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Eric from Erics Cheesecakes

Ericito

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Did you mention him? Follow up with him?
or just sitting and waiting?

No, l have not just been sitting and waiting. I been actively trying to to follow up with him via emails since l got the delivery notification yesterday.
No response as of yet.
 
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@Ericito Yes. The cheesecake was delivered and was in perfect condition. You haven't heard from me because the product was delivered while my wife and I were hiking in the mountains. It was a very strenuous and difficult hike and I had zero desire to post here or reply to your email once we got home. Last night and this morning were all about recovery.

The package sat outside (shaded) for about 5 hours (temps were in the 80's). I took photos to share with you (I'll email later) but as I mentioned, the cheesecake arrived with no damage. The outside of the package was cool to the touch. The dry ice was all gone by the time I opened the box but the cake was very cold to the touch. I would suggest making sure you pack the cake more securely. I was surprised there was no damage because the cake box was freely moving around inside the package. As summer approaches I'd also suggest using a larger or second dry ice pack.

The cheesecake itself was a little soft but after sitting inside the fridge overnight it really didn't firm up that much.

For those thinking of buying a cheesecake from Eric, you may want to wait until he has his shipping process refined unless you're willing to spend about $125 for it.

Screen Shot 2019-03-31 at 10.26.06 AM.png
 

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Ericito

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@Ericito Yes. The cheesecake was delivered and was in perfect condition. You haven't heard from me because the product was delivered while my wife and I were hiking in the mountains. It was a very strenuous and difficult hike and I had zero desire to post here or reply to your email once we got home. Last night and this morning were all about recovery.

The package sat outside (shaded) for about 5 hours (temps were in the 80's). I took photos to share with you (I'll email later) but as I mentioned, the cheesecake arrived with no damage. The outside of the package was cool to the touch. The dry ice was all gone by the time I opened the box but the cake was very cold to the touch. I would suggest making sure you pack the cake more securely. I was surprised there was no damage because the cake box was freely moving around inside the package. As summer approaches I'd also suggest using a larger or second dry ice pack.

The cheesecake itself was a little soft but after sitting inside the fridge overnight it really didn't firm up that much.

For those thinking of buying a cheesecake from Eric, you may want to wait until he has his shipping process refined unless you're willing to spend about $125 for it.

View attachment 24224

Thanks for the feedback.
Glad the cake arrived and stayed cold for 5 hours in 85° heat. I guess that is an accomplishment after 2 day shipping. Cold is good, warm would have been disasterous.
I'm working on stablizing the shipping process after the ice melt. However the shipping bag used was a success.
The actual postal fee was a issue. I'm working to get that lowered.
Overall, this was an accomplishment. So in the next few weeks, depending on the interest, l may try this maybe 10 more times.
Again, thank you for your support and feedback.
I sure hope you enjoy your cheesecake as worth it all.

Sincerely
Eric
 
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@AllenCrawley .. Well how'd it taste? Yu leavin us hangn?
It's a pretty good cheesecake. It was a tad sweeter than I like but my wife, daughter, and son-in-law thought the sweetness was great. The texture was great. The crust was perfect.

@MJ DeMarco, I'll save a piece for you and the better half if you want to come by.
 

Ericito

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It's a pretty good cheesecake. It was a tad sweeter than I like but my wife, daughter, and son-in-law thought the sweetness was great. The texture was great. The crust was perfect.

@MJ DeMarco, I'll save a piece for you and the better half if you want to come by.

WOW!!! Thank you so much sir for the feedback. That truly means alot. Now you know a little more about me, at least on the product side. I hope Sir @MJ DeMarco enjoys it as well.
As far as shipping, I'm sure in time and more movement, l can give better rates to customers.
Again, thank you so much for your support.
 
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if we could buy out @Ericito and have @Timmy1990 cooking with @Johnny boy selling and @Kak advising, this would be a $2B business.......... who is in?

I would ditch cheesecake for now, go after a modern health trend like vegan food that doesn't need to be kept so cold, package it well and mark it up a bit, and set it up as a subscription delivery package, reach out to thousands and thousands of small instagram influencers and make them affiliates of our brand and pay them a few bucks for every customer that signs up using their discount code and pay them each month. You can use trending food to quickly grow and get yourself to a place where your operations headquarters creates more and more products that are more "typical", making new brands which are all made under the same roof but marketed as their own unique brands.

Step one: find some simple type of food to make that wouldn't be a logistical nightmare (unlike cheesecake). The trendier the better. Like a vegan subscription box of some sort...idk.

Step two: create the brand. Pick a name and design and how the packaging will look.

Step three: make some example boxes with different foods in them and come up with some ideas for what you'll be sending people.

Step four: set up the infrastructure to sell these things. Website, payment systems, etc.

Step five: Create an affiliate deal with instagram and youtube influencers (start small) and pay them for each signup they get that use their coupon code.

If anyone wants to do that I'd help out. I've got my own business but I would love seeing someone else grow it and I'd do what I could to help in the evenings or weekends.

But yeah I'm in for something like the idea above.
 

Ericito

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I would ditch cheesecake for now, go after a modern health trend like vegan food that doesn't need to be kept so cold, package it well and mark it up a bit, and set it up as a subscription delivery package, reach out to thousands and thousands of small instagram influencers and make them affiliates of our brand and pay them a few bucks for every customer that signs up using their discount code and pay them each month. You can use trending food to quickly grow and get yourself to a place where your operations headquarters creates more and more products that are more "typical", making new brands which are all made under the same roof but marketed as their own unique brands.

Step one: find some simple type of food to make that wouldn't be a logistical nightmare (unlike cheesecake). The trendier the better. Like a vegan subscription box of some sort...idk.

Step two: create the brand. Pick a name and design and how the packaging will look.

Step three: make some example boxes with different foods in them and come up with some ideas for what you'll be sending people.

Step four: set up the infrastructure to sell these things. Website, payment systems, etc.

Step five: Create an affiliate deal with instagram and youtube influencers (start small) and pay them for each signup they get that use their coupon code.

If anyone wants to do that I'd help out. I've got my own business but I would love seeing someone else grow it and I'd do what I could to help in the evenings or weekends.

But yeah I'm in for something like the idea above.

Great idea!!! I'm glad you have the funds to make that happen. Go for it.
What do you have to lose? I wish you nothing but success.
 

Johnny boy

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Great idea!!! I'm glad you have the funds to make that happen. Go for it.
What do you have to lose? I wish you nothing but success.

FUNDS???

The funds are in my customers’ wallets!

I’d start this with $200!

Let the sales pay for the rest!
 

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@Ericito, @Johnny boy handed you a blueprint THAT DOES NOT NEED MONEY TO START.
@Ericito, you CAN GET A COMMERCIAL KITCHEN to use like @Timmy1990 did.
@Ericito, you have shown yourself you CAN SHIP ANYWHERE NOW.
@Ericito, you have already been shown THERE IS DEMAND.
@Ericito, you have already been shown YOU HAVE A GOOD PRODUCT.

The ONLY EXCUSE left IS there when YOU look in the mirror.

Get out of the way and allow yourself and your company to be awesome. No more excuses. Only action.

What are your next 3 steps and due dates for each of them?

Get this going. NOW.
 

MJ DeMarco

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I'll save a piece for you and the better half if you want to come by.

Ha Ha, thanks for the offer but you forgot... I'm vegan. Even when I wasn't vegan, I wasn't big on cheesecake. So there will be no taste-testing for me.
 

MTEE1985

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For those thinking of buying a cheesecake from Eric, you may want to wait until he has his shipping process refined unless you're willing to spend about $125 for it.

So Eric obviously asked what you would spend for his cheesecake so he can figure out his shipping process and costs....right?
 
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BlackMagician

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@Johnny boy, I am in partner with a lady who create organic skin repair and hair growth products which is on good demand and product is good (i don't know yet if it is great.)? I can ping you more information if you want.

Our Products, especially hair growth oil, is having 200% return on investment per month. This month, we will do our first inject of my salary to purchase herbs, bottles and labels in bulk and stock the product to test the demand level and how fast can we sell.

Should i use your strategy with this product? what do you think i should do to move fast, faster..

Thanks sir!

This thread has become an end-to-end productocracy product based guide.

WOW!!! Thank you so much sir for the feedback. That truly means alot. Now you know a little more about me, at least on the product side. I hope Sir @MJ DeMarco enjoys it as well.
As far as shipping, I'm sure in time and more movement, l can give better rates to customers.
Again, thank you so much for your support.

Congrats!!! Eric, see you got your feedback. I know your blood is pumping and heartbeat going crazy. Yay! Now do this one more time, and again, and again...

You have figured everything else. Try to cut down some cost on shipping, packaging. I am sure you will receive more order then. Then go EXECUTE.
 
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AllenCrawley

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So Eric obviously asked what you would spend for his cheesecake so he can figure out his shipping process and costs....right?
No. I'm not sure he cares to know.

So this brings up a different issue here...

Truth be told, I got an email from Eric stating he was shipping the cheesecake the next day. He did not mention price at all. I did not read his email until the next day and hadn't yet responded before I got another email stating he shipped it and the total was $126.36. I was livid at this point. If I'd known what he was going to charge me I would have told him to forget it. Shortly after that, I got another email that was an invoice that had a tracking number attached.

I seriously considered not paying and sending the cake back. However, I thought better of it and chalked it up as a lesson learned. I should have had him clarify what he expected total costs to be. Although, that would have been a great lesson for him as well if I did send the cake back. I later learned another fastlaner was charged "only" $100. He got a bargain deal I guess?

I haven't chimed in with sharing my thoughts on his business nor his limiting beliefs. I know there was a ton of gold already shared but it was falling on deaf ears. I wasn't going to pile on and waste my time. I was just curious as to the quality and being a fan of cheesecakes I just wanted to be a customer. I had no ulterior motive.
 
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biophase

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No. I'm not sure he cares to know.

So this brings up a different issue here...

Truth be told, I got an email from Eric stating he was shipping the cheesecake the next day. He did not mention price at all. I did not read his email until the next day and hadn't yet responded before I got another email stating he shipped it and the total was $126.36. I was livid at this point. If I'd known what he was going to charge me I would have told him to forget it. Shortly after that, I got another email that was an invoice that had a tracking number attached.

I seriously considered not paying and sending the cake back. However, I thought better of it and chalked it up as a lesson learned. I should have had him clarify what he expected total costs to be. Although, that would have been a great lesson for him as well if I did send the cake back. I later learned another fastlaner was charged "only" $100. He got a bargain deal I guess?

I haven't chimed in with sharing my thoughts on his business nor his limiting beliefs. I know there was a ton of gold already shared but it was falling on deaf ears. I wasn't going to pile on and waste my time. I was just curious as to the quality and being a fan of cheesecakes I just wanted to be a customer. I had no ulterior motive.

Oh damn, I just thought that was the cost of this shipping experiment, not an invoice for you to pay.

In my opinion, these experiments are part of R&D of the business and should be paid for by the business.
 

Xeon

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I would ditch cheesecake for now, go after a modern health trend like vegan food that doesn't need to be kept so cold, package it well and mark it up a bit, and set it up as a subscription delivery package, reach out to thousands and thousands of small instagram influencers and make them affiliates of our brand and pay them a few bucks for every customer that signs up using their discount code and pay them each month.

Acai/poke/smoothie bowl pre-packaged kits where busy customers can just open the packaging and dump everything in and it's ready in 1 min or less.

Customer Profile & Interests Targeting:
-White & Asian women aged 18 - 35
-Middle-class and above
-USA/Canada/UK
-Starbucks lovers
-Cafe lovers
-Healthy living
-Yoga

Beautiful girly packaging + Pinterest and Instagram ambassador marketing.

EDIT: @Ericito Check out https://dreampops.com
If I'm not wrong, they're also shipping ice-cream around America. Their execution is awesome. You could have been like them, or even better.....
 
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ZF Lee

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Acai/poke/smoothie bowl pre-packaged kits where customers can just open the packaging and dump everything in and it's ready in 1 min or less.

Customer Profile & Interests Targeting:
-White & Asian women aged 18 - 35
-Middle-class and above
-USA/Canada/UK
-Starbucks lovers
-Cafe lovers
-Healthy living
-Yoga

Beautiful girly packaging + Pinterest and Instagram ambassador marketing.
I tried a banana and almond ice-cream at a Seven-Adventist themed place.

Not sure how they replaced the milk though...but it was damn good!

Definitely the vegan trend is there.

Just a little pain point if you want to go the fruit-and-nut cake route...

WASH your nuts. (no pun intended)

My aunt's skin actually went to crap after she ate nuts daily without washing them with something as simple as a rinse.

You just don't know what went onto the nuts before they went into the mix, what with their husk texture and all...

After reading an article about the catastrophes happening in food prep, I realised that more and more food providers are NOT washing raw food before prepping, and they think the heat and other ingredients would just kill the germs. WTH?
 
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Timmy C

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No. I'm not sure he cares to know.

So this brings up a different issue here...

Truth be told, I got an email from Eric stating he was shipping the cheesecake the next day. He did not mention price at all. I did not read his email until the next day and hadn't yet responded before I got another email stating he shipped it and the total was $126.36. I was livid at this point. If I'd known what he was going to charge me I would have told him to forget it. Shortly after that, I got another email that was an invoice that had a tracking number attached.

I seriously considered not paying and sending the cake back. However, I thought better of it and chalked it up as a lesson learned. I should have had him clarify what he expected total costs to be. Although, that would have been a great lesson for him as well if I did send the cake back. I later learned another fastlaner was charged "only" $100. He got a bargain deal I guess?

I haven't chimed in with sharing my thoughts on his business nor his limiting beliefs. I know there was a ton of gold already shared but it was falling on deaf ears. I wasn't going to pile on and waste my time. I was just curious as to the quality and being a fan of cheesecakes I just wanted to be a customer. I had no ulterior motive.

I was gonna ask if he ships internationally I wanted to try.....

Doesn't sound like an experience I would like.
 

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No. I'm not sure he cares to know.

So this brings up a different issue here...

Truth be told, I got an email from Eric stating he was shipping the cheesecake the next day. He did not mention price at all. I did not read his email until the next day and hadn't yet responded before I got another email stating he shipped it and the total was $126.36. I was livid at this point. If I'd known what he was going to charge me I would have told him to forget it. Shortly after that, I got another email that was an invoice that had a tracking number attached.

I seriously considered not paying and sending the cake back. However, I thought better of it and chalked it up as a lesson learned. I should have had him clarify what he expected total costs to be. Although, that would have been a great lesson for him as well if I did send the cake back. I later learned another fastlaner was charged "only" $100. He got a bargain deal I guess?

I haven't chimed in with sharing my thoughts on his business nor his limiting beliefs. I know there was a ton of gold already shared but it was falling on deaf ears. I wasn't going to pile on and waste my time. I was just curious as to the quality and being a fan of cheesecakes I just wanted to be a customer. I had no ulterior motive.

He charged you 4x what this cheesecake is worth so you could pay for his R&D? I assumed it was FREE based on him demanding feedback.

People suck. Next time go to Wegmans and don’t try to help people.

At least I know that my intuition it still solid. It’s my defense mechanism.

Who else wants a slice of the worlds most expensive cream cheese?
 
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Timmy C

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He charged you 4x what this cheesecake is worth so you could pay for his R&D? I assumed it was FREE based on him demanding feedback.

People suck. Next time go to Wegmans and don’t try to help people.

At least I know that my intuition it still solid. It’s my defense mechanism.

Who else wants a slice of the worlds most expensive cream cheese?

I am selling cream cheese! only $194,844 rep +.
 

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Hello,
Im Eric from Eric's Cheesecakes in NC. Its a home business bakery. Just want to get ideas on how to expand or grow my business or is it even a good idea to try to expand a food type business. I do have an amazing cheesecake, as l have been told. But in my situation, it cant go anywhere, even though l have a good customer base, its only local. So l just need information on how grow it, or is it a waste of time.
Thank You

Two years later, you answer your own question by billing Allen. You don’t have what it takes to succeed on scale, even locally.

It’s a waste of time and 21 pages. Thanks to everyone that tried, but the patient could not be saved.

Thanks Allen for difinitively answering the OP’s question. What a F*cking train wreck. No wonder you didn’t answer my text question about what you paid for this.

Next?
 
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Xeon

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Who else wants a slice of the worlds most expensive cream cheese?

Not sure why it's costing so much to ship Cheese cakes. Eric, you need to look at how other companies are shipping these sort of products and copy them.

If you can't keep the shipping costs down, then add 90% of the $126 shipping cost into the price of the cake and market it as some exquisite, handcrafted, limited to 15 per month cheesecakes, and then state the remaining 10% $ as the shipping cost.

Get those luxury influencers on Instagram to praise about how awesome these highly limited edition cheesecakes are, that they don't mind paying $150+ for one (you'll be absorbing the costs for these influencers).
It'll go well with their equally luxurious Instagram content.

$150+ for a cheese cake is atrocious, and the media might be curious and cover your story.....
 

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Two years later, you answer your own question by billing Allen. You don’t have what it takes to succeed on scale, even locally.

It’s a waste of time and 21 pages. Thanks to everyone that tried, but the patient could not be saved.
Unfortunate how this played out, but I learned a lot during the thread that I've shared with my chef wife as she works to restart her life after defeating cancer. Thanks everyone who tried to help Eric - your efforts were not wasted for my wife.
 

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