To recap: Waiting for a safe product to be delivered due to an unforeseen setback over the lead paint concerns overseas. Another member of the team wants to pursue other options to produce a toy while we wait for our overseas connection to communicate with us. Continuous and honest communication continued regarding the status of orders to the entire customer base.

This Official Dog Blog entry is the funny side of this business. When I created the concept, I had to rely on a select few people to offer assistance with the endeavor. When it came down to making some key decisions, sometimes true colors come out of people. They get stars in their eyes and think they are invincible. This story will definitely put in perspective that some people really just aren’t business minded individuals and sometimes just don’t get ‘it’.

Actual business phone call:

Darren Usher: “Hello?”
Team Member: “Hey, it’s (name withheld).”
Darren Usher: “What’s going on?”
Team Member: “I found some guy that can produce some hats with our logo and some bracelets like the Lance Armstrong ones.”
Darren Usher: “I thought you were looking for an interim solution for the Official Vick Dog Chew Toy?”
Team Member: “I am. In the meantime we can sell hats. He can also do shirts with our Official Vick Dog logo. I want to move on this so that we can generate more revenue”.
Darren Usher: “As the CEO, my goal right now is to protect the revenue we have already generated. We do this by communicating on the status of the current orders and fulfillment of what we have sold. Once we have fulfilled all the orders pending, then we can discuss other items”.
Team Member: “We can do both. I am going to take $X.XX and invest in some of these hats, shirts, and bracelets”.
Darren Usher: “I am not going to authorize this. No money is to be spent until we fulfill all orders pending. Do not spend any money until we fulfill orders pending. Understood?”
Team Member: “OK. I will get some samples to show you. Then we can decide”.
Darren Usher: “Hear me on this: samples for free, OK. Payment for anything is not authorized. Understood?”
Team Member: “Got it”.

In mid October 2007, we have a scheduled introduction meeting with our new manufacturer. We are meeting to specifically discuss the final product, packaging ideas, and final approval of the shipping cost. This was a VERY significant meeting and was the first time that we met as a team with our manufacturing partners.

Let me set the scene:

Jacksonville, Forida

Nice restaurant.

I arrive with my Chief Marketing Officer. No sign of our Team Member. We meet our manufacturing contact outside the restaurant and exchange greetings and proceed to the table.

As we pass the bar area I noticed a guy, sitting at the bar, but I can only see the back of him. He was wearing a cheap looking mesh baseball hat. I look closer and see that it is our Team Member.

As I approach, he spins around on the bar stool and introduces himself to our manufacturing partners.

The sight and the subsequent embarrassment is something that I will remember forever.

I want to describe it for you, but will certainly fall short in the sheer ridiculousness of the situation. Keep in mind, we are in the process of negotiating a deal worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with a reputable manufacturing company that has ties with the likes of Coke, Bacardi, CITI and other very reputable and multi-million dollar organizations.

Here we are trying to broker a deal that will keep our concept alive, in the midst of a situation with lead based paint, and is about to give us the opportunity to bump large companies like Mattel from valuable manufacturing time. All of this is occurring so that the Official Vick Dog Chew Toy can come to life! With all of these things going on, I now get a Team Member, at this point 1/4th of our team, showing up at the meeting with:

• A cheaply made and horribly manufactured trucker cap with a sticker logo
• A black t-shirt with an iron-on logo that matches what we want to present on our dog chew toy box
• And several camouflage rubber bands on his wrist with the text, “Where’s My Plea?”

As we sit down at the table, the Team Member announces that he is “in negotiation” with a company that can produce all the products that he is wearing. The meeting begins with the following comment from our manufacturer:

“since we are laying everything on the line to help you produce this product and providing favorable treatment to your endeavor, why do you see it as appropriate to engage in a secondary entity to produce these products independently? Why would you not give us that opportunity in exchange for the business that we are providing to you?”

And it was me he looked in the face and asked this question to……

Be sure to continue following the Official Vick Dog Chew Toy story and much more in my next entry.

I appreciate your interest in my story.