand still…

In July 1856 two groups of Mormon pioneers who had ventured from England as part of 10 separate groups totaling almost 3,000 men, women and children, left Iowa City, Iowa, on a 1,200-mile trek across plains and mountains on their way to settle in Salt Lake City.

Leaving too late in the season, and many too poor to afford horses or oxen to pull their loads, the pioneers resorted to using hand carts to tow their belongings, but discarding furniture, clothing and even warm blankets in favor of hauling food and only the merest of possessions.

By early October in Wyoming, bitterly cold temperatures and then a blizzard brought tragedy to the nearly 1,000 pioneers who had run out of supplies, lacked enough firewood—and blankets—to warm them and suffered from dysentery, a combination that doomed more than 200 of them to their end.

Rescuers from Salt Lake City sent by Brigham Young, themselves risking their lives, ultimately arrived to save the remainder of this beleaguered yet hardy and faithful lot from their icy and harsh wilderness, and deliver them to welcoming families in Salt Lake City.

As is the nature of all determined folk who endure the unknown, such pioneers accept the risks, take their chances and hope for the best as they seek to embrace a new life.

Nathan Hale can trace his roots to such hardy early American pioneers who ventured westward in covered wagons. He can trace his relations to Solomon Hale, who “at the age of 11 lost his parents during the journey and was taken in by Brigham Young. He was with the first group to cross into Salt Lake Valley,” says Nathan Hale. He can trace his heritage to relatives of his Revolutionary War namesake, who at age 21 was captured and hanged by the British as an American spy and who forever is remembered by one of his last statements before his execution: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Perhaps it’s an innate spirit imbued from his lineage that is part of who today’s Nathan Hale is, and is what gives him the drive to succeed, to look for a better way, to take chances, to face and overcome obstacles.

And perhaps it’s also a creative, self-confident and savvy entrepreneur’s drive that impels—maybe compels—him to succeed.
Or perhaps it’s both and more that have brought Nathan Hale to where he is as founder, president and CEO of Sawgrass Technologies Inc., the Mount Pleasant, S.C., producer of sublimated inks, inkjet ink for cotton and their attendant ink systems.

“Heritage is, indeed, in all of us,” Hale says.

Hale grew up in Preston, Idaho, a farm community of 4,800, set not quite a mile above sea level in a broad valley just west of the Wasatch Mountains. The third of six children in a close-knit family, Hale had the opportunity to let his imagination take wing, even on his hunting excursions with his dog.

“In the mountains of Idaho, I’d hunt birds,” he says. Often he’d just sit atop a mountain, “looking over the valley below and dream of owning islands. … I think that because I was allowed to roam freely, I was able to think freely, and I was never restrictive with my thoughts.”

It was a good life for a youngster. And in Preston he was given the opportunity to succeed, playing high school football and basketball, where he lettered in each sport all four years. He admits that those successes later were tempered with a different reality once he left the confines of the small community for the bigger metropolitan areas, such as his two years in Michigan. Though a top-tier player in and around Preston, he was humbled by the athletic abilities and stamina of players he faced—an enlightening experience that would keep him grounded in his later business endeavors.

“A small community is more forgiving and more encouraging,” he says, “with fewer restrictions” and provides a “good and nurturing childhood.” But Hale understood that to be successful, one also needs to take risks.

Sometimes those risks come in the form of sacrificing one’s own goals in order to help someone else pursue a dream.

A student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Hale met a coed whom he’d marry and eventually give up on his own studies to help her pursue her dream of becoming a physical therapist. In a reverse of his ancestors who trekked out West in a covered wagon to settle in the high-country valleys of the Rocky Mountains, Hale and his bride moved East, to Charleston, S.C., where his wife would attend her medical school, and the couple would raise a family, today numbering four daughters.
But years before there was that family of six, Hale began an entrepreneurial phase that would start with selling frozen treats and lead to a multi-million dollar company that has secured its position atop its own business mountain.