BUILD 24/30: Mini ETP Production Update!

⊕ show captionAbout the Title Picture: I picked up some of the newly produced Mini Emergent Task Planner Notebooks from Papergraphics yesterday. They also had some remnants from the last run of full-sized ETP notebooks.

Yesterday I picked up some of the new Mini ETP Notebooks at my long-time commercial printer Papergraphics.

⊕ show captionLook, a stack of boxes for me! There are 50 units per box.

Frank, the VP, took me to the stock room so I could grab a couple of boxes to set up the Shopify store I'll be working on next. The rest of the boxes will get shipped to Amazon Marketplace over time or sold at wholesale prices once I figure out what to charge for them.

⊕ show captionAdditional products found in dead stock: Full Size ETP Notebooks are the big find!!!

Frank pointed out that they had some dead stock that had been in storage for a while, so I grabbed them. There's an assortment of Full Size ETP Notebooks that I'd like to put on the Shopify store when it's ready. There's also a few loose samples that I can give away, including 4x6 ETP StickyPads. There's still a few available on Amazon.

⊕ show captionA freshly-shrinkwrapped Mini ETP Notebook, destined for someone's desk!

It'll be at least a couple weeks until the new Mini ETP Notebooks reach Amazon and are available. I'll certainly post to the ETP restock notification list list once they are on their way!

BUILD CHALLENGE COMMENTARY

After yesterday's breakthrough on custom calendar software, today's progress on having new physical product to sell is very exciting!

When I started the Month of Building on October 10, I had only an abstract sense that "work" would lead to "progress". While I understood this intellectually, my novelty-seeking brain was not impressed at all. However, sticking to posting 5 days a week about the journal has helped me get to this place. This give me confidence to continue pushing forward.

Thinking aloud, there is still a lot to do with the custom software and the new production run of notebooks. For example:

• Figure out the best way to deploy the calendar software on a server
• Tackle another big task: modern front-end interface design for the calendar software
• Figure out security and user authentication against Patreon and Discord so the software is accessible to people who want to use it
• Rebuild the Shopify Storefront, which is still using my old name and hasn't been used in a while.
• Figuring out shipping costs and returns logistics, researching 3PL options that have vastly changed since I last did this

I now have a physical and digital product chain to nurture, but I also need to create the third leg of my revenue tripod: freelance design. But these aren't the main goal; they are the tripod that support the community goals where everyone gets to work and play together. To do that, though, I need to be able to bring in revenue to support myself while retaining enough energy to function. It's all very promising! But it's also a fragile beginning.

That said, I'll take the win! I celebrated by going to House of Noodles and Sushi again since they are also in Merrimack. They are my new favorite for Chinese food, as they serve dishes that are rarely seen in restaurants around here AND have substantial proportions! Like, these Biang Biang Noodles!

⊕ show captionTo celebrate, I ordered a substantial bowl of Biang Biang Noodles, a cuisine from the Shaanxi in Northwest China near

I wish I knew more people here that liked more esoteric Chinese food. Getting northwestern Chinese food in New Hampshire is a gift from the celestial heavens!