Mistake with product labels

Tammy Ven Dange, , , 1 Comment on Mistake with product labels

I was really hoping to launch our new products last week. In fact I had a meeting already scheduled with a retail customer on Friday with the anticipation that everything would be ready by then. Unfortunately, I can’t because I’m waiting on labels – again!

When I’m dependent on third parties for my supplies, it really makes it hard to hit schedule especially when I made another mistake. Well, technically I made one mistake and a supplier made the other one. Either way, I had to reprint labels.

And so, I am still waiting on the revised labels even though I ordered them on Friday last week. I’ve tried to switch to a faster supplier, but I’ve found that many others can’t print the sizes that I need.

I’m so sick of the label issues – the time it takes to get them made, the lack of flexibility when I need to make changes or what to trial a product, as well as the expense. So, I bought a laser printer this week hoping that I have more options with water-resistant labels that I can print myself.

It took me a half day to get the printer set-up and for the labels to print properly, as the Avery templates never seem to be correct. Results? It worked out okay.

Pic on left is from my new printer. Pic on right is from a professional label company.

The only challenge is that I can’t buy blank labels in water-resistant materials in all of the sizes that I need. So, I’m still reliant on external suppliers for some of the circular tin sizes. However, I might just resize my labels for other products to fit the blanks that are available. That way, I can have that flexibility until I have a reason to order in larger quantities.

This investment into the new printer will hopefully result in less wasted time, money and plastic for future labels!

Postscript: I just realised that I could order these heavy duty labels from Avery directly in just about any size I want. Damn! Lesson learned again!

DILO 23/7/19

Tammy Ven Dange, , , Leave a Comment on DILO 23/7/19

Most days are not that glamorous or interesting in a start-up. However, even those days come with lessons learned.

For example, I learned this week that the guys that have been customising my website without any issues are completely clueless when in comes to security and search engine optimisation (SEO). In fact, they’ve stuffed something up, and now I’m spending way too much time trying to fix it with them.

I’ve also learned that when you sign up for a new company bank account, they do not come online right away. So, don’t promise payments to a manufacturer on the same day.

While I procrastinated on this for a while, I’ve learned that making my career change public opened a whole new set of great contacts into my network. Furthermore, I’ve said “YES” to connecting with anyone another friend has recommended. I’m sure that was a good decision too.

Finally, today I learned that it’s worth my time to create good content for both my websites and my own personal brand. A Medium article I published was recommended by their editors, and I’ve been invited to submit more articles to two of their publications as a result.

Yes, a Day in the Life of this start-up is all about doing small things daily and learning quickly from any lessons. I’m certain this will all be worth it one day.