Dear Mr. Brewmans...

[Galaxy]

Any update on your offer yet?

Contact Macro here. He's got the mind when it comes to business.

[Flasch186]

no follow up. I told the in between to have the guy make an offer and I got nothing so {shrug}

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

no follow up. I told the in between to have the guy make an offer and I got nothing so {shrug}

Valuation is different depending on the situation, and I know there are a few other business owners on here as well.

I can focus on the online aspect of your company, but then you were looking at expanding into potential other areas like Coffee Shops, gift basket partnerships so that will enhance the value.

More than likely what is happening is someone sees this as a potential and wants to get in on it fast or has something lined up already.

Talk to the in between and meet this person face to face, see what his goals are with Mr. Brewmans it's not impolite to ask, you have a right to be concerned on what would happen with your brand after it is sold.

[Flasch186]

dude, dont know if it's the 'word of mouth', Yahoo ads on top of Google (thanks Mac for the kick in the rear there), or what but the orders are really starting to pick up (this is comparative) which is super cool. Now I have to train the wife how to do this so she can make them while Im out at my day job

I emailed my friend who made the site regarding a couple of tweaks and if he cant do it, to not be offended if I have someone else do the tweaks so he wont have to. Very minor.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

dude, dont know if it's the 'word of mouth', Yahoo ads on top of Google (thanks Mac for the kick in the rear there), or what but the orders are really starting to pick up (this is comparative) which is super cool. Now I have to train the wife how to do this so she can make them while Im out at my day job

I emailed my friend who made the site regarding a couple of tweaks and if he cant do it, to not be offended if I have someone else do the tweaks so he wont have to. Very minor.

good to hear!!

hmm - i wonder if you could expand into coffee shops and restaurants and the like one day

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

dude, dont know if it's the 'word of mouth', Yahoo ads on top of Google (thanks Mac for the kick in the rear there), or what but the orders are really starting to pick up (this is comparative) which is super cool. Now I have to train the wife how to do this so she can make them while Im out at my day job

I emailed my friend who made the site regarding a couple of tweaks and if he cant do it, to not be offended if I have someone else do the tweaks so he wont have to. Very
minor.

Awesome News! When I was in New Orleans last week I recommended the site and wrote it down for about 20 different people...I hope some of them bought.

Do you have Google Analytics or some form of tracking software for your stats on the site? That is crucial to finding out what is working and where the traffic is coming from.

[Flasch186]

I do for Google but not for yahoo yet (thats one of the things I need done)...

I sent him an email and opened a ticket at Tinyhosts.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

I do for Google but not for yahoo yet (thats one of the things I need done)...

If you have Google Analytics it covers all SE's.

[Flasch186]

oh.

Well there are a couple of other things I want to have done...

Then I need to write it all down for the wife to do

[Flasch186]

We got a really cool email today from someone in California

Originally Posted by MrBrewmans Fan

I'm so glad to have found yer all's tea! My girlfriend LOVES sweet tea and I sent her a bag of it to her office because it was a rough week for her. She absolutely enjoyed it. It is actually very difficult to find sweet tea out here in California. I took it completely for granted as I was raised in Kentucky. I did not know that sweet tea was not the norm. Anywhoozle, the packaging and quality of the tea was excellent! Thank you!

That's awesome.

anyways, Im trying to figure out how to get this marketed in some gift type stuff so if anyone has any ideas feel free to pass that on.

[Mustang]

Flasch,

If I could ask, what type of costs are you incurring for ads? (I'm going to be needing to cover that question pretty soon for my own business plan). So, whatever knowledge anyone wants to impart with would be much appreciated.

At a minimum, when I get set up, I'd at least like to have a link to your site.

[Flasch186]

Thanks!

Im running about 30/mo X 2 (google and yahoo) but I really think getting into some print ads in a gift mag or something, like Skymiles might be effective for my product. I really want to get it ramped up but am at a loss BUT I know have the login info for the FTP so if anyone wants to volunteer some work on the site Id be welcome:

Guestbook
Change the link in his name from myspace to Facebook
possibly integrate the Paypal stuff into the actual site instead of it opening a new window

I dunno, stuff.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Let's see if I've got (or come up with) any ideas worth mentioning.

Can you give me a better idea about your customer base? Specifically, I'm curious to know what you've been able to glean about them demograpically (which probably won't be as much as I'd like to know). I imagine you could give me the male/female split on orders but I suspect age info is going to be anecdotal at best. But I'll take whatever. (Helps me with vehicles for targeting)

Also, what about the geographical split? My guess would be that it's a mix of Southern expats and existing residents in the south that for whatever reason aren't happy with their own sweet tea production and give yours a try. But that's largely a wild-assed guess so the reality would be helpful. If there's a significant pattern (or maybe even the hint of a pattern) then there might be justification to experiment with narrowing your ads with some regional or local vehicles.

And if you haven't already, I'd suggest making sure you develop a pro-active strategy to encourage reorders as a separate channel from the effort to generate more new business.

[Flasch186]

So Jon:

The split is about 50/50 genderwise but massively weighted to those outside of the south. Almost no orders come from the SE, which is as suspected AND not what Im targeting anyways. Otherwise Im not sure that there is a specificity that I can glean yet that makes much of a difference outside of geographical. So are you suggesting lower my spend in the SE (is that possible?) and increase it elsewhere?

Ive begun to do follow up emails to get feedback but also subconciously reminding them about us about 2 weeks later.

[DaddyTorgo]

what about a frequent buyer program "buy 5 bags get 1 free" or something. or some sort of cheapish southern-themed throw-in for frequent customers like "after your 6th order we'll include x" (a little package of grits or something).

idk...random thoughts

[Mustang]

Do you have a mailing list or are you just sending out emails on your own?
Might be worthwhile to set one up and also include possible coupon codes (especially around the holidays)

Also, might be worthwhile to possibly target Southern Style restaurants outside of the south and see if they would want to carry your product to sell. (You'd need to take less since they will want to make something off it, but if you can get into a few places that way)

[Flasch186]

bah, paypal doesnt accept coupon codes (ridiculous!) but I was thinking of running a S&H special or something.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

So Jon:

The split is about 50/50 genderwise but massively weighted to those outside of the south. Almost no orders come from the SE, which is as suspected AND not what Im targeting anyways. Otherwise Im not sure that there is a specificity that I can glean yet that makes much of a difference outside of geographical. So are you suggesting lower my spend in the SE (is that possible?) and increase it elsewhere?

Lest my thought about sales from within the SE seem too odd, my thinking was that there might be some appeal to non-Southerners now living in the South who hadn't been able to master the art of making sweet tea.

Targeting Southern expats in other states isn't an easy proposition, as they don't have well-defined concentrations as exist with some other groups. One possible avenue might be to see whether there's a low cost opportunity with sites popular with active duty military personnel in the states as that's a segment with a disproportional representation. Another possibility might be travel/tourism publications/mediums that focus on southern destinations at least equally.

Your SkyMall idea is a good one, I'm just not confident that it wouldn't be cost prohibitive.

[Flasch186]

sent out an email to the Mr. B's club

Ezekial stepped out of the office so don’t forward this email to him BUT

Any orders made today August 4, 2009 or Tomorrow August 5, 2009 will receive 25% more per sack! So don’t tell him. His math isn’t very good anyways but still 25% is a lot!!!

Check out the Gear store too for new lowered pricing on MrBrewmans gear.

Flowers die. Send MrBrewmans instead.

We'll see if it brings in some orders. Right now discounting cant be accomplished with the Paypal (foiled!) but I can do things like the above to drum up some.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

bah, paypal doesnt accept coupon codes (ridiculous!) but I was thinking of running a S&H special or something.

Not sure what you are using for the ECommerce portion, but things think Zen Cart do have coupon plugins

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

online tea-seller, or online "southern specialties" retailer or something

Dude. C'mon.

"Tea-tailer"!

[Flasch186]

Well 1 order directly attributed to the mass email and promo, thanks Indiana!

[digamma]

A friend has a tequila site and has seen remarkable success from advertising on facebook. It has definitely increased his traffic.

He's also gotten decent boosts from Stumbleupon.

All viral stuff. Probably small increments, but every little bit helps.

[nZane]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Well 1 order directly attributed to the mass email and promo, thanks Indiana!

Yeah, that was probably me. Been meaning to order some for a bit now. Signed up for the email list and placed the order a few minutes later.

And you're welcome.

[Flasch186]

started a facebook ad {scared} Im hoping to overwhelm my wife so we have to automate

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

bah, paypal doesnt accept coupon codes (ridiculous!) but I was thinking of running a S&H special or something.

Look into PayPal pro, their merchant account...it's around 20 - 30 a month plus the discount fees, but it's easy to incorporate with and if you can get something like OS Commerce, Zen Cart or Cube Cart integrated with an SSL it will provide you with more flexibility and open you up to more buyers. Trust me, you are losing buyers with the PayPal only solutions.

[Flasch186]

A week of ups and downs:

first I got a very cryptic series of emails from a customer that eventually led me to refunding their purchase. I know that they were lying about some aspects of it all but after going the service route of trying to help them try to make some batches they were pleased with I realized what their end goal was and simply cut to the chase.

Today I heard back from a restaurant in Orlando who gave it a shot and some of the feedback was, "Impressed with the packaging"..."impressed with the tea"...."will be in touch once they figure out how it fits in the restaurant."

That is some exciting shit! Me and the Web guru are working on switching over to a Google cart that can be integrated at some point. He also switched Ezekial's link to Facebook...minor but a step

[Swaggs]

May be an odd question, but I have been wondering and now, with a restaurant involved: Are you carrying liability insurance on your product?

If so, is it expensive? If not, do you have any concerns about exposure (particularly with a resaurant potentially involved)?

[Flasch186]

I have Liability insurance and I have no idea how that'll play into the whole restaurant thing if it pans out. Ill up it dramatically.

[Flasch186]

They left me a message today and I responded with a preliminary email so we shall see {biting nails}

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

They left me a message today and I responded with a preliminary email so we shall see {biting nails}

Fingers Crossed for you...

As for the customer..you get them every once in a while...they game the system and you are stuck just smile and move on.

[Flasch186]

able to cut some costs over the weekend so we're able to lower our price to 14.99 on Monday I think. I think it might make a big difference in conversion to be sub $15 + S&H.

Still would like to figure out a way of getting more eyeballs on the site and having some of the pages be less wordy and mix in some imagery better. any volunteers?

Also sent out my first restaurant bid today. Hopefully it goes well.

Also, Thanks to New York for your order...hope you like it

[Flasch186]

I did a small little PR using PRWeb today just to get more links and repeats of the name on the net before the holidays.

This could make for a really great holiday gift so hopefully I see an uptick in sales for Thanksgiving/Christmas.

The restaurant declined to pick us up. It is a bit more expensive than the Sysco stuff but boy is that stuff bad. when I was at my friend's restaurant I ran some taste tests using the servers that were there and it was almost unanimous in favor of Mr. Brewman's. Admittedly my friend said he wasnt sure how much more a restaurant would be willing to pay for Tea or Sweet Tea. Seems the first one was above that threshold.

[Mustang]

Have you thought about opening an account on Amazon at all? Granted, you would be paying them a cut and I'm not sure what your margins are, but might be something to look into.

Also, if you are trying to get into restaurants I'd look into those restaurants that are like the Cracker Barrel where they have that general store type front end. Potentially you could get your product in there for them to use and then possibly have a display where people could buy your product to take home.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Also, re: Facebook ... was looking into them last week for a client & their advertising rates are awfully cheap if you can find the right keywords. It's really designed for individuals/microbusinesses to advertise at this point, with relatively few dollars to spend (to the extent that it takes months to even work up to their $1500 per month cap). You can route those click thrus anywhere, not just to your Facebook page, so if you could hit the right words even with a $100 expense you might be able to make it pay off.

[Flasch186]

Well because the item doesnt 'exist' on Amazon its not letting me 'list' it....any advice?

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Well because the item doesnt 'exist' on Amazon its not letting me 'list' it....any advice?

They have individual and pro accounts. I believe that items that aren't in their retail catalog can not be listed under the individual accounts and you would need to open a pro account and create a detail page.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...nodeId=1161306

Pricey cut on the grocery items they sell (20%)

[Flasch186]

HUGE cut!

[Mustang]

I guess you would know best if that 20% would work. Look at the bright side, at least it is not 25%.

[Passacaglia]

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all

[Flasch186]

Just received an email from a trade website asking for a picture for a story theyre doing on Mr. Brewmans {shrug}, thats cool.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Just received an email from a trade website asking for a picture for a story theyre doing on Mr. Brewmans {shrug}, thats cool.

woohoo!

[cougarfreak]

Been meaning to buy some for the longest time........just did.

[Flasch186]

Hey thanks Coug, lemme know what you think.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Hey thanks Coug, lemme know what you think.

I will..........I consider myself a tea "expert", I drink one of those huge (64oz.) jugs every day at work.

[Chubby]

You should go on Shark Tank!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Chubby

You should go on Shark Tank!

who'd invest though? Barbara? I think you'd have to target her as your investor of choice - or maybe possibly robert? not really daymond's area of expertise, you wouldn't go with Kevin H. unless you wanted to do infomercials, and bald-Kevin is a jackass.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

who'd invest though? Barbara? I think you'd have to target her as your investor of choice - or maybe possibly robert? not really daymond's area of expertise, you wouldn't go with Kevin H. unless you wanted to do infomercials, and bald-Kevin is a jackass.

I think Barbara and maybe Kevin H because of the infomercial route...

Bald Kevin is only useful when pitting him against the guy on the end next to Barbara

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Chubby

I think Barbara and maybe Kevin H because of the infomercial route...

Bald Kevin is only useful when pitting him against the guy on the end next to Barbara

that's Robert. He's the nice-guy.

I guess you could go Kevin H because of the infomercial route. If you want to go that way...yeah...that makes sense. Only thing is he'll rape you on the % that he takes and leave you with some bitchass "royalty stream." With Barbara you're more likely to end up 50/50 or even retain control.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

that's Robert. He's the nice-guy.

I guess you could go Kevin H because of the infomercial route. If you want to go that way...yeah...that makes sense. Only thing is he'll rape you on the % that he takes and leave you with some bitchass "royalty stream." With Barbara you're more likely to end up 50/50 or even retain control.

If his goal is to not be be in the day to day operations then 51% is no biggie (keeping the money rolling in IS the biggie). If he wanted to still run it himself then yes, Barbara would be preferred but I don't think you can dismiss Kevin H depending on what Flasch wanted to do with the business in the future (assuming he was actually ON shark tank )