Hotel Amenity Pilot is a Go

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It’s a go for our non-plastic hotel amenity pilot! While I won’t make a dime from this 1 month pilot (and will likely lose some money), it’s worth it to test the solutions that we are considering right now.

There are so many little things to consider such as how easy it is to dent our aluminium tins. About half of the tins from one sample pack that came in via Amazon.com.au showed up with dents or scratches.

I’m also considering the labelling requirements. I want to print right on the packaging from the start, but it costs a lot more to do this with small volumes. However, using a compostable paper labels isn’t possible because it’s not waterproof – a “no no” in bathrooms where they might discard unused tins only because the wet label makes it look used.

Right now, I think I’m going to have to order two lots of tins. Some that are blank, and then I buy plastic labels to hand place on them. And others that have the printing on them from the start. This will allow us to test the printing capabilities during the pilot itself.

The buzz of winning work

It’s strange that when I used to win multi-million dollar contracts back in my IT days, it never gave me a buzz like it gave other sales people. I was more proud of the proposals I turned in that solved a customer’s problems, and therefore it didn’t mater it we won or lost to me even though I would only be rewarded if we won.

For this hotel amenity pilot, I’m excited even though it will likely cost me more than I make to do this. It’s the fact that a hotel is willing to take a chance on my crazy idea that can really reduce the amount of single-use plastic in hotels locally and nationally if I move fast enough. It’s the potential impact down the road that is giving me a buzz. How awesome would it be to literally change the hotel industry’s practices to benefit the environment!

Plastic water bottles

Recycled polyester product line research

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Since the day I knew that the pet barrier wasn’t going to meet the crowdfunding goal, I have been trying to coming up with another product line that didn’t require the heavy upfront capital costs of a steel mould. It’s not that I’ve given up on the “Stray No More” line. It’s just that I desperately feel the need to get some runs on the board with less investment.

As I recalled many conversations both on my podcast and in other places, it seemed like I should look at textiles – specifically recycled polyester from PET water bottles.

The product? I won’t give away too much yet, but let’s just say that I’ll give Sara Blakley, the founder of Spanx credit for this idea if successful.

How to find a recycled polyester manufacturer?

Trying to identify a manufacturer to get the sample material hasn’t been that easy. There are no companies in Australia that make this material, but at least it would still be made from recycled bottles if I can find a certified version elsewhere.

I found a list of potential manufacturers from Bluesign – a global certification company for textiles, but there were hundreds of companies on there. Where to start? I asked a contact in Paris for advice. She has a business where she provides coaching to would be fashion designers that are clueless about running an actual business.

She suggested that I consider some of the Taiwanese companies due to all of the dramas in China and Hong Kong right now. I do remember Stephanie Stubbe from Anipal saying in the podcast interview that the Taiwanese English was also typically better than in China too. Their websites provided proof of this.

So, earlier in this week, I started leaving messages with any company that appeared to carry a line of recycled materials on their website. My screening question was: do you have a washable, breathable, waterproof recycled polyester material.

I went through 73 websites and contacted 13 companies in Taiwan, S. Korea and the US. Three of these companies responded (all from Taiwan) – two said yes, one said no. Those two companies asked me to send them more specific requirements. Crickets sang in my ears. I had no idea what else I needed, and still don’t.

As I did more research, I stumbled upon a company in Taiwan that also showed a Melbourne office number. Fortunately, a guy named Michael answered, and it turns out that he’s an agent for a bunch of material manufacturers in Asia. He was a wealth of knowledge as a former manufacturer itself, and if all goes well I could have some samples shortly to test my newest product line idea.

They say that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I’m cautiously optimistic, but hopefully I found my teacher for recycled polyester and textile manufacturing in general! Time will soon tell.

Workaround for Prototype

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After speaking with my manufacturer, I think that we might have a new workaround to properly test and show the functionality of my prototype. This problem will be obviously fixed once the product is manufactured, it’s just a pain right now due to my time constraints.

In some ways, this issue has likely resulted in a better outcome. Because I was concerned about how hard it was to properly show the product working within a normal home, I’ve hired a carpenter to build a portable display so that I can demonstrate this product live at the launch, as well as for the video.

It seems like everything I touch these days requires me to draw something, and God didn’t give me that gift. I hope my carpenter understood.

Rough sketch of product display for carpenter
Another rough sketch

I also have a meeting this afternoon with a company that will edit my videos for the crowdfunding campaign, and it will be good to hear what they think of my revised storyboard idea.

This is just proving to me once again that a roadblock on this entrepreneurial journey might actually be a detour to a better route in the end!

First prototype tests failed

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It was an incredibly frustrating day as my first prototype tests failed. While I didn’t expect the prototype to be perfect, I did believe that any failure would be a fault in my specifications, not because it wasn’t made properly.

As mentioned last week, my new prototype won’t stay together because the connector piece is still failing off. I thought I solved it last night by putting painter’s tape around the pin to make it slightly larger, but it didn’t hold.

The only good thing about today is that I did learn some new things about what the customer needs. The product itself also showed all promise that it would solve the intended problems with their pet. Oh yes, I also got a lot of doggie love.

Robert the Dog as Prototype Tester
Prototype Tester – Robert the Dog

Nevertheless, I’m clearly going to have to come up with a different solution over the next few weeks to avoid another prototype test failure. I only have a little bit of time left to demonstrate it properly on video for the crowdfunding campaign.

When your mock-up product destroys your house

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Shared my business idea with a good friend. He thought that it made a lot of sense for me personally and to fill an obvious need. It’s good to get that kind of confirmation from people that know me well.

Mocked up Product #3 with some random things that I thought might functionally operate in a similar way – it worked. But… DAMN IT! I have to fix my wall now. Better that I tested this is my house than a customer’s.

Product design mock-up failure!

Searching for manufacturers and parts

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Went to hardware store to see if there were any standard parts that I might be able to use for Product #1 or #2. Nope! And nothing like these products really exist there.

Put together a rough budget with no real idea about how much it’s going to cost to get these products manufactured. I heard that simple moulds could cost about $20k each. This is definitely going to be the most expensive business I have after started.

Found an Australian product designer/manufacturer online – Manufacturer #1. I liked what they had done for another business in their case studies – makes me think that our values are aligned. I need to put together some sort of product requirements doc for a prototype before I call them. I’m not really sure how to do that, but I suppose I can use a similar format that I would have used for software development in my old IT days

Do I learn a new skill like CAD?

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Prepared some market research questions so that I can survey people.

Also did some more research on 3D printing and CAD. I wish I had these skills. It would make my product design process so much easier. There doesn’t seem to be any classes locally unless I want to enter an actual degree program. It’s probably for the best that I don’t waste my time in learning this skill when I can hire experts that will always be better than me.