Monday, September 28, 2009

Wrap it up. I'll take it.

Great news... for the most part. I have received word that a woman I had been wanting to work with has agreed to consult with me for my tour. Wahoo!!! The only bummer is that I will have to keep her involvement "under wraps" which puts a damper on the plan I had to access her readership for word-of-mouth advertising and tour sales. I had also wanted to access one of the publications she works for to get some exposure.

Oh well. I'll do it on my own with her on-the-ground help in Paris.

Man! The more I think about it, this secrecy thing really stinks. I was hoping to use her involvement as "leverage" for getting advertising money and as a sales point for potemtial clients.

This is just more fuel for me to do this on my own. I am happy to have her help, but I don't need "outside" support to make my dream come true. This has always been my tangle with getting this tour off the ground in the first place.

Time to shift it into high gear and boost myself up as perfectly capable of pulling this off.

Yay me. ;-)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Baby steps. Must keep going.

It's hard to get a lot done when your 9-month old is learning to crawl and doesn't sleep a lot. It's 8:41 right now and I've been ready to go to bed for a half an hour.

That being said, I'm getting a lot done. My budget is coming together. My neighbor very generously has designed the look of my soon-to-be launched web site for free and she's going to do my business cards. How wonderful is that? (It looks great too! I'm thrilled)

Let's see, what else have I gotten done?

_________

I actually just leaned my head back to think about how to answer that question and fell asleep.

This is going to be hard. I will be an excited and excitable stress ball until I get home from the tour in March.

See, not only do I have to worry about getting everything up and running for the sale of the tour (and then of course the actual tour), I need to worry about how in the hell I am going to do it with my baby girl in tow. I already have my dear friend coming as my nanny and assistant, but I'm just really worried about the time I will be away from her when we are there. We spend so much time together now that I'm afraid it'll be scary for her. I know it will be for me. I trust my friend absolutely, but I will miss my girl so much when we are there. I just wish she could be with me the whole time and experience everything we will be doing. I'm not sure my guests will be down for that, huh?

Oh well, she'll become accustomed to all of this over the years. IT could be worse; spending time in Paris with your mom and dear family friend a few weeks out of the year, every year when you're growing up.

Oy! It's 8:50pm. Off to bed.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Keepin' it coming

OK! Got more done.

thefood-mindedtraveler.com is on it's way. Purchased the domain name today, set up the e-mail that comes with it.

My neighbor Sonja created a great looking design for me. A couple tweaks and it'll be great!

NOTE to self!!! Be sure to contact DailyCandy when I'm ready to go!!

That's all for now.

Monday, September 14, 2009

It's just me - Here We Go!!!

No fancy logos, no speedy web sites... not yet at least. I need to focus on getting this tour up and running then spend the money and time to get all the other stuff. I need to remember that I'm not building my empire just yet.

SO!! Make that budget, create those brochures (use the Sencere photo for now) and sell sell sell!!!

I need to have all of that done by October 1st!!!

October first, two weeks and two days from now, The Food-Minded Traveler is open for business.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Holy Crap!!

So I followed the advice of the guy at Kinkos and fished on Craigslist for logo designers...

OVER 100 RESPONSES!!! I am overwhelmed.

I have found a woman in Finland, of all places, who does some nice stuff, with the brother of a friend and former coworker, and a guy will do work in trade for bacon.

This is very encouraging. There are people out there that want to do business with me. Yeah, they're in the receiving end of money that I don't have yet, but they liked what ideas I had.


Nice.

__________

On another note, It's been days since I e-mailed the gal in Paris that I want to work with. I'm getting nervous that she has changed her mind. Bummer.

C'mon baby! C'mahhhn!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Getting 'er done!!

E-mailed Hélène re: des recettes
Posted Craigslist call for logo designers and responded to one person already.
E-mailed Wordpress about buying F-MT URL

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Weird. It doesn't look like that much when I list it like this. But I'll tell ya, it took a lot to get all that done!



I'm proud of myself.

Speaking of failing

If I am unable to secure Meg, I need to remember all of the other great places I found the have so many resources and lists of places to go, things to eat, etc. I can also contact them for suggestions and/or solicit their services. Who knows, maybe DL will be willing to help me. As I've learned in the past... it never hurts to ask.

I e-mailed Wordpress today asking about buying the F-MT URL.

Next, brochures... Get them designed and ready to print. BEFORE PRINTING finalize budget!!!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Failing Forward

Failures are not final.

Perspective. It's how you look at failure that will determine the outcome. If you look at failure as a bad thing going into whatever you are going to risk, you won't take the risk. If you look at failure as a learning experience, or as something that is natural and a part of life, than you you will take that risk, risking not only failure, but success.

It's going to be OK.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Working, working, working

Things are coming together, namely my attitude about this tour. I am not letting myself get overwhelmed with how grand my tour company will be, I'm just focusing on getting my rear end and a few paying guests to Paris the week of March 22 - 26, 2010. I'm not even worried if it doesn't work our with Meg. I would rather work with her and I think my tour would be greatly enriched by her input, but I know my way well enough, I know what's what wnough to make it fun, educational and most importantly memorable and worth the money that people will be spending.

So there.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

BUMMER!!!

They are selling the apartment I want!!! DARN!!!! Oh well, at least I know there are killer spaces to rent for not a lot of money. I have started a conversation with the gal in the rental office and will begin searching for the perfect apartment for my tour come November. That gives me 2 months to gather myself, money and clients. I'll just budget for a 3000 Euro place and have wiggle room when I find a cheaper place.

Until then, off to Babies R Us to buy a new car seat and baby gates... someone is on the MOVE!!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Jumping the Gun / Next steps

It appears that I am too early to book my apartment. I guess they start book spaces a few months out... but not quite yet. So, this will give me time to tinker with a budget and pull together a sponsorship proposal. Now that I have an idea that whatever apartment I book I can keep it to around 2500-3000 Euros per week and still get what I'm looking for.

Next step for budgeting:
- Get an idea of what the dégustations will cost: wine, cheese, chocolate.
- What it will cost, if anything, to speak to the boulanger when we go chez lui.
- Research equipment rental companies and get pricing.
- Pricing for PR firm

Essentially I have 6 months. I need to create a time line.

OK, off to work.