How EcoJoe™ was Born — Part II, How P became the Struggle of B.

(photo courtesy of hojusaram)

In every entrepreneur’s life, the evil B word — Budget, comes into play constantly. Budget definitely limits the scope of the project and your freedom to take on risks. For me, during the production planning really was about walking the tightrope made up by the fine line between budget and design impacts.

The packaging design process was a very difficult battle. I feel like I was running a marathon that I was not trained for, and the moment before I started running, I just scarfed down a giant box of cupcakes. There were times after conference calls I just wanted to collapse and hide under my desk, or throw things at the wall just to let the steam out. I felt like I was grasping for air constantly. The search for the perfect materials was also excruciating. Pulped paper was the first choice because the texture of it and the quality can really heighten the feel of the product, but the limited budget simply would not allow it. To use the paper pulp for packaging, we will have to spend at least $10,000 in producing the mold, in additions to place initial opening order of 250,000 units. And that’s just the packaging, that doesn’t even include actual production costs of statues!

Photo by Leo ReynoldsAfter wasting 1.5 months on paper pulp, we settled on the recycled kraft paper. After the material is chosen, the box style was quickly settled on match box. Now, the graphics.

Graphics were not easy either. To make sure your product sells, you really need to have a nice packaging that sell your product for you. Something like color schemes or the styling can easily sway consumers one way or another. Well, luckily I was not overtly fussy about it (or I will drive everyone crazy crazier). One thing was certain, I want to make a product that I will be 1000% behind it. I simply cannot sell something that I don’t love myself. Lots of emails were shooting back and forth. We went through drafts and drafts and actually changed illustrator to make sure the vision was going to happen.

And graphics were just the easy part (yeah only took us like 4 months to do). The real struggle was making sure everything is as green as possible while being cash strapped.

(for the struggles to go Green, read Part III)

You can also find part i here

How EcoJoe™ was Born — Part I, the Beginning.

(photo by alvarezperea)

The idea of EcoJoe™ came from a blog I wrote that asks the age old question “Can St. Joseph sell your house?” A girl friend of mine read it on Active Rain and emailed me: “What do you think about an eco-friendly version of Saint Joseph statues?”

Well the light bulb went off and that was it.

Well. Producing a green product, or any product in general, when you have never done it before, was really much (much much) easier said than done. When we first had the idea, we thought we could just make a mold of some sort and hand make this in the kitchen every time an order comes in (naive, right?). I researched about what types of materials could work by mostly googling the process and looking at bio-degradble materials at my local craft stores and on the internet. My girl friend was also busy with her legal career and I was busy with my staging business. Nothing really progressed until October 2008 when I won Make Mine A $Million business competition in Micro category.

During all this time, I lost my business partner to her legal career. It looked like EcoJoe™ was going to be dead. Luckily, winning the business competition put me in touch with a lot of women entrepreneurs who already went through what I was going through. And the women were incredibly giving with their knowledge and experiences. I posted a message saying that I had this great idea but don’t know how to make it happen. Lee from Cycle Aware was amazing and shot me an email back saying that she could speak with me on this. When I told her what I was trying to do, she said “Oh no, you need to mass produce this, you need to manufacture it.” Additionally, Lee pointed out the packaging process, which I totally did not think about. She gave me a few resources for manufacturing, and there, unknowningly, I was going to make it happen.

Photo by psovartIn November 2008, I was fortunate enough to be one of the 25 women entrepreneurs selected for Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur award. While I was waiting in line to be interviewed by American Express (a camera and interviewer and everything, fancy!), I met the Directors of Motto Agency, Sunny and Ashleigh. I liked them immediately. I resonated with the enterpreneur stories that they had, similar ages and the styles of their design. When I envisioned the packaging, I knew I wanted something that makes a statement on the shelf, something that’s much more updated and modern than the existing products, and I wanted something that’s kitschy and fun. I placed a call to Motto shortly after I returned from North Carolina. The estimated investment of packaging design was a big investment and cash was already short, but I bit my lips and signed on the dotted line. I knew in my heart that this is the right choice. I felt that in order to differentiate ourselves as a product, we have to make sure the packaging sells and people will like them immediately.

Once I had a rough idea on how the packaging design will pan out and how the production will line up between statues and packaging, I placed the order for the production of EcoJoe™ statues.

For more, read Part II. Skipping ahead? Part iii is here.

Cindy Lin, General Manager & Founder.

Cindy Lin has been working in real estate since 2005 when she became a real estate agent to help manage a family friend’s rental property. In 2006, Cindy founded Staged4more Home Staging and Redesigns. A natural at staging, Cindy is passionate about making her clients look good and helping people sell their homes quickly so her clients can get to the next chapter of their lives quicker, less stressed and with more equity in hand.

In addition to her staging work, Cindy coaches small business owners and real estate professionals on how to leverage social media for business. (You can read Cindy’s tech blog, smallbizgurl* talks tech here.) She also teaches the Live Green Live Smart real estate designation to agents who want to learn how to help their clients adopt sustainable practices during the resale process.

In 2008, Cindy won the Make Mine A $Million Business Award in the micro category and Sam Walton Emerging Entrepreneur Award. This recognition helped Cindy take her business to a new level and enabled her to pursue her idea for EcoJoe™.

The same year, Cindy was also named a finalist for the Real Estate Staging Association’s Stager of the Year Award and the Innovative Stager of the Year Award. Cindy’s work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, CBS 5, the San Mateo County Times, Inman blog, HGTV, the book How to Build a Successful Staging Business by Barb Schwarz, and in many other media outlets.

2009 Green Bud Business of Year Award.

In April 2009, EcoJoe™ won Green Bud Business of the Year award at Certified Staging Professional International Convention held at Toronto, Canada.

Reader’s Digest blog mention.

Nell Marino

Nell Marino (founder of CountMeIn.org, author of Stepping Out of Line: Lessons for Women Who Want It Their Way… In Life, In Love, and At Work and regular blogger at Reader’s Digest online blog) has graciously wrote about my ECOJOE™ business endeavors on her Reader’s Digest blog.

It definitely has been an amazing year, largely due to joining the fabulous women of Make Mine A Million after winning the business competition (it’s now in a year-long business race format). And all that wouldn’t happened if Nell didn’t have the vision or the balls to start something to change the world.

You can read the blog here:

EcoJoe from Reader’s Digest blog

Stager’s List Expo blog mention.

Our first blog mention!

The lovely Chris Fisher (above left) of Stager’s List Websites had written a very nice blog about ECOJOE™’s sneak peak at next Wednesday’s Stager’s List Expo at Dublin, CA. The blog also has some great comments (both supporters and skeptics). Feel free to check it out!

You would need an Active Rain account to comment. Feel free to get an Active Rain account here.

Blog: We get a sneak peak at EcoJoe™ at the Expo in Dublin, ca! 7/15/09

We are rocking the pre-sale!.

(Photo by net_efekt)

It’s always scary to launch a product, especially if you’ve never done it before. It takes a special kind of crazy and ignorance to push on and work the business. So it feels AMAZING that we’ve started to receive paperwork back from people who understand what EcoJoe™ is about and wants to get the messages out there!

As a big thank you for getting on board, our first 75 distributors (wholesalers) will receive the benefits of no minimum quantity order for life!

Hurry up, those spots are going fast! If you are interested, please contact us. You can call Cindy Lin directly at 415/347-5624 or email hello (at) ecojoekits (dot) com

Retail Partners.

*You can also buy directly on our website, just visit the Buy page. If you know of a retailer near you that would be a good fit for our products, please let us know.

Photo by justinshu UNITED STATES

Alabama
Mobile
Enhanced by Lance
www.enhancedbylance.com

California
San Francisco
Staged4more Home Staging and Redesigns
www.staged4more.com
Tel: 650-293-7458
hello@staged4more.com

San Mateo
San Mateo County Association of Realtors
www.samcar.org
Tel: (650) 696-8200
850 Woodside Way, San Mateo, CA 94401

San Jose
furniture4staging
www.furniture4staging.com
Tel: (408) 205-9419

Santa Cruz
Eco Goods
www.ecogoods.com
1130 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Tel: 831-429-5758

Santa Cruz Association of Realtors
www.scaor.org
2525 South Main Street, Soquel, California 95073
408-464-2000

Indiana
Indianapolis
Home Matters Staging LLC
www.homemattersllc.com/
Tel: (317) 209-9801
HomeMattersLLC@aol.com

New Jersey
BD Movers
www.bdmovers.com
909 Rt 9
Manahawkin, NJ 08050
(609) 971-0911

Oregon
Eugene
Dr. Design Home Therapy and Staging
4336 Royal Avenue, Suite 12, Eugene Or, 97402
www.drdesignhome.com/
Tel: (541) 968-8533
sandy@DrDesignHome.com

South Carolina
Summerville
Staging & Redesign
www.stagingandredesign.com
Tel: (843) 425-0138 or (843) 822-2622
info@stagingandredesign.com

Texas
Arlington
Arlington Board of Realtors
3916 West Interstate 20, Ste 160
Arlington, TX 76017
817-701-2490

Austin
Interority Complex
www.theinterioritycomplex.com/
Tel: (512) 289-7177

Photo by darrenstone CANADA (More coming Soon!)

British Columbia
HS Home Staging
www.hshomestaging.com

WEB RETAILERS
www.amazon.com

Facebook Page is UP!.

(Photo by db*photography)

Ta-da! Facebook page for ECOJOE™ is alive and up Please do drop by and become a fan and let us know if you want to be a member of street team/ goodwill ambassador.

Cheers,

Folks at ECOJOE™

Hello + Welcome !.

(Photo by spottedsparrow)

Hello !

Thanks a million for coming onto the website, we thoroughly appreciate your interest! Right now ECOJOE™ is still in the “ironing wrinkles out of his robe” phase and we are working hard to make sure everything is ready to go before we officially unveil ECOJOE™ to the world.

It has been a long road of product development, lots of brainstorming battles sessions on finding out the bestest and greenest methods to make ECOJOE™ a truly socially responsible product. We cannot wait to show you ECOJOE™!

In the meanwhile, if you would like a sneak peek for pre-sale inquiries, please ping us via twitter @ecojoe.

Everything goes live 8.8.09!

Cheers,

Folks at ECOJOE