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!
----
A look into the past week
The last few days have been a whirl of progression for us here at American Butchers JERKi. We highlighted this in a few blogs back but we've been focusing on our brand identity and presence online. Each day we've focused on providing a #DailyThanks that targets a day to look back and appreciate what we are thankful. Between the past 2 weeks we've been thanking customers, engagement, progression on interaction and feedback from customers to show the appreciation that each part of this operation deserves.
To kick off this focus on being thankful for the progression we are experiencing even if minimal, a very large impact has been the movement we have seen in donations. This concept of American Butchers JERKi has always been with the priority of sending a Taste of Home to service members overseas. We thanked a family who specifically ordered 10 bags to be sent directly overseas with nothing returned to them. That action shows the generosity that we have experienced with our customers to continue paying it forward. The second big contribution towards paying it forward we have experienced was by a business located in Massachusetts.
This week we captured our first ever business sponsorship of a unit overseas! Mel & Sons Oil proudly sponsored 35 bags to be donated to a platoon of troops. Currently I am trying to figure out the best way to say thank you for their contribution and commitment to providing this monuments donation all while also finding an adequate unit to donate towards. My goal is to hopefully create a memorabilia for the business that donated which might include a picture of the platoon holding the donated product or maybe a Unit shirt/ coin to be able to share back with the business as a token of our appreciate. More to come on this as we progress forward in the upcoming weeks.
Today
Today has been a little bit of a hiccup in the forward progression. I have experienced this lack of accomplishment where I feel like we aren't doing enough, we aren't moving as fast forward as I had hoped by now. Part of this is due to my constant monitor of competition and comparing ourselves to others. I look at the sales, engagement, and conversion rates compared to similar businesses and I think to myself we aren't doing enough.
So that's the problem that i've been thinking about but here is the reality to the situation. First, don't think about your competition. Everyone progresses in their own forward light and if we compare ourselves to other businesses we might as well start acting just like them. We have our own very unique business, our mission and we have our own very unique flavors. This type of competition is good but should not be a constant monitor that i've found myself focused on utilizing social media. This might be the problem both in a personal lifestyle and business lifestyle is the focus on social media to compare our accomplishments as a business towards others.
Second, it is very important to realize your strengths as a business and continue to utilize those as a foundational block to continue to build upon. We might not be the business to hit 100,000 sales the fastest or look at hitting the fastest dollar amount but what i can tell you is that we have business goals and objectives that we are continuing to crush as we move forward each day. The focus on American Butchers JERKi has been limited to few late night hours and mostly a weekend adventure while the personal accomplishments and responsibilities are also playing into this adventure. For that we have to continue to believe we are moving forward and ensure we are doing it at our best rate that we have felt progression.
Cheers to the Future
Let's talk about the next week. I highlighted the direction we wanted to focus in our last iteration of the blog being email marketing. The honest opinion is we weren't able to accomplish that task yet. The note has been added to the To-Do list and the reading will be accomplished in due time.
In the upcoming week we are putting our attention on Marketing and Ad campaigns. We were fortunate enough to launch an ad to run for the past 5 days and should finish tomorrow. This weeks ad ran us a total of $5/day with the results unexplored yet. In next weeks conversation i'll do my best to explain an analysis of the results and feedback that the ad campaign experienced. Marketing has been a very unique approach towards brand awareness and sharing who we are. This has been a huge halt because if people don't know who you are then you'll never be able to continue your mission. We've got to get more people to know where we are before we can say people aren't buying our products. Chip up and continue to drive!
----
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