bread + butter business report # 3

We skipped our weekly Friday evening business week this meeting in honor of a certain family member’s birthday dinner (OK, it was mine; loved the steak and carrot cake!). But we still have a lot of good news to report.

This week, we passed the 1,200 mark on visits to our blog. We have amassed 115 fans on facebook, and our sales are continuing, albeit at a slower rate than we would like. We have to regularly remind ourselves that this business is new and that it will take more than a few weeks to become successful. We have a few new products and some new features on our blog. We finally added the ‘print a gift card’ option we’ve been talking about. You can find it in the right-hand column at the top of this page.

We also applied for the “Shine a Light” competition and are hoping it will get us some additional exposure and possibly a grant to help with our expansion. We need to secure 50 endorsements by the end of the day today in order to advance. If you’re reading this on Sunday, please take a moment to endorse us now. Finally, we reached out to potential nonprofit partners in all 6 New England states, and have already received encouraging responses from ME and VT, where we are looking to partner with the Good Shepherd Food Bank and the Vermont Foodbank later this fall. Finally, I showed my Mom the newspaper article about our project this week, and she cried - in a good way, the way she cried when I told her about my engagement to Sue and Katie and Emma's birth. I don't think she understands exactly what we're doing, but she knows it's a good thing.

What we learned during week 3:

Sue – Complete strangers may be as willing to help you as are your closest friends. (And some of your closest friends can connect you to some of the best complete strangers). A worthwhile effort can bring people together.

Katie – (related to Sue's learning) There are a lot of people who can help you, but you’ll never know if they will unless you ask, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Emma – I like running meetings, but I don’t like blogging.

Tom – You need to listen to and learn from the skeptics. Some of our friends and family members expressed skepticism about our project. While this was surprising to us, it was also very helpful and revealed a need for us to clarify our mission and the way we communicate about our business. Our mission is: To work together as a family to help hungry people, develop a sustainable business model, and find out what it takes to make a real difference. We also developed a frequently asked questions document to help people understand the business and our motivations.

What we need to focus on during week 4:

Boosting sales – we are midway through September and we’ve committed 50% of our profits this month and next month to Pettengill House, Inc. We want to make a significant contribution and we’re limited only by the amount of sales we can generate. If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, there is no time like the present. Continued work to solidify New England-wide expansion plans, generate more press/media coverage, and more focus on making the best use of electronic communications tools and social media to drive sales.

Thanks to our bread + butter supporters:

This week, we want to thank our friend Tom for helping us reformat a video; brother Jeff and a new friend, Tracey, for help with our ongoing graphic file issues; Karianna and Tom for distributing a link to our site and allowing Emma to present the project in class; all of the UMASS alums who offered suggestions on nonprofit partnerships through our LinkedIn discussion board; and everyone who endorsed us for Shine a Light or bought one of our products. Keep spreading the word!

-Tom


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