Archive for June 2009
Recieved Information in the Mail
June 21, 2009 | 
Author We recieved some information in the mail from the vendor we may use for the donut business. I have yet to go through it, I may make copies to distribute to the group... We have not considered other venues for the business, there are other flea markets in the area, the Proctorville Flea Market? I believe interest in this project is winding down... only time will tell.
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: area, business, donut, Information, interest, Market, project, Recieved, time, vendor | 
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Are we taking away from our other interests?
That is one of the concerns one of my partners is having.... We are primarily in business to do real estate but just saw the opportunity in this awhile back.... One of our partners pulled an article out of Fast Company that discussed a "small donut" shop in Seattle, they are a street vendor I believe.. It was part of the "Why Seattle is the Most Creative City of 2009. A link to the Fast Company Article is here.. I love Fast Company, I used to read it religiously... after this article that my partner found, I will revisit the magazine.
Our flea market idea is pretty much a no go.. we will consider another possibilit, it is just very important tha we have the traffic necessary to sustain this type of business.... I wish we had a busy downtown area... actually we do but only part of the time.... there is a new development that gets a lot of entertainment type traffic... there are not a lot of business men or women in our downtown area, so not a real big need for street vending, too bad.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: business, development, donut, Fast, idea, link, need, shop, street, type | No Comments »
Just Recieved an Email from the Company
Well, just recieved some information from the donut company.... I skimmed through the materials, you really need to work this business.... The idea situation (from what I am thinking right now) is we invest in the machine, find someone who really has the time to work this business, and we split the profit... hmmmmm who could that be? We could st the business up, purchase the machine, obtain licenses and do all the beginning work, get someone else to run around and sell the business, but on a purely commission/profit sharing basis. There are so many problems with that idea, I will discuss them later.... Basically, one of my partners thinks that sharing profits always ends up being a bad thing.... and people get greedy, they think they are putting more into it than you, they could "just do it on their own, etc" I just don't know if I could handle something else to do... I mean, personally I would not have the time to devote to this (after reading the material and thinking about it) and give it the attention it needs. I COULD set the business up and hand it over to someone else to market it, then split the profits. I mean 50% of something is better than 50% of nothing! I REALLY think we should find someone hungry enough for money who has integrity, a self starter and motivated. Wow what an order, I think it could be done.
Still Have Not Recieved Any Information
Checked the mail today, we are awaiting information on the donut business and the machines themselves.... I called the company and requested more info.... I didn't get his name, but hopefully someone will get back with me and/or send some informaton. It is just amazing to me how companies that are supposedly successful do not send out requested literature or at least make a phone call to a hungry buyer. Are they so large and have so much business they do not need to respond? I have come into that a lot lately.... people not responding to emails or phone calls..... It simply amazes me! I am very curious what the booklet they send has to say...
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: business, call, donut, info, informaton, literature, mail, phone, Recieved, today | No Comments »
Donut Machines, Mini Donut Machines and Doughnut Machines
This is the equipment we are most likely going to go with, but are definitely considering others... I personally like the idea that there are no franchise fees involved and we can use the name Lil' Orbits with no royalties (from my understanding)... We are still awaiting the informational booklet that they promised to send... If I do not get it in a few days I will call them and see what happened. I liked what I heard from the lady I had spoken with, her name was Donnie, she was very informative.. I am not certain whether I can ask for her directly or not. She was supposed to call me but never did. We will see. I am in the process of finding other vendors at this moment... One thing I found interesting about this company is I read somewhere that they get over a million (I believe) hits through there network of sites... I find this very intriguing as an internet marketer. I am going to be talking with my partners this week about their flea market visit.. from my understanding they are only allowing a couple food vendors at a time and there is a waiting list. I will update you on what they say this weekend.
Not Looking Good for our Desired Location
Well, my partners concluded their site visit and it was as good as we had anticipated. They only allow two food vendors at any one time and there is a waiting list... Unless something different was sold, then they might give an exception, this may be a way in for us, not sure.. We will discuss it at our next meeting. Still waiting for the vendor information, if I do not get anything tomorrow I will call back and see what is going on.
Posted in Finding a Location | Tags: exception, Information, list, location, site, time, tomorrow, vendor, visit, way | No Comments »
Research Phase
So we have begun our research into this business.... this is what has happened this week.. I made contact with a rather large vendor of the tiny donut machines, they are a non-franchise enterprise who make most of their money on selling the machines and supplies for the product. I talked to a very informative lady who is supposed to send us some material on the whole idea. We have an idea of where we are going to locate, my partners were doing a site visit on Sunday, so I will have more information at a later time Right now we are waiting on the materials from the machine vendor and whether we will be able to locate our business in the high traffic location thtat we have been hoping for. Wish us luck.
Posted in New Business | Tags: donut, enterprise, idea, Information, location, luck, machine, site, vendor, visit | No Comments »
Our Latest Project
This website is devoted to our fledgling donut business. My partner and I have been to California (more specifically San Francisco and the Santa Clara Valley area) off and on for a few years... On our travels there we noticed a mini donut shop on Pier 39 that (unlike other shops on the pier) has remained open. We could not believe how "nuts" people were going over these simple pastries. We vowed to look into it but actually, like so many things that intrigue us, never did anything about it. It was not until a recent trip with our other partners that the subject was brought up again. It came up after noticing a donut shop on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. They were not the mini donuts that we saw on Pier 39 in San Francisco, they were large with a choice of several fillings.
We liked the simplicity of the mini donuts, they basically came in 3 varieties: plain, sugar and cinnamon. This is our first venture as a company into anything food related. I have never heard anything positive about going into the food industry, but we feel this is entirely different.
I have been in several different business ventures and always thought it would be interesting to log everything from conception to success or failure.. what we did, who we called, every detail that made the business a reality. When I see a business, I often think to myself how insanely interesting it would be if they blogged about nothing else but their business, and with a lot of detail. How exactly was the idea concieved, who they called, was it a success or failure.. when did they decide to call it quits and why... and everything in between. Of course, I am not going to be giving away this information for free.... This is going to be a private website for a long time until something comes of it.... but I can assure you, we are going to follow through until we determine whether it is worthwhile for our company to pursue. We are currently in the research phase and will be posting our findings... I am going to expose everything on this website that we do..... I already told you about how we conceived the idea.. I always thought it would be interesting to follow a business owner from the time they first had the idea to the time they could make it on their own or close up shop. Either way, it would be interesting. Readers now have the opportunity to do just that. They can follow us from conception and see what happens. I will hold nothing back... Think of it as kind of a "reality show".... but on the internet and in blog format. Again, many parts of this website will be private and only accessible to investors and company members. I will decide at some point when to release everything unedited to the public. But for now, readers of this blog will only read what we want them to know. Here we go... so many projects and not enough time.
**EDIT**
I have recieved a couple of emails from those who "think" they are language elitists or experts arguing that I have not spelled donut correctly in my domain. I assure you that it is a common and accepted spelling, but for those that are bothered, I have also the domain mydoughnutbusiness.com with the "other" spelling. It is not live at the time of this post.
Posted in New Business | Tags: blog, business, choice, conception, detail, donut, everything, idea, shop, subject | No Comments »
