Sonrise Manufacturing

Thanks to Judy Clark, I am now "in the know" about Sonrise Manufacturers in Dallas! I called them at 7:15 this morning thinking I'd be leaving a message, and I was when Candice answered the phone! I tried to sound like I have a clue about what I'm asking for, but low and behold, she knew what I needed because.... they make one of my competition's products! How crazy is that?! I had no idea the competition's business is based in Dallas. I was concerned that I'd have to go find another manufacturer, but they've agreed to make mine too! I can totally see how God worked that out... they know exactly what a sling is, but they'll need to see my pattern to learn how to make mine. The downside to all of this is, my sling has so many features, I doubt they'll be able to make one every 8 minutes like they do with the competition's. : I'm working on getting some new materials together to have them make a few samples for me so we can see how long it will take. Not bad at $35 a pop!

And, for those wondering, they have a 100 unit minimum order and they charge $35/hr., but if you order more than 300 units they charge $25/hr. They also offered to help me get my patterned polished and hook me up with a professional pattern maker if I needed it. And, they plan to help me get a professional marker made (plastic template used for cutting out the fabrics).

I'm wrestling with importing materials from China. That's the cheapest option, but I'd prefer to give jobs to Americans. Maybe I'll have to do a trade off... Materials from China and manufacturing in the USA? I'm trying to do my part to help the economy!

I'm also looking into product packaging. I have an idea as to what I want, but I'm new to this too. I've got to get a lot of ducks in a row simultaneously (it seems) to get the intertia going at the speed I want!

And, last, but not least... I'm considering an LLC. Again, money, money, money, is needed for all of these steps. *sigh* Any investors out there? ;)

Here We Go!

This is my maiden posting on The Posh Pod Sling Blog! This blog will be my journal, a place for posting all my daily efforts at bringing The Posh Pod Sling to the masses.

I will tell the full story of The Posh Pod Sling soon. Tonight, I'm going to tell you how I got to this posting.

Before I could create my blog, I had to create my email address. That could only be done after I secured my domain. I use Domain.com for purchasing domains. It's a little technical, but once you learn how to use their platform, it's super easy to maintain. I plan to have Yahoo! host my business email, so I'll be ____@poshpodsling.com soon. For now, we're using poshpodsling@yahoo.com. There's a lot of technicality in all these details and you may be wondering why I have all these email addresses. Well, to make it simple (as simple as I know how), you want to secure a domain for your idea/item before you even register for your business license. Or, at least confirm it's available. A lot of posh___.com's were taken, so I snagged mine before it was purchased. I know there's no Posh Pod Slings in Texas, so I can get my business license after the fact.

Now that the domain is mine, I needed a blog to point to the domain, but you have to register with an email address to do so. Because I want this venture separate from my photography business, I created a free email account with Yahoo!. This was done primarily because I plan for Yahoo! to maintain my domain's email and I already know how their email systems/pricing functions. Once I pay for their business email service, my poshpodsling@yahoo.com email will be forwarded to my _____@poshpodsling.com business email account. I'll be able to function with both on one platform.

It's a little confusing and intimidating staring at the screen, knowing you're about to make a permanent or at least semi-permanent business decision regarding your ecommerce site. You tend to think, I'll just delete this if it doesn't work out right. Somehow that's a comfort to the chilling thought, "am I making THE BEST decision for my product/company?" Invariably, on the first attempt, the answer is usually, "I HAVE NO IDEA, BUT I HOPE SO!"

I am still fishing for a cooler blog template, and I have some name server issues to iron out tomorrow. But, for tonight, I made good progress on getting my e-persona set up. Tomorrow I'll be resolving the CNAME issues I'm having with the blog and I'll get some work done on my provisional patent application!

Wooooohoooooo! I am SO excited about making progress!