Archive for the ‘Dapper Snappers / Biz Stuff’ Category
Close Only Counts…
I had the opportunity to play horseshoes for the first time this weekend. Oh, glorious horseshoes, where have you been all my life? We had a blast! Mind you, I wasn’t very good (no beginners luck for me) but I still had fun and even made a ringer! This got me to thinking (dangerous, I know) about the saying, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” I immediately related this to business, of course, and started thinking lately that too many companies have been applying this motto to their business plans. It seems like more and more companies are just getting by, because that works for them. The aren’t aiming for the “ringer” they are aiming to get close to the mark.
We take our kids belts business very seriously. We are always looking for ways to stand out and be noticed. Whether it’s for our amazing quality product, Dapper Snappers, or our outstanding customer service, we are always aiming for the “ringer”.
Think about it, when was the last time that you had an amazing experience somewhere? Anywhere, a grocery store, a restaurant, a theme park, a theater, some place that you would rave about to your friends? It’s harder than you think because it seems like everyone is striving for mediocre. They feel like they took your order, brought your food and drinks and then brought your ticket, isn’t that enough?
There is a small local coffee shop here that I love and I feel like they are still doing things right. They greet you when you come in, and make you feel welcome. They are not opposed to small talk (but they also don’t hover at your table unloading about their day) and if you order a coffee and feel like it’s not right, they will remake it, no questions asked. They are aiming for the ringer. “Close” is not good enough for them and it shouldn’t be for us either as consumers.
As the economy has gotten worse, you would think that service and quality would get better. People are having to be pickier with where they spend their dollars. I for one, want to make sure that when someone purchases a Dapper Snapper, that they feel like they got way more than their money’s worth. Shouldn’t all companies feel that way?
Blessings,
Random Keywords
One of my key marketing strategies is SEO. I am always working on increasing (or reducing, really) our Alexa rating (if you want, you could write up a rave review for us… hee hee shameless plug!). A result of constantly working on this is that I get to see what keywords people use that bring them to our website.
Now, the keywords that I’m working tirelessly on are kids belts, that would be why you always see that phrase linked to our site in my blogs. Well, as much as I drive those keywords home, do you know what the number one keyword is that brings people here in an organic search? No, it’s not “awesome” or “amazing” (though it should be) and as much as I hate to admit it, it’s not even “kids belts”.
Are you ready for this…
Wait for it….
Wait for it….
It’s….
WAGON!
Wagon? Yea, wagon, that’s what I thought, too. That doesn’t make sense! I mean, really all the time and energy I spend on “kids belts” and the word wagon brings people here?
Where did that even come from? Well, I did some research and in January of 2011, I wrote a blog post titled, “Back on the Blogging Wagon” where I used the above picture of a wagon to illustrate my point. Turns out that was the best thing I could do to get people to our site. Although, I am sure that they are sorely disappointed to find out that we do not, in fact, sell wagons.
I was thinking about it though, maybe we can incorporate the word wagon into our tagline… “Dapper Snappers… the wagon of the belt world” or “Dapper Snappers get you wagon” (get it, wagon=wagging) ok that last one was a stretch.
Do you have any creative ways to use the word “wagon” in our tag line? I’d so love to hear them, this could be hilarious!
Blessings,
My Fitness Pal
It’s Thursday and you know what that means? It’s time for this kids belts inventor to do a review! Today, in keeping with my iPhone app addiction, I will be reviewing the My Fitness Pal app.
This app is a great way to keep your “calories in, calories out” in check. This app lets you keep a food diary, but does all of the calculating for you. It already has thousands and thousands of food items already pre-loaded into its database, but the other really cool thing about it is that it has a bar code scanner. That’s right, no more manually typing in the calories, serving sizes, and all of the other nutritional information, just scan and save and you are set. I think that’s my favorite part. As you add foods to your diary, it keeps track of how many calories you have left for the day. How awesome is that?
When you set up your account, you put in your current height and weight and so on. My Fitness Pal calculates your BMI as well as your BMR (resting metabolic rate). The BMR is important because if you know how many calories you burn resting, you know how the calorie range you need to stay in each day. It also gives you daily goals for sodium, protein, cholesterol, potassium, calcium, and so on.
Another really cool feature is that you can add in when you exercise and it calculates the calories burned. It then adds those calories into your daily allotted calories and increases the amount accordingly. See, it totally takes all of the work out of it for you. So far, my assistant has lost 14 lbs using this app along with her running.
According to their website, here is what you get with your FREE (free is good, right?) membership to My Fitness Pal.
- The easiest to use food diary on the web - Track what you eat with just a few clicks from anywhere with an internet connection – at home or at work
- A searchable food database of over 1,582,000 items - and it’s growing everyday!
- Your own personal food database - add your own foods and recipes at any time and access them from anywhere with an internet connection
- Free mobile apps for iPhone and Android - so you can log your meals and exercise even when you are on the go
- Support and motivation from people just like you – Our discussion forums let you learn from others, share your own tips, receive and give encouragement, and make friends.
- A personalized diet profile - customized to your unique weight loss goals.
- Flexibility - our system can support any diet like Atkins, the South Beach Diet, the Zone, and more. No matter what diet you’re on, we can help.
I’m really excited to be using this app and look forward to seeing the results!
Blessings,
Broccoli Casserole
Veggies… ah the dreaded side dish. Serve my kids potatoes, they love you. Pasta? Whoa, boy, you may get a hug, but veggies… no way. For that reason, I am always looking for creative ways to get them to ingest some sort of vegetable. I’m pretty sure that I am not the only one with this problem, in fact, Jessica Seinfeld wrote a book about it, Deceptively Delicious, maybe I should invest in that book. Think the kids would go for chocolate pudding made from avocado?
My kids belts assistant, Jen, came to the rescue again. She shared with me this recipe for Broccoli Casserole. Now, granted, the broccoli is smothered in a cheese sauce and baked on top of rice, but at least they are getting some sort of veggie in them!
Broccoli Casserole
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 Cup Diced Onions
1/2 Cup Diced Celery
8 Oz Cheez Whiz
1 Cup Rice
10 Oz Box of Frozen Chopped Broccoli (thawed)
1 Tbsp Butter or Margarine
Preheat the oven to 350. In a pot, cook the rice per the directions on the bag. In a separate pot, sautee the onions and celery in the butter. Once the veggies are translucent, add the can of cream of mushroom, cream of chicken and the Cheez Whiz. reduce heat and cook until completely blended.
Spray your 9×13 backing dish and and spread the cooked rice out evenly to cover the whole dish. Next layer the chopped broccoli evenly over the rice and then pour the cheese mixture over the broccoli.
Bake at 350 until the cheese begins to brown. Serve hot!
This makes a great dish to take along to those Easter potluck dinners, too because it goes a long way.
The kids loved it. It’s creamy and filling, and if you added some cooked chicken to the cheese sauce, it becomes a whole meal! Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear how you liked it!
Blessings,
6 Tips for Helping Mompreneurs
Dapper Snappers has become a pretty well known name. Granted, we are not as big as say Graco or Chicco, but our kids belts are sold in over 300 stores across the US and in 14 different countries. I think that is pretty impressive and to think it’s only been less than 4 years!
In the last 4 years I have been through quite a bit and one thing that I am passionate about now is helping other moms get started. I have put together a small list of tips for helping Mompreneurs and I want to share it with you!
6 Tips for Helping Mompreneurs
- Support: Find a supportive community of like-minded individuals. There are websites dedicated to Mompreneurs (www.mompreneursonline.com), there are Facebook groups and discussion boards. It’s nice to have a place to bounce ideas, share concerns and vent your frustrations.
___ - Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and so on and so on…. There are so many social media sites out there now, that it does seem a bit overwhelming, but look at it this way, it’s free advertising. If it’s too daunting to keep up with all of them, choose a couple and do them really well. If you have a product with pictures, Pinterest should definitely be on your list! Pinterest is a great way to get others to spread the word for you. Use unique photos that link to your site and set up boards that show off your company’s personality.
___ - Support Other Mompreneurs: Now that you have your social media platform going, use it to help promote other mompreneurs. Do a “Follow Friday”, where you promote other mom business on your twitter feed, facebook status and on your pin boards in Pinterest.
___ - Blog About It: Blogging is another free way of advertising (why do you think I try to write a blog a day?). It helps increase your SEO (if you are using your keywords) and it keeps your content fresh. Blogging also gives you an opportunity to talk about other mom products and businesses.
___ - Blog Campaigns: I have written about them before (here and here), but blog campaigns are a very inexpensive way to get people talking about your product and to drive your SEO. If you don’t have time to run your own campaign, there are even services that will do it for you (RunMyBlogCampaign).
___ - Honesty: Looking back at #1, be honest and share your success stories and horror stories. As you do this other will share with you and you all can learn from each other. These women are there to support you and vice versa. We all need honesty, whether its about a product design, packaging, marketing material, whatever the case may be, just be honest because lying by omission is still lying.
Spring Break
It’s officially Spring Break and since we live near Daytona Beach, I bet you are picturing me chilling out under a beach umbrella, relaxing on a beach chair, soaking up some rays while reading a good book. Well, you pictured, wrong. I am trying to get some work done at the kids belts office while having two little ones running around, playing, watching movies and just generally making noise. It’s not bad noise, mind you (playful noise is usually music to my ears), but it is distracting noise nonetheless. I tend to forget how quite the office is until we have the kids here.
As I was saying, I’m desperately trying to get some work done on Dapper Snappers stuff. We had an amazing photo shoot with some very adorable kiddos over the weekend and I am excited to get them edited and up on our site.
We were able to get some really great shots of most of the new spring patterns (which should be launching soon). The kids were all great and a lot of the shots look posed, but they were actually action shots that happened to work out that way.
I am really, really looking forward to the new patterns (can you tell I am excited?) and I think that we won’t be able to keep the Denim Dapper Snappers on the shelves! Did you see my blog post where I announced the new patterns? And those aren’t even the patterns for the Big Kids Belts. We will have Girls Camo, Flower Power & Purple Paisley for the girl Big Kids Belts and for the boys, we have Digital Camo & Leather.
This is such a big time for the whole Dapper Snappers line! You may even see the Denim pattern show up in the Mama Snappers!
What patterns are you looking forward to? Are there any patterns you would like to suggest? We love feedback!
Blessings,
Spaghetti Squash Greek Salad
You have heard of a spaghetti squash before, right? If not, well, I’m sure you aren’t alone. Even if you have heard of them, you were probably like me, you would see them in the produce isle, stop and pick one up, think to yourself, “I’m going to try one of these, someday”, you then put it back where you got it from, walk away and resort to your old stand bys.
Well, not today, my friends! Today, as soon as I leave the kids belts office, I am going to try this recipe that my assistant passed along to me, Spaghetti Squash Greek Salad (this would be in place of an orzo salad). “But Michelle, why do I need to eat this squash?” Good question! Spaghetti squash is full of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids which are shown to help prevent heart disease and cancer, as well as reduce inflammation that can cause arthritis. They also work to insure proper brain function. It contains vitamins and minerals, as well, vitamin A, vitamin C and several of the B vitamins, Calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous, sodium, manganese, selenium and zinc. The best part? It’s only about 31 calories per cup!
Spaghetti Squash Greek Salad
1 Medium Spaghettti Squash
1/3 Cup Chopped Onions
1/3 Cup Chopped Green Peppers
2 Minced Garlic Cloves
1/2 Cup Feta Cheese
1/4 Cup Sliced Olives (Choose your favorite!)
1/2 Chopped Tomatoes (just the meat, no seeds)
1 tbsp Olive Oil
4 tbsp Italian Dressing
Salt & Pepper
Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the spaghetti squash in half (lengthwise) and scrape out the seeds. Lightly salt the squash and place it cut side down on a baking sheet. Pour water into the baking sheet to fill the bottom of the pan (you may want to do this once the pan is in the oven so that you don’t spill it). Place the squash in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until it’s tender when you squeeze the outside. (You can do this ahead of time so that the squash is cooled when you are ready for it.)
While that is baking, sautee the onions and peppers in the olive oil with a little salt and pepper. When they have started to caramelize (get a little golden brown), add in the minced garlic and stir it a few times just to heat up the garlic a little.
When the squash is done, let it cool until you can handle it comfortably. Take a fork and scrape the insides and you will start to see “noodles”. Should look like this:
Place all of the of the squash into a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Serve warm or chilled.
I have to say, this looks really yummy. Jen said that her hubby and 2 year old loved it and that her hubby had the leftovers the next day for lunch. He said that it was even great cold. I hope you enjoy!
Blessings,
Dapper Snapper FLASH SALE
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Retailer Spotlight – Kid 2 Kid
Happy March! Spring is definitely in the air (at least here in FL it is, all two weeks of it!). I hope it means that things are warming up all over and you snowbound northerners get to head outside more without taking an hour to “layer” up! (Not to brag or anything, but for most of last week we maintained 80+ degree weather. Although, Sunday we were in the 40′s and 50′s.)
Speaking of venturing out, have you checked out a Kid2Kid store lately? Kid to Kid sells new and gently used kids apparel, toys and, most importantly, Dapper Snappers kids belts! They also happen to be our Featured Retailer this month! We are thrilled to be spotlighting them and look forward to spotlighting more of our fabulous retailers in the future!
We love our Kid-to-Kid Stores!
Kid to Kid buys and sells the best things kids outgrow. Their stores are packed with name brand kids clothes, shoes, toys, baby gear, and even maternity fashions. At Kid to Kid you’ll find your favorite brands priced at up to 70% less. You can earn cash up front or get 20% more in store credit when you recycle your gently used kids’ stuff at Kid to Kid. There is no consignment hassle. Just a simple and fair price for everything they are able to buy from you. There are Kid to Kid stores in over 20 states across the US alone!
With all your favorite brands from Gymboree to the Gap to (of course) Dapper Snappers, and thousands of items under $5, savvy moms shop Kid to Kid.
You can find a local Kid-to-Kid store on our website or go to www.Kidtokid.com.
I love the concept of their stores and I would highly recommend checking out one near you. Who knows, you may want to start up your own Kid to Kid Franchise!
Blessings,
Help Save a Small Business!
I’m not going to get into details here, but you can read more about this issue here. The important thing is that this fundraising effort is in support of a fellow mamapreneur who could use your help. Please read the stories, decide for yourself, discover the truth, and donate if you can.
Blessings,