ecoVegan's demo at Windmill Farms cross promotion

Because people might miss one, so the more we do it, the greater chance the public will know about it!


Another ecoVegan's product sampling, now moving from Northern California to Southern California.  It is something very exciting that the store buyers are making the decision to buy vegan products, a major improvement for public awareness!  We will pray that the consumers also make the compassionate switch too!


The sampling event will take place next Wednesday 10/6 during lunch time at Windmill Farms, and we hope to see you there!  And if you have any feedback, we always welcome them too! 

First "public" review for ecoVegan's Sunshine Patties, and our responses.

Dear user WillParkinson (Will Bowden): 

I hope one day you will be able to see this message and got our replies.  

I want to thank you first for trying ecoVegan products and giving your honest review, this helps us to learn further about our customers and how we can improve for serving more public.

First, on the nutrition label you have pointed out something that could causes confusion for the consumers, and here we apologize.  

Our current serving sizes are based on the weight portion not the actual quantity; therefore 3 patties with total weight 7.1oz making serving size 4 of each recommended 1.8oz portion.  We also realized this was not easily understood and are already making changes accordingly for our next batch of packaging.  In the future Sunshine Patties will have 3 servings and with its respective nutrition information.  I hope this clarifies. 

The same information is also available on our FAQ page for our customers, and we hope this will not be any stopping point for the consumers to give us a try.


Second, there might be a misunderstanding of the 38% of the fat; because if that's the case we would not call it healthy at all.  Each serving size 1.8oz contains 6.05g, which is 9.31% of Fat. 

When we consider smart, we consider the choice is smart because the consumers are making a positive change for switching out of meat, for the fact the ecoVegan's products are quick and easy to prepare, and for a more compassionate and sustainable solution.  When we consider healthy, in addition to the dietary nutrition facts, we also consider the choice is healthy for the planet, for our mind, body, and spirit, and healthy for eco-balance. 


Perhaps these are something we hope to share along with the consumers and to grow with us into the plant-based path. 


Dear WillParkinson, you have been great and honest and provide your valuable feedback, and we hope you understand our perspectives by above replies.  We thank you for your support, and continue welcome your constructive comments!




Many wishes for your happiness and a compassionate vegan world. 


Regards, 
ecoVegan staff.

BABIB

Something totally not related, but I wouldn't feel respected if I were called a "babe" in the professional world.

"BABIB" stands for Bay Area Babes in Business.

Honestly, I think the name should be changed, if they ever see this! 

Vegan Essentials

Have I mentioned Vegan Essentials?  Besides the fact that they are a huge and awesome online vegan retailer that supplies all the eco-friendly and cruelty-free vegan products, as a business partnership they are just so wonderful to work with!!  Friendly, professional, timely, well-manner, I cannot think of anything that's not positive to say about them!   I sincerely hope this will be a long term relationship!  :)

Vegan: because nothing was killed, and no one died.

I met up with a friend on Friday night; Steve was the temple builder last year and this year for Burning Man.  As Steve experienced the building and burning of the temple, and letting go some of the griefs experienced with losing someone in life, a decision was made.  Steve wants to do something for others, especially for those under-privileged 10-years old in the Oakland district.  He will organize a project with 10 to 15 kids who have also lost someone in their lives and have those kids to build the temple, as a ritual to help them to let go those sorrows, and to learn how to live more peacefully with respects.

I think this is something absolutely wonderful.  Something we do for others is always greater than something we do for ourselves, to put in a different perspective that there are always things we can do to help others!  I thought that is very noble. 

We discussed many details and ideas, and still need to come up with names too.  Also, I let him know we would sponsor Vegan food.  This is minimal to us, but could be significant to the kids, considering maybe they don't even have the food stability. Sometimes, I feel really sad to know that even in the metropolitan of San Francisco, just across the bridge or even under the bridge, there are still beings living with hunger, shelter-less, or lack of security; how can anyone not feel compassionate or want to offer ourselves to help?!   The phrase Steve put, really touched me.  He said he will mention to the kids (and the volunteers) the reason why vegan food is served, is that nothing was killed, and no one died for you to eat; which just echoes to what the temple project is about too!  Thank you! 

HR & Airline

A total different two topics: HR and Airline; but something unavoidable.  

Hiring might seem easy but I would say it is rather difficult; as Don Rainey mentioned in his article " 8 things I wish I knew before starting a business," I truly agree that good employees are really hard to find; not only you have to get someone to fit the job description, be flexible in the start-up environment, willing to be trained and learn new things, and need them to contribute too!  And that is not the most difficult one when coming to letting go someone that does not perform well.  It is not something someone too sentimental or emotional can do, period. 

Thank God that we have someone here that can handle much of the office work so I can go focus on customer building and strategy!  I really appreciate you Sone! 

We will talk about Airline next time!

By the way, ecoVegan is looking for suitable candidate to join our team.  See our website Career section!  Thanks to Zoho Recruit; for small business owners if you have not tried it you should now! 

Learning something new everyday- the "relationship" between Distributor and Retailer

If one is at the natural food business, one's gotta know UNFI- major natural food distributor across the country, besides many other similar size or rather smaller ones that one can find online.  I guess our goal is also to get in with UNFI so the products can be widely distributed.  

The article posted by Jane Hoback on Natural Food Merchandiser says so beautifully that the partnerships between the distributor and the retailer is really like a "relationship" that needs time and effort from both end to develop, on top of the pricing, marketing promotion, flexibility, and inventory availability, along with a large selection of products to choose from, and the service.  There are many things a retailer look for in a distributor that distributor look for in the vendor.  Learning this will help us to provide exceptional services and products to our end-customers while staying competitive and a valued vendor for others!  That's what ecoVegan strives for!

Working our way into school

I spoke with KS in PCRM today regarding ecoVegan's products, and how possibly we can serve to schools so the kids can have the meat-free option, which is better for them and the society anyway!  I almost feel this cannot be disclosed, but since I was able to search and found it, the USDA's National School Lunch Program reimburse $2.37 for the school that provide lunches to its students.  That means, $2.37 a lunch meal for a child, including overhead; in reality, sometimes it could really come down to $1 per lunch meal, and I don't even want to think how the breakdown will be between all the content in that meal.  Trust me, there is no such thing called "free lunch." This is a rather hard task for us at this stage because we are not that financially competent yet to be competitive with the big name company, aside from the details we have to go through in order to sell to school.  

There are lots of resources and information that we need to be aware; for one, we need to register for Central Contract's program under Federal, which then enable us to be searchable under SBA and then can apply to become vendor for the major distributors that service the school districts.  It is, in short, a very complicated system.  And before that, a D-U-N-S number must also be available too. 


Even with this much details needed to be worked out, I think it is still a necessary task.  Wish us luck!!

Customer Service

If you ask, what do we care about at ecoVegan, Customer Service will definitely be one of the top ranked value we have. 

I was reading this article my uncle forwarded to me, and in the article it indicated we don't work to work, we work to be a better being, by gaining knowledge and wisdom, by treating people fair & right, by learning to be patient, by  learning moral values that is true in both personal and professional life, by speaking truth, by knowing that the world is not centered around us, all these and more.  I think, these are what I learned from dealing with different type of customers; but i think more than that, is the love I feel towards them, and the tasks I handle at those times.  

We want our customers, or doesn't even have to be our customers, to be happy, simply happy.  I think it all ties back to doing something good for the society, regardless the results; when we do it from the love of our hearts, it will show and the outcome will be positive!  And I pray that heaven works its miracle so all beings will be happy soon! 

Another Userful Tool for Entrepreneurs - Micro Mentor

I have just recently discovered Micro Mentor, this online mentor-ship community that helps out another entrepreneur; something I thought pretty useful for this stage.  

LinkedIn has forum/ group that you can also post and get replies; and that is already well-established.  I personally like the smaller community where there will be more interactions. 

SCORE/ SBA was helpful in the very beginning, but as ecoVegan moves further and we need more complicated answers to the challenge we are facing now, a general consultant will not be able to do so; so that's why I am trying Micro Mentor.  


In this society it is always about taking and giving back; so I encourage if you also want to share your knowledge in your specific industry, Micro Mentor would be a great place to encourage the liked-minded individual entrepreneurs be successful through guidance! 


Good Luck!

Google Voice

Taking sometime to setup Google Voice. 
If you or your business don't already have one, it might not be a bad idea to get one that you can get some new number, or to forward to your mobile phone if you don't want to give that out!  Just some thoughts!

P.S If you are setting up the forwarding number as a general office number that will need to dial string; note Google voice currently does not have this feature.

While I am at it

I want to thank God first for the opportunity to start ecoVegan; I have been much blessed to have this exceptional opportunity to work on something I truly believe, while learning new things everyday, and meet with some very wonderful people that just made me appreciate life, and all lives, even more.  Words can never truly express my deep feelings of gratitude, so that's why I know I have written less and less and just do more.  Action speaks louder than words, and I hope that someday, one day, soon, that everyone all come to the same understanding of we are just simply love, and all beings do share this common space together; and when everyone becomes vegan, it will be heaven on earth again.  Let's pray.