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darkomind
Contributor
WEEK 4 (changed the layout for readability)
My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.
BUSINESS PROGRESS
THOUGHTS
I'm holding back the bigger investments for the moment I'll be sure there's demand. For now, All investments are dedicated to testing and gathering feedback.
I should be more daring and confident. On Friday morning, walking to the office with my cooling bag, I felt I was doing something wrong. I feared judgment for testing the product at work. I felt the rumors on me working on my business on company time while working from home. It turned out everyone loved it. These rumors were in my head. It was my insecurity speaking.
I could very much use a cargo bike for the first deliveries. I never needed a car here in the Netherlands and was considering getting one to deliver my product. A cargo bike would reduce costs by a lot. My employer started a system of allowances to lease bikes, I might be able to leverage on that.
WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.
BUSINESS PROGRESS
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I'll be visiting my home country for my mom's birthday. I won't have as much time to work on my business, but I could get some good ideas.
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THOUGHTS
I'm holding back the bigger investments for the moment I'll be sure there's demand. For now, All investments are dedicated to testing and gathering feedback.
I should be more daring and confident. On Friday morning, walking to the office with my cooling bag, I felt I was doing something wrong. I feared judgment for testing the product at work. I felt the rumors on me working on my business on company time while working from home. It turned out everyone loved it. These rumors were in my head. It was my insecurity speaking.
I could very much use a cargo bike for the first deliveries. I never needed a car here in the Netherlands and was considering getting one to deliver my product. A cargo bike would reduce costs by a lot. My employer started a system of allowances to lease bikes, I might be able to leverage on that.
WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
- Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1 kickboxing and 1 football. I had to slow down this week due to inflammation of the patellar tendon on both knees.
- Eat healthy and enough. I give myself 5/5 again. The only junk food I eat is dark chocolate and the ingredients of my product, mainly not to waste them. It's always scooping up what's left in the trays. My treat is bananas with peanut butter and honey. It's healthy, delicious, and gives me energy preworkout.
- Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Large progress here. I finished The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs and worked on my financial spreadsheet from the Google Sheets mobile app while commuting to work. I need to purchase one of the
- Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 4/5 this week. I struggled with motivation on Wednesday, probably because I didn't move enough on Monday and Tuesday. From my kickboxing workout on Wednesday evening, my mood improved. I hope my patellar tendon inflammation will pass soon.
WEEK 3
My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.
WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
BUSINESS PROGRESS
- Complete 5 workouts: 1 kickboxing, and 1 strength training. 2/5 this week because I'm going to Portugal for three days with my colleagues.
- Eat healthy and enough. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. I upgraded my experimenting with spices and flavors. 5/5.
- Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Better than last week, but still not good enough. I started two new books (Scaling up and The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs)
- Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 5/5 this week. I was focused and managed to solve many problems. The problemologist mindset is getting more and more prominent in my way of approaching things.
Last week Next week
- Involved my partner in building my business. She's a marketer, taking care of identifying prospects and finding ways to add value that goes beyond the product. She's also taking care of a way to leave my contact to the prospects.
- Ordered 50 disposable food containers. It's just a start. I plan on making samples, putting them in a portable fridge and go door to door.
- Contacted two commercial kitchens, visited one. I'm far from being able to afford it, I am just exploring to get an idea. They cost 4000€ per month here. There seems to be an option to share costs with another food entrepreneur. If there's demand, I'll go for it. But its financially risky.
- Started crunching numbers. The first step was to calculate the Escape Number. Seeing that in front of me shook me from head to toe.
- Employer is ok with me working on my business, as long as it doesn't interfere with working hours. I can make it work.
- Complete the calculations. I must be more precise than I was last week. Finding an accounting template online can help me get started.
- Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with.
- Complete the list of prospect (this is with my partner)
- Find extra value skews to add to my pitch. If not immediately realizable, at least planning them in the future. Donations to a good cause? Sustainable production?
THOUGHTS
Involving my partner helped. She's quite motivated to be part of it.
I love having a dream and spend my free time chasing it. I'm trying to pass this feeling to her. A couple of months ago, I would've watched some meaningless Netflix show on a 3hours flight. Today, I learned about food microbiology, pasteurization, and claims on labels (for example, "gluten free" or "natural" or "high protein"). Building this business is my new hobby. Chasing that escape number is my new hobby.
I have a huge, expanding to-do list. It's challenging to put things in the right order. Crunching numbers and finding customers must come first now.
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