Iguanadon

Hey Gang, I teased many of you with a comment a few days ago that I was in the process of starting up a side business. It has nothing to do with scrolling, so I felt it appropriate to discuss it in this forum space. So... as many of you know I live in a beach community (Carolina Beach, North Carolina) and in the 3 years we've lived here I've kept my eyes open for various business opportunities. Well, 33 days ago on Oct 10 I came up with the idea that sounded perfect and I ran it past several friends and handful of local businesses asking them to poke holes in the idea and they weren't able to. If you've ever traveled and visited tourist based cities across the country you've likely seen a "fun" or "cartoon" map of the city/town with advertising by local merchants. (see attached examples) Whenever Mrs. Iggy and I go on vacation to a new city, the first thing we grab is one of these maps in order to navigate around and see what the town has to offer. There isn't one currently available for our town and island and I saw a huge need because the primary destination point for tourists is the boardwalk area and we have dozens of other businesses beyond that area that are "hidden gems" or simply not known to exist. So... I came up with Coastal BizMaps and my tag line is "Let us put your business on the map... Literally." (see business card attached) It's been a whirlwind month as once I come up with an idea, I run with it... at full speed. LOL So, from Oct 10th, I tracked down the artist that does the majority of these types of maps, got him working on a mock-up of our island. I met with a local accountant and small business mentor and filed for my LLC company and got it set up last Monday. I joined the local Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday and today I finally had a chance to get out and start selling ad space and I was able to sign 7 of the 80 available spaces, almost 10% in 1 day. I'm beyond excited that it's being so well received. The maps are 11"x17" and will be in pads of 50. I've arranged with local hotels and real estate agencies that handle weekly rentals to include a map in their Welcome Package when tourists check in for their visit. They'll also be at all local merchant locations, the town hall, welcome center, etc, etc. My initial printing will consist of 50,000 maps and will print more as needed. I truly want our local businesses and our town to thrive and I see this as a very positive step towards helping to achieve that. The great thing is that the overhead and startup costs are minimal and after this first year of establishing a map in a town which requires a lot of legwork, future years will be much simpler. Now I just need to get about 8 or 10 other beach towns started up next year. :-) Anyway, this has been my excitement the past month in addition to my puzzles. Oh, and my full time job. Which I'd love to be able to ditch if I get about 6 of these maps going in various beach towns along the NC and SC coasts. Wish me luck, Iggy

Yeah, it was the first time I'd done that, but it's in my home town, Mayberry Beach as I refer to it and I knew the cops were watching over the venue overnight and I figured if anyone was going to do something mischievous they'd be more attracted to stealing racks of ribs. ;-)

Absolutely. And the fact that I upgraded a notch or two to a sturdier tent a couple of months ago. It looked like it held up ok, but the real test will be tomorrow morning when I go there to take the tent down and bring it home with my tables. I left them overnight, I only brought home my puzzles and other crap tonight.

Day 2 - Saturday - Quite cold this morning but the event doesn't start til 11:00. At 9am I decide to go down and check things out and take the fabric walls down from my tent. I had simply zipped it up and left everything there. First time I've done that. I usually pack up my puzzles and take them with me overnight for a multi-day event. I'll never leave them overnight again... I get down there and notice one of my walls is open on one side... "Oh shit, someone went in..." I open it and I see my displays laying on the ground versus on the table where I had left them... puzzle pieces laying in various places... but it doesn't look like total mayhem... I look around a little more, I look around the outside, I notice my tent was lowered... What the hell? Then I realize... wind... then I talk to one of the BBQ rib vendors and they say it was incredible... A wind storm hit around 11pm last night and even though I live 4 blocks from the event I didn't hear or know about it. I live at the beach, wind is a rather constant thing, but this was pretty bad... stuff blowing all over, the tents they were using over dining table were totally blown away and destroyed, I walked over to where the majority of vendors were and their tents are twisted and bent, it was a mess... I later find out that the organizers had scrambled and lowered my tent and tried to put the displays on the ground to avoid things blowing away. End result, after I piece together a couple dozen puzzles that had gotten unassembled, I only had 3 broken puzzles. Absolutely amazing and lucky. I get my booth set back up and the day goes smooth. Sales were mediocre and I won't do Day 3. Lesson learned... always be sure if leaving tent overnight, be sure to fully secure it (which I had done fortunately) and don't EVER leave puzzles overnight. It's not worth the chance of a freak wind or thunderstorm. I take over 200 puzzles to each event, that's over $5,000 in value, not to mention the 100 hours of work that was put into them. Now I focus on my remaining 3 events, all holiday oriented crafts events which I should do rather well. Then I get 3 1/2 months off from doing events, but will be stockpiling throughout the winter.

I signed up for an event 4 blocks from my house, Ribfest... It's usually held in Wilmington nearby but the place they usually hold it is going through renovations so they moved it to the oceanside here in town. Three days long. I had no idea what to expect, but it went pretty well. In 6 hours I sold 24 puzzles. I was going to be happy with 20 today. We'll see how tomorrow goes and that will determine whether I do Sunday. Poor day, I'll just pack up and enjoy a day off. https://www.portcityribfest.net/ My booth is in "rib row". Only 5 non-food vendors are in that area, all the rest are in a totally separate area. So I had great foot traffic. Weather was perfect today. It'll be a bit chilly tomorrow and they're charging admission tomorrow and Sunday so I'll see if that reduces sales. https://www.portcityribfest.net/layout I haven't done an event in 3 or 4 weeks, it felt odd setting up and doing my sales pitch again. 3 more events remaining in the year. I'll be ready for a break at that point.

Ha! You give me much more credit than you should. I laid 8 of them out on a board and that was simply how the first one I cut turned out and I snapped pictures of it. I plan on selling them un-oiled allowing them to be painted if folks like.

Nope, just cut them straight and they slide "in and out" just like the animal puzzles, etc.

That's how Mrs. Iggy describes me... But take a look at this... I thought it was cute and will make a few for my upcoming shows. And I'm including the pattern, it was a freebie from a friend. Iggy Nativity.pdf

Thanks RJ... You'll have to narrow down which business deal, I have 2 or 3 irons in the fire. LOL Mostly just ideas that I usually let fizzle out, but I am pursuing one business venture having nothing to do with puzzles. My LLC was filed yesterday, so it's official. As soon as I have news worthy of sharing, I will so that everyone can share in the ride. ;-)

I just received my largest order for Harvey's patterns... 58... Someone is going to be busy! A big thanks to many of you who have ordered patterns, Harvey is most appreciative. The past 2 months I've been outselling Wooden Teddy Bear. LOL Notice: Harvey spoke with WTB and has asked that the price be increased from $3.00 to $3.99 beginning with the new year. I'll be increasing my price from $2.50 to $3.00. So, if you need any patterns, be sure to order them by the end of the year. And for the sake of transparency, as I have shared many times, at $2.50, $2.00 of that went to Harvey and I kept 50 cents. With the price increase, Harvey will continue to get $2.00 and I'll get $1.00 Sales have been better than I expected and while it doesn't take a ton of my time, it does take time and my web ecommerce vendor takes a cut, along with either PayPal or whatever payment method is used, so I was ending up with virtually nothing. Which was fine, I didn't start selling the patterns to become wealthy, I did it for Harvey, to give his patterns a 2nd life, and it has worked marvelously, but it would be nice to be compensated a little bit for the work. Thanks again to those who are enjoying his patterns. Iggy

Hi Runa, congrats on your first event coming up. It just so happens, I recently wrote a booklet for just this type of thing. Take a look. I hope it's helpful. Scott Woodcraft By Scott eBook 20170928.pdf

Thanks Les, it's very exciting right now as I pursue this. I come up with 100 ideas a month and never follow through on 99 1/2 of them. The puzzles endeavor just kind of appeared and next thing I know I have more than a hobby. This latest idea I've come up with may allow me to give up the day job in a year. It's a lofty goal, but I'm enjoying the ride. This idea is only 2 weeks old and yet I've already established my LLC as of today. LOL

When a pattern says for personal use only, it's referring to you being able to cut it and if you want to sell the piece, you can. You simply can't give away 5 copies of the pattern to anyone else.

Hi Brian, Each shop is different, but generally the split is 60-40 or 65-35 split with the larger portion being for the artist. The shops I've dealt with ask me what I want to price the items at. Sometimes you raise your price a little to help offset some of that.

The two puzzle dogs below the plaques. He was simply saying he got the patterns for those from me. Harvey's patterns.

Nice work Pete. FYI, Harvey has one that says POLICEK9 in the body of a Shepherd.

LOL Fortunately it's very flexible... and I actually have a new business I'm trying to kickstart. Meeting with an accountant/small business mentor to bounce it off of tomorrow. I don't need financial backing or anything, just guidance on how to get setup properly. So far, the handful of friends and potential clients I've run it by have given it the thumbs-up. I keep trying to find someone to tell me why it won't work, but so far it looks pretty solid. I'll share details later. Too soon right now.

I recently placed some items in a gift shop in the city of Wilmington nearby. The owner said that anything that says North Carolina or Wilmington does well, so I showed the state of NC that I do and I had Harvey do a custom version of the swimming mermaid for me. I cut 6 of them today and I'll deliver them to the shop Tuesday.

Of course! I shared that one a little while back. :-)

Before I got a chance to figure out how I was going to package it and ship it, some discussions here on the forum got me looking at various adjustments to make and I found the magical one that took care of the issues I was having. Now I just have to adjust to slower cutting speed than I'm used to. Again, I knew this was the case when I ordered it, so it's up to me to adapt to it.

My Hawk looks very nice sitting in the middle of my garage. LOL I did get it dialed in and it's cutting well and virtually no vibration. I haven't slid it into production yet though. I have a lot of cutting to do the next 6 weeks with a lot of holiday events coming up. I plan on getting the Hawk going after that so that I can adjust to the slower cutting speed, which I knew about when I ordered it, but I want to take my time and not feel rushed. I look forward to cranking it up in mid-December.

I've put the puzzles out there in the Zoo and Farm Animal section. As always, anything you see or know that I've made is available for pattern sale if Harvey drew it.

I'm still using the DeWalt. I'll likely wait until after my final show in early December to start using the Hawk as I begin to stockpile for next year. I want to be able to take my time and not feel rushed. Especially since the Hawk cuts slower, I don't want to feel rushed and forcing things which would simply frustrate me. I want to adapt to the saw in "normal" conditions. I knew when I bought it that it cuts slower and it was my decision and choice, so it's up to me to get used to it.

Thanks for the review Dave. If you cut any thick material (3/4") let us know how it does and how you like the performance.

If you need a chuckle, check out my Halloween decorations I just put up. LOL