The Topper Club

I don’t make the rules but you do need to be a dog 🐶 (In their defense, the ingredients are probably better than what I had for dinner)

A few more booth updates!

Every market, I notice at least one small thing that could be clearer, easier, or work a little better. When it gets quiet, I’ll step out of the booth, pretend I’m a customer, and walk by to see what catches my eye or what doesn’t.

None of these changes recently have felt particularly significant on their own, but over time, my sales have gone up, stayed there, then crept up again. I’m now consistently doing about 80% more in sales than I was four months ago.

I think one of my favorite parts of building a business is seeing what it turns into over time. I’m not very precious about keeping things the way I originally imagined them. I’d rather keep trying new things, paying attention to what works, and letting the business and brand take shape as I learn more.

Anyway, excited to be back at the market soon with fresh dog food toppers and continue tinkering with this business!

Another day of accidentally offering a sample to humans 😝

We got to chatting and this customer mentioned her dog eats a raw meat diet but haven’t tried cooked organs before. Dogs tend to love them so she decided to give our beef organ topper a try!

There’s something so satisfying when someone walks up knowing exactly what they want because they’ve had it before. Thank you for my returning customers who don’t need the spiel anymore 😝💓

Product-based business owners: how are we figuring out how much of everything to buy every week?

I started building my own spreadsheet because I wanted to track the specific information that mattered to me, and over time I built the tool around exactly how I work. Now I use it through almost every step of production.

If enough of us find this useful, I will try to make this more user friendly and share it!

Behind every small business reel is a husband who thinks it’s a 6/10. Just kidding he’s great.

For years, I kept a list of business ideas, but I was stuck in a cycle of “oh, this could be cool” and “maybe this won’t work.”A lot of businesses never make it past this ideation phase because we spend so much time evaluating the idea itself.

But an idea isn’t a business. A business is the ex*****on of that idea—and how you execute it depends a lot more on your strengths, experience, resources, and surroundings than the idea alone.

The same idea could be a great business for one person and a terrible one for someone else.

So instead of only asking, “Is this a good idea?” Ask, “Am I the right person to build this, and is this the kind of business I actually want to own?”

When I answered those questions logically and honestly, I stopped fixating on having a great idea. I had a much clearer picture of not only what I should build, but how I could realistically start. And that made all the difference. Everything can and will evolve after it starts.

Let me know what you think - do you think the person matters as much as the idea itself? What helped you choose your idea?