The Old Fashioned Cocktail

I know a fair number of my posts lately have been about alcohol, but there is a reason for that: over the past few weeks, I've been drinking plenty of it. I know, sounds bad, sounds like I'm self-medicating or something like that. That's not the case; with the exception of a few particularly rough days at work, I have not drank for any other reason than the fact that I enjoy making cocktails and drinking good beers.

I have been drinking Magic Hat (good), Dundee (MUCH better than I expected), my homemade English Brown Ale, and The Sam Adams Longshot Beers. On the cocktail side, my favorites have been: Margarita, Daiquiri, and the Old Fashioned.

Today, I would like to talk briefly about the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail. It is one of the oldest named "cocktails" and is simply a Whiskey Cocktail made the "old fashioned" way. In "the old" days, a cocktail was defined as: Spirits of any kind, water, sugar, and bitters. That's all an Old Fashioned is. I could talk all day bout it, but watch the video below and you will get a better sense of how to make it. It is INCREDIBLY simple to make, and it is excellent. It takes bad whiskey's and makes them more palatable, and it takes great whiskey's and elevates them. I enjoy it with Jim Beam Rye Whiskey, and Jameson alike (in my mind, on VERY different spectrums, one is smooth and delicious, one is more harsh and "hot")

I love to watch The Cocktail Spirit, it's on my iTunes podcast list (among MANY others) and it's a very informative show.

The recipe for an Old Fashioned is (as I make it):

• 2 oz. Whiskey (Whatever you like...I'd avoid Scotch, but I've used it with American, Canadian, and Irish all with good results. My favorite is with Jameson)
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• 2-4 dashes of Angostura Bitters (to taste)

That's it, stir it in a glass and it's incredible. Make one properly, and you'll never go back.

• Margarita Video
• Daiquiri Video
• Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail Video
• Sidecar Video

I hope this post gives you a small taste of a few drinks you can easily make and make you seem more "sophisticated". You can WOW your friends (and the ladies) by making a proper Margarita, and when you serve someone a daiquiri that doesn't put them into a sugar coma, they will be shocked. If mixology is something that interests you, I would suggest checking out "The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess". He is one of the more legendary mixologists of our time, so you could do worse than learn from him.

Anyway, lately, I have time to learn to mix some cocktails, less time to start my own businesses, so that is what I have been doing. I hope to get back into the entrepreneurial spirit when I get back to school and have more time.

If you are interested in starting up your own bar at home, I made an aStore on Amazon for cocktail tools that would be helpful in learning to become a master mixologist...or at least one who can dazzle.

Where has Paul Been???

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a MONTH since I last posted. The honest truth is: I have been WAAAAAAY busy. I've had school, work, life, and I lost track of my blog :( but I'm back!!!

So, what have I been up to? Well I finished up my Junior year at Michigan State (man that feels weird to say) and, save for a small 3.5 blemish from a class I went to...oh, I don't know, 3 times in the semester, I had a 4.0 (woot!) To get that 4.0 (almost), however, I worked my butt off. I also had life: let's face it, junior year of college, there is a LOT to do, and this was definitely one of my more social semesters. I had made some new friends, and some new traditions that ate up a lot of time. Who could say no to dollar burgers on Wednesdays? And now! I have work. I got out of school on the 8th of April, and I began work on the 19th. That time in between consisted of plenty of packing, flying, driving, traveling, unpacking, moving in, learning a new area, etc.

Well, I am happy to say, I am finally getting well settled in my new home (for 12 weeks at least) in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Where is Wilkes-Barre? It's very close to Scranton (which The Office fans have surely heard of) and is actually quite a nice town. I was not quite sure what to expect...a friend's brother told me that all there was to do in Wilkes-Barre was "sniff coal dust and look at poverty". I was worried to say the least. I got here, and it turns out it is quite a charming CITY. Not a town, a city, it's actually a fair sized city, not so small that you can't find anything to do, not so large that you feel anonymous within its' limits.

I am now working for Kraft Foods in the Export Control group. This was a HUGE surprise for me, especially since I was originally told I would be working in Chicago (wtf?) but then I got assigned to Wilkes-Barre (pronounced WILLKS-BARRY) and I was a little mad, I began thinking "maybe I should have waited for Staples...maybe I should have gone with Holcim! I mean, I wanted a consulting job, but I didn't get one, and now I am stuck in the middle of no where, I only took this job because I was afraid of not getting another job..." Well, it turned out to be a blessing.

First of all, the people/culture at Kraft are to be envied by everyone; very laid back, and yet professional. I am in the export control group, which means INSTANT international exposure. Whether or not I decide to take a role with Kraft (if I am offered one), I will have that to talk about, and international experience is vital in today's world. We get plenty of free food (it's Kraft, they have like 49238135109 brands), and I get the benefit of working for a fortune 100 company, who has like 6-8 brands over a Billion Dollars, and like 500 over $100 M. It is unreal how many huge names are actually Kraft.

Remember, just because you may think you've made a horrible decision, it may work out for the best. I am now at Kraft, in their Export group, meeting GREAT people, making GREAT networking connections, and I am actually coming in as some sort of a consulting role. They take me seriously, and are interested in hearing what I have to say, and how I can apply my school learning to their company. "You may find a better way to do something, then a year later, someone new comes along and finds an even better way to do it, you've got to be flexible, and ready to accept better ways of doing things," one of my managers said to me.

I will be taking pictures/video of my apartment here in Wilkes-Barre, so you can all see it. I have had plenty of fun outings already: we went as an office to see the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, one of the Yankee's AAA teams play, and they had some really sweet firework after the show. The next day, I got to go golfing with some guys from the office (including the director of the office I work at), and in 8 days, I turn 21 (woot!). I plan on doing PLENTY of traveling (this weekend, I go to Pittsburgh) to Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Roanoke, Boston, and Dallas (I'll be there for the 4th of July :D )

Hopefully I will have more time to write. I have done some reading on Neville's Financial Blog, and I realized that in trying to find ways to make money on the Internet/in a dorm room, I have focused WAY too much on selling, and could focus on services. A lot of his business ideas are service based; I guess because I grew up making a small fortune (for my age) on e-bay, I am just used to selling physical goods.

I will hopefully be coming up with some new business ideas in the near future (gotta get some beer money somehow)

Until then, I bid you adieu.

Winemaking in the Dorms, and the Professional Development Symposium

Well, I've taken the plunge, and decided to buy the supplies to put together the kits. The order was quite large for some items, so I have to wait for this supplier to receive the extra product from their own suppliers, then I will have it shipped to me, and I will put together the kits. I hope these work. I know I would have loved a product like this when I first moved into the dorms.

Something not a lot of people know about wine...it will get a group inebriated much faster, and differently than regular beer or liquor. This is not proven to my knowledge, and this isn't a statement of fact, but from personal experience and first person accounts, wine gets people more "messed up" than other alcohols. Being a potential 18% alcohol by volume doesn't hurt either.

Topic over (Do not drink or manufacture or possess alcohol if you are below the legal age in your jurisdiction, or if doing so would violate any law, rule, statute, etc. that applies to you)

I just got back from a Professional Development Symposium put on by the Multi-Cultural Business Students at Michigan State University. It was a pretty helpful meeting; it consisted of 4 breakout sessions, and a very interesting keynote speaker during lunch. The meeting took place at a very nice Marriott, and we got plenty of free stuff :) When I left my room at 8 am, my roommate and suitemates were still up. Crazy! Here's a breakdown of the day.

8:30 - 9:00 am : Registration and Breakfast. We registered, got our $25 deposits back (we would not get them back if we did not attend, and this would pay for the food and services we were not using...financial incentive to show up) and then we received a free leather portfolio. I almost brought my own, but I read the e-mail at the last minute and found that we would receive our own new portfolios. I now have 3 portfolios, and I have a feeling that isn't the end of it.

Breakfast was a continental breakfast with coffee (thank you!) and pastries; I had a very tasty and moist blueberry muffin.

9:00 - 9:30 am: Introduction/Welcome - Speech explaining the day basically. I've been to enough of these that I was able to figure it out.

We then had to choose one of 4 breakout sessions to attend: Our options were.
1. Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - EATON Corp.
2. Dining Etiquette - Enterprise Rent-A-Car
3. Understanding Offer Letter Packages - Kevin Leonard, Multi-cultural Business Program
4. Personal Financial Management - MSU Federal Credit Union

I chose the Resume/Cover Letter Workshop, and Understanding Offer Letter Packages for my 2 morning sessions.

9:30 - 10:30 Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - This was a bit of a waste. I expected it to be more in depth information about resumes, but she even said the info on the slides was taken from an MSU website. Helpful, huh? I did learn some from them when the Q/A began, however. They seemed knowledgeable, and provided some good answers. I asked if my objective should be tailored to the company, and they said basically, no. I did not learn a whole lot from this, and would rather have attended dining etqiuette, but oh well, live and learn.

10:45-11:45 am Understanding Offer Letter Packages - This was much more helpful. Kevin Leonard is a very funny man, and he also has a wealth of knowledge. He began by walking us through the negoitaion process of job offers. The best tip we got was that we should not negotiate without other offers on the table. Also, if you know you are being offered a good salary, TAKE IT. If you are $6,000 over the industry high, they want you, and are making a generous offer.

We then went on to discuss the various aspects of the offer letter, and what to look for. Benefits, Travel, Insurance, etc. were all covered, and he said sometimes...many times, one needs to pry into HR to find the policies on Benefits. We talked briefly about the 401(k) (contribute maximum dollars that you can to it, especially early on) and overall, this was a very beneficial session.

Then Lunch

11:45 am - 12:45 pm - Lunch - Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ernest Betts, Assistant Dean for Multi-cultural Business Program (MBP) Dr. Betts was a highly skilled speaker; he spoke about the coming together of different cultures in business like has never before been seen. He discussed some common stereotypes about Americans, as well as some of the cultural aspects we should be aware of for other cultures. In Korea, if asked to hum a few lines of your favorite song, stand up, and belt it; singing is a passion in Korea. He said a client will overlook mutilation of the language, but not mutilation of the culture. If someone came to our country, and spoke very minimal english, we would get a translator, if someone came to our country and hit our children, we would be offended. Get it?

The food at Lunch was sub-par. When you are in a hotel dining room with people in tuxes serving you, you have certain expectations. The salad was good (simple salad, peppercorn ranch dressing) and tasty rolls. The entree, however, was sub-par. The chicken specifically was tough, with rubbery parts, the sauce tasted like it was from McDonalds, there were grains of rice that were crunchy, mixed in with cooked grains. The beans and carrots were good. Dessert was a very rich chocolate tart; incredibly rich. Imagine a pie slice of chocolate. Coffee was a little bitter too, unlike the coffee in the morning; the coffee in the morning was strong and delicious.

The afternoon sessions were all new, and we had 2 to select from those as well.

1. Dressing for Success - Whirlpool
2. Public Speaking - Robert Johnson
3. Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - The Princeton Review
4. Networking/Career Fair Preparation - Target

1:00-2:00 pm Networking/Career Fair Preparation - I felt this was a very helpful session, given the fact that there is a career gallery only days away. We discussed how to open up the discussion, how to develop power stories to tell for different situations. They said that based on a trait that is brought up, we should have "power stories" that show us in a good light. It should be consise, 30-60 seconds, and we should finish with what we learned from the experience. That was basically all we learned, and it was a good skill to learn. I highly recommend everyone learn how to form and deliver a power story.

2:15 - 3:15 pm - Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - This was interesting. I didn't really realize how expensive these tests are until today. $225 for the GMAT alone. Yikes. They are Computer Adaptive Tests, meaning based on whether you get the question right, the next one will be either harder or easier. Cool. We talked about some basic test taking strategies, and the guy was pretty funny. Process of Elimination was a good theme. Here is a sample question he gave us to demonstrate this concept. First, he asked us the capital of Malawi. Know it? No one else did either. Then, he gave us these answer choices:
A. London
B. Tokyo
C. Paris
D. Washington D.C.
E. Lilongwe

Know the answer? It's a good demonstration of the idea. He also said statistically guys score better than girls. It's because guys don't over-analyze. For example, a guy might think "Hmm, don't know the answer at all...I'll go with B" Girls might think "Hmm, I don't know this at all, but I think it might be that one, I don't really know, maybe it's this one, are they trying to trick me, maybe I've heard of that one, could it be C? I'm going to get this wrong, and I know I got the one 3 questions ago wrong, I'm going to fail completely"

4 seconds to like 4 minutes. Saves time for guys. This isn't a rule of course, just an idea to keep in mind, if you don't know the answer, you won't be able to analyze it out. I asked him about the 2+2 program at Harvard, and he is a HUGE fan of them. You get accepted to Grad School and a job simultaneously. Work 2 years, then MBA for 2 years. Cool system. I then answered a question correctly (how many points is the GMAT essay out of A:6) and got a book "The 109 best internships" which I REALLY wanted. Sweet.

I skipped the goodbye speech by accident. I didn't think it was going to happen. Anyway, I'm going to go play some sports. I was out for 8 hours, so I'm ready for some rec time.

Summer Projects YOU can do

Well, if you're anything like me, you're in the summer, and you need money. I plan on spending lots of money when I go to England this summer on my study abroad, unfortunately, as the dollar is dying out against the pound, that is going to be difficult. It means I must either spend TONS of money, or just not buy much. I would rather have the option of spending TONS of money (wouldn't we all)

I need to come up with some projects to do, so I thought I would post some of my ideas.

1. Sell stuff on e-Bay
There are lots of things out there you can sell on e-Bay, and even more places you can find that will tell you how to do it. I am currently selling some old Yu-Gi-Oh cards I found. I bought them as a gift for my cousins, then lost them. My cousins are no longer into these cards, but other people are, and I will sell some stuff to them.
It's actually possible to make LOTS of money from projects like this: I used to make a couple hundred a week from selling Trading cards (back when I was 12ish) There's lots of money in it, but you have to do some homework. Learn the best ways to procure, repack, sell, and ship the cards. I had good suppliers (usually other sellers on e-bay selling boxes of cards) I sold the individuals that were good, shipped them in the bubble envelopes, and turned good profits. You'll also have to learn the game a little so you know which cards are good to sell, and which ones can be either trashed, given away to someone who plays, or sold in "grab bag lots" (a trick I actually created on e-Bay...they have been around in real life for some time, but I was the first to implement them with trading cards on e-Bay)

2. Mow Lawns
I will not be doing this, since my knees are bad from football, but you can! It does not have to be lawn mowing, it can be any physical labor people don't like to do. It sounds simple, but there really can be BOATLOADS of money in this. The best things you can do is first figure out what other companies in the area charge to mow the lawn; you will need to beat these prices. You will then need to decide who you would like to service. If you are mowing lawns, it will be houses near yours since you won't want to lug your lawn mower across town. If it is something with lighter equipment, you can expand more fully. You will also need to advertise. You can post on bulletin boards, send out mailers, even go door to door to tell people about your products (make sure this is all allowed before you do it) There are many opportunities out there: you can clean pools, do gardening, paint outside or inside, mow lawns, change peoples oil, anything you feel you can do well, someone will probably pay you to do. I once had a business managing other kids businesses, since I felt that was my strong point.

3. Get a plain old job
There are many good paying jobs out there that you can get. I am not one for getting jobs, since I like to be my own boss, but if you want one, here are some tips...work in a restaurant, or an office building. If you are a server, you can make BANK on tips (chili's around here, servers make about $100 a night) office buildings you will also get better wages/salary. Don't work somewhere like a grocery store, you make minimum wage with no opportunity for more.

4. Steal it
Just kidding

5. Have a garage sale
If you are anything like me, you have old crap in your room and house that you don't use anymore because you're at college. Talk to your parents and have a garage sale. You can get others involved and make a real event. Advertise in local papers, and be prepared to sit outside all day. You can probably make a couple of hundred bucks from your old crap.

6. Sell stuff online
You can use a website like ecrater.com to create a store for free, and you can sell some of your wares online. This is similar to e-Bay, but you would simply have your own store. It's very easy to set up, and you can even buy a domain name to mask it.

7. Invest what you DO have
If you want, you can even start investing in the stock market (provided you have enough money to cover the commissions with your returns) I highly suggest doing lots of homework before you buy a stock, and for your own benefit, read up on how to invest. My dad is very involved with reading Jim Cramer and watching his show, Mad Money. He's entertaining at least, and I believe he has some good tips. My biggest tip, don't buy stuff simply at market price, set a price, otherwise you could end up selling your stock for $0.01 or buying a share for thousands. Trust me on that one. Cramer's show is on at 6pm and 11pm Eastern on Weeknights.


I hope some of these ideas either provided you with a good idea, or helped you to come up with a good idea of your own. I hope you all make lots of money this summer. Just remember, the best way to stimulate the economy is to spend the money you make. Don't spend MORE than you make, but keep that money moving through the economy.

Leadership Journey by Philip Morris

Well, this weekend was an incredible experience. I went with the Eli Broad scholars to a leadership journey sponsored by Philip Morris, and I must say it was much more than I had expected. First surprise of the day...we're staying at the Westin and we each get our own rooms.It was quite a nice room, with my very own king size bed, and a big plasma TV, it was quite an experience to say the least. However, the room was not the reason we went to Southfield, we went to learn about leadership, and Philip Morris really knows how to teach leadership. I'll admit I was skeptical about going on this leadership journey which was paid for mostly by cigarettes, but I feel better about it afterward.
They did not avoid the topic at all, they were very ready to talk about the issue. At one point, one of the District Managers said "Do you have any questions about the company? It can be the good stuff or the bad stuff; I don't know if you've heard...but we make cigarettes." We discussed some of the issues that they face with rising health consciousness, and what they are doing to try to sell cigarettes as responsibly as possible (I still don't think it's possible to sell cigarettes responsibly) There are a new type of smokeless cigarette called Snus that are available in Dallas I believe, that should be nice for cutting down second hand smoke.
Anyway, the journey was not about Philip Morris either, it was all about leadership. We learned different techniques and thoughts about what leadership is, and what makes a good leader. One of the people we talked about the most was Sir Shackleton; he led a journey to Antarctica to try to cross the land continent. When he got stuck in ice, they changed the plan to try to get home, instead of cross the continent. After like 2 years, and MANY risks, including riding 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island in a tiny rescue boat (a journey that he should have gotten lost on, since there was no land in between, and therefore, no landmarks) he eventually got every single man out alive. I felt he was a good leader as far as compensating for a poor decision in the first place. One of the DM's Mark Barton felt he was a poor leader who made a bad decision, who then became a very good manager. There is a difference between a leader and a manager, he said.
We also discussed various other aspects of leadership which I won't bore you with right now, but it was really inspiring to hear some other aspects of leadership that I would not normally have thought of. The biggest aspect is that a leadership not only deals with how the leader treats the followers, but how the followers treat the leader. I just always thought a good leader knew how to lead, I didn't really think about the fact that he/she needs a good follower.
Anyway, there was MUCH more to it, but for now, that will have to do. If you want some more details, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll let you know what we talked about; it's simply too difficult to put it all into words, since it took a day and a half.

Do business ideas help all businesses

As I've been slowly getting this store going, I've been trying to apply some concepts from the business classes I'm taking. I am trying to set up an inventory system, a customer database, an order database, as well as a table of product information, and supplier information. I got to wondering, is this overkill? I mean, yeah, a small business should have these systems in place, but this is a small business, run out of my dorm room. My inventory is probably less than $250, and I'm just not sure if I have the type of business that requires this kind of organization. I've thought about it a lot, ever since I took my Managerial Marketing class. I used to apply those concepts to different businesses I've run in the past, not actually applied them, just thought about how those concepts could have helped it more.

I guess these systems are good to have, just in case this thing does blow up and I need a management system, it would be better to have than to not have. Also, this does provide good practice for when I need to do this in the real world. I'm simply creating an Access database, which doesn't require much (but man, if you mess up Access, it just doesn't work) but I'm also thinking it's powerful enough to run a small business. the more I type the more I think this probably is a good idea, since this could ultimately help me to run forecasts and produce some effective charts, so I can see how my business is running.

My ITM group is working on this project right now, where we have to take our "grandfather coffee shop" that we "inherited" and write about how we could use a few aspects to technologically advance it. We talked about a biometric payment system and it seems pretty cool. I wish Michigan State would use this kind of technology. You set up a central account, and can link a credit card to it, as well as your address, phone number, and a username and password. You then set up your fingerprint next time you come in, by putting in your password and recording your fingerprint. Then, each time you come in, you place an order, scan your fingerprint, and it automatically charges your credit card. I thought that would be nice for state. You could use your spartan cash (campus cash account, lets your swipe your ID to spend your money) and even get into the cafeterias with it. You could also use it to provide access to different buildings, say Student A has clearance to use the chemistry labs, he can use his fingerprint to open the door. It just seems like that could be a fun technology to work with. Of course there are some security issues, like what if someone loses their finger, or entire hands, they wouldn't be able to use the system. Also, let's say some unsavory characters wanted access to your stuff, they might do something you wouldn't want to happen to you. I know that's one reason they dont' do this with ATM's, same with retinal scanning; those are body parts, but their not exactly body parts you can't lose.

This weekend, the rest of the shot glasses are definitely going up, as well as the temporary tattoos. I figure the tattoos are good add-ons, I just hope people don't only buy those, because then they'll be paying $5.50 for shipping a little $0.50 tattoo. I should include that in the description. I wonder if ecrater will allow you to do something like that, where it costs $1.00 shipping if they buy it alone, but nothing if they buy it with something else. My shipping tables are specific enough, and they can't be made specific enough. Anyway, keep reading, I'm back into posting.

Check out the store:

www.dorm-gear.com

Products online now!!!

I've now got some products online. Admittedly this is not a huge product line, but it's a start, and hopefully it will motivate me to start doing more to get stuff online.

I put my 5 photo holder online, on e-Bay, but online nonetheless.

You can see it here! 5 Photo holder

I would really appreciate anyone who would look at it. This really is a great product, and I use multiple copies of this product, I think it is absolutely great! I can hang tons of photos on the wall without having to buy frames or stick the photos directly on the wall like I did last year.

I have developed a website that I hope to have up and running by the end of the month.

Well, that's enough of that.

I'm really sorry I haven't been posting lately. I have decided that from now on, this blog will be more dedicated to business in general, instead of just business in dorm rooms. I think this is a better, broader topic, and brings me out of my myopic focus. I simply didn't have much to post blogs about, since I haven't been developing my business lately. I hope this will change.

I've purchased a few books and gotten some from Christmas that I hope will be really great. I have

• The Book of the Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
• The Book of Family Traditions by Yagyu Munenori
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
• The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene

These are all meant to help with business, The first 3 are more about battle, and business at a higher level. The world is flat is the new bible in business it seems. Every class talks about this book sometimes. The Art of Seduction is supposed to help with sales, however, I don't think I'll read this in public, that could look kind of embarrassing. I'll go ahead and stay in my room when I read that one.

I got thinking about the role of these books. I have read a few books based on business in the past couple years, and they really are much better than any classes I've taken (with the exception of my International and Comparative Dimensions of Business class). Why do people choose not to read these books. There is a definite edge in the business world based on knowledge. When someone knows more about the business world and can react faster, there is undoubtedly an edge, and I don't think anyone would doubt that.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know!"

That could not possibly be true, it is important to have connections, but unless you're just going to work a nothing job for a relative, your connections can only get you in the door. Please don't get me wrong, connections in business are important, because you DO need to get in the door, but that's as far as they will go. Without the ability to impress an interviewer, and the knowledge to excel at your particular job, you will not last long. Just remember, you do need to know something about business, and economics, and psychology, and how to work with people, and many other things. Your dad's a CEO? Well you better know something about that business to get a job with him, because if you don't, a good CEO will fire you without hesitation.

I get so sick of people relying only on their connections in business for jobs. No one cares if you know more executives than they do, you can only get an interview with your connections, so go to class, stop wasting your opportunities in life. If you're in school studying business, YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING RIGHT! Don't let the seat in your class go to waste. That fact goes for everyone really.

Anyway, that's enough of a rant.

I watched the Detroit Auto show today, quick review: My award for coolest car goes to the Audi R8 (look it up)

A new feature: Submit a Guest Post!!!

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If you are seeing this on Facebook, visit dormroombiz.com to see the full post.

Dorm Room Business Update

I've been up to a lot. I'm working on the website which is going to be somewhat difficult. I'm going to need to spider it all together, and make sure everything works. It'll be a ton of pages. I also need to work out how I'm going to use a shopping cart, figure out what product options I'll offer, and research total shipping costs. I actually designed a logo for the website, and it's pretty cool, but I don't want to publish it until the store is up and running (and the domain is purchased) I don't want someone to see it, and buy the domain and try to sell it to me.

I'm currently working out the details for hosting as well. I've found a few websites that will host pretty cheaply. I'm leaning mostly toward host monster, since it seems to be pretty legitimate, and has most of the features I would want. It is 5.95 a month, but you have to pay ahead of time, so it's a $100 investment before the store actually opens. I'm working hard on this, and always looking for new merchandise. Let me know what you think of the product photos I've already put up by the way.

This is the add to cart button I think I'll use...any suggestions?

The Business is on it's way

I've been working on finding products, and so far it's going pretty well. I've decided I will be selling clever/cool looking magnets. I ordered a sample of magnetic ink jet paper, so I can see if it will work in my printer. I'm also making a thing that can hold like 4-8 pictures, so people could get one or two of these for their dorms.

I'm currently figuring what else to sell. I would need to dropship most of the products, and ideally I find a site that can dropship most of the items, so I don't have like 4 different shipping charges. I found a site that can send out DVD's, but it's based in Europe, and after the exchange rate, it's not as much of a deal as you would think. I'd like to send like laptop accessories, ipod accessories, stuff like that. I just need to figure out how I'm going to do this. I can't hold any inventory really, so I've got to work hard at getting very small items, or finding an affordable dropshipper.

I also ordered some shipping supplies, mostly priority mail. I think I"ll send most products via priority mail, since it has free shipping supplies. It costs a bit more, but it is much easier to ship out.

I'm all moved in

Well, I'm all moved in, wired up, and ready to go. I still need to get printer paper, I didn't think I needed it, but I do. That's easily remedied though. I like the setup of our room, and getting up to the loft is more doable, since I'm in better shape (and 40-50 pounds lighter) than I was at the beginning of last year.

Early night last night, I was incredibly tired, probably from shopping all day. Went to bed about 1:30 ish, so it wasn't too bad. There was a concert going on across the street from my dorm, so I was able to listen to some music too by just opening my window.

Big news, my family apparently has started talking about going on a cruise for my grandma's 80th...that would be so much fun. You're basically 21 when you're on a cruise, gambling and drinking. A-Woo-Hoo!

It's about time to start the business ventures up. I think I'll start with a small online store selling "The Day You Were Born" certificates. It should be simple to set up; $8 for the domain and that's about it. I'll type more later, this was just a quick blog to get everyone caught up.