Early Spring

We're having an early spring here in Flagstaff. And with it we're surging ahead with strong sales.

It's been awhile since I last posted and we've got quite a bit of news to report. First off, Jeff Hankens has joined the Wandertec team. Jeff was a great find for Wandertec, already having experience with bicycle trailers, previously working for Bikes-At-Work in Iowa, manufacturers of industrial-duty trailers. Jeff brings a wealth of cycling experience as well as a solid repertoire of web designing skills.

With Jeff on board, we've been able to manage sales and moving ahead with other projects. We've reformatted the Bike Trailer Blog, moving it to a WordPress installation and updating the look and function of it. We are now currently working on updating both the Wandertec and Bike Trailer Shop websites.

We've begun adding Bike Child Trailers to the mix at the Bike Trailer Shop. And will be adding in more panniers and racks thoughout the spring and summer.

The Burley Nomad has been our top selling bike cargo trailer throughout the spring with the BOB Trailers close behind.

The Wandertec website will feature the full range of Wandertec Products as well as Carry Freedom Trailers and possibly Extrawheel Trailers.

Help Wanted

EDIT: This position has been filled. Thanks for your interest.

I'm getting settled into the new shop nicely. The sign-cutting, CELLO-carving CNC machine, the shopbot, has been relocated to the new shop. I've been putting up some large pallet racks and I'm now shopping for shelves, bins, and racks for getting all the inventory arranged.

With the new shop space settling in, I'm now ready to try to bring on board an employee to help with the BikeTrailerShop.com. I am looking for someone to help grow the business. Specific duties will include shipping, customer service, accounting & internet product listing. I am looking for someone with a strong knowledge & passion for cycling. Business and computer experience are preferred.

If there's anyone out there interested in relocating to Flagstaff and joining the Wandertec team, email me your resume to josh@wandertec.com

New Shop!

The shop expansion at Wandertec, Inc. has just been completed. The best part was when they fired up the furnace. I will be getting everything organized in the next few weeks including moving over the CNC machine, setting up inventory shelving, and moving over the sewing equipment. Once that is wrapped up, I will start looking for a Sales Manager.

In other news at Wandertec, Inc. we are starting the process of distributing Carry Freedom Trailers in the US. We are planning on getting several pallets of the Y-Frame Large and Small trailers shipped over, likely arriving in April. Our plan is to sell the trailers through the BikeTrailerShop.com and offer them through other specialty retailers. The Carry Freedom City is still available through another distributor. We will plan on offering this trailer to retailers once these run low in availability as well.

It's been a great year of growth at Wandertec,Inc. and we are looking forward to another exciting year ahead. Thanks to all of our customers, business partners and friends. Happy Christmas, Holidays and New Year!

New Shop on the Verge...

This week at Wandertec:
1: Dug out from 2ft of snow.
2: Watched as the workshop is getting achingly close to completion.

The shops is in a bit of chaos now as the buildings are being joined together. Once completed, I'll be moving the ShopBot and sewing machines all into the same building. The back of the shop will be for manufacturing and the front will be for the office, inventory storage and sewing. Once its complete I'll be throwing up some pictures. Once were setup and running, I'll post a few more.

At the moment, I've got my operation spread out between the shop, my house, the shed, and a garage across town. But once the shop is complete, it will all come together into one space. Getting the real heating system will be greatly appreciated rather than running propane and electric heaters. Everything will be set to start looking for an employee.

Sales of Bike Cargo Trailers continue on at a decent pace despite the wintry season upon us. I think that the Christmas season is keeping things moving forward at the moment. Once the New Year hits, we can only hope that people start looking forward to the spring ahead.

Progress with the Wandertec mLite continues. We've come up with a source in China for the CR2 battery. We will be receiving in our first large order in the coming months and begin introducing them to a variety of bicycle trailer and recumbent suppliers.

Floats Away

This week:
1. Sold some Demo CELLOS.
2. Worked on some ideas for updating the CELLO design for its next incarnation, hopefully sometime next year.
3. Picked up some pallet shelves for stacking bike cargo trailers on.
4. Wished I could have done more but time sometimes floats away.

Google Top 10 in the Top 3

This week at Wandertec:
1. Started the final cap-off to the BikeTrailerShop.com marketing campaign:
My buddy Ben, my web-marketing guru, and I were discussing the success of the marketing campaign for BikeTrailerShop.com. We concluded that things were looking very good. The key components of the campaign are high results in Google Searches, a well constructed Google AdWords campaign, and a smattering of low-cost advertisements in key bike touring and commuting magazines and forums. To cap-off the marketing a little fine tuning to the Google Searches needs to be performed. I will be determining what the top 10 Google keyword searches that lead people to the BikeTrailerShop.com are such as bike trailer, bike cargo trailer and BOB Trailer. I will then begin a campaign to bring all of my Google searches for these terms into the top 3 of their listings. Ben has suggested quite a few clever tips for making this happen. He suggested registering with Yahoo directories focusing the listing on the important key-words and convincing bloggers to write posts about the BikeTrailerShop.com that include contextual keyword links.

2. Ordered a new size and style of the Wandertec Cargo Net:
We are switching the Wandertec Cargo Net over to a larger net that should give a little better capacity for items stowed underneath it. I ordered up 200 of this larger size. Unfortunately the company sent me only 50 of them in the correct size and about 150 more in a size that was twice as large, way to big for a bike cargo trailer.

3. Waited for my webhosting company to fix the problems with their servers:
Tuesday and Wednesday were a couple of very irritating days as I waited for wandertec.com, biketrailershop.com and the biketrailerblog.com all to come back online. I've got a low priced webhost and this has put even more fire under my butt to switch the website over to the web hosting company Zoovy or something like it.

4. Stayed warm running my shop heater burning propane:
The new shop complete with natural gas furnace is achingly close to being completed. In the meanwhile its getting quite cold up here in the mountains of Northern Arizona and I'm burning the propane heater to stay warm.

BikeCastle

This week at Wandertec:
1. Started sewing the new Wandertec Woven Labels on the CELLO, SAX and Cargo Net.
2. Ordered some Down Low Glow lights from Rock the Bike to sell with the Xtracycle and to figure out how to mount to our other bike trailers. I bought a double tube blue system to use on my tandem and Xtracycle.
3. Saw work resume on the shop and they told me their expected completion date in 12/03-wooHoo!
4. Continued brainstorming the design of the Wandertec SanToor bike.
5. Picked up the new Wandertec work vehicle, a 1986 Toyota Pickup. Its in dire need of TLC with no rear view mirror or turn signals and some serious shakes when putting it in gear. But hey it was free and it's perfect for hauling loads to big for the Xtracycle/Carry Freedom setup around town. Many thanks Tom and Cynthia.
6. Launched a few holiday specials at the BikeTrailerShop.com.

Demo CELLOS

This Week at Wandertec:
1. Watched the shop not being built(progress is to resume soon)
2. Sold my Honda Element (CELLOmobile)
3. Came up with a name for my new bicycle design, the Wandertec SanToor.
4. Did away with the Wandertec Purchase page and pointed all sales to BikeTrailerShop.com.
5. Listed Demo CELLOS for sale at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
6. Was introduced to a great website that makes it easy to discover other great websites called StumbleUpon.com.

Xtrarecycling

This past few weeks at Wandertec:
1. Watched my shop being built
2. Attended Interbike
3. Picked up some Wandertec woven labels
4. Rode in the Tour de Fat parade.
5. Unsuccessfully attempted to fight a bicycle traffic ticket

The expansion of the Wandertec shop is starting pick up some steam. The framing and roof are complete. Now the utilities are going in and the painters have just showed up. It's looking great and I'm hoping it will complete perhaps in a month or less.

It was a quick trip to Interbike this year. I spent some time handing out the Wandertec mLite. I was able to get it displayed on BOB Trailers as well as several other bikes and trailers around the show. I was busy gathering information about a variety or bike pannier companies in preparation for expanding into bike rack and pannier sales.

Yesterday, I went to traffic court to try to get out of a traffic ticket for running a red light. The light was turning from yellow to red as I rode through. I didn't really dispute the charge but was hoping to get a different penalty than is applied to motor vehicles. Unfortunately, the law in AZ gives you the same punishment on a bike as if you were in a motor vehicle. Here are a few thoughts on the matter that I put together before going into court:

I strongly agree that bicyclists need to obey traffic laws, however violations of traffic laws should be punished in a manner that takes into consideration the very different nature of bicycle travel vs. motor vehicle travel. Motor vehicles are inherently much more dangerous to others. A bicyclist violating traffic laws is extremely less likely to injure or kill someone else when compared to a motor vehicle doing the same traffic violation. Given this factor, punishments and fines for bicycle traffic violations should be adjusted to fit their relative impact. Punishments and fines for bicycle traffic violations should not be combined in with the fines of the exponentially more dangerous motorized vehicles.

Additionally, the use of motor vehicles also creates pollution and congestion. The use of bicycles poses less risk to others, does not cause pollution and causes comparably far less congestion. The many benefits to our society of using bicycles instead of motor vehicles deserve some consideration in determining how traffic violations are punished.

On a practical level, riding a bicycle is a very different experience than driving a motor vehicle. When riding a bicycle there is a much greater sense of vulnerability. There is also a much greater sense of awareness of surrounding traffic because you have a completely unobstructed view and are in standing position where it is much easier to swivel around in any direction. While traffic laws are very appropriate for motor vehicles, they do not currently take into consideration the very different nature of riding a bicycle. Bicyclists should be supported with laws adjusted to the different nature of the vehicle. Perhaps, bicyclists should be required to get licensed, registered and insured in a manner that is appropriate for bicycle use. This would lead to safer, more knowledgeable, better equipped, and better supported bicyclists.

Breaking Ground

This week at Wandertec:
1. Watched the new shop construction begin.
2. Shopped for a multi website platform.
3. Listed Ortlieb Pannier Accessories on the Bike Trailer Shop.

After months of making arrangements and waiting around, the Wandertec shop expansion is finally underway. I'm hoping to have it closed in and the heating system operational before the snows begin to swirl.

Sales have begin dropping off as expected this time of year as Fall and Winter approach. Now that I'm not packing boxes and answer calls and emails all day there will be some time to forge ahead on some new projects. I began looking into a variety of shopping cart systems. For the BikeTrailerShop.com I've been using the free Oscommerce. This has worked well for getting started in Ecommerce however as I look to ad other niche bicycling sites, its capabilities are becoming somewhat limiting.

My interest is to find a shopping cart system that supports multiple websites and that is well integrated into my accounting program, Quickbooks. I came across the website Zoovy and spoke to their sales department. It appears to be a very well rounded system that supports everything that I'm interested in. They charge around $3500 to get you setup and then 1.5-2% of your sales.

So far I've read some mixed reviews on them but apparently they've recently had some major revamping which may have lead to improvements. Before diving in, I will be looking for some more opinions from tech based web review sites and really grilling them on what shopping cart features they offer and how they support it.

CELLOing to EuroBike

This Past Few Weeks at Wandertec:
1. Added loads of info and options into the Bike Cargo Trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
2. Purchased a Toyota Corolla for the business.
3. Sent Joe and John of VooDoo Cycles off with some demo CELLOs on their trip to EuroBike.
4. Ordered a bunch of 20" tires and tubes to expand my offerings of Bike Trailer tires and tubes.

I've been expecting orders to slow down at the BikeTrailerShop.com with the end of summer approaching so I could get to work on some other projects. Rather than that the last few weeks have been busy as ever. I definitely can't complain though. Sales are a good thing. I just might have hired someone sooner if I had knows things would continue on at this pace. I know it has got to slow down a bit more in Sept. & Oct. though.

I took the new Corolla up to Zion canyon for Labor Day Weekend. I was amazed when I first checked the mileage and calculated it at 45 mpg. I've been working on keeping the speed below 70 and slowing my accelerations to improve my mileage. With my Corolla on the highway and bikes and bike cargo trailers around town I'm definitely getting better gas mileage then I would with just using a hybrid. I'm still a fan of the Plug-In-Hybrid concept however and plan on jumping into one as soon as they are available.

Wandertec SAX - BOB Cargo Liner

This week at Wandertec:
1. Designed & listed a new adapter that makes Ortlieb rear panniers fit much better when used together with a BOB Trailer.
2. Listed the Wandertec SAX on the BikeTrailerShop.com.
3. Worked on sourcing Wandertec woven labels for branding the SAX.
4. Ordered a sizable load of trailers including 10 Carry Freedom Large Y-Frames to stay stocked up for a good while.
5. Discussed a bike cargo trailer design project with a student from the Art Institute of Colorado.

The new Wandertec products are starting to come to fruition. With the SAX now available I'm ready to start taking some nice photos and getting these products visible on the Wandertec website.

Once I get the new products visible on the Wandertec website, I will conduct a (soft) sales launch of the Wandertec mLite by introducing it to online bicycle trailer retailers, Greenspeed retailers and other shops. I've currently got approximately 100 Wandertec mLites and my goal is to determine the level of interest from these dealers before putting in a large order of 500-1000 mLites.

The next step following the larger order of 500-1000 mLites will be the marketing launch which will include press releases and contacts as well as blog/messageboard postings and new Google Ads.

I was brainstorming ideas for new Bicycle Cargo Trailers with a student from the Art Institute of Colorado. The student is taking part in a group project in which they are designing a trailer as part of a final project for there industrial design degree.

My suggestion was to focus on a bike cargo trailer designed for bike commuting. My feeling is that the market is well served in the area of utility style trailer such as the Carry Freedom Y-Frame and the Burley Flatbed as well as for performance touring trailer such as BOB Trailers, the Burley Nomad and Extrawheel. However, there seems to be a void in the area of bike trailers designed for bike commuting. The Carry Freedom City offers a very interesting solution for many commuters. By having the trailer fold up very compactly, this is a great way to stow the trailer while at work. However, there could be interest in a trailer that locked up to the bike and was also lockable. The now defunct BOB Coz had some of these features. It may be a good starting point for such a design.

I've posted a survey given to me by the student from the Art Institute of CO. They are looking for some good feedback on uses of bike cargo trailers if you care to participate.

Business Platforms

This week at Wandertec:
1. Finalized the design of the Wandertec Sax
2. Got interviewed by a journalist for the Chicago Tribune for a possible story about Bike Cargo Trailers and their use in Chicago.
3. Worked on designing some packaging using Adobe Illustrator for the Wandertec mLite.
4. Listed some the Ultimate5 Plus Handelbar Bags at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
5. Got in 10 Xtracycles after being out of stock for the last few months.

Life is good at Wandertec these days. Sales have been strong at the BikeTrailerShop all spring and summer. The shop expansion should be underway soon. I've been enjoying developing several new products.

However, as an anxious entrepreneur, I'm constantly bitten by the bug to do more. Its good to be where I'm at, having climbed the first hurdle of establishing a profitable business, but the dreams around the corner keep me blazing ahead. Getting to the next level means having a large fully functioning shop and hiring an employee to help with the daily tasks of keeping things running.

I'm very excited about starting to work on expanding the BikeTrailerShop platform into including other websites. The plan is to launch another site focused on selling racks and panniers. I will carry a very complete selection of brands and models of rack and panniers along with other bicycling bags. Really focusing in-depth on the niche of Bike Cargo Trailers has really gone over well with customers. It has also worked well with one of our main advertising mediums, Search Engine Rankings. I'm looking forward to a similar success with Panniers and Racks.

Taking this business model one step further, I would like to continue to launch other niche specific stores within the bicycling industry. This is a growing trend throughout the Internet. I feel it is a great way to serve the bicycling public. I also feel that it is a service that is complimentary to local bike shops. While local bike shops offer a large variety of bicycling necessities, specialty web stores can offer those hard to find items that it doesn't really make sense for local shops to stock.

Using the Trailer

This week at Wandertec:

1. Finished the Wandertec SAX (BOB liner) design and began testing.
2. Began assembly of the 1st batch of Wandertec mLites.
3. Fitted lights on my Carry Freedom Y-Frame Trailer.
4. Started using my Carry Freedom Y-Frame and Xtracycle to transport a large load of work equipment across town instead of using my Honda Element.
5. Signed off on the plans for the shop expansion.

I decided to start up with using my Carry Freedom to try to avoid one of my trips across town. I bought the Honda Element a few years ago so I'd have a car that got relatively good gas mileage (26mpg) and that could still be used to haul some stuff. But lately I've been hauling almost everything in town by bike.

This got me thinking about changing up my vehicles. I've decided to sell the Element soon and replace it with a Toyota Corolla. My girlfriend is going to sell her Mercury Sable station wagon and replace it with a used Toyota Pickup. The Toyota Pickup will be used for when our loads are just to big for bike trailers around town and the Corolla will be for road trippin. I've used the Element as the Wandertec trade show and event vehicle. But with only a few of these events to attend each year, I figured I'll be better off just renting a van when it was needed.

When considering the choices of fuel efficient cars to replace my overall all-purpose but not optimally fuel efficient Element, I first thought on the Prius. It seems that if I will mostly be using the new car on the highway for road trips. In these conditions the braking energy recapture benefits of the Prius are less applicable. I also considered a VW Golf diesel. My problem with this was I'd spend approximately $5000 more than the Corolla and only get 45mpg vs. 40 mpg. I've decided rather to put that $5000 into updating the heater in my house.

I put in all my data into an energy/carbon use calculator and discovered that the best use of my resources was to replace the 38 year old furnace in my house. This would reduce my energy use by 15% while using a 40 mpg car instead of a 26 mpg car only resulted in an 8% reduction in energy use.

For the long term, I'm very interested in using a Plug-In Hybrid. But saying as they are not yet available, the Toyota Corolla and some other energy saving technologies will have to do as my bridge to a more energy efficient day.

Monsoonal Rains

This week at Wandertec:

1.Pressed forward on the BOB Liner (Wandertec SAX) design.
2.Set up a new CELL Phone & Land Line for clearer phone time.
3.Cut a large batch of sign blanks for Signarama on the ShopBot.

The long awaited monsoonal rains came yesterday into Northern Arizona. With our on going drought like condition, this change in the weather is very much appreciated. I took a beautiful evening mountain bike ride. The trail was perfect for riding. I was cleaning all the sections that the powdery dust had previously rendered unrideable.

Transitioning back into prototype development has required me to slow down and refocus my brain parts. The day-to-day hustle pace of shipping and receiving does not translate well into design work. It requires a different cadence. I have to relax and allow myself to go back and forth between flurries of inspiration and spiraling meditations. When I find the right balance between time spent on visualizing an idea and physically putting it together, I can move forward at the best pace. To much visualizations leads to getting no where, and not enough leads to loads of frustrating attempts.

Progress has been made and a functioning prototype of the SAX now exists, the next step is to clean up the design and get it fitting nice and snug in the BOB Trailer. At this pace, I expect to have it available in the next few weeks.

Gone Fishing

How many Blogs begin something like "It's been awhile since I last posted"?

This Month at Wandertec:
1. Set up an ad in the new publication Practical Pedal.
2. Signed a contract for the Wandertec Shop Expansion.
3. Worked on the design for the long awaited BOB Liner.
4. Recieved confirmation that the Wandertec mLites have been completed and are being delivered.
5. Went on vacation up California's PCH and snapped a photo of a BOBBer near Muir Woods.

We were glad to jump on board with the new publication Practical Pedal. This magazine/blog/website is doing its part to support and grow our favorite niche, bicycles used as a means of transportation. We've been including a copy of the printed version in with all of our orders and handing them out around Flagstaff.

Plans are finally underway to launch our workshop expansion. The contract has been signed and we hope to have a much bigger facility running by the end of the year.

The Wandertec mLites have left Germany and should be available soon. With the new Wandertec SAX BOB Liner design almost complete, we are looking forward to introducting all of these new products with a website update and a new printed brochure soon.

Business Building

Its been another record breaking sales month at the BikeTrailerShop.com. My only question now is when do the sales slow down. My guess is that they'll remain strong through the summer and taper off in September.

I've been learning the hard way about getting a bigger shop building put up quickly. I found a contractor and have been waiting around for a bid for over two months now. Translated: the builder is keeping me on the back burner until they have a lull in their activities. It seems that the situation calls for shopping around my building expansion work to a few different bidders just so as to firm it up. At this point, I'm just looking to get closed in with it before the snow flies.

Last week I moved my office into my workshop. Before I had my office inside the house and would always be running back an fourth. This was a move I'd wished I'd made a long time ago with the efficiencies gained.

BOB Trailers 10% off-BikeTrailerShop.com-Ends 6/1

This Week at Wandertec:

1. Recieved a truck load of BOB Trailers for the BOB Trailer Sale at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
2. Updated my PayPal Shopping Cart.
3. Finished off the listings for the Carry Freedom & Croozer Trailers.
4. Manned a booth at the Bike-For-Work Week kickoff here in Flagstaff.

The BikeTrailerShop is jammed full of BOB trailers for the kickoff of our spring BOB Trailer sale. If things go well, I'll have some free space again soon.

I had a great time showing off bike cargo trailers, the CELLO, the Wandertec mLite and the Wandertec Cargo Net at the Bike Swap and Bizarre that kicks off our Bike To Work Week here in Flagstaff. Flagstaff Biking does a great job of putting on the event. It is great to see how many people are excited about using their bikes for commuting and transportation these days.

Xtra Carry Freedom

This Week at Wandertec:

1. Listed Carry Freedom Trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
2. Listed Croozer Trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
3. Stayed busy all week long.

As things start to really pick up with the business, I no longer have the relative luxury to work on the parts of the business that are truly intruiging to me. In starting a business, a large part of my motivation was in doing the tasks that seemed the most interesting. I would switch from task to task based on what caught my interest on any given day. Now that the business is in full swing, the daily demands of operations and growth no longer really allow this. My extra developmental time is now a much more rare comodity. Having grown the business to this point where the demand is at this level, it is now time to look for help to handle the operations of the business freeing myself up again in the area of development...

Extrawheel is Here

This week at Wandertec, Inc.:
1.Listed the Extrawheel at the BikeTrailerShop.com (1 sold the first day).
2.Worked out a deal to bring in a large stock of BOB Trailers.
3.Ordered Carry Freedom and Croozer trailers.

It was a fairly uneventful week of waiting for the weather to change back to spring. I stayed busy shipping out what seems to be the normal flow of about 1 trailer per day now.

Trying to get this shop built, I've been looking around for someone who wants the work. My step-Dad pointed me in the direction of a contractor who is a long time cyclist (even ran a bike shop in Williams for a while). He is savvy on green building techniques, and had some interesting recommendations on ambient heating and using insulated concrete forms (ics).

On the fun side of things, I just put together a cruiser tandem. My girlfriend and I took it on its maiden voyage this morning to Miz Zips for breakfast.

Ticking Over

Last week:
1:Redid the Template for my other blog BikeTrailerBlog.com.
2:Ran around like a headless chicken filling a steady stream of orders.
3:Got an account approved to start carrying Carry Freedom & Croozer trailers at the BikeTrailerShop.com.
4. Started advertising the BikeTrailerShop.com on CrazyGuyOnABike.com

The orders have really started to pour in in the last few weeks. The BikeTrailerShop.com is really starting to tick over at a steady rate lately. Now, I just need to get my workshop extension built. Once the full shop is up and running I should be in a good position to start looking around for a full time employee. Sometime this coming fall or winter things should be coming together for that. I'm looking forward to bringing on board someone who can help speed up the growth of the business.

I recently discovered that Chariot Carriers of Canada had both Croozer and Carry Freedom bike trailers available. I've been very keen on all of these trailers especially the Carry Freedom City which has been a big hit in the UK for the rapidly growing commuter crowd there. Look for these two new lines of trailers on the BikeTrailerShop.com in the coming weeks.

The Socks

This Week:
1. Got in the New BikeTrailerShop.com socks.
2. Layed out a cut pattern for the developing Wandertec BOB Trailer Liner.
3. Developed a new support brace for front-corner side panel on the CELLO bike case.

Our BikeTrailerShop.com socks arrived from SockGuy this week. I had my girlfriend modeling them for the listing on the website. I'm offering these as giveaways to our customers in return for their posting a review about the bike trailers they've purchased from the site.

I've been developing a fabric liner to fit the cargo area of the BOB Trailer. In preparing to bring this to production, I was working on getting the sizing just right. BOB Trailers lent their support by forwarding me a 3D Cad drawing of the BOB Yak. With this image I can create the cut pattern so that the liner follows the inside dimensions of the Trailer to a T.

Since beginning to sell the CELLO 2 years ago, we've had 2 come back with the warranty issue of the panel breaking at the front bottom corner where there is a connection between the BOB Fork, the side panel and the crossbar. The panel has been cracking along the cutout for the crossbar to insert. After these two warranties came back, I realized that this spot was exposed to greater impacts and was subject to greater exposure with its corner position. As a solution, I designed a corner brace. An extra piece of the extremely resilient plastic polycarbonate has been sandwiched over this spot and bolted in place to effectively triple the strength of the front corner area of the CELLO. Rigorous testing has shown this to be a very effective solution. This new corner brace will be included on all CELLOs.

Melanie Riding Big

This Week:
1. Worked on making the mLite available into the US in the next few months.
2. Capped off another record breaking month in BikeTrailer sales.
3. Tested out an Extra Wheel bike trailer while watching my little sister take some names.

Last weekend I was down in Phoenix to watch the opening round of the National Mountain Bike Championships. My sister, Melanie Meyers was riding for her newly formed team Kenda-Titus-XFusion in the Pro Field. This is a picture of her riding strong on the wheel of former world champion Alison Sydor. She had her best result yet in the Pro Field, breaking into the top 15 with a 13th place finish. She's had a great start to her season after recently earning the U-23 Bronze in the Pan American Champions in Argentina.

While at the race I took the Extra Wheel demo out for a ride. While it is not as easy to pack and unpack as most trailers, it is a great handling trailer for mountain biking. The large diameter of the wheel with the weight slung low on either side of it keep the trailer from bouncing.

mLite

This Week:
1.Shipped out our largest quantity of bike cargo trailers for one week (11).
2.Placed orders with all of largest suppliers BOB, Burley, Xtracycle & Ortlieb.
3.Got ahold of a new light by Weber of Germany.

It was a great week for sales. The first week of Spring ushered in great demand as people gear up for the riding season ahead.

On another front I was sent a sample of the M-Lite by Weber Products of Germany. This is a unique light designed to fit on flag poles. We are very excited about the design and can see it being used with bike cargo trailers, bike kid trailers, recumbants, and kids bikes with flags. We hope to have it available along with our other bike cargo trailer lighting systems this summer.

Socks

This Week:
1. Ordered socks for the BikeTrailerShop.com
2. Updated listings for Burley Trailers with photos of their new hitch design.
3. Discovered a bike case/bike trailer for coupler & folding bikes, the Turtle Tow by Bilenky Bikes.
4. Discovered a light that mounts on flags for Bike Trailers, Recumbents and any other devise with a safety flag.

I realized that in order to encourage customers to write product reviews, a small gift was needed. So, I've ordered up 20 dozen pairs of socks bearing the BikeTrailerShop.com name and logo.

I was looking at the S&S Coupler site and discovered a very intriguing trailer. The Turtle Tow trailer is designed similarly to the BOB. Rather than having an open cargo area, it utilizes a bike case designed to pack S&S coupler bikes in while traveling. The trailer structure is built around the case. When not being used as a trailer for gear, a coupler or folding bike can be packed inside of the case. The trailer can also be disassembled and packed into the case.

The system is very comparable to the CELLO bike case in that it works in both bike case and bike trailer mode. The main difference of course is that it will only work with coupler and folding bikes. The cases are available in 10" 12" and 14" wide versions. The 10" version is within airline restrictions of 62" width x length x height. The larger versions usually get on board without additional charges.

I also found a brilliant little light manufactured in Germany by Weber makers of the Monoporter trailer. This light is designed to fit onto a flag pole and is a perfect safety add on for both cargo and kid trailers as well as recumbents and other bikes with flags. A few samples are on the way to test out.

Shop Drawings

This Week:
1.Had a look at the drawings for the new workshop.
2.Started writing about 30 posts for the BikeTrailerBlog simultaneously.
3.Spent way to much time messing around in the world of Search Engine Optimization.

My buddy Pete showed up with the layout for the new workshop. It's looking nice. Now its time to haggle over the price a bit and submit the plans to the city.

I decided that Blogging about Bike Trailers is kind of like writing multiple chapters of a book. There is no need for a chronological publishing of the various posts. I decided to start writing all of my posts simultaneously. As I do research for one post, I find plenty of info for the other posts. I find myself wanting to jump around from post to post and publish each one whenever it happens to be completed.

I spent my time chasing my tail through the depths of the Internet this week trying to figure out how to climb up the search rankings in Google and Yahoo. Whenever I delve into the techno-geek realm, I sense that I am getting in way over my head. I'm usually tempted in by some blog that someone writes about how simple it is to improve your Google rankings with a few simple updates. But those updates always seem to take me down a long winding corridor of tough fixes and a multiplying array of options.

I'm not sure how much it helps to do things like improving the layout of my URL for Google's searching, creating a site map of all my products and submitting my sites and site maps to the search engines. But at the very least wrangling my way through these tasks does help improve my understanding of the techno world.

After spending three days on Search Engine Optimization, I decided to get back into improving the products that I make and the photos and listings of the products I sell. Though I'll get into the techno realm from time to time, my overall philosophy is to focus on the quality of my website over the quantity that the techno geeks achieve in getting their websites to appear all over the Internet. By working on the quality side of things, I'm focusing on a building a site that may not be the easiest to find but has the best information for those who do.

Brainstorms

This week:
1. Redesigned the little bracket part that makes a Greenspeed Trike's rear rack mount nicely onto a BOB Yak trailer.
2. Took photos of & posted a listing for a security cable lock setup for BOB Trailers, the above mentioned Greenspeed rack mount, and a 4D Toplight to mount onto the Greenspeed rack.
3. Brainstormed ideas for a top-secret(at least until I realize how many others have had the same idea) new travel bicycle concept.
4. Brainstormed a new idea for CELLO crossbar connection magicness.
5.Went over the top of my old monthly sales record from last July.
6.Went on an epic ride in Shredona with Joe Murray and a cohort of single-speeders to celebrate Kim's 40th.

It was a great week with strong sales to finish off the month of February. I sent a BOB Yak and CELLO to Hong Kong. My new customer there is an engineer and offered his assistance to look into manufacturing over there. While its good to keep manufacturing local its also good to go to the next level with larger scale production.

My brain was mushrooming with new ideas this week, distracting me from the more immediate stuff. On the forefront, I did come up with a solid concept for updating the CELLO. The current CELLO uses crossbars to hold the side panels together. This won't change, however I'm looking for a better (and easier to manufacture) solution for connecting the panels and the crossbars together. The current system of a cap that tensions through a hole in the panel into the crossbar works very well, however it's very time consuming to make. Now I'm working on a crossbar that will have tabs that engage the panel and be held in place by a tensioned piece of webbing. So if that isn't perfectly clear, you'll just have to wait until the new CELLO0 starts rolling out.

The week capped off with a beautiful, amazing ride in Sedona. It was my first mountain bike ride of the year and after flipping off my bike in the first 100 yds, I managed to pull it together to enjoy a truly epic ride.

Everybody Likes Customer Reviews

It was another week of pondering my way through the world of internet sales. In my quest to raise the profile of both by websites in Google, I sent out requests to professors with sustainable technology web pages. I recently learned that links from websites ending in .edu can be very valuable in search engines.

I got my Xtracycle up and running again after having lent it to my bike-less friend for the last few months. I used it to deliver a Burley Flatbed across town. It was the biggest box (39" x 32" x 10") that I'd strapped on top of the Xtracycle so far.

The BikeTrailerShop.com site is doing great but could do even better if we started getting more product reviews. As a website that is very focused on bike cargo trailers, I think we can really become a hub for information. And getting customer input will be a great addition to this. I posted an inquiry on the osCommerce Forums and got some interesting suggestions on how to encourage customer reviews. I will now be contacting customers a month after there purchases and asking them to post a review in exchange for a small gift.

I finally broke into planning the workshop extension underway. This is a vital step to get back into product development. I hope to push this through the spring and get back into developing the stand alone CELLO and a liner for the BOB trailer by summer. Here I am modeling with the CELLO in front of my small workshop which will soon be my big workshop.

Balance Between the Short & Long Term

It was a week of dealing with odd tasks and clearing my schedule for the looming shop construction project.

I shipped out 4 bike cargo trailers.
Figured out how to track the value of each sale that comes through Google Adwords.
Worked on my shop plans.
Worked on a custom sign project.
Managed my rental property

As I look towards the spring ahead, I'm pulled in multiple directions. As I'm expecting a great year for growth in sales, I would like to continue to work on adding new products for both Wandertec and the BikeTrailerShop.com. As part of this, I would also like to continue optimizing both websites. On the other hand, I also would like to be putting a good effort into getting the shop extension built. Having a spacious shop will be of great benefit as the business continues to grow. So, as always in business, the demand for immediate growth must be weighed against the demand for long term growth.

My general strategy for meeting both short and long term goals is to continuously be involved in projects that serve both purposes. As a matter of getting the most efficient work out of myself, I tend to bounce between tasks based on what excites me most at the moment. If I can keep my perspective on both long and short term, I will be excited about moving forward in both directions.

In keeping my business afloat, its been an ongoing necessity to bring in extra income when the opportunity presents itself. For quite some time, I spent my weekends delivering pizzas. Having moved on from that about a year ago, I've since been involved in two side jobs to earn additional income, both of which I was quite busy with this week.

The machine that is used to build the CELLO side-panels as well as other parts, the ShopBot, is also quite good at doing CNC designed sign projects. I've gotten to know the owner of our local Signarama shop and begun cutting out custom shaped sign blanks for them. There is plenty of opportunity for doing business with 3D signs and though this is not the main thrust of my business, I'm gradually learning the process as they ask for gradually more complicated projects. This week I was working on an Oak carved sign for a local jeweler.

My other income source is my rental property. I decided to hold onto my 5 bedroom house after recently moving to my new home/shop location. After paying the bills, the house rental still provides a decent amount of income. The arrangement I've made is to rent out rooms individually. This is helpful to me in earning a greater income from the house. But it requires more work especially when I'm looking for new roommates. It also is both an opportunity and a task in that it gives me more ability to look after what is going on with the house so as to upkeep the property. In an effort to make the rental run more efficiently last week, I switched out 30 bulbs in the rental, my house and my shop from regular to energy efficient fluorescent. Each bulb is supposed to save $45 over its five year life. That's a $1350 savings on my electric bill over the next five years.

The New BikeTrailerBlog.com

Projects started & finished this week:
Launched my new Blog, BikeTrailerBlog.com
Worked on our PayPal account: lower rates, earning a return, PayPal Shops listing.
Put Xtracycle Stuff on Sale
Listed new Ortlieb Panniers & the Pet Trailer, the Burley Tail Wagon

It was a busy week of fine tuning BikeTrailerShop.com for the rapidly approaching spring. With the sales from BikeTrailerShop.com keeping the business afloat, I've been focusing plenty of time on this division of the business.

The BikeTrailerBlog.com is underway as part of the marketing effort for BikeTrailerShop.com. Have a look at this Blog where I will be publishing content discussing every possible angle concerning bike cargo trailers. This Blog should also prove to be a useful marketing instrument for Wandertec as well as it will be an opportunity to showcase the CELLO and other Wandertec products in relation to other similar products on the market.

To keep the budget tight, I was doing some work on my PayPal account. Once reaching a minimum of $3000/month in transactions, PayPal charges 2.5% per transaction instead of 2.9%. As part of this effort I switched my Wandertec payment processing over to PayPal as well so all Wandertec sales will go into the same pool of transactions as the BikeTrailerShop.com. I also discovered that I could have my PayPal balance set up as a money market fund. Rather than just sitting latent, it will now be collecting 5% in interest for me. By switching over to PayPal's money market, I was also enrolled in the PayPal Shops directory keeping the path of spreading out onto the web underway.

With this week of tightening the belt, I decided to look into switching my checking to free checking. My current Banker, B of A, told me they'd waive my fee on my account after I threatened to close it. The only catch is I have to call back every year to get them to extend this waiver. They did it for my personal account. It makes me wonder why I was paying $18/month all this time on my two accounts.

Winter months seem to have more variations in sales volume than do the warmer parts of the year. To move some inventory at the BikeTrailerShop.com, I've been putting some items on sale. The Xtracycles haven't been doing well this winter so I launched a sale. I've also seen a dramatic drop in Ortlieb sales, so while adding more Ortlieb products to our inventory, I've also been putting many of these items on sale.

As spring approaches, I plan on adding more bike cargo trailers to the mix. From the US I'm hoping to start selling Kool Stop Trailers. There are quite a few trailers out of Europe that I will be looking at. These include the Koga Chela, the Extra Wheel, the Weber Monoporter and the Carry Freedom. Look for all these bike cargo trailers to begin appearing at the BikeTrailerShop.com between this coming March and April.

Becoming a Plug-In Partner

Signs of spring this week. We received orders for 4 trailers and a CELLO.

Other projects started and completed during the week:
1. I signed up Wandertec to become a Plug-In Partner, an association trying to convince automakers to manufacture plug-in hybrid vehicles.
2. I finalized an account with UPS where we will be receiving discounted business rates.
3. I placed multiple orders for our BikeTrailerShop inventory.

Plug-In Partners is a coalition of businesses, government, utility companies, non-profit organizations and private individuals joining together as a unified voice in an effort to demonstrate that a market exists for Plug-In Hybrids.

For those not yet familiar with the idea, a Plug-In Hybrid is a vehicle that utilizes the combined propulsion of electric and gas motors ,as found in the popular Toyota Prius, and adds larger capacity batteries that can be charged up overnight at home. The great advantage of a Plug-In Hybrid is that it can be run mainly from the electric grid for the majority of driving such as commuting to work. When the vehicle needs to be driven longer distances, it can still be fueled up with gas. A promising move in the right direction was at last weeks auto show with the introduction of the GM's concept car, the Chevy Volt.

Despite the promising momentum towards cleaner vehicle technology, the major auto makers are still dragging their feet on plans for developing a Plug-In. While the concept is being explored, there are no current plans to start production. Plug-In Partners is trying to raise the profile of this issue by creating a coalition of supporters who pledge to purchase Plug-In Hybrids once they are made available.

I was very pleased to find that a movement is being developed around bringing into existence a better vehicle for our economic, international, and environmental future. Along with Plug-In Partner's efforts to gain pledges of commitment to make purchases, I feel that it would be possible to encourage auto makers to build Plug-In Hybrids by setting up investment accounts for individuals to put down large financial investments that would be locked into purchasing a Plug-In Hybrid at the time that those vehicles were made available. I'm currently investigating if Mutual Funds would be capable of setting up this type of investment account. I then intend to inquire if the organizers of Plug-In Partners have considered this direction.

Setting up the BikeTrailerBlog

Another week of living the dream, doing business, making sales, & dreaming some more.

Here's our list of projects started and completed during the week:
1. The new workshop got insulated. Now I can stay warm for the rest of the winter.
2. I started looking for an improved FedEx account so I can have deliveries picked up here and hopefully at a better rate.
3. I began setting up another weekly Blog that will be focused on bike cargo trailers: news & reviews called the BikeTrailerBlog.com. This effort will be in part to help raise the profile of the BikeTrailerShop.com
4. Workshop expansion drawings were started in my CAD program.

On the somewhat downside of things, my part-time employee decided he wanted to focus in on his classes. So I am back to being a one-manned operation. Having worked with my first employee for about 4 months now, I've come to one main conclusion. The next time I hire an employee, it should be ready to offer a full time gig. Hiring employees on a part-time basis only works if there are plenty of very basic tasks available. At the moment, the work that is available takes some time and training. After investing in an employee's training, I would like to have them committed to the business just as I would be committed to offering them steady employment. Perhaps, I will be in the position to make this next step once the summer sales get underway.

The plan for the new BikeTrailerBlog was come up with by my web designer Ben Robinson - Rinzai Designs. He explained to me how blogs can be a powerful marketing tool in conjunction with an Ecommerce website. A blog can get very high in the Search Engine Rankings because it contains up to date and specific information. As it grows it will gain links as a reference point from other blogs and websites. The blog will conversely pass on these benefits to a sales website by being linked to it. The traffic from the blog will also pass directly onto the sales site through the numerous reference links to it.

The most successful blogs are generally those blogs that provide expert knowledge in a specific area. I realized that given my extensive work with selling and developing add-ons for bike cargo trailers, I had this knowledge. The blog is an opportunity for me to share, not just about the trailers and accessories that I offer, but also about all of the other bike cargo trailers available in various forms. I can do so in a way that instead of being sales oriented, shows other areas of interest such as in depth trailer comparisons, a variety of uses for trailers, tours trailers are being used on and much more.

Keeping the Warmth Inside

This week at Wandertec:
-I completed setting up the CELLO bike case's new streamlined accounting.
-Brian and I started putting insulation into our new location's workshop.
-I had a shipment of 10 Burley Cargo Trailers delivered to the wrong address.
-I came up with a promising design for a product I've been working on: a fabric liner/bag for the BOB trailer.

With the new accounting setup, we are ready to order more materials and restart the manufacturing process for the year ahead. Inventory levels are decent, and our new accounting will really improve our accuracy in forecasting and preparing to have just the right amount of products on hand to fulfill orders.

Our new location's workshop came without heat or insulation. When we complete the workshop's expansion, a furnace will be installed. For the time being, we are staying warm with a propane construction heater. All the heat is going straight through the buildings metal roof. So now we are in the process of sweeping out the rafters and stapling up some insulation.

This weeks biggest adventure was having a pallet of our pre-season order of Burley Cargo Trailers arrive across town at the wrong address. Both Burley and FedEx didn't want to accept the blame for the mishap so I begrudgingly drove across town and packed all of the trailers inside of my Honda Element. In the process I managed to dislodge my rear view mirror, which I ended up having to take to the dealer to have reinstalled. It was definitely one of those days.

I had a burst of inspiration in my work on a design of a liner for the BOB Trailer. This product is a fabric cover shaped to fit in the bottom of the BOB trailer. It is very useful for using the BOB for commuter and local use as you can simply toss items in the trailer. We are designing the product (Wandertec Sax) to work together nicely with the Wandertec Cargo Net. The Cargo Net works great to keep your items from bouncing out of the Sax. The new inspiration was to make the liner out of our heavy duty ballistic nylon used on the CELLO. I realized how to keep the design very simple yet very effective. A big part of this will be to use a bungee cord with a ball end to hold the liner along the rails of the BOB trailer. This devise will allow for a very smooth profile of the liner that will have a secure yet easy way to mount it in place.