Back in town

We got back to Houston yesterday after 2.5 weeks visiting my parents up in Omaha.  I had 3 big boxes of inventory waiting for me when I got here, so tomorrow will be spent getting those items logged into the computer.  I am really hoping everything gets here in time for opening day!  Speaking of opening day, I have been saying August 2009, but haven't actually said an exact date yet.  So, with the need for a deadline at hand, I am telling you all that opening day will be August 11th!  Now that it is official, I think I'll work better.  I always work better with a deadline.

What I've been busy with:

• Had a marketing meeting with a good friend while up in Omaha who was a marketing major in college.  She gave me awesome ideas and helped me come up with great questions to ask when deciding where to market.
• Opened accounts with 2 new companies and placed 2 new wholesale orders.
• Prepared 3 more orders to place this week.
• Uploaded products to the website (please note that while the category headers are visible on the website, the products are not.  I will activate them on the 11th!  Until then, they are there, but invisible...oooo, sneaky...)
• Created my business paypal account.  I went back and forth whether or not to use paypal to accept credit cards, or go with a gateway such as Authorize.net, and in the end went with paypal simply for ease at the beginning.  As things get going, I may look further into the gateway option...
• I am still hemming and hawing with Quickbooks.  Right now, I just have the free version.  I went with that to learn the ropes, but am thinking I may need some of the options in the pro version.  Does anyone have any advice with bookkeeping?  Is Quickbooks better than Quicken?  Is there something else you'd recommend?  
• I have been working on the FAQs section of the website.  Still more to come, but a good start....

Whew, that's a lot.  I found I work best at night.  Which is good and bad--bad because I should be sleeping, good because the house is quiet and the baby is (usually) sleeping.  Tonight is probably a sleeping night.  The baby had a rough night last night adjusting to being home after traveling, so in turn, Lucas and I had a rough night as well.  Here's to a good night sleep for everyone tonight!

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Order Up!

Whew!  Ordering the inventory to stock baby, naturally is much tougher than I thought!  So many considerations...colors, numbers, sizes.  My brain hurts!  I have made some great wholesale relationships that I am really excited about, though, so I know it is hard to make a bad decision here...but seriously, how to pick??

Did anyone come up with any thoughts about the search engine optimization?  I clicked through today (using the terms "baby naturally") and found the store on page 29 of google.  Searching the terms "baby naturally blog" on the other hand brings up this blog on the first page.  Hmmm.  Thoughts?  

I am trying to come up with a fantastic opening special for the store.  Something fun, unique, exciting.  Again, I am open to thoughts on this as well!  What would entice you to visit the grand opening of a webstore?  

I'm now off to try and make a button for the store.  We'll see how that goes : )

Results

Thank you to everyone who voted in my poll!  I wanted to share the results:

Top votes went to:   Fresh Linen

Second:  Lavender Vanilla

Third:  Butt Naked

Fourth:  Natural

I am going to put in my wholesale order for those 4 scents to start!  Thank you so much for your help!

Tomorrow is a big day--I have prepared my orders with all of my (current) manufacturers and wholesale providers and will be submitting them tomorrow!  Then, let the deliveries begin!  I have already gotten a jump on product entry for some of the diapers I'll be carrying, but have the option set to inactive (which is why you can't see them yet if you check the site...).  I didn't want anyone to try and place an order for an item before everything was ready to go : )

In other news:  I got my business cards!  They are fabulous.  I have already handed out about 10 of them.  Woohoo!  

To close for today:  another question.  Does anyone have any tips on how to get the store's website higher up on search engine listings?  When I run a search now, it doesn't even appear on the first 20 pages....

A Poll

I'm not sure how many people are checking in regularly, but I could really use your help if you are indeed reading this!  I am trying to prepare my order with my supplier for natural laundry detergent and could really use some help choosing which scents to carry. 

Thanks so much!

Uploading!

Today was super productive!  I learned the workings of the site administration and uploaded all my inventory from my first shipment of FuzziBunz!  If you check out the site, you'll be able to see the category headers and such, but I haven't activated the actual products yet, so those pages will still be blank.  But, they are ready to go on opening day as soon as I activate them!  Woohoo!

My experience so far with Shoppe Pro (my host) has been phenomenal.  Karina (owner) is a WAHM and is super quick to answer any questions, and I have also been able to get great help from the Shoppe Pro forums from other site owners as well.  If you are looking for a great webhost for your online store, I highly recommend Shoppe Pro!

I am currently searching for a credit card processor and supplier for shipping supplies.  Any recommendations out there??

Busy, Busy!

Yikes, it's been a few days since I've managed to post on here.  With a good excuse, of course!  We are currently far, far away from our home in Texas.  We made our way to "The Good Life" (that's Nebraska!) on Wednesday, spending close to 4 hours on the plane with our little guy.  We were SO nervous, but it turned out we didn't need to be!  He did awesome--the only sounds he made were little squeals of happiness while he played peekaboo with the passenger behind him.  We were so proud!  

Tonight, my brother is getting married!  So, you can imagine we've been a little busy with plans, rehearsals, last minute errands, etc., so not much "work" has been happening since we arrived.  BUT!  Right before we headed out of town, my first shipment of diapers arrived!  I'll be working this week to get them loaded onto the website (although they won't be visible until opening day...).  Now that the inventory is starting to come, it really feels real.  And, August is getting closer, and closer, and closer...eek!

Lots of updates to come this next week.  After the wedding festivities, it is crunch time till opening day!

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th!  

Day 2

Today, I spent way too much time working on things that should've taken me 5 minutes. But, the end result was what I was going for so in the end I am happy! No more gridlines around the categories and product pictures--woohoo! Also accomplished: ad banner construction. On the table for the rest of the weekend: work on a few FAQs, put in contacts with 2 more suppliers. I tend to be a little over zealous on thinking what I can get accomplished, so I'm trying to keep my to-do list reasonable, especially during a holiday weekend : )

Thank you all so much for your support and well wishes--made my day! We are looking forward to the 4th tomorrow. Lucas had today off work, so we got an early start. We are grilling out tomorrow and if our little guy is up for it, may head out to find the local fireworks displays. I hope your 4th is wonderful as well!

Welcome!!!

Welcome to the new blog for baby, naturally! I am so excited to finally share the news about my new store with you all. It has been a busy month leading up to the debut of the blog. Let's take a quick look at what we've been working on:

• Research, research, and more research!
• Probably could have researched my way into the New Year, but my husband finally convinced me that I could keep researching even after I took the next step.  So, I did:  I obtained my business license in May, 2009 and my idea became baby, naturally LLC!
• Began contacting companies regarding wholesale accounts.
• Purchased my domain name and hosting account for the website.
• Hired the wonderful Ingrid at Cherry Tree Graphics to turn my website ideas into a fully functioning web-store.
• Opened a business checking account and began to feel like a legitimate business.
• Began designing the blog.
• Panicked because I promised to reveal the news about the store to my personal blog readers when I reached 100 posts and when I got there I wasn't quite ready!
• Stayed up way past my bedtime getting the blog and site in presentable states so I could make the big announcement.
• Put in my first wholesale orders!
• Made my big announcement and welcomed you all here!

I want to invite you to follow this blog so you can join me in the final preparations for opening day.  I plan to document the process here and eventually add a twitter account and face book fan page.  There will be opportunities to help me along in the process, so don't be shy in expressing your thoughts!  And as we get closer to opening day, stay tuned for special deals and discounts for you readers!  If you want to take a look at the store, check out the link in the left sidebar.  The links are still a work in progress : )

Again, welcome!  It's going to be fun!