Candles: Analysis, News, and Very Odd Questions

It's about half-past midnight, and it looks like I'll get to bed earlier than I have since the week started.

Analysis

I spent this evening working with my son-in-law, working out what it will take to get Spiral Light Candle through next year. Dropping data and formulas into about a thousand spreadsheet cells is detailed, nitpicking, fussy, work. But we've got a good planning tool to show for our efforts.

News

Seeing Spiral Light Candle's name in a newspaper wasn't all that unexpected. My guess is that doing a short article about new local or regional companies is routine for most papers: particularly when there's something colorful about the outfit.

A fairly steady stream of articles, often in newspapers or magazines that aren't all that close to North Dakota: that's not something I'd counted on. And, of course, it's good news for me.

The latest article is in a magazine back in North Dakota:

"RRV:Unique innovation keeps candles burning"
Prairie Business (published in Grand Forks, North Dakota) (December 1, 2011)

"Driving through Arkansas, Aaron and Sara McWilliams stopped at a winery and noticed wax taking shape around bottles. As the family continued their travels, Aaron McWilliams started to hypothesize about how to control the flow of wax to make the wax take any shape it would need to take...."

The Prairie Business article is a quick read: a little under 500 words long.

Back to how I spent this evening.

Very Odd Questions

My wife and I have been getting more involved in Spiral Light Candle, as the operation grew. I didn't expect to spend so much of a week on this analysis job: mostly because I had no notion of just how much I didn't know about candles and how they're made.

An example:

A few hours ago, my son-in-law and I were working on part of the spreadsheet that handled raw materials. The conversation had us saying things like:

"How many feet of wick in a pound?"

That sounded funnier, at the time. Maybe it's the hour. After midnight 'funny' has a higher threshold for me.

Asking how many feet of wick there are in a pound actually makes sense, by the way.

Obligatory Self-Promotion

Before wrapping this post up, I'd better mention Spiral Light Candle's website. (spirallightcandle.com). Also Spiral Light Candle Corp. Storefront, our presence on Amazon.com.

That's it, I'm done for the day. Or, rather, I'm done for Friday. I'll pick up Saturday's tasks in - about eight hours, probably.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Candles, a Spreadsheet, and Taking a Break"
  (December 2, 2011)
• "Spiral Light Candles in Hillsboro, North Dakota"
  (November 9, 2011)
• "Simple 'Secrets' for Affordable SEO"
  (May 18, 2010)
  • Simple? Yes
  • 'Secret?' No
• " 'Social Media Experts' and Other Hazards"
  (February 21, 2010)
• " Getting Attention"
  (June 20, 2007)

In the news:

• "RRV:Unique innovation keeps candles burning"
  Prairie Business (December 1, 2011)

Privacy: Dealing with Quaint Local Beliefs

It doesn't matter what I think and feel, it's what others think and feel that matters: at least when in comes to getting along with customers.

I was reminded of that fact of life in a bit of informed opinion, titled "Behavioral Marketing and Behaviorally Targeted Advertising" by Nikole Gipps. Gipps's post said that this technology might not be a good idea for small businesses.

And said it in the lead paragraph.

That got my attention, since I expect technically sophisticated folks to be gung-ho over new sorts of gadgetry.

Gipps gave several good reasons, including high cost, the need to advertise on a large site or a network of smaller sites, and possible "privacy" worries on the part of visitors.

The only reason that I don't really understand, at least on an experiential level, is the concern over "privacy." Which brings me back to why I'm posting this thing.

Despite having lived in metropolitan areas, I'm basically a small-town guy. I expect people I see, or who see me, to know who I am, and remember when I was there before, and again when I return.

When I go into a store, I'm not surprised when someone recognizes me. It's not a shock when someone with the store remembers that I bought a particular item, looked at another, and asked about a third last week.

And I'm not offended when that person brings some product or service to my attention, based on my previous behavior.

In fact, I like it. At one time it would be called "customer service," not "invasion of privacy."

Why some folks get worried about that sort of information gathering, I don't know. And it doesn't matter.

Contemporary English-speaking cultures place great importance on the sort of anonymity they call "privacy," and anyone operating in such cultures had better pay attention to that concern.

Getting Attention

The best blog, or business, in the world won't get very far if nobody knows about it.

I wouldn't go as far as the performer who said, 'I don't care what you say: just spell my name right!' On the other hand, publicity is important.

For anything on the Web, that involves links, search engines, and communities. For this blog, I've already put links on web sites and other blogs that I control, and mentioned it on online communities that I've joined. Today, I'm creating a Technorati Profile. Someone with a longer history in the blogosphere would have been Technoratified long ago, but I'm new to blogging, with much more to learn.

I don't know that "Technoratified" was a word until I used it in the previous paragraph. Language is a wonderful thing, with new words appearing, old words getting new meanings, and and some words dropping out of use.

But that's a topic for another post.