Work hard … play harder :)

Since Startup Riot last month I’ve seen the need to really get out there and make the brand easily recognizable. I actually feel like a business owner that folks take seriously. Not that they didn’t before but… somehow in my head things are more official now.

One of the difficulties I’ve found in marketing textbook rental to college students, is that textbooks just aren’t sexy. In fact they almost always conjure up the anxiety accompanies realizing you’ve got a final in two days and haven’t even thought about studying. So how do you grab their attention? How do you make something so inherently lame, cool? I wish I knew. In all honesty, I don’t think its possible in the case of textbooks and course materials. BUT its very possible to make sure folks know we love having a good time and are looking to make life easier. Knapsac’s kind of like that kid that plays just as hard as he/she works (I learned just how amazing this setup can be at Emory).

So first up Knapsac’s sponsoring our first event Spring Break Rehab this Thursday at Primal in Atlanta. Yayyy! It’s a post spring break “last rite” before the end of the semester and finals creep up. Not to mention, it’s on St. Patricks Day… ohh I’m soo excited. So if you’re in town and want to join in on the fun stop by and party with Knapsac!
Until next week…
CO Out

Riot at The Tabernacle

The past few weeks have sort of been a blur. The new semester here and the Knapsac teams been in full force fulfilling rental orders. Not that I’m complaining though. The feedback from happy customers, as well as folks who seemed a little peeved at times is great! It’s helping me get a better idea of how well we’re doing, what types of  methods are working and what… quite frankly sucks. And it never hurts to put a little bit of cash in the bank.

Soooo on to the fun stuff … If you’ve been following my tweets (@knapsac) you most likely saw some pretty cryptic messages about getting ready for something or being really excited. Well now I can spill the beans. For the past month or so I’ve been going crazy preparing for the hugely awesome Startup Riot here in Atlanta. After applying on a whim back in January, Knapsac was selected as 1 of the 50 companies that would be giving a 3 min pitch to an audience of well over 400; these folks were entrepreneurs, investors, press, our keynote speakers, and random folks who were just wanted to be a part of the event.

Wednesday, Feb 16  was the big day. I knew my slides like the back of my hand and felt pretty prepared. But as soon as I arrived, began setting up my table, and started checking out the competition the game changed a bit for me. Every other company had a very polished display of demos, marketing material, product samples, bla bla bla… and it looked like I’d decided to go for a more utilitarian decor. AND I was alone … one of my team members who was suppose to man our table wasn’t available until later in the day It was so obvious this was my first big time event. But there was nothing I could do at that point sooo … I figured WHO CARES. I was going to own it like I usually do and make this fun a fun, productive day. Presenting towards the first hour of pitches was definitely ulcer-inducing; my heart was racing, palms got sweaty, and I noticed everyone else back stage had a gimmick. There were fairy wings, bowler hats, rockstars… well damn, how was I suppose to compete with that. I wanted to switch things up, but decided going with what I’d practiced for weeks was the best way to keep myself from completely mortifying flub up on stage. After all I was presenting more to bring awareness about Knapsac and network more than to win prizes (although I was definitely open to that too).

Aside from speeding through my presentation (almost flawlessly might I add … ) and feeling like my lungs were about to collapse, it worked out. We got several very supportive tweets before my fellow presenters and I were released from the holding area back stage, also known as the ICE BOX. And even better I was actually bumrushed by some folks as we all left the auditorium (I’m a Gemini so you can only imagine how excited I was about being the center of attention). Another major success was the constant flow of people to the Knapsac table. Folks were very nice, asked a ton of questions, I’d say about 20 visitors mentioned “gosh I wish this was around x years ago when I was in college…”. But my favorite part of all was the camaraderie  that only a group of entrepreneurs can share. Overall the feedback was awesome; everyone wanted to help you build a strong product or service; it was all about sharing the wealth of information that’s available in the room. Simple. Productive. Leisurely… is really how networking events should be.

I’m pumped to start making moves again and putting the biz on the map. Be on the watch for Knapsac in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Until next week…
CO Out

Snowmageddon ATL Style

Word that a pretty serious snow storm trickled down the now frozen grapevine a few days ago. Typically, I find these reports to be a bit dramatic and the cause of a ton of unnecessary panic… and this time was no different. You have to keep in mind that 1) I’m from Houston, TX – flooding and fog are more our thing – and it rarely snows; 2) Boarding school placed me smack dab in the middle of IN – try wearing a kilt, knee socks, and  loafers while fighting your way through 2 ft of snow and wind laced with millions of icy needles. Sounds fun right.

there's like 3 inches of snow... just no one to clear the roads...

I think I’ve got a pretty good dose of both extremes and can honestly say that this is not that bad of a storm (and did i mention it snows pretty much every year here in Atlanta?). Does it even look that bad? Don’t get me wrong, it is a bit slippery out and people should stay inside (especially folks who can’t drive in normal conditions). BUT I love working from my couch, warming myself by the fire, and sipping cocoa in my jammies all day. So thanks for freakin out everyone. I think I’m gonna enjoy this.

Anywho… the show must go on. The Knapsac team is revving up for rentals the spring semester, but our plans for getting out on campus are changing. Hopefully by Thursday things will thaw enough for folks to feel comfortable enough to venture outside again Oh and if you haven’t seen the new Knapsac video check it out here. Don’t be shy. Leave us some comments  ANNDDDD we’re getting tons of applications for Campus Reps so thanks a ton and keep em coming.

Until next week…
CO Out

Kick Off

HAPPYYYYY NEWWWWW YEARRRRRR

If you can’t tell, I’m very very excited about starting fresh this year and the potential we have to blow the roof off of 2011. And could there be a better way to kick things off this year than by finishing, FINALLLYY, a project that’s been in the works for months??!!?? I think not.

So as promised I’m sharing the exclusive world premier of the first ever Knapsac commercial. Enjoy and don’t forget to share it with all of your friends and family.

Until next week…
CO Out

2010 Wrap UP

The Xmas hustle has already passed by and New Years is creeping up on us. I honestly can’t believe it!

It’s been a tough year for me personally (you’re continued support is very very much appreciated), but I’m looking forward to the successes sure to have in 2011. Typically New Years Resolutions aren’t my thing but what the heck… here goes:

Sneak Peek

I’ve been thinking about Knapsac magic reaching a ton of new customers for months., but I as an owner have taken a slightly passive approach as far as making things work. And ever time I dig to find the reason for my uncharacteristic standoffishness when marketing is concerned…. I always come up with the sammmeeeeeee  thing. FEAR; it’s a bitch and will really keep you from becoming a

So I decided to get off my butt, stop being a punk, and get all up in the faces of Knapsac’s customers. I wanted to keep our approach fresh though. First things first I decided to make a fun animated commercial/advertisement. There’s this great studio I found with just the style of animation I love… but they wanted to charge $10K for a 1 minute video. Ummmmm NO. Since Knapsac is all about saving money and doing things differently, I figured I could do it myself. And with a bit of research, a few programs, and a little bit of Christy Power it would all work out

Sneak peek of the Knapsac Animation

Surprisingly the animation is coming a long well (I’m not gonna lie… the progress even surprised me a bit). The plan is to finish this up by the end of the month, barring any minor setbacks, emotional meltdowns, or technical difficulties. But for now I’ll give you special still preview of my favorite shot.

Until next week…
CO Out

Car Trouble & Puppy Woes

Have you ever had one of those weeks where one frustrating and slightly disruptive thing after another seemed to happen. It was one of those weeks for me.

As I drove home one day from the office I noticed my car pulling to the left every once and a while. Thinking I just needed to get my tires aligned, kept right on driving… for a couple of weeks. Then BOOSH this past Monday the tire was almost completely flat and of course I just happened to be running late and needed to take my new puppy, Linden, to the vet. I sucked it in, bundled the pup and myself up, and headed out to do some rushed errands. We barely made it back into the house on time for me to get ready to head to the office… but Linden thought this would be a great time to ya know … relieve herself all over the carpet… GREAATTTT. But she’s just too cute to be mad at for long

A few days later on the way home from the gym I heard a loud pop and subsequent shaking coming from the rear of my car. It didn’t sound very good, but I figured I could make it back to the shop. BAD IDEA. No sooner had I entered the highway did my back passenger side tire blow out (completely different tire than the one causing problems before). The car limped into a car rental place, and I asked for help getting my spare put on (I would have done it myself, but it was way too cold outside). The mechanic notified me that my rim had a hole in it and needed to be replaced before a new tire could be put on the car.

Seething, I hopped back into the car (with the spare firmly in place) and made my way to Discount Tire Company. The good news was since I’d purchased insurance on my tires I wouldn’t have to buy new ones… but that rim… was a whole new story. Replacing the rim with the style of rim I’d had would  cost several hundred dollars, so I opted for a more affordable, eclectic, and mismatched rim for the time being. The worst part wasn’t that I’d wasted ohhh 4 hours of my day, it was that I’d left the puppy at home, in the kitchen… and I wasn’t sure what kind of craziness she’d gotten into or what kind of “presents” she decided to leave me. Let’s just say after an hour’s worth of cleaning… things were back to normal.

At this point, I figured nothing much worse could happen. My luck couldn’t possibly be that bad, right? WRONG. A few nights later, exhausted from a long day’s work, followed by meetings to put the finishing touches on Knapsac marketing campaigns, I came home to find my guest bathroom, laundry room, and half the kitchen flooded. Come on man!! And apparently, Linden decided to have a bit of fun herself chewing the now softened base boards in her pin area. Not to mention the nice sized log’s that were now floating around. Awesome.

I have to admit though, after recovering from it all. I began laughing histerically. Sometimes your life can get a bit hectic, expensive, and even messy … but it’s never the end of the world. Not to mention you can’t really change things that have already happened. So suck it up, learn to see the humor in things, and keep it moving.

Until next week…
CO Out

Reallyy Now ??!!??

What do the following things have in common:

• a hole-ly tire
• an un-housebroken puppy
• a busted car rim
• a leaking washing machine
• near freezing temperatures
• marketing campaigns

not a whole lot actually… except that I didn’t think they would all happen within days, no hours of each other this week. As you can imagine things were a bit hectic the last seven days. Butttt don’t worry…. I’m working on a post (chalked full of this week’s craziness) for y’all and it should be up Thursday. So grab your cousins, grab your wife (hehe), and just about anyone you know and check back in a few days .

Until next time…
CO Out

Dominaiton By Failure

“Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”

~W. Churchill

Pretty deep right? I’ve lived by this quote for the better part of my life. Keeping this in mind, as well as a ton of prayer, has allowed me to get through some of the most difficult and stressful times in business as well as life.

But there comes a point where you need more than the will to dig in and push through all of the bs keeping you from true success. You need strategy great timing. That’s right I said it. Now, taking the “jump” works and is necessary, BUT to become more, greater, bigger, a dominating force, whatever … you need to study trends and execute at the right time. The textbook retail industry for example pretty much centers on the semesters and terms. You’d think it would be pretty straight forward, at least I did at first, but there are tons of very subtle details that can make or break the success of a marketing campaign.

Now a days you hear a lot of: “you gotta be on facebook, tweet your heart out, use google ads, check in here. It’s all really overwhelming… And since I’m managing most of the administrative duties myself, all this extra stuff just didn’t make sense or sound very fun. So, I’d decided spraying and praying (aka buying Facebook and Google Ads throughout the entire semester) would be the best option for us. The thought was to make Knapsac a recognizable brand by maintaining constant visibility to our potential customers. Sure we saw some increased traffic, but what the team didn’t see was this strategy having as the effect we expected. After completely failing at setting marketing campaigns in motion over a few semesters it hit us – we’d been overlooking a very important constraint to our potential customer’s free time … the exam schedule. It makes sense that a student wouldn’t necessarily be focused on anything but cramming for exams during exam week (and unless it has something to do with reading the semester’s assignments, textbooks – renting, buying, selling, are just not a priority). The trick was keeping in communication with current students, watching academic and event schedules on campus, and tweaking our execution schedule to fit in at prime attention grabbing time. While Knapsac’s advertising is not exactly hitting the sweet spot yet, we have increased traffic in a major way. I’d say we’re well on our way.

Until next week..
CO Out

Oh and we’re hiring campus reps, so if you know of any folks who may be interested tell them to check out www.knapsac.com and shoot an email with a cover letter and resume over to admin@knapsac.com

They’re All Gonna Laugh At You

We’ve got about a month until the spring semester rolls in, there are still 1 billion things to do, and I wasn’t seeing the traffic to the site, social media posts, on campus advertising I’d expected this close to the end of the semester. All the tasks that have fallen through the cracks over the past few weeks have somehow made their way back to my consciousness, and quite frankly I was getting a little nervous.

So, I called a meeting with my campus reps a few days ago. Being the focused and responsible people they are, I assumed solutions to my frustrations and assurances that my concerns were a result of a lack of sleep would materialize, but you know what happens when you assume… No sooner than I’d finished an overly dramatic (yeah that’s how I roll) calling out of how lazy we’d all been the past month did the whole room fill with laughter. What a kick in the ass.

As it tuns out in our meeting last month, we discussed that the majority of students on campuses in the area (including the Knapsac Reps) were either in the process of preparing for or taking midterms. So, marketing at this time would be a waste of time and money. Anndddd … I’d given the Reps some time off to study.

So the Reps did respect me, they just thought I was out of my mind at the moment (it also didn’t help that someone let out an earth shattering belch at the end of my rant….). After forgiving me for being an idiot, the team offered to do some holiday marketing on their time off. Gosh I love them!!

You know what though… being laughed at was great; it loosened me up, gave me a little bit thicker skin, and prompted me to start chronicling the triumphs, setbacks, sleepless nights, and everyday ridiculousness that occurs along the way to becoming a successful business. I’ll be posting videos, blog entries, tweets, and pictures. I hope it gives you a better understanding of the people behind the scenes at Knapsac.com, the business itself, and maybe even a laugh or two.

Until next week..
CO Out