Eddie’s Energy Bars Blog

Deadlines are constantly popping up everywhere: in business, in life, and in school. It is important to deal with your deadlines in a timely fashion. If you’re in a bike race, you have a deadline to finish–you can’t spend twenty-four hours finishing a five mile bike race, can you? Well–maybe you can, but I am sure you would have some mad people waiting for you at the finish line.

Mad people. I don’t like mad people, and I am sure you’re the same. Get things done on time, and you have happy people. Get things done late, and you have mad people. We don’t want the last one. Do whatever it takes to get the assignment/project done on time, or even earlier, then you have time to go outside and play. I know everyone is truly excited about that!

In order to get things done before the deadline, you need to be able to manage your time effectively. If your summer reading is going to take you the entire summer, then start it now, rather than cramming it into the night before the bell rings at school. Need to get a delivery over to a store before noon. Sacrifice, and wake up early. You could even give yourself breakfast out (a healthy breakfast, mind you).

Rewarding yourself for accomplishing things on time is important, and to be on time, you need to manage your time. Go ahead, put up that giant calendar in the kitchen of everything you have to do. Make sure it is dry erase, so you feel better every time you erase something of your calendar.

I meet my deadlines all the time, and go above and beyond what I need to do to be on time. Some may call it goofy, but that’s what an entrepreneur has got to do.

Oh, don’t forget to schedule in FUN!

Michael,
Eddie’s Energy Bars

I can’t express more how important it is to be nice to your store accounts, of which you sell your product.  Being nice to them, especially when selling homemade energy bars, is so crucial to success in stores. I try my best to be nice to all of my stores that I sell in, and I think it translates into more sales.

Store owners and employees will talk up your product and push it off the shelves into customers hands.  This helps more than your company, but the store itself.  If customers want an Eddie’s Energy Bar, they will go to their favorite store, which gets them to look at more products the store sells, and hopefully purchase.

I heard a story today, of horrible customer service.  Someone badgered the store owner to sell their product, and thought it was unfair that they were selling the competition’s product.  That’s only slightly annoying to me, but the store owner ended up refusing to sell the company’s product because of the way they were treated.

This not only happens with your customer accounts, but it is also true in life.  The people you surround yourself with are generally people who treat you nicely, not badly.  You will help these nice people out because they have decided to help you out.  These are the people to know.

So, to sum this all up, be nice or go home.  Being mean will not really get you anywhere.

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

I went to the Vermont Business Expo today, and enjoyed myself.  I met some very nice people, and got some good information, however, I noticed too many booths that made crucial mistakes in trying to attract the thousands of customers that came by their booth.  The following are two tragic things you can do to not pull those customers in:

1. Leaving your booth unattended
I saw probably four or five booths that were left unattended.  What if I wanted to do business with that company.  I ended up not knowing what the company did, but that’s not the point here.  An unattended booth means that you don’t care about your customers, and that you do not want their business.  It is unprofessional, and is just not a great thing to do if you want your business to survive.

2.  Reading other literature or sitting on your computer
I rounded the expo probably six times, and I saw the same three booths reading the Burlington Free Press.  What a waste of the six hundred dollars their company spent to be there.  I’m sure the Free Press was full of great stories today, but do you think it could have waited until after the expo was over?  I think it could have, although, I noticed that whenever people walked by the booth, the attendant would look up, and then back down to read the Living section of the paper.  I’m sorry–they should probably be attentive, and attract customers to their booth.

Aside from some of the horrible booths I saw, I think the trade-show was beneficial for me, as I talked to many companies about my upcoming trade-show in October.  I am getting ready now because it’s a very big trade-show, and I need to impress my customers!

Tomorrow I have a presentation on student entrepreneurship and the business curriculum in high schools.  It should be a great presentation, and I am really looking forward to it.

Until tomorrow,

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

Today was the first time I had baked energy bars in probably two months. I finally got the chance to relieve my parents of the duty. I ended up baking three flavors: Cinnamon Raisin, Cranberry Almond, and Maple Walnut. Out of those three, cranberry almond is my favorite. I needed to finish packaging the bars, labeling them, and getting ready for deliveries. I was home alone thinking that help would be great. I have dishes piled high and a laundry list of things to do.

As an entrepreneur, I have learned that I need family (and friends) to help me grow. I’m not paying my parents, although they are banking on being paid huge dividends so they can retire early :). Friends have helped me taste-test bars, package, and even deliver. These are the people an entrepreneur should surround themselves with, ones willing to help you out, and see you fulfill your dreams. My dream is to have a successful homemade energy bar business, but I should keep in mind that friends and family have their own lives to lead, and lead they shall, but I will always ask “Can you help me?” A great example of this is that my neighbor up the road has offered to do deliveries when we go away–now that is Vermont for you!

I’ll ponder this over sleep. Goodnight.

Michael
Eddie’s Energy Bars

Exam Update: 3 down, 2 to go.  I had my accounting exam today, and I think I did pretty well.  We’ll have to see in a couple weeks when grades are posted.

Anyway, we had quite a dilemma in the Eddie’s Energy Bars bakery yesterday.  We couldn’t find the clear bags we package our bars in.  I had ordered 2,000 bags a couple months ago, and woosh!  The bags are gone.  Almost 2,000 bars sold in only a couple of months?  That is crazy!  I am glad to see that the demand for my homemade energy bars is picking up, however, that is not the point.  We had a problem to solve*.

Thankfully, I had some clear bags left over from when we switched to cello-bags.  We used those, so we are all good in the kitchen for now.  Lesson learned: be more organized, and order more bags even if we’re going to run out soon.

Nothing like learning something new everyday!

Have a great day, and hopefully it will be problem free.

Michael Adams
Eddie’s Energy Bars

*Right after I finished typing this post, I got an IM from my mom, saying we had found the bags!  Now this post is somewhat meaningless, but there is still a lesson to be learned here!