Things are still hoppin’, as you can tell by my lack of posts. My 5-y-o son just graduated from preschool, so he’s home full time now. My 2-y-o son is into everything, as most toddlers are. My husband just had back surgery, which didn’t completely work, so now he’s getting cortisone shots in his tailbone once a week to try to stop the pain. Put the business on top of all of that, plus my daily household duties, and you’ve good one big mass of tiredness and confusion.
Also, as you know, a supermarket chain has been trying to get my products in a few of their stores. I feel like a bad entrepreneur saying this, but I think I’m actually declining. (Eek! Isn’t it every food-entrepreneur’s dream to get into supermarkets?) All was well until I was emailed a large amount of papers to sign regarding insurance, EDI integration, UPCs, restocking, disposal fees, other fees, etc. I just don’t think I’m in a good enough position financially (or mentally) to handle this yet. It’s waaaay over my head. I’d have to redesign all of my packaging. Plus with us possibly moving in a year, it doesn’t make much sense to put so much money into this, just to pull our products later. But who knows. They asked me to reconsider, and I said I’d review the papers this weekend and email them back on Monday.
That’s about it. I have a lot of wholesale orders right now, but not a ton of retail from the site. I should have sent out a Father’s Day newsletter, but I just couldn’t find the time. At least the 4th of July is coming. I’ll do one for that.
On to today’s tip…
Sending out email newsletters is a really great income-booster. I happen to use one called Your Mailing List Provider at www.ymlp.com. I have a little over 1100 subscribers, and I send out one newsletter a month, and I only pay $5 a month. It has a nice WYSIWYG editor built in, and it allows you to group your subscribers. I have one for retail customers and wholesale customers, since they would require different newsletters.
There are a lot of companies that provider this service. Try an internet search for “email newsletter service” to find one that’s right for you and fits your budget.
