This is 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet. Today’s email was written to The Zane Lowe Show #463.
Good morning,
The trailing edge of Spring Break season was punctuated with !0 inches of snow overnight in the Twin Cities last Friday. We had an amazing set of family days goofing off on the Colorado slopes a few weeks ago (Yes, I started looking for real estate, again.) I would have certainly been aiming for first chair if our river valley MN resorts were still open for business last weekend. But, as it were, we’re bracing to receive the all snow birds back to town soon. I’ll joyfully welcome a few more minutes of sun each day until mid June. Bring it on. Skiing with come again, soon.
16 days remaining before check in for my flight to Tokyo. The trip will include shopping for unique housewares, new knife makers and a few days in the workshops at Kikuichi. #stoked.
As I prepare, I’ve been listening and re-listening to pods about travel in Japan. I reviewed my photos from the last trip and opened the map of Tokyo to scroll around for a bit. I’m excited. More on the process as it goes. I’m considering going to daily posts on this feed during the trip. Shout if that’s something you’d like to follow along via this email.
As I look at the bits for this week I’m inclined to copy/paste an email I wrote to our designer last week. She asked for an update. Here it goes. In place of three bits… a set of bullets.
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Things are going well.
We’ve hired a human. Wahoo. His name is Sterling. Hours have expanded. It’s great all around!
We mailed 10,000 direct mail pieces last week. We’re planning for 1-2% in store conversion before Easter.
The shop insides are in the video below, as of last week - it’s looking more “together.” People keep stopping and admiring it before talking to us. We’ve learned to just give ‘em a minute to acclimate before talking to ‘em.
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Classes are going really well. Solid reviews. They’re a ton of fun too! https://vivront.com/pages/classes Signups here: https://vivront.com/products/kitchen-knife-skills-class-101-wayzata
New inventory keeps coming… these from Japan last week:
We’re getting closer to ready for a photoshoot and a styling of all the decor in shop. Let’s schedule it soon.
This stuff… local, NA, lovely! In stock. And… selling well too! Co-Founded by the former lead bartender at Marvel. (Shrubs and other NA in stock soon.)
TikTok… likes silly stuff.. A number of our videos went over a million recently… and this one is over 5M.
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We’re making friends all over… lots of kitchens (including pro kitchens) and home cooks. A few influencers, etc. Know of any cooking influencers? We’d like to partner with affiliate links.
We were on the radio, MyTalk, for Weekly Dish a few weeks back. Folks are weeks later still signing up for classes from that interview. Fun.
Get this… A local school is bringing a group of school cooks (8) to a skills class in a few weeks. That hits all the points. Stoked.
Social ads don’t really do much (trackable) for us, yet. Nill for radio ads and paid influencers either. Maybe I’m being too demanding for a biz that’s 5 months old in a physical space? We’ve been running a sponsorship on a sports property - thinking hockey players and their families know the importance of sharp. Meh. Results not awesome.
We keep looking for more organic interview like content chances… e.g. to be on podcasts and food radio shows. Know folks doing that? Know shows we should consider being on?
Our video syncing tech layers are breaking - a lot. Ack. I just keep fixing ‘em.
There is not enough time… It feels like we’re moving too slow.
The number of tax accounts required for a small business seems like it’s 4-5X what it should be if it were well designed with an end user in mind, and easy - it’s not.
Grocery stores might provide less new-stuff and less service than a pay at the pump gas station. At least at gas stations they’ll share funny videos, sometimes. :)
We’re working on setting up and working a successful sales and partnership process to grocery. Know folks with a track record of selling into grocery stores?
Onward
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Sum
Things are progressing. Good stuff.
Change
Our mission is in improving school lunch, starting with eliminating debts. For the next two years the state of MN will accrue no debts on student accounts after the Governor passed a 200M bill to pay for the spread between what kids can pay and what the Federal Government pays. Wahoo!
This is a huge win. We’re excited to see MN join the likes of ME and CA on this issue. As for our mission, there are many states where debt continues to grow on student accounts. We’re working our network to find districts to partner with in other states Let us know if you know someone we can chat with next.
On Your Way
Enjoy your day. Breathe and extra deep breath at a stoplight this week. Enjoy your week!
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.