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So did I. Here's how I've done it (so far.)
![[image loading]](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0359/3361/t/18/assets/home-hero-product-image.png?502875136625392146)
In spoilers are my links, for those who are interested after the story.
+ Show Spoiler +
It started with a simple idea.
I've always loved writing. It's been a hobby my entire life, and I've been able to do a bunch of work through different jobs and careers that fulfil that desire. There's something about putting a pen to paper that sparks something creative in me. It always will.
I've also been lucky enough to travel. The downside to travelling, for me, was finding a decent notebook that would last the trip. When I'm focused I write quite a bit. I tore through a half dozen of them as I was abroad, and it sparked an idea in my head that I should find a better way.
I started doing what most "web-entrepreneurs" do.
I sourced some cheap stuff from China. A lot of it, actually. My apartment is covered in prototypes. Half-baked ideas, questionable quality materials, and poorly translated sample pages. My favourite is a notebook with calendered pages for the years 2017-2020. Ready to go when you are.
It hit me one day when I took my "golden" prototype home. It was the one I was going to move forward with. It fit all the criteria: it was inexpensive, full-sized, and it looked pretty good. I could drop-ship them online and I could peddle a few a month. Get a bit of cash on the side.
Then I realized I was too embarrassed to show it to my family.
Don't get me wrong -- they were decent notebooks. But what is the point in doing something if you are going to half-ass it?
I met my business partner and we decided to do it ourselves.
We went to the local leather supplier, bought a hide, and cut it up. We fucked it up so bad we bought another. And eventually, we got pretty good at it. So good that people started to notice my new notebook at work. People wanted 'em. So we went to crowdfunding.
We set a modest goal for production.
Enough to cover our costs and invest in materials and inventory for the next few months. We calculated all sorts of things -- pricing, packages, stretch goals, refill rates, and shipping (oh god canadian shipping don't even). Some of my spreadsheets are almost embarrassingly over-the-top. But there's a lot of crazy costs that crop up.
And we hit our goal in six days.
Our campaign's running a month. It's been an unbelievable ride so far. We're just two guys with an idea and some drive. We aren't changing the world by any means, but it's been a blast. We've been riding a roller coaster on indiegogo. For two days we were at the top of design, riding a great wave. But, as campaigns often do, we flatlined after a few days and we're coasting now. We're not exactly raking in the cash, but it's great to have such a dedicated initial support group.
So now I've got more time to worry.
Supply chain. Marketing. Packaging. Taxes (fuck). Orders.
But it's been a great experience. It's been a ton of fun. Why did I make this blog post? I'm not here to ONLY hype my fledgling company. That's only part of it. But more importantly, if anyone has ever wanted to try this out -- do it. I can't explain how much fun it's been. To build something of my own, with nothing but my own two hands. It's been an awesome ride so far.
And there's never been a better time. With crowdfunding tools like kickstarter, indiegogo, and gofundme, you can take the biggest risks away from starting your idea. And with social media and the like, it's easier than ever before to reach out and connect to a new audience. There are tons of great platforms for selling, after, as well.
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congrats on your startup
i dont mean to be discouraging but theres something i think i should say regarding business
i work in management for a medium-large business and if i were to give you a piece of advice its, dont get too involved in the small stuff (the operations side) of the business.
what i mean by that is you cant be designing and producing your products forever.
obviously in a startup it is necessary for you to be involved, but as the company grows you need to learn to let go of that stuff eventually and look at the bigger picture and focus on management (if running and growing a successful company is what you eventually want).
unfortunately the sad truth about a lot of entrepreneurs is that they startup a company because its their passion and they love doing it, but eventually you reach a fork in the road where you have to choose between the activity you love or managing the company. one brings you happiness out of pursuing your passion but brings limited growth to the company, whereas the other brings much higher potential growth in exchange for you doing something you probably had no interest in (business management).
very rarely are people able to do both; it takes serious skill, determination, commitment etc to be able to do both.
a classic example of this is the chef and the restaurant. most really skilled chefs are not able to open more than 1 restaurant because most of them still want to cook, which is fine, but in their case running 1 restaurant doesnt exactly scream financial stability and luxurious lifestyle for the family.
its still early for your idea so enjoy it while it lasts but depending on what you want in life later you may need to prepare yourself for these choices
again, i dont mean to discourage you from what seems like an exciting new chapter in your life. i think its just better if you know what youre doing could potentially lead to, from my experience and observations at least.
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I absolutely agree. My approach has always been to have something interesting as a side income, and that's what this project is going to always be. It's never going to replace my 9-5, but that's okay. It's been fun so far.
Thanks for the advice and kind words
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I like your idea! It also looks great. If I ever need anything like this, I'll know where to aim.
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some points that popped up when I'm watching:
I like how you can change the papers, because I'd imagine one would like to recycle the leather cover, and this is the point I'd like to comment / discuss on the most, because I think it will make or break the thing.
I dislike the screw/nut approach, at least the first few pages would have a very rough contact and would tear. Might you add a metal strip binding on top of the papers, which acts as a shield between the screw and the nuts? This might be bad, see below.
What about punching the holes in the paper, that seems to be a hassel. Ideally there should be no tools, straight up A4 paper out of a printer paper stack, and goes directly into the notebook. In the current stage you have to punch holes.
How might you do that w/o holes? A clamp? I'm not sure, binding seems to be the bane of notebook. A thick bind with screws like the one you have yourself is sturdy but makes the page difficult to turn (not smooth at all) because it makes this huge "wedge" shape pinched at the end that cannot be opened fully.
Compare that with a bind of a book, a real book, which opens fully because the binding is done with some glues, thus it does not form an un-openable "wedge" near the end, making it easy to open flat. So ideally your notebook will be supple and able to open almost perfectly flat all the way.
Something like this ringed design has the property that each page can open completely flat...
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/opened-notebook-paper-21739215.jpg
except it looks ugly as hell and also requires punching holes, not to mention if the rings gets deformed it'll suck...
Something that's robust might be the 3-ringed binder:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61swfPDkDlL._SX522_.jpg
I mean honestly it's a pretty fucking sick design, but I'm not sure how well it'll go with your minimalism/leather/classy look. Also, require punching holes.
Overall I'd like to see all 3 things addressed:
1) Suppleness, able to open fully for an even/flat writing surface
2) Ease of replacing papers, no holes ideally
3) Sturdiness and Simplicity (kind of related, simple things tend to be stronger)
Hope this is useful. You might have to come up with some really good designs to really address all 3 points, they're almost mutually exclusive. If you hit all 3 this will be the notebook of dreams of dreams, no more need to buy extra notebooks, simply refill papers and it works so damn well all the time.
Best of lucks!
--evan
edit:
I'm sure you've thought about these points a lot... it might be actually really hard huh.
the binding on a book is done by folding papers in half and threading through the middle, along with some glue
and it does it many times, and aggregate those together. You definitely won't have that luxury with plain A4 papers w/o any proccessing,
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Pretty inspiring story, actually! Good luck for the future!
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Thanks for the replies guys.
Evan, everything you said is accurate. Finding a binding that is functional and stylish is tough. I am looking at different options for different future models. It's all about a balance and it definitely will not please everybody. Thanks a ton for your suggestions and ideas, we're definitely going to explore every option we can.
And yeah, more than anything I just encourage people to explore their crazy ideas.
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Really cool idea (they made books out of sheep hide when paper wasn't common) . I have a leatherlike cover myself in A5 format for note blocks. I suggest you start out locally with the distribution, want to target office/student hipsters  . Should be less work and less prone to errors than going global from the get-go.
It's definitely more durable and noble than paper and gives your blocks the retro appearance.
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Congratz, very neat idea and well executed. I'd think to order one if I wouldn't be a vegetarian, using leather kills(!) it for me.
I hope you discover new, animal friendly materials next time 
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+ Show Spoiler [@above] +Congratz, very neat idea and well executed. I'd think to order one if I wouldn't be a carnivore, using paper kills(!) it for me. I hope you discover new, plant friendly materials next time
Actually not even sure I can say that since the origins of vellum is like calfskin writing paper but I'm pretty sure in this case it's referring to some sort of plant-based material haha.
PS: I was impressed with the quality of writing in your sales pitch on indiegogo considering you are a small 2-man team etc. Very well written.
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Will these ship early December? I'm planning to get one for my friend on Christmas (Christmas exchange is on the 18th for us). I would like to get support your endeavors and get my friend a Christmas present (kill 2 birds with one stone). Any idea when will it ship in December?
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Vellum used to be calfskin way back when, but now it is used to describe the process. Don't worry, there is no calf in these! (But the leather is certainly real if that bothers you)
Forgotten frog, for any of the early big backers (still have some left), I am making sure to ship orders before dec 3. That means any Canadian or American orders should arrive at the latest a week after.
Ideally I would like to ship in November. If you have particular needs you can respond to our follow up email and we'd be happy to accommodate.
we actually just made our first large leather purchase for the first run.
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also kind of cool: I'm giving my friend one to take to ESL this weekend. I'm hoping she can get a bunch of cool signatures and stuff and I could do some sort of reddit / tl promotion for it, but we'll see.
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Pretty cool. I'd been looking into something similar, only for a pocket journal. Something I could carry around everywhere easily that had some character and higher quality than just a field notes. Legit was going to get some leather and make my own lol. Still might end up doing that at some point for fun.
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Bought your featured deal for $55 +$12 shipping. Going to be a wonderful Christmas present. Will you guys make small notepads with the same material?
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On October 04 2015 04:31 Forgottenfrog wrote:
Bought your featured deal for $55 +$12 shipping. Going to be a wonderful Christmas present. Will you guys make small notepads with the same material?
Thanks a ton! PM me your order email and I'll be sure to include some extra liquiddota love.
We've got lots of ideas for future products. We're gunna focus on killing it with this one first, and then re assess what we want from new models.
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A little update-aroo: Indiegog is a strange beast. Someone flipped a switch this morning and we've rocketed up to 250% of our funding goal with two weeks left. There's a blogs worth of writing to be done on the subject, but I'll save that for another day.
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EPT
