Welcome to our weekly update of the "Founder's Log" a blog dedicated to the progression of American Butchers JERKi, highlighting the things we've accomplished thus far in the past week, paths we are currently working towards right now, and unchartered paths we hope to accomplish in the upcoming week! Starting a business can be a tough decision so I've added this so you can stay up to date with things I've learned along the way! Have a question, don't hesitate to leave a comment below!
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A look into the last week
Our progression for American Butchers JERKi over the past week has been tenfolds as we progress each week. I think this probably has something to do with the fact that the beginning of a business requires the most work and you find yourself making the biggest impact on your business. Looking at the last week thus so far we've done everything from:
- establishing email aliases allowing us to set up email trafficking through @support, @info, @welcome, and @help each having their own unique function throughout the website.
- We've also done a great job this week by continuing the trend of social media. I have a lot to learn still with Instagram and Facebook which I'll highlight more into the future but for now, the ultimate game plan was to hash out the posts we want to feature this upcoming week which we accomplished.
- Finally, the website is coming along! Over the last week and probably the past three weeks we've focused almost all our attention on developing a website. Honestly, I probably could have made something very quick and published a website to get the ball rolling but if I am being honest here, I wanted the face of our business to be more than just a quick post up. I feel we have significantly learned a lot to pass on development phases and be published in the near future.
Today
We've spent a good amount of time today focusing on developing this section of our website and the business i.e. the BLOG. If I have learned anything about making yourself an important part of the internet, it is that you have to be able to effectively reach your audience. The ways that this can be accomplished range from social media to marketing and of course writing a blog. Keywords are everything so Blogs are a great way to share your experiences and add more of a "digital footprint."
Anyways back to the topic. Today we are also in the full development of the product. Before I left for training, I shipped all of our products to those who needed it most in order while I was away. Now that we are back, our inventory is very low. I've been on the phone with the rest of our team and we are currently as I write this in the kitchen marinating the blends for our jerky and eventually be smoking right away. We should have our inventory back up and full stock sometime within the next week allowing us to prepare for launch. With the launch comes a necessity for shipping supplies. Today I've put in an order for shipping labels and I'm currently working with two suppliers handing packaging and how we want to ship directly to soldiers overseas and to customers. More to come next week.
Cheers to the Future
The plan over the next week is to focus on developing our brand through social media. I've spent a lot on developing the website and the product because those are both very important features but I want to do my best to reach untapped audiences. I think we will have to highlight what I've learned in next week's post because I don't have any real knowledge of handling it effectively yet. The goal is to continue to post on social media every day during the week and take weekends off, but I want to focus on the interaction on social media. Following people, sharing posts, reacting towards other captions. Becoming a better social media user for my business is the goal.
Within the next week, I also should have a plan for shipping procedures. I should receive both my shipping labels and a few of the bags that we want to test for sizing purposes in order to maximize productivity to shipping efficiency.
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The Founder's Log is designed to be a behind the scenes of American Butchers JERKi. With that, I encourage you to ask any questions you might have regarding our product or about the business! Hope to catch you next week, Same time?
-Calvin