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Eric from Erics Cheesecakes

Ericito

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Serious question - have you considered relocating to NYC? It seems like you'd have a much larger audience there.

No sir, that would not even be an option. Im firmly rooted in NC. Plus the wife would never go back. Oh btw: Im from Brooklyn. Thus that would explain the Original NY Style Cheesecake thing. ;)
 
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Merging Left

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No sir, that would not even be an option. Im firmly rooted in NC. Plus the wife would never go back. Oh btw: Im from Brooklyn. Thus that would explain the Original NY Style Cheesecake thing. ;)
Makes sense. Gotta please the boss.

Can you, in succinct bullet-point form, list out exactly what is stopping you from growing? The few things I've gathered from this thread:

- No solution for shipping
- No commercial kitchen space
- ???
 

Ericito

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Makes sense. Gotta please the boss.

Can you, in succinct bullet-point form, list out exactly what is stopping you from growing? The few things I've gathered from this thread:

- No solution for shipping
- No commercial kitchen space
- ???

NYC is a great market, but you have to have the finances to make a move like and make it work that. NYC is not cheap.

???We already discussed that...

NCDA&CS - Food & Drug Protection - Food Program
Plus this ^ and capital.
 

Ericito

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@Ericito May 31, 2018 1137am ........ you were doing cheesecake pops and trying to figure out how to do a store ...... and adding a bunch of mental hurdles and excuses about being small, etc. .......

I'm asking for an action plan to grow this business!! What steps in what order completed by what date??

[Sounds like you do not know how. So get together with someone (@Thoelt53 ?) and get a plan together.]

Let's quit dicking around and do this!!

Its only been a week.
 
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Merging Left

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NYC is a great market, but you have to have the finances to make a move like and make it work that. NYC is not cheap.

???We already discussed that...

NCDA&CS - Food & Drug Protection - Food Program
Plus this ^ and capital.
I think you might have misunderstood me. I wasn't pushing you to move to NYC at all. I was expressing an understanding that it wouldn't be possible for you, especially since your wife is not on board.

Let me simplify my question:
Is lack of funds the ONLY thing holding you back?
 

ZCP

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Its only been a week.
Since what?
This thread started in Jul 2017. Your last email to me that I show is May 2018.

When will you have a commercial kitchen?
When will you start shipping orders?
When will you have a retail store or location to ship from that is more permanent than what you will start with above?
When are you going to actually get started????????
 

Ericito

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I think you might have misunderstood me. I wasn't pushing you to move to NYC at all. I was expressing an understanding that it wouldn't be possible for you, especially since your wife is not on board.

Let me simplify my question:
Is lack of funds the ONLY thing holding you back?

Im sorry, I know you were not pushing, but when you said relocate to NYC, put in my mind a move.
However, Yes...funds is the primary issue.
 
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Merging Left

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Im sorry, I know you were not pushing, but when you said relocate to NYC, put in my mind a move.
However, Yes...funds is the primary issue.
How much do you need? $1,000? $10,000? $100,000?

I did a quick Google search for rentable kitchen space, and I'm seeing anywhere from $25/hour to $300/year + monthly charges for refrigerated space. These locations should already have the certifications that NC requires.

Do you literally have $0 to invest in growing this business? I'm not asking from a judgmental perspective, so don't misunderstand me. I'm just trying to completely understand your situation.

This might be a silly question, but do you profit from every sale you make? How many cakes would you need to sell to justify renting the space for $300/year?
 

MJ DeMarco

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However, when you come from nothing and you have to build everything from scratch, because nothing is given to you.

Another strawman excuse you can beat down. Most of us here are in the same predicament. I've come from nothing and had to build everything from scratch because nothing was given to me. I didn't let it stop me.

I'm guessing 99% of the forum who is trying to start something is in the same straits -- coming from nothing and with nothing given.

Quit making yourself out to be a special case, you're not.

Mostly everyone deals with the same shit -- how you deal with it is what separates the winners (the national brand) to the loser (I sold a cheesecake to my neighbor).

Not trying to be an a-hole, but just trying to bust through your limiting beliefs.
 

EarlOfChina

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Just caught up on posts from the last couple of weeks.

Mixture of PMSL from some of the replies and complete frustration that the attitude has STILL not changed.

Eric, dude. Some smart guys here have asked you some very DIRECT questions to help you strategise....I don’t understand why you aren’t giving straight answers.

Maybe we are truly being trolled.
 
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B. Cole

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This thread is dead ya’ll, give it up. Eric is not going to grow. He will make cheesecakes in his kitchen forever. Take whatever time you invest in reading this thread and cheerleading Eric, and put it toward your own venture. You’ll be better off for it.

Eric, good luck man. I sincerely wish you happiness in your small cheesecake business. You seem content with the level it’s at, and that’s great. I think you ended up on the wrong forum, in front of the wrong crowd with expectations that didn’t really apply to you. You’ll bring people extreme happiness in your locality and find continued satisfaction doing so, as you already have. You’ve reached happiness and possibly your full potential, and that is noble.
 

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I applaud those folks here like ZCP who're trying hard to help him.....but Eric has a bigger issue than funds and finding a kitchen.....his beliefs and views need to be utterly, completely RE-CONDITIONED. Literally.

Let's say with the help of some kind folks here, he finally manages to get a commercial kitchen....and things go well for a while, until he meets another setback....what then? Will he need you guys to hold his hand forever, because the issue is the mentality and not so much of the tactics whatsoever.

Maybe what Eric needs is someone like Kungfu Steve to reprogram his mind. For folks like this, I can actually..... perhaps, maybe, see Tony Robbins' methodologies working.
 

ZCP

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Water can cut through rock given enough time.

Be patient and keep bumping this thread.

At some point either something will click for @Ericito or someone will drive down there with money and show him how to do this.

In the meantime, we are helping a lot of people see how the psychology of the owner is the only thing that really matters in the success of a business.

This thread has helped several of my businesses. Let it help yours.
 

B. Cole

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Let's say with the help of some kind folks here, he finally manages to get a commercial kitchen....and things go well for a while, until he meets another setback....what then? Will he need you guys to hold his hand forever, because the issue is the mentality and not so much of the tactics whatsoever.

Yup. Why force him, he’s not comfortable with growth, he’s made that perfectly clear, he doesn’t want it.

unwatched thread. Disappointing.

There are so many execution threads on here with crickets chirping in the background, the owners making strides every day by themselves with almost no feedback from the forum. Then there’s this sad a$$ saga, 17 pages of wasted time on a stubborn slow lane business.

Go help those guys.

#unwatched
 

Scot

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Then there’s this sad a$$ saga, 17 pages of wasted time on a stubborn slow lane business.

I have a 19 page thread on how to successfully start a food business and overcome basic FDA regulations for example.

I hate to say it, I think @ZCP is being too generous with his optimism here. And I think @B. Cole is closer to the mark. I’ve done extensive research into commercial kitchens and copackers, and unless @Ericito is literally living in a cardboard box, he can afford to take the risk.

Eric would make a good employee for anyone who wants to hire him for a cheesecake business. But, I don’t think he’ll ever create anything beyond a hobby.
 
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Timmy C

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I have a 19 page thread on how to successfully start a food business and overcome basic FDA regulations for example.

I hate to say it, I think @ZCP is being too generous with his optimism here. And I think @B. Cole is closer to the mark. I’ve done extensive research into commercial kitchens and copackers, and unless @Ericito is literally living in a cardboard box, he can afford to take the risk.

Eric would make a good employee for anyone who wants to hire him for a cheesecake business. But, I don’t think he’ll ever create anything beyond a hobby.

I believe anyone can be great. Eric can be great to, if he chooses to.

Ultimately it's a choice he has to make and he alone.

I am going through regulation barriers at the moment with my food business in Australia. It is frustrating but I'm finding a way.

Making lots of calls!

It all comes down to whether he wants it or not, if he wants it he will make it happen.

I haven't given up on Eric, but it sounds like at this point in time he's given up on himself.

Mindset change needs to happen if that doesn't happen.

Nothing will happen.
 

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Just caught up on posts from the last couple of weeks.

Mixture of PMSL from some of the replies and complete frustration that the attitude has STILL not changed.

Eric, dude. Some smart guys here have asked you some very DIRECT questions to help you strategise....I don’t understand why you aren’t giving straight answers.

Maybe we are truly being trolled.

Seemingly this was an elaborate advertising gimmick from a slow lane home bakery. He’s never going to become any more than that. He’s his biggest enemy.

Cheesecakes are a dime a dozen. Entrepreneurship lies within execution, of which he has none.

He can’t even figure out how to ship an order. You all are wasting your time.
 

BlackMagician

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Eric, buddy take your time. Do it slowly, but keep doing.
Just so you know, here on this forum, there are people in the worst case scenario. They don't have talent like you, they don't have home equipment like you, they are not sure that they will eat their fill before bed.

They don't have a family to take care of. To support.
and Yet, they have that burning desire to change the world.

Maybe someone will visit you, understand your circumstances better and guide you.

Just remember this, though I don't know your problems much, some people here have less of everything you have and they still execute. There are many who have already become successful.
 
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Raoul Duke

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Seemingly this was an elaborate advertising gimmick from a slow lane home bakery. He’s never going to become any more than that. He’s his biggest enemy.

Cheesecakes are a dime a dozen. Entrepreneurship lies within execution, of which he has none.

He can’t even figure out how to ship an order. You all are wasting your time.

He shipped one out to @ZCP. But... he came off, as if you were a dick, for making him, go through the trouble.

@AllenCrawley asked for one. Never gave him a response, until maybe a few months later. His language, again, came off as a burden.

I emailed him a few weeks back. I would pay shipping and any supplies, plus the cake. He responded back with the same song and dance.
 

Timmy C

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He shipped one out to @ZCP. But... he came off, as if you were a dick, for making him, go through the trouble.

@AllenCrawley asked for one. Never gave him a response, until maybe a few months later. His language, again, came off as a burden.

I emailed him a few weeks back. I would pay shipping and any supplies, plus the cake. He responded back with the same song and dance.

Yeh I'm done with this guy.
 

Johnny boy

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1. Call up a local place that hosts events like weddings and get a quote for an event

2. Walk in to local businesses and get them to sponsor your event for advertising to a hundred or so people. Get them to pay for more than the cost of the event when all of your sponsorship dollars are added together. Say to them "I'll let you come to my event, advertise at it, talk to everyone there and even get a turn on the microphone promoting your business and it'll only cost $100" and get 10 businesses to agree to it. Easy.

3. Go to your local church, DM local instagram influencers to post to their audience...tell everyone in town you're having a community get together. Get people to RSVP.

4. Pay for the event with your sponsors' money and use the extra money to make your cheesecakes.

5. Everyone at your event gets a cheesecake on their plate for dessert and as they eat it you talk about your cheesecake business and how they can sign up for a delicious cheesecake delivered to their door each month.

6. Sign people up and deliver cheesecakes each month in a big truck.

7. Host more events.

8. Keep doing it...

9. You will sell more and more cheesecakes until you cannot make any more yourself. You will either raise your prices or use your profits to hire someone to make them with you or get a kitchen to make them in. This is how you grow it.

10. Now you are making money selling cheesecakes. You might even be making money without making them yourself anymore.

11. Once you have a highly profitable cheesecake business in one area, you will have learned many different ways to optimize your business through trial and error. You'll know the best way to make good cheesecakes for a low price quickly, as well as how to sell them without wasting money on unprofitable advertisements. Now you'll be ready for another location where you follow a formula using the brand recognition of your other successful location. I think they call that......a FRANCHISE??...
 
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BlackMagician

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1. Call up a local place that hosts events like weddings and get a quote for an event
2. Walk in to local businesses and get them to sponsor your event for advertising to a hundred or so people. Get them to pay for more than the cost of the event when all of your sponsorship dollars are added together. Say to them "I'll let you come to my event, advertise at it, talk to everyone there and even get a turn on the microphone promoting your business and it'll only cost $100" and get 10 businesses to agree to it. Easy.
3. Go to your local church, DM local instagram influencers to post to their audience...tell everyone in town you're having a community get together. Get people to RSVP.
4. Pay for the event with your sponsors' money and use the extra money to make your cheesecakes.
5. Everyone at your event gets a cheesecake on their plate for dessert and as they eat it you talk about your cheesecake business and how they can sign up for a delicious cheesecake delivered to their door each month.
6. Sign people up and deliver cheesecakes each month in a big truck.
7. Host more events.
8. Keep doing it...
9. You will sell more and more cheesecakes until you cannot make any more yourself. You will either raise your prices or use your profits to hire someone to make them with you or get a kitchen to make them in. This is how you grow it.
10. Now you are making money selling cheesecakes. You might even be making money without making them yourself anymore.
11. Once you have a highly profitable cheesecake business in one area, you will have learned many different ways to optimize your business through trial and error. You'll know the best way to make good cheesecakes for a low price quickly, as well as how to sell them without wasting money on unprofitable advertisements. Now you'll be ready for another location where you follow a formula using the brand recognition of your other successful location. I think they call that......a FRANCHISE??...

And the best part? You don't need resources(money?) to do all this. You can do all for free... with little efforts... so no excuse remains... no action faking... simple strategy a college guy can do... ok enough of me...
 

biophase

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To me it’s pretty clear that Eric doesn’t want to expand. Or he doesn’t want it as badly as some of you.

If I’m wrong Eric, I’ve got a story for you. I have a friend that makes the best burgers in the country, we are talking a 20 minute wait line outside the door every day. I met him 20 years ago.

15 years ago my friend and I tried to get him to expand. I’m fact we were going to open his second location in AZ. I even had the location picked out in Glendale, AZ by the stadium. Just think I could be in the burger business instead of e-commerce now.

He had the same limiting beliefs as you. My burger joint never materialized. 10 later, his competitor that expanded sold for a billion. Yes, one billion. My friend still has the same single restaurant.

Believe me, I was on him for 10 years to expand... I gave up.
 

ZCP

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My Dad could of had a $1b real estate empire.

He wanted to do everything himself and only thought out to his 'two week schedule'. Did not want to manage apartments. Very limited mindset.

Built 1000 homes. Put in hundreds of subdivisions. Helped rebuild after Katrina.

Died with a -$32 estate.

For most of it he was happy. There are so many more lives he could have touched though.

If you have a good product, you owe it to the world to get it out there.

More importantly....... and something I am now trying to instill in my boys......work for your LAST name not your first.
 
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Scot

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To me it’s pretty clear that Eric doesn’t want to expand. Or he doesn’t want it as badly as some of you.

If I’m wrong Eric, I’ve got a story for you. I have a friend that makes the best burgers in the country, we are talking a 20 minute wait line outside the door every day. I met him 20 years ago.

15 years ago my friend and I tried to get him to expand. I’m fact we were going to open his second location in AZ. I even had the location picked out in Glendale, AZ by the stadium. Just think I could be in the burger business instead of e-commerce now.

He had the same limiting beliefs as you. My burger joint never materialized. 10 later, his competitor that expanded sold for a billion. Yes, one billion. My friend still has the same single restaurant.

Believe me, I was on him for 10 years to expand... I gave up.

This.
 

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This thread is bullshit.

Everyone in this thread is wasting their time.

Stop trying to get @Ericito to make something of himself. Stop trying to help him. He doesn't want the help.

The time you're wasting on him can be better invested in someone else.


Watch that video. That's Scooter Braun - the guy that made Justin Bieber and countless others famous. At one point Asher Roth was a lot bigger than Justin. Today, you guys probably don't even know who Asher Roth is.

@Ericito is Asher. He's a waste of time and effort.

Find someone else on this forum that's hustling and willing to take advice. Someone like @powderhound100. Invest your time and efforts into those threads.

@MJ DeMarco - is it possible to close this thread until @Ericito actually does some shit? It's 17 pages of wasted forum efforts. What would you put the time cost at for all the advice that went nowhere? $20k? Probably around there, and a shame that @Ericito doesn't see it.
 

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