The Dawn of a New Day J
So the day is finally here. My books have safely (for the most part) arrived and I have to say that I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Everything is in good working order, the print quality is top notch, and the sound quality of every book is beyond expectations. People are blown away at the product and I’m excited for what the future holds.
For this blog post I’m kind of going to treat it as a personal diary to document a little of my struggle to get started. I created this business about two and a half years ago now. I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life and despite running what is essentially my own business now with my Father’s company I still felt like there was more out there for me. Granted, I make an okay living doing what I’m doing but I really wanted to create something that was bigger than just your average home made business. Hence, the creation of Kidioke Media.
I want to be clear, my goal is to be huge. I want to expand this library and I won’t be pleased until every household with a child under six has at least one of my books on their shelves. I cannot wait to add new titles to this library. I try to make every story really impactful in every book I create. My goal is to have my wife cry after watching what I’ve made. If she doesn’t cry, then I know I’ve failed and it’s back to the drawing board.
When I first started I told myself that it would be best to take a risk and go all out and limit the mistakes so I went out and found one of the most expensive attorneys I could find. He charged a staggering 475 dollars per hour. After speaking with him and seeing his credentials I felt like I was in good hands. Boy was I wrong. He offered me a package deal to take care of all of the license clearances and I accepted. Turns out he farmed my work out to an outside source and was pawning this work off as his own. I eventually found out, discovered what he paid them to do the job he was supposed to be doing, and it made my stomach turn. I lost a minimum of one song, possibly two by his incompetence and pure laziness. Just goes to show you that nothing is guaranteed and there will always be bumps in the road. I’m glad I got past it and finally after countless nights in front of the computer, here we are.
I can’t tell you how relieved I am that my manufacturer pulled through and delivered such a high quality product. Trust me, I was not optimistic. I even had hiccups with the manufacturer at times.
My wife has been nothing short of amazing throughout this whole process. She gives me reassurances and tells me that this has to work. She never once gave me flack about betting the farm so to speak on a pipe dream. She has supported everything I’ve done and never once questioned the insane investment and precarious position I’ve put our family in. She believes in me and that’s pretty darn amazing so thank you honey.
I know that once these books get into people’s hands and a buzz is created, they will just take off. Can’t wait to get this thing moving along the way it could be – the way it SHOULD be. Today I went to my Father’s buddy’s office to up my insurance policy on the product and happened to have my product on me. He was blown away and called the rest of the office in to see MY GIRL. I sold six books to two people in about 5 minutes. The other people loved it but didn’t have little kids or little grandchildren but will be telling their friends. There’s no greater feeling then seeing that. And when I showed them the app and how it worked…fuhgettabout it. They thought it was awesome.
For those of you wondering why I’m not REALLY pursuing getting on shelves at toys r’ us etc it’s because they take too large of a cut and I can’t make a cent. Trust me I’d love to get this out to the masses but because of the high quality parts and music licensing fees I simply can’t swing it. Hopefully down the road when my shipment goes from 9000 books to 50000 or 100000 books I can get the price down enough to make it work.
Anyways, until next time. I will be updating my progress with blog posts monthly.
Wish me luck!!