1. How it all began

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.