Being in business, an idea that still makes me giggle as it is so new to me, is quite a faith walk.
As I think these are just the funkiest USBs ever, I wanted to register their designs asap. I went ahead and did so, esp. as it cost me about N$2 per design. So while they were still in the process of coming to life I went ahead to register them.
At the time I did not have a registered company yet, and figured that can wait until I have actually sold something. Besides, paying N$200 to register a sole trader is different to paying N$2 to register a design. Sure, N$200 isn't much, but I was already spending a significant amount of money. Plus things were pretty busy at my full time job at the time.
When I finally registered the "company" I was advised not to use Eagle Vision Enterprises. It's not the enterprises part I was interested in in any case, but I would have to add "Trading" to this already long name. But the biggest reason for the advice to change the name was that "Eagle Vision" is too general.
And now? I didn't want to leave the Trade and Industry building, go think about a new name and then drive all the way out there again. So I had to come up with a name there and then.
In fact, the original name was going to be "Vida's 70/7 Vision". Nice v's in the name. Plus, when I thought of Vida's Vision I read up on the meaning of 20/20 Vision and when I understood it, I figured 70/7 would be great. Because it would mean I can see from 70meters away what other people can only see from 7meters away. What a visionary, hm? I loved it. But when I went to register this name I was told they don't allow numbers in the names of companies anymore. I thus had the farsighted eagle replace the 70/7 to still represent that extraordinary sight.
So I went from "Vida's 70/7 Vision" to "Eagle's Vision" to.... No "Trading" or "Enterprises" added, just this: VISIONWORKS. Great, hm? To have vision works, and the materialization of vision is evident from the works produced. I quite like it.
In the mean time the registered designs have arrived - in the name of Eagle Vision Enterprises. Well... such is life.
This business woman :-) will be signing off from her zula duties and resume it in the new year on 6 January.
This year the USBs were imagined, designed, produced and a few were sold. During the sales process I learned a great deal and am looking forward to implement these newly acquired guidelines.
A blessed Christmas and prosperous 2013 to all the current and future EV USB users.
Vida
The first two years of my formal education I attended M H Greeff Primary School. A darling aunt of mine also teaches there. My link to this school thus remains strong especially as I often hear stories about the poverty and challenges faced by these pupils.
Last night I consulted with a friend who is forever saving the world. I presented him with an idea on how to start a reading programme at this school for the Grade 1 group. I would use a percentage of the profit I make selling the USBs to employ first one, then more pupils who finished Grade 12 the previous year. These "reading assistants" will assist pupils whom teachers have identified with practicing their reading. The programme would entail creating a reading corner and sending students during their normal reading slot to the assistant. I believe the parents of these pupils often do not have time to read with them at home, so they either do it alone or only during the slots allocated for it at school. He explained through the many times he worked with schools that they don't have time to put in the effort to create a reading corner and to rework their existing schedules. What they do have time for is to receive things, say "thank you" and "goodbye," and to then to return to their busy schedules. He also explained that there will also be more red tape involved in a reading programme and until I can afford to pay more than one person for their service as reading assistant, I may be creating trouble amongst the teachers.
We thus concluded that straightforward financial contributions towards paying school fees or stationary donations will be the best option. I understand his point and can agree with him. But I love reading and want to contribute towards nurturing a love for reading.
I'm still thinking about it... Do I settle for his suggestion or try to forge a way to nurture reading? As there are no profits to speak of as yet, I still have time to consult and then make my final decision.
Afrikaans speaking people often say "dis nie soos ek jou hier vertel nie" when they are relating some fantastic experience. While one often means to create a more vivid picture in the listener's mind by trusting him or her to imagine your story greater than you are painting it with your words, I'm using the words to fill in the gaps of this story.
When one writes with hindsight, the dreamt-of and the hoped-for had already been established, so you can simply report. This is not quite the case for me. I do not know the end of this story and these blogs are not well-calculated installments of a success story, I am also still seeing things unfold day by day. My vantage point is the difference between today and yesterday. But I would like to retrace those earlier days when possibility was like a rain-promising cloud in my heart which could easily behave like our Namibian clouds before the actual rains come.
Anybody who lives in Namibia knows about those "spaza" clouds. I don't know the origin of this word, but locally it means that clouds behave like good soccer players who can pretend that they are about to do one thing but then do something else. So there was a cloud of hope, faith whispered a promise that this idea may be realised, my cloud may actually rain. Hot day after hot day the clouds build up, cool the day, become so thick you can image you smell the rain in the distance. Oh, but our Namibian clouds build up, build up into heavy clouds and then... IT DOESN'T RAIN! And tomorrow a new cloud starts building up and you hope. When this happens you feel so cheated. Well, I do. In the same way I saw my USB cloud grow heavier and heavier, but deep inside I feared it may dissipate Namibian style. I may learn something about a tax law or any other nameless dreamkiller. Would my cloud leap forth its drops... or would I experience another hot and dry day hoping?
With a sigh of relief I can say the dream cloud began drizzling in numerous ways: the fact that I could afford to invest the money I did, after months I fell in love with the designs, the USBs arriiiiiiiiiiiived. Oh, you should have seen me when I opened that box. Disbelief, wonder, gratefulness, supersweetrainbowcoloured joy washed over me and through me in jubilating waves. It was wonderful.
Although I have not sold many of the USBs yet, I've moved so far beyond the early days when the dream was the whiff of a cloud on the horizon. "Back then" I would mail Ilana - my supplier of goods and services - asking her if she thinks the idea can work. What would she suggest I do as research, should I do this, can I do that? Poor woman; trying to sell me her services but needing to hold my hand at the same time. We got through it, Ilana.
And though it felt like my cloud may indeed have played the spaza game when I ran into the "your price is too high, you need packaging" doors, I believe in my product. These are the cutest Namibianised USBs; they will sell themselves. In this 'm confident. The physical truth for now is that there is no real rain yet, but I have learned to become patient, to understand the dynamics. Though I'm in absolutely unfamiliar territory, I can smell the rain.
Okay, so it took 135 days since Kelly blurted out "Imagine customized USB animals for tourists" in her American accent for me to hold those unimaginable beautiful USBs in my hands. It of course felt like a million years.
So I finally have them and then I discover my price is not right. Another stab to the heart was that I would need fancy packaging... I'm not selling kapana on the street, so I should up my game... Can you imagine?
My ship started filling up with water until Agartha pulled me up out of my sinking emotions. Sideline: emotions are buggers one should be very careful of. Back to the story.
I started a bit of a roller-coaster ride to find packaging. Eventually I came to a simple solution. It required that I print my "flyer" four images to a page. I then had to cut it out with scissors or have it done at a shop. I thought of a guillotine to save me time. I did not think so for N$650. Then I thought of a cutting board and a cutter. Not for N$300+. I then just got the cutter and turned over a kitchen tray.
Welcome to my world:
This tray story of mine reminds me of A*. She started a business from home and as it grew saw she could open an office. The day she opened the doors of her office she sat at her desk - on an upturned 20L paint drum. She doesn't know how this story of hers inspired me. It showed me you can work with what you've got. Just do it.
The posts that will chronicle the Eagle Vision story won't be a chronological unfolding of events. I'll just share as I remember or as I have time to record highlights of the day or week.
While I'm burning to tell about a few more wonderful people I have met on this journey I've been excited to share two snippets; I'll do so in this and the next post.
The current 7 designs available for purchase came after many trials and errors. Many. Some however had a great start in this that I found them in a stock photo library. Due to modifications on these designs and some that were started from scratch I unfortunately gave the designers a tough time. And yet I felt sorry for them for having to deal with someone like me with my sharp eye and anal ways. Initially the Namibian map was only going to have one side showing the Namibian flag colours. The other side was only going to have a solid colour. At first I was okay with the idea of the USB having only one "correct" side, but then the following idea struck me:
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This would mean that the sun would always be shining from the left side. But boy did that give us trouble, especially with the animals. It went on and on and on until Ilana suggested we do both sides with the sun shining from the Opuwo area. In the photo of the left the sun shines from Opuwo, but in the photo on the right, the sun shines from the Caprivi. Doing it the "correct way" was however such a mess.
With the animals the sun would shine from the head and on the reverse side it would shine from the animal's butt! Thank you, Ilana for ending that nightmare for all of us involved.
At at the end of it all I can just say that it was an interesting detour.
I'm writing this story of how Eagle Vision USBs began, because I've had to start thinking out of the box to make things work.How it began... a friend game me a small I-thought-of-you gift. It was a USB in the shape of a lighthouse! How cool could that be?!
One day this little guy was sitting on my desk at work and a colleague came over, saw it, said: "How cute." I replied, "no it is more than cute, it is a USB. Whala..." and I opened it for her.
She was taken with it and said if it was in the shape of an animal, tourists would love it. The idea sounded fantastic. I said she and her husband have a month to make work of that idea, but she said they are too busy. I said, that means I can run with it.
I immediately went down Independence Avenue and to a few more curio shops off Independence. Nobody sold USBs in the shape of animals. Wecke&Voigts sold customised USBs, but I never saw them. They had NAMIBIA written on them somewhere and sold for N$270. But I can't be sure of what they looked like nor could I establish how many gigs they were.
With that information I took the plunge. I traced the company who created this corporate gift for Namport. Thank you to that helpful and efficient receptionist at Namport who got me the details in record time.
A process that lasted 135 days ensued. But I will give the detail another day.
The product finally arrived on day 135 and then I set out to sell the product, because there was no doubt in my mind that it would sell itself. Alas... What a shocking experience. I never thought of packaging. Tourists like their goodies to be presented in a certain way if they are going to pay proper money for it. Also, where in my life had I ever heard of wholesale and retailer prices??? Shops need to make their profit and cover their overheads so my price was too high for them. They looked at my USB and thought tourists would not buy it at my amount x 2, and then they would say "no". What??? Why??? I did not understand. But now I understand about overheads and and and...
My plan for 2013 is to do a design, pleasing to the eye and the sense of "this must be a great gift, look how marvelous the packaging is". I also plan to produce in quantities that I can sell it to retailers for a price they will be willing to pay.
UNTIL THEN, by the grace of God and through the advice of a wonderful friend, I will sell this fantastic little USB myself, one on one.
I will upload photos of when we were still in progress, to tell the story in more detail.
For now I would like to thank Mal for the Namport USB; Kelly for her idea of animal USBs, Ilana for her patience and hard work to see this idea come off the ground; Ricky for his willingness to sell my product in his shop for a whole month at no cost so that we can determine the price buyers are willing to pay; to Robert and Antoinette for their encouragement and stunning guidance; to Lelanie for her sound business caution and advice, to Agartha for giving me the inspiration and courage to set about selling the product myself, not settling for the punches of the "realities of business"; and to Bjorn for his willingness to mentor me and see dreams grow strong and new ones birthed. Thank you, thank you to all of you.
Thank you to you too, dear reader, for taking the time to visit this blog to read the story.
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