Cookie Cabana "The true story"

We're Finally Online

albaloo — 2010-04-23T06:15:00Z

www.CookieCabana.com is finally online and functioning. There are still adjustments to make and many many improvements to think about, but hey that's OK.

Please visit the website and tell us what we can do to make it better. I want to personally thank Benjamin and Clemens for their good design and technical work. Let's keep it going guys.

Now I have to go and bake the first three orders. God, I've been good all these years... haven't I? Help get this adventure reach the top of the cookie charts.

Read It Carefully

albaloo — 2010-04-15T10:50:00Z

You should read everything carefully before sending money to people you don't know. I always knew this... I'm not exactly a businessman born yesterday, but now I know it even more. This is also why we are very serious that CookieCabana.com has clear and easily accessible terms of use... our lawyer has done a good job on this.

Her's the story- As we did our commecial registration (Hendelsregistereintragung), we naturally had to pay some fees. 40 Euros to Amtsgericht, another 30 to another official bureau, etc. Things were fine until a few days after receiving our official notification that the registration was completed, when we received two bills from other seemingly "official" organizations for a total of around 1000 Euros. This was a shock... I hid the bills under a stack of papers for a couple of days, so I wouldn't have to think about them. Finally, the real "man" that I am, I mustered the courage to show the bills to my wife. After some careful consideration, we decided we had to pay these "official" bills, so might as well get it over with. We paid them online last Sunday afternoon... big mistake. On Monday, I received another bill for 530 Euros. This was strange, so I went to see my tax advisor. He told me this was all a scam. There are people who monitor the Handelsregister for new registrations, and send them offers for inclusion in their data bases. However, the informatin about the "offer" is in very very fine print. They name themselves such official sounding names as "Allgemeines Gewerberegister AGR / Gewerberegister Veröffentlichungen", send a letter with a payment slip (überweisung) attached, and ask you to pay before such and such date.

So, we were duped. But, fortunately we found out early enough. The bank could stop one payment, and the other is in the process of being returned. By the way, I've received two more similar bills since then, but now I know better.

Space Shuttle Cabana

albaloo — 2010-04-07T16:13:00Z

You know what I'm talking about. Every space shuttle launch is always announced weeks in advance, but often when the actual time comes the sky is cloudy, it's too windy, the temperature's too high or too low, or any number of other "weather" related things happen that delay the launch. Something similar is apparently happening to CookieCabana.com.

Benjamin, our "weatherman" web-designer was here a few days ago, along with the "tech.-brain" behind-the-scenes-man we hadn't met before. It was indeed a pleasure meeting Clemens. Both gentlemen look the parts they play in their company. One the free-sprited designer, the other the technical maverick. The two of them had brilliant ideas about lots of things, that I'm sure we'll use one time or another. The only thing is we're again not online yet. There's a sort of commonness between our website and the space shuttle... the delays. Our weatherman (men) have put the launch date back again by two weeks.

Want to know what I think? I think these guys had thought they were dealing with me. They didn't know their actual counterpart was my wife, the "better" half of Cookie Cabana. She is a computer engineer so she knows the real and not-so-real issues in programming. When she estimated the time this website should take to develop, she evaluated things based on her own work habits, expectations and speed, which are excellent, high and fast. Damn, if I were a bit more like her, I would've been a minister or something by now.

Seems Rather Unlikely

albaloo — 2010-03-29T08:53:00Z

As much as we have been anticipating an on-time launce, I seems less than likely. Our website is going to take a bit longer than planned, and we hope to get things started right after the Easter holidays. On week's delay is unfortunately unavoidable and tomorrow the countdown clock will be set back seven days.

Although everything else is ninety something percent ready, this slight delay will also give us time to finish the few remaining things before opening the shop.

Bear with us.

Tik Tik Tik

albaloo — 2010-03-23T11:00:00Z

On Christmas day last year, I wrote something about a dream I'd had, in which the website countdown clock had only a few days left before launch. That dream is now reality.

My immediate remaining job is to put the finishing touches on the text that goes into the website, and my wife's in charge of getting the technical-financial parts running; Benjamin, who has grown into a much closer associate than just a hired web-designer, is pushing to get as many things finished and ready as possible. I think he's also getting a little excited, which we appreciate. And, of course, God has the important job of making everything fall into place on time... I'd be quite happy if he acheived 95%.

The last of our start-up supplies are arriving almost daily, but there are still one or two main things that kind of give us the jitters. I know, I know... we've come all this way, and we'll keep moving along the rest of this journey as well. On my computer keyboard, I have a label from a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey. This reminds me everyday of their wonderful slogan: "keep walking".

Geldautomat

albaloo — 2010-03-15T09:33:00Z

That's what I feel like, An ATM machine. It seems we're just paying money left and right, without delay. So many things to pay for, some of them you can touch, but many things you can't... the remaining legal registrations, lawyer's fees, payment systems membeship fees, and of course our beloved website. Having said all that, it feels strangely good to be paying all this money. You know, it feels sort of like when you're spending money on your kids' education. It hurts, it's alot of money, but you know you're investing in something worthy, the future of your children, something very important. For me, CookieCabana is like a project, if not a dream, come true. I've wanted to do somthing like this for ages, but now was the right time to get started.

Aside from the pleasant novelty of the investment part, We've both enjoyed a great learning experience during this whole process. When you go to a store and buy a package of almost anything, you don't realize the amount of thought and work that has gone into putting that product on the shelves of that store... I can tell you, it really has been quite a lot. I think going through this process has given us hands-on experience that's been as valuable as a business entrepreneurship degree from college, at a fraction of the cost. Has it been worth it so far? I think so.

This morning, I finally held our "product" in my hands. Cookies, high-tech biodegradable wrappings, box, labels, etc. All put together, complete. It felt good, a kind of relief, around eight months after "she" made the decision it was the right time in our lives to do this. Holding the box in front of my eyes played on my nerves, in an expectant but soothing sort of way. I knew then that we'd succeeded, even if we sell only one box. I remeber one of my teachers in high school who used to say "getting from step one to step ten is a lot easier than getting from zero to the first step". We'll have a chance to put that theory to test.

Reality Check

albaloo — 2010-03-09T13:06:00Z

Less than one month remaining, and things are coming together one by one. There are still a few details left, but we've finally got a "product" in our hands. Spending these past few moths on all kinds of bigger and smaller decisions, we're finally left with only a few minor tiny details like what legal information must we provide on the website, fine tuning the packaging, buying a label printing machine, and a few similar issues.

Somehow I know that when our grand opening day comes, we'll manage to hit the ground running... and my rather relaxed attitude worries my wife to no end. Of course, she's right. Whereas my strength is in the product design area, she's the organizational,and executive, "brain" of CookieCabana. She's the one who makes it all happen... or pushes me until I make some things happen. This whole project has been able to get off the ground because of her.

By the way, we had another meeting to see how the website is coming along... It's coming along. What can be seen looks good, but I'm worried about what we can't see yet. That part of the site is its most important part. I have every hope things will be ready on time... can you see my fingers crossed?

Free Enterprise

albaloo — 2010-03-03T09:50:00Z

Working in Europe is great for someone like me. I' am a true believer in the free enterprise system. There are people who criticize liberal capitalism because of its instances of social and economic injustice... I agree. There are flaws of capitalism that man hasn't been able to find a solution for yet, but then there's this other part of capitalism that makes it all worthwhile. To me, free enterprise means having the freedom to cempete. Two things usually happen when there's competition in the market: 1- prices come down 2- quality goes up. But, free enterprise isn't easy... it requires lots of good thinking and much hard work.

In our search for suppliers of ingredients that go into our cookies, we've found many, tested most, and selected a few companies. We have very simple criteria: 1- high quality bio products 2- suitable technical characteristics. Price also plays a role in our decision making, but not as big as the other two. Some of these companies are huge... for example, the bio cane sugar comes from a big supplier, but some materials come from 3-4 person companies.

This morning, we received a sample from one of the smaller companies in southern Germany. Their product is great, it's sized perfectly, it's correctly dried, it smells and tastes fresh, it's good. This is just a small company competing in a big world; and it's going on... producing... selling... participating in the economy... providing income for a few families. This example made me think again of the benefits of free enterprise. Nobody's too small or too big to specialize in, make, and sell something very good at reasonable prices... this is the key. Many many participants of all sizes come together to shape large efficient economies. By the way, China surpassed Germany in exports for the first time in history last year. Does this mean the communists are becoming better capitalists than the traditional free market countries?

Why Do It At All?

albaloo — 2010-02-24T09:19:00Z

I was taking a walk with the dog in the forest early this morning. I was thinking why are we doing this cookie thing at all? I mean we had our hands full to begin with... two full time jobs, three kids... one daughter in the last year of Gymnasium (high school), a son in eighth grade in Gymnasium, and a daughter in the last year of Grundschule (elementary school); a dog, house mortgage, and a million other unfinished and ongoing things. I tell you why.

Classical business thinking would suggest because we found a niche in the market that was not being served by anyone else, so based on our capabilities and resources we made a decision to fill that niche. But, reality would suggest reasons a little different. We started Cookie Cabana because we wanted to do our own thing... to do something good for people, and be rewarded for doing so... to make our own independent money... to take our own destinies in our own hands. Tall list, and oh... finding a niche in the market that was not being effectively served by anyone else was also a reson.

Basically, the plan is to give people better organic (bio) cookies than they could buy at their bio shops, for a lower price than what they would pay at those shops and supermarkets, to do this so well and to make so much money as to be able to provide a good living for all of the people involved... and to give as much as possible to those other people whom our customers will decide to give to. You'll see more on this subject when the web-shop opens. Kind of like a democratic Bill Gates. Can we count on your support?

It Works

albaloo — 2010-02-18T07:37:00Z

Our biggest technical worry so far, one of them anyway, has been if the new oven will bake the cookies evenly on the different baking sheets, from top to bottom and at the front and back of the oven. The Italian made Unox oven came out of the test quite proudly. It's very easy to work with, and it gives you 70 options to program various temperatures, baking times, moisture levels, and even in three different steps each! Don't mind the details... I'm just happy that it works so good. The only drawback is the noise it makes... sort of like the sound of the blowers that people use to blow leaves away from the fronts of their houses, on low power.

We're also at the final stages of packaging decisions. We found a company that makes an organic (bio) oil resistant film for use in food packaging, and the samples they sent us are great, although they cost a little more than other choices... but then, everything "bio" is always more expensive. Anyway, it's important because our cookies contain a good amount of butter and chocolate, and we don't want them to soak through to the outer package... which is also made of natural paper. We knew since the early days of thinking about this cookie project, that everything about the "Cabana" cookies was going to be made from all natural materials, in most cases completely bio, even the packaging... of course, other than the website, which is probably the most wonderful "man-made" thing of this century... and an all important part of CookieCabana.com

I've been thinking for a while, and I want to say a warm thank you to all of my wife's friends and work colleagues, and to the people around me, for so graciously enjoying our trial cookies these past months... it takes a lot of testing to get everything just right, which means making a lot of tasty cookies, and even a few experimental oddities. Thanks everybody for the good suggestions and for the motivation you keep giving us. This "starting a buisness from zero" venture has been quite engaging for us, and you've been a great source of energy.

Slowly... slowly, But Surely

albaloo — 2010-02-13T08:04:00Z

We sat for a few hours with Benjamin, our web guru, yesterday afternoon. After talking as usual about philosophy, politics, the fate of the world and such things for a little while, he showed us the progress of the CookieCabana.com website. What we saw looked good, needing only a few visual adjustments. The "back end" as he calls it, or the workings behind the public face of the website, is being developed in parallel. This is a rather complicated programming feat, and it is fortunately going forward with relatively few glitches. We also took a very un-scientific opinion poll from our kids, which did reveal some points both to Benjamin and to us... damn, kids can be so brutally honest! But, that's what we need... honest critique. The only thing that keeps me a bit on edge is timing. I hope the final website will be ready when the countdown hits 00:00, and although even if the "final" products is not completely ready by then the site will still be functional, we really want to go online "finished" on the first go. Let's think positive... "Yes We Can".

During the past few days... I had a meeting at the bank to set up a credit facility to cover costs of expansion when necessary. The thing is, we have to do this now, so if and when we need money for doing something quickly it will be available on very short notice. The meeting was great, everybody seems excited and interested in our idea and business plan, not to mention the taste of the cookies themselves... but nowadays credit decisions are made by computer programs not bank officers. Anyway, I have to complete various forms and provide all the information the bank wants... and then the computer will tell us how much credit we are worth.

Also, we ordered the boxes the cookies will reach all of our thousands of faithful customers that we are going to have in. Here, I'd like to tell you a little story from our private lives. Our dog Cookie, a brown and white Dalmation, is the embodiment of positive thinking. Whenever we are in the kitchen, he stays patiently around. Everytime someone walks in the general direction of his food bowl with somthing in their hand , he follows them knowing that whatever is in their hand is going to the food bowl. Although during the course of making a meal quite a few trips are made to the refrigerator, the cupboards, or other parts of the kitchen, and things don't usually end up in Cookie's food bowl, his positive attitude remains as strong as ever. The only image in Cookie's mind is that any movement toward his food bowl is meant in his favor. Of course, every now and then his positive outlook on life is rewarded with a treat.

He has taught me a lesson. Keep thinking positive... and good things will happen. What do you think?

Gelocht or Einfach?

albaloo — 2010-02-08T11:16:00Z

This was a new question for us. The lady, friendly, knowledgable and helpful, at the Küchentechnik shop where we bought our first speialized oven, heavy-duty cutting machine, and other equipment, was asking whether we wanted cookie sheets with holes punched in them or just plain ones. She explained that each one distributed heat differently, and that it might affect the way our cookies would look. We bought three each of both plain and perforated sheets. We are still learning, and a lot of things must be learned by trial and error.

One oven like ours has the capacity of baking 5 orders of 12 cookies each every 15 minutes. That means 20 orders per hour, or 160 orders in one eight-hour shift. It sounds like a lot of cookies, and it may take a little time to reach the point that we will need another oven, but considering that just Germany and the countries surounding it have a total population of roughly 200,000,000 people, we hope that an additional oven will not be too far into the future.

As we were leaving the Küchentechnik shop, I was so amazed by the array of different machines and equipment that are used everyday in restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and generally everywhere food is prepared, that I confessed to my wife I was becoming more and more interested in the food business. This really is a new thing for me... during the past many years I have worked as a salesman, banker, teacher, industrial buyer, and company manager... but never in the food business. Who knows, maybe this my real "calling".

Yes It Does Fly

albaloo — 2010-02-02T06:40:00Z

I am talking about time, of course. It has been a busy few weeks, mostly concerning things other than cookies, and it's nice to be writing again. It's amazing, when you write something for people online, you feel a sort of attachment, or even obligation to keep writing... you feel guilty when the time gap between some entries is longer than you'd like it to be. Could this be becaue you feel a kind of appreciation and togetherness with those unkown, unseen, and unnmaed people who have heard of from friends, or have otherwise stumbled upon this blog, and who come back to check things out every now and then? Maybe. I even know of a few friends who take a peek here now and again.

So... I checked the Cookie Cabana site this morning. It shows 57 days and a few hours left before going live.

In a way, starting a business from scratch is kind of like flying in a plane. You get ready well before your flight... think about how you are going to go to the airport... get there... check in... go through security... walk through duty free shops looking for nothing in particular along the way... go to the gate... sit and wait for boarding to begin... line up in a hurry when boarding is announced... get on the plane... find your seat... see if the luggage containers overhead have any more space left in them... sit and buckle the seat-belt around your waist... notice the color of the seats and other details around you... take a quick look at the cabin crew... watch the stewardess show you what to do if something drastic happens... hear the sound of the engines get louder and louder... and enjoy those last safe moments as the plane is still rolling on the runway before its takeoff. No matter how brave you are or how frequently you fly, your heart beats a little faster during takeoff. Finally, you feel the plane rise above the ground. You are flying... Right now, we are waiting for the gate leading to Air Cabana flight number 2010 to open! And yes, we are a little anxious.

Yesterday evening, we ordered our first oven, a special cutter for chopping up the ingredients, and a few other necessary pieces of equipment. You know, I never really thought about the price difference between professional equipment and those we buy for our homes. It is huge. Cookie Cabana is in the "money eating" phase at the moment. It seems we keep spending money on things that have not produced or sold even one cookie yet... and some things we never thought of before we started this adventure. But... I 've always heard that "you have to spend money before you make money", I just hope the "making" part will be as active as the "spending" part.

By the way, while I was away, my wife took advantage of my absence and arranged everything in the way she had palnned. She even painted the room we have come to call "Factory Nr. 1". It is now in the colors of the website. I don't know how this whole thing would get off the ground without her.

Web Copy That Sells

albaloo — 2010-01-04T08:16:00Z

This is the title of a book I read over the Christmas holidays. It is written by a New York based copywriter lady, and it did get me thinking about some concepts that will be helpful in writing the various parts of the CookieCabana website content. The writing and style of the book is decidedly American, but some of the subjects covered in the book can be used anywhere you want to communicate with people.

The author is a strong supporter of using "social media" like facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. to find and talk to people you want to do business with. It's interesting to know that as of late 2008 myspace had 242 million members, and facebook had 100 million.

Just picture this... footbal is the most popular sport around the world... the world's largest stadium,Rŭngrado May First Stadium, in Pyongyang, North Korea, holds only 150,000 people. The home of FC Barcelona, Camp Nou, has a capacity of 98,000 people, and is the world's 10th largest stadium. Allianz Arena in the north of Munich, home of Fußball-Club Bayern München, which holds 66,000 people, ranks 108th. Now imagine how many people 242 million is, about 1613 times more than the number of people in the world's largest football stadium, on a sunny day. That's a lot of people.

Considering that selling only 150 cookies per day would be CookieCabana's breakeven point (no profit-no loss), being able to reach even a tiny little part of the market covered by such social networks would be an awesome step for us.

I Have A Dream

albaloo — 2009-12-25T15:30:00Z

In my dream I see the CookieCabana.com stopwatch as it has reached 003 Days 00 Hours 00 Minutes 00 Seconds. I am full of excitement... I don't know what will happen in three days' time when the countdown reaches zero... You know, it's sort of like children waiting for Christmas to arrive and open the presents that have been sitting under the tree for the past few days... you don't know if your presents are what you want and expect or... and you'd rather not think about the "or...". Waiting for Christmas is always so painfully exciting.

I just checked, the stopwatch shows 96 Days 17 Hours 19 Minutes 13 Seconds. Then again, a few seconds have already past as I type these words.

Anyway, a few days ago we visited a professional bakery equipment dealer we had visited a couple of months before. We wanted to order our ovens, but we found out that before we order ovens, we must find out if we have a 400 volt outlet where we want to put them.

Also, we wnated to find some sort of a solution for our (my) biggest problem, breaking chocolate blocks into samll enough pieces suitable for cookies. The people had a couple of suggestions, which we will try. You see, we have already selected chocolates from a very well known supplier. This company offers wonderful organic (bio) chocolates, and with great service. The only thing is they sell chocolates in 2.5 kg blocks, which must be broken into pieces before being used in the cookies. Have you ever tried to break up a 4 cm thick piece of chocolate? It's not so easy. I talked with their General Manager to see if they would make our chocolates thinner. He said they would, for orders of minimum 1 ton. At this point, that's a little too much for us. However if we don't find an easier solution , I have designed a tool for this, which we will be discussing with a Werkzeugbau specialist (a toolmaker, a German toolmaker at that) right after the holidays.

So far, for our test batches, I have been breaking chocolates using a simple hand tool originally designed for chopping onions. It does a great job, and every few minutes I can break about 50 grams into small pieces. But, a block of chocolate is 2500 grams, which means 50 grams x 50 chop operations of about 2 minutes each. Oouu my wrist.

By the way, CookieCabana.com is now transferred to us and is connected. A few hours ago we accepted the transfer as complete and authorized escrow.com to pay the seller.

Happy Holidays... and ho ho ho (as Santa says in old movies).