Archive for April, 2009

While in Chicago I met The Kitchen Gadget Gals. Check out their site: http://www.kitchengadgetgals.com/page.php?pageID=71&articleID=114

An update on my buyer Samantha: her last day was last Friday.

The kids are out of school for Spring Break, so I have to get creative with my time. I have been setting up different crafts and activities for them and when a REALLY important call comes in, I make sure to have special movies on hand. Today I did a blogtalk radio interview with the guru of product licensing Stephen Key and his business partner Andrew Krauss. www.inventright.com  It was so much fun and as usual, in the back of my head I’m praying that nobody yells “Mommy… I need to wipe!!!” in the middle of it. It was being taped, so I suppose that could have been edited out in the end, but we had such a great show going on, it would have really messed up the flow. There was at one point (and this seems to ALWAYS happen) when I could hear my 4 year old start to call for me. I went to the top of the stairs trying desperately to concentrate on the interview question at hand and not sound like a babbling idiot while simultaneously waving my finger at her with the pleading look on my face of “Please dear child… wait just 5 more minutes”. Sadly… the girls know that look and my finger gesture all too well and they have gotten VERY good and VERY patient with their mommy and they do 99% of the time stay quiet until I give them the all clear. I’ll post the link to the interview here on my blog when it’s up and I’ll also add it to my news page: http://www.grillcharms.com/news.htm l The girls will get a special treat later for being so good. Stephen and Andrew were so much fun and are genuinely out there to help out the first time (or even seasoned) inventor. He focuses on the licensing aspect of inventions and has become “THE” go to guy for getting your invention picked up by a manufacturer, so I encourage you “idea” people to subscribe to his free newsletter and listen to his show on Blogtalk radio. He’s one of the good guys. You can ask questions and get advice on the inventRight forum, check out the resource center , and listen to the weekly radio show on inventing

Oh… the April issue of Health Magazine is on newsstands now. If you happen to see it on the shelves, thumb through it. You’ll see an article and a picture of me and the girls. It’s a story on Breast Cancer. My mom is even mentioned!   That was the excitement for the day, we’ll chat soon!

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™ www.grillcharms.com

All my fellow meat lovers, check out my new friend over at Bacon Freak!  (Check out the website) Mmmmmmm… BACON!!!

http://baconfreak.com/blog/2009/03/27/meet-leslie-haywood-of-grill-charms/

Here is a video from my friends at “Cooking for Dads”.  The producer Rob showcased some really cool stuff from the show last week.  I am in the very last part.  It was the last day of the show and dear LORD the bags under my eyes tell the story.  I was exhausted by then and I sure the heck look it!  YUCK!!!  Anyway, it’s a great video if you want to catch some highlights of the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IoNbvdu61c

Since I’ve been home I’ve been doing all my follow ups etc… and while at the show I actually secured a pretty large department store on the west coast.  I had been after them for about 6 months and the buyer I had been dealing with brought her boss by my booth and I sold him right then and there.  He LOVE the product and said “Samantha (that’s my buyer’s name) lets get Grill Charms in there”.  We then discussed a little bit of the logistics and because they are a pretty big company (58 stores on the west coast) they only deal with vendors who have EDI capabilities.  Up until this point, that has not been an issue, but I knew I would need EDI eventually.  Just FYI EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange.  The simple Wikipedia definition is: the computer-to-computer exchange of structured information, by agreed message standards, from one computer application to another by electronic means and with a minimum of human intervention. Basically is just makes the supply chain run smoother, faster and more cost effectively in the long run, cutting down on paperwork and man hours.  The software of the customer and the vendor “talk” to each other on just about every aspect of the transaction from initial Purchase order to delivery and receipt of the goods to final invoicing and payment.  It can cost a bit of money to get set up but it’s an investment most companies must make eventually. There are services that you can use so that you don’t have to make a huge investment for the software and basically “pay as you go”, which was what I was looking into. Regardless, as I’m sure you can imagine, I was doing a little happy dance the entire time, so excited to be moving forward with a large department store with 58 locations!   So there I am yesterday, happy as a pig in slop when I get the following email from Samantha…

“Leslie,

We are going into liquidation.

I’m sorry for giving you the news.

Thanks.”

Awww man!!! What a kick in the shorts!  I wasn’t too terribly upsets because I have learned the hard way not to count on ANYTHING until the money is in the bank.  I then felt guilty for being even a little disappointed about my order that never was,  when there is probably going to be LOTS of poor hardworking folks out of a job. So, like the title of today’s entry sums up… Easy come, easy go!  Back to pounding the pavement to peddle my wares.  EDI can wait.

Leslie Haywood, Founder and President of Charmed Life Products, Inventor of Grill Charms™  www.grillcharms.com