Here is the final prototype with a tray of mandel bread inside. The tray we’ll be using is called “earthcycle” A recyclable food tray that can be custom shaped to hold our mandel bread. Earthcycle sent some samples down form their offices in Vancouver, and I cut a few of their trays up to create the size we needed for the prototype.
The prototype is unusable. A little hard to tell in these pictures but the die lines are visible, the cuts were unprofessional, and the ink is cracking at the corners. I’m taking the image to a local printer, and will hand cut the prototype.
Here it is, the final package design - on it’s way to the prototype printers! We should have a prototype box ready by Tuesday.
The Aunt Ermas web site has been updated to reflect the new package design. Check it out here.
I’m thinking we might need some modified version of the business plan to raise money? The cash flow and P&L are in google docs. I need to adjust some of the marketing strategy to favor the value pack intial roll out. Maybe Jen can help us with that.
Here it is! Still needs a few tweaks, but pretty much ready to go. The BG color (the part that looks like aged paper, is going to cost $199.00 – and we’re probably looking a another $200 – $400 for the broker’s design services. Prototype creation will likely run another $250.00. I’m still trying to run nutrition labels.
Web Site The aunt ermas web site will need an SSL (secure socket layer). Right now, auntermas.com is set up as an add on domain to penclincstudios, so when you type in auntermas.com – you’re actually going to a sub domain of my own site. So the first thing is to give AuntErmas.com her own home. That’s $6.95/mo. for the web host. Then we need a dedicated IP ($30.00)yr. , and the SSL certificate which is $45.00/year. I’m using a free open source shopping cart system called ‘zen cart’ which is very cool. Zen Cart is aleady set-up to accept credit cards, and paypal. Crystal and I can process orders and pick up cases of Mandel Bread from the contract baker as needed for web orders.Packaging: Tomorrow morning, I head to orange county to finalize the package design with our package broker, Charles Rogers. With the final in place, We have to generate a nutritional label – I’m going to try a $20.00 online calculator, same with the UPC – about 20 bucks online. Charles says we can produce some high quality prototypes for about $200.00 overseas. We’re going to use these prototypes to pitch to Trader Joes as soon as they are ready.Trademark: as far as I can tell, we can’t trademark the recipe – maybe Rick knows a trademark attorney to ask. The only thing maybe is a patent on the triple baking process. We can trademark the name and the logo – $275.00 online do it yourself directly through the government web site, or one of these online legal services for about $159.00 plus the government fee.Corporation Rick is going to check on that inc. ing in Md. next week.
I thought this would be an easy way for everyone to keep up with the progress of our mandel bread baking business. Feel free to add posts & comments.
