A lot of stuff was paid this week. The sales manager got paid. The liability insurance got paid. We paid the deposit for the next run of The Climbers. Warehouse and studio rents got paid. Next week, on to advertising and sales commissions.
We also submitted one application for a line of credit and began working on the 18-page application for the same from another bank. We are hoping to get enough financing to release Samsara and Star Hopper.
With that in mind, I have been going back through my notes and getting fresh production quotes for both games. I’ve also been looking over the rule books to see if I can make them any more clear and/or accurate. The book for Star Hopper is over 40 pages, so that will take a little time. It’s not that the rules for the game are that complex — they only take up the first 3 pages.
We confirmed that we are still slated to see The Climbers on the big catalog cover. It will be exciting to see how it affects sales starting in September. We notified all the accounts with back orders of the later release date for The Climbers. And we confirmed the last of the production details with the new factory this week.
We had to let one sales rep go this week. And it reminded me to put in a word here: We are looking to hire more sales reps! Sales experience is a plus, but not required. Travel is substantial but not necessarily frequent because much can be done by phone and Internet. If interested, and you live in the northeast, southeast, Rockies, California, or northwest of the U.S., send me an email with your background.
We also started to make arrangements to exhibit at Toy Preview in Dallas in October, and we hope to announce a booth number and the games we will be premiering very soon. We are gearing up for a very big fall selling season.
Mark Salzwedel
Tags: advertising, finance, production, sales, sales reps, Samsara, Star Hopper, strategic space, The Climbers, Toy Preview