Author Archives: Brian

We Got Our First Test Mold Manufactured!

We are very excited. We just got a test done of our mascot as a chocolate mold. It’s very exciting to see it go all the way from a 2d graphic, to 3d model, then to a negative chocolate mold in polycarbonate.

Below are photos of a “positive” done of the mascot in wax, and then a “negative” of the mascot in polycarbonate material:

Note: the .avi of the 3d mascot turntable is not the final design of the mascot.  We had to make a few modifications for manufacturing.  But it’s pretty close.

Wax Positive of 3d Mascot

Wax Positive of 3d Mascot

Wax Positive Of 3d Mascot

Wax Positive Of 3d Mascot

Negative Mold of 3d Mascot

Negative Mold of 3d Mascot

 

Business And Strategic Plans Completed

After many meetings and several revisions, I think we are finally done with the Business Plan and Strategic Plan, although I will now directly contradict myself and say that they are technically never done. We’ve tuned both of them to a point where we feel comfortable giving them to potential investors, or others for their feedback. As we move through the business building process, I’ve educated myself more and more, and make adjustments to the plans as a result.

You might be asking yourself: “what’s the difference between a Business Plan and a Strategic Plan”. Well, definitions seem to vary a bit when looking them up on the Internet, but it is my understanding that a Business Plan is the goals and definitions of how your business is going to work, while a Strategic Plan is how you are going to accomplish those goals (including the financials etc.).

Responsive Version of Our Blog Is Now Complete

We decided to take our blog one step further.  We got a great web developer (believe it or not, we found him in Romania through www.fiverrr.com).  Anyway, we had him make the blog responsive and work with mobile devices.  I believe this was a smart investment as we are increasingly becoming a mobile-centric culture and it stands to reason that the blog should look good on as many devices as possible.

Go to www.everythingsmadeofchocolate on your cellphone or tablet, and watch the magic happen.  😉

Our First Meeting With Our Business Advisor

We had our first meeting with our business advisor today. He’s really awesome and generous with his time. He’s a co-founder of an angel investment group, and will be a great asset to help us get off the ground. We gave him our business plan for his review to see if we are on the right track.

We also learned a lot. It was almost too much to put down. One of the highlights that came up was putting together an “advisory” board. This is simply a group of people that are support of your business idea, and can bring something to the table (so to speak), either experience in a particular industry or other useable skills. At the beginning, they will not be anything more than advisors/supporters, however, in the future, there is a possibility of either stock or other investment opportunities.

I already named my friends Eric Bram, and Dariush Derakhshani to the board. Both have already been extremely supportive.

Markup: Image Alignment

Welcome to image alignment! The best way to demonstrate the ebb and flow of the various image positioning options is to nestle them snuggly among an ocean of words. Grab a paddle and let’s get started.

On the topic of alignment, it should be noted that users can choose from the options of NoneLeftRight, and Center. In addition, they also get the options of ThumbnailMediumLarge & Fullsize.

Image Alignment 580x300

The image above happens to be centered.

Image Alignment 150x150The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

And just when you thought we were done, we’re going to do them all over again with captions!

Image Alignment 580x300

Look at 580×300 getting some caption love.

The image above happens to be centered. The caption also has a link in it, just to see if it does anything funky.

Image Alignment 150x150

Itty-bitty caption.

The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400

Massive image comment for your eyeballs.

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200

Feels good to be right all the time.

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

And that’s a wrap, yo! You survived the tumultuous waters of alignment. Image alignment achievement unlocked!

Our Blog Is Live – Again

We finally got our blog up and running. Actually this is the second go at it.  The first time we ended up having trouble with the theme breaking, so we kind of started over.  Thankfully we hadn’t really utilized it yet so it wasn’t too much of a loss.  But it’s up now and humming along.  Still work to be done to configure it for guests.

Cottage Law Comes Back To California

This is huge!  I just heard from a co-worker and friend that Governor Jerry Brown just signed legislation that goes into effect as of January  1st, 2013 that will allow people to produce and sell some (low risk) food items out of a home kitchen.

From my understanding, years ago California already had something on the books like this.  Many states in the U.S. have “cottage laws”.  Unfortunately, California tends to overreach sometimes and has become very tough on businesses.

Before this legislation, my alternative wasn’t pretty.  I had to either rent a commercial kitchen full time.  Which by the way would have cost me between $40,000 – $60,000 / per year.  Or, I would have had to look for some sort of community kitchen to use.  My best bet would have been a local church or synagogue kitchen.  The problem with that would be availability, and possible liabilities to my equipment.  Do I leave my equipment there full time or do I take it every time?

Now with the new cottage law, for at least the first year we are open, I will be able to run the business out of my house.  I simply have an inspection and get a permit, and I’m in business.  The only catch (of course there’s a catch), is that I can only make so much money (gross not net) in the business.  Anymore than the limit, and I have to get another space.   I guess that’s a good problem to have though.

Our Company Name Is Now Officially Trademarked

Our trademark has been approved!  It’s official!  We now own the rights to the name: “Everything’s Made of Chocolate”.  This now means that we can now publish and print our name with legal support.  It also means we can officially used the “registered” symbol ( ® ).  This means that our company is a “registered” trademark and is legally projected.  The other symbol (™) means that the name is a unique name or phrase that I’m using in my business, however, and that’s a BIG however, it is not a registered mark, and therefore does not have the same legal protection as a “registered” mark has.