Solving the Shipping Problem

Yay!

It took a wee while but eventually our shipper, DHL, solved the case of the missing Nutshells.

If you follow here you will know we have a shipment posted early December that 'vanished' into the black hole of the global postal services.

Even though we now ship every product with a tracking code, over a dozen products mysteriously took time out someplace and went to ground.

Because it was the silly season (aka Christmas), the mails get over busy and trying to locate anything that does not want to be located becomes a bit like trying to find a needle in a haystack...or in a more biblical term, harder than threading a fat man through the eye of aforesaid needle.

However all has now been sorted; the errant products have made themselves known once again to the system and the blockage has been cleared. Our customers, who are so long suffering it is remarkable we have not yet been tarred and feathered and run of out of town on a rail are 'finally' getting their orders...more than a month after they were dispatched from us here in New Zealand.

If there are lessons to be learnt here it is that no one should ever voluntarily become the testing lab for a new service. It appears that the service we have chosen is a comparatively new one to New Zealand and, possibly because we have been in the business of global trading for so long, we unwittingly became the 'test platform'.

It is as yet unknown if we can get compensation from DHL; as a global shipper it is likely we are no more than a flyspeck on the lower corner of their windscreen. Apparently over the Christmas season DHL was shipping 50 tonnes of mail, every day, across the pond that is the Atlantic, from their central hub in Europe to the USPS postal service at JFK International airport in New York. And it seems that it is there the mystery mysteriously deepened.

As they (apparently) say...all's well that ends.

I surely do hope that is true.

XXX

One Rate for All

I would rather it were 'One Ring for All" but somehow I think Sir Peter (or a Hobbit) may take offense...if  they ever read this.

Over the years we have been trialed just about every delivery service to the rest of the world from New Zealand, with varying levels of satisfaction and success.

All have had inherent difficulties. Some were very expensive. Some took no care at all. Others garnered an international sticker on their way through the system that led some customers to believe we were actually making our products in Asia...and not in New Zealand.

Some took no responsibility for their actions; if they dropped the ball and, God forbid, lost a product, they became very defensive and almost accused US of mismanaging the process. Others were less accusatory...but extremely slow to settle their debt..

Meanwhile we, as the merchant, had to maintain our customers' faith in us, and delivery another product...at our own expense.

Hopefully..those days are now behind us.

DHL promise much..and we have every expectation they will deliver on their promises.

Finally - a service that allows us offer a traceable delivery at a realistic rate.

It's all about Focus, Focus and even more Focus.

There comes a time when years of personal endeavour starts to fail; the old creative juices don't actually dry up, but honestly they start to coagulate (which may be a bit like - they get lumpy), so you start to repeat yourself. That's not only dead boring, it is also a bit like reinventing the wheel. And in the game of commercial design reinventing the wheel is not always the best course of action to pursue.

So...how to get some reinvigoration? You can ask people what they think...that's a good place to start. So that is what we are doing. Right now.

We have engaged a professional survey person, a researcher, to help us do this. After all, what do we know about getting to grips with the things we do not know? At least we appreciate that we know there are things we do not know. That's a start.

So how do we actually run these things?  We start by finding people who are prepared to give us their time in return for some tangible reward. Then we assemble a representative collection  at all the things we currently offer and get the folk who have agreed to give us feedback - to give us feedback.

Of course I guess you could always wind up with a load of meaningless drivel, but the theory is that within any load of what initially looks like meaningless drivel there are nuggets of gold; it is just a question of actually knowing which is which; drivel? Or gold? That's where the mystery art of the researcher comes in...making sense of it all in a way that will eventually make sense to us.

To show how serious we are in finding out what folk want and expect from us, in the way of products that offer superior protection for their mobile comms devices, we have even invested real money. You have to show willing by rewarding folk who are prepared to come out in the cold, miserable and wet climates of a New Zealand winter to give you feedback about something of which they have very little knowledge.

And so it begins. Last night was round One. Tonight is Round Two.

Add to this an active online community of over 350 supportive customers who have indicated that they are willing to give us the benefit of feedback of their instincts and knowledge and you can begin to understand why I believe that maybe we are actually on the cusp of something very, very, very worthwhile. And (hopefully) rewarding. Of course these online participants will also benefit tangibly from their involvement in this effort by securing themselves whatever the next generation of product is, at a substantial discount. (Or even, perish the thought and wash my mouth out with soap and water - for free).

The theory is that by the end of it all we shall have very clear indications of what we need to do (if anything) to improve our products and make them irresistible to the casual passersby who spend a heck of a lot of time perusing the multitude of similar products that adorn the walls and sales racks of every mobile phone accessory store in every mall and walk in in every city throughout the world.

Of course you may very well comment that what we are doing is aiming for a very lofty goal.

But honestly, as someone recently told me "If you aim for the moon, you may miss...and hit the stars."

Now is the Time for All Good Folk...

The Nutshell story is possibly quite typical of many innovative businesses; starting small, pursuing the dream and somehow making it through the myriad pitfalls and landmines of being a developmental caterpillar to eventually emerge from its chrysalis as a fully formed butterfly. Hopefully not as short lived as many of that species, and certainly not in the same 'insect' category, but with every intention of spreading its wings and soaring, onwards and upwards toward the light.

Over the past twelve years we have experienced just about every sort of catastrophe that can befall any modern business; website and shopping cart hassles, the untimely death of a business partner - is there ever such a thing as a 'timely' death? - cash flow problems, business BS, product failures and recalls and customer interactivity. In all a plethora of situations that have tested the group and led to the winnowing-out of those unable to cope with the continual stress and uncertainty.

But it has not all been gloom and doom; our customers are the most fantastic folk we could ever wish for. Caring and understanding to a fault; the expressions of sympathy and concern following the personal calamities were heartwarming and provided the impetus for those of us who remain to continue. After all, with over twenty thousand loyal customers, how could we just roll over, wave our legs in the air and give up without a fight?

Development

But the most heartening development was a totally unexpected invitation from Seattle. Out of the blue the online retail giant Amazon invited us to become a vendor in its fledgling wireless accessory space. More interestingly, from a business development point of view, the invitation is the only one ever offered, according to Amazon, to any organisation from within the Australasian area. Surely an honor to be welcomed, and warmly accepted with approbation.

This invite would take another two years to mature and Nutshell is now shipping small amounts of select product across the Pacific into two of Amazon's fulfillment centers. In the initial product list we've included the smartphone wallet and a small, carefully selected range of regular belt cases, all in black leather with either mag-tab or mag-flap and the choice of clip or loop, or just as a plain no frills pouch. Initially we are offering Amazonian smartphone users these product options in three sizes, #258, #260 and #208, to accommodate today's most popular smartphones and the growing range of accessory covers.

As we accept our second restock, at ten pieces per item, we are facing a whole new set of challenges associated with the management of the ordering, logistic and payment cycles.

So far the exercise has caused us to appreciate the process of creating industry standard product listings and definitions, along with their attendant identifications. A set of code for each and every variation - internal SKU begets GTIN barcodes, which in turn beget Amazon ASIN product codes - enable us to offer a growing range to consumers through one of the world's major sales portals.

Growth

We recognize the extreme need for accuracy, in both product specification and descriptions. Even so, it is still very much a case of "not knowing what you don't know you need to know," until you've screwed it up at least once. And that learning takes time. And patience. And money.

One thing we do now know for certain; the need for professionalism and deep pockets to meet the start-up costs of product and people-power has never been more important. As we stand poised on the brink of the very real prospect of having to satisfy a customer with an insatiable appetite it's global business learnt the hard way. No how-to manuals here. No shortcuts.

To learn how to be an Amazon Vendor also means I'll be climbing on a jet plane and heading, like Mohamed, to the mountain that is Las Vegas and the annual International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) next Monday, January 9. While Amazon Services is conducting a series of midweek induction seminars that will be an invaluable experience, as a fully paid up International affiliate member of the Consumer Electronics Association, I'm thinking there will be lots of potential allies and business partners to assist Nutshell be the best it can in a very competitive global marketplace.

Export Potential

We know that, even as a proven 'cottage industry' exporter with a very real potential for rapid growth, we cannot achieve this on our own.

If Nutshell is to 'cross the chasm' to become a successful Australasian exporter into one of the world's largest retailers with a huge and disparate customer base, the company needs, more than ever, strategic manufacturing and financial partnerships and, above all, support.

At a time when business needs more co-operation and less antagonism to overcome the significant global hurdles that face us all, it would surely be a crying shame to stumble and fall.

Cheers,
Ian
NUTSHELL

Touch Base
PS:: If you are planning to be in Vegas and want to say hi, enter the friend code: 699-829 in the CES app and drop me a note. I'd love to meet up..

Challenges from the Trenches

 At Nutshell there is a constant barrage of requests for cases to hold a never ending tsunami of mobile devices. Which we, of course, welcome. Let it never end, say we.

But just how do we create the listing you see below, which lives in the Samsung category of our online catalog and enables you to buy your own tailor-made Nutshell?

Get your case for new Samsung Droid Charge phone here.

We take the dimensions of the device (the height, the width and the depth of the device), gleaned from at least three different places on the 'net, and then match them to the nominal internal dimensions of our cases. In nine out of ten times we will, almost instantly, find a match; an existing case that will squeeze or flatten sufficiently to very comfortably protect the device in a snug leather-covered enclosure.

Very occasionally matching a Nutshell to a device (or an accessory cover) can prove to be a more daunting challenge. Especially when the manufacturer of the accessory case has gone out of its way to give the cover some unique properties to make it harder to drop...or to accidentally leave lying around.

The hardest material to match to (so far) has been the new range of accessories using super-sticky silicon on the places where the user holds them. This material can prove problematic, as it can be so sticky it makes it difficult to extract the device from a case that would otherwise be a neat and tidy fit. In these cases we have to (by trial and error) re-size our suggestion so that, to comfortably hold the device and be big enough to make it  easy to extract, the case actually has to have more space inside.

We really appreciate the input. If you give us a heads up on a new device, the best way we can show our appreciation is by accompanying our reply with a discount code. It is our small way of saying "thanks".

Welcome to 2011

Happy New Year. A new start to yet another series of seconds minutes hours days and months...which will all add up to be 2011. What will it bring?
Doubtless, many things, but in the world of mobile you can be sure of one thing - many, many more mobile devices.
Already CES is behind us; an annual talk fest and show'n'tell that attracts media attention to this niche market like no other. A place where new devices are rolled out and expectant vendors watch carefully to see if the passersby react positively, it at all. Many of these 'new' devices will doubtless sink without trace - for a variety of reasons. Too big. Too small. Even too much "me too". Marketing will trumpet the advantages and advances.  But in the end you, the consumer, will be the King maker; after all it will be your dollars that determine who will rise and who will fall.
Is smaller better? Are tablets finally going to 'come of age' and embrace multiple operating systems in a manner that makes sense to us all - handwriting recognition, long the preserve of Microsoft's mobile tablet platform may begin to appear on other devices driven by other operating systems. Or will it? I would not hold my breath on that.
Regardless of the different devices that will raise their collective heads above the parapet in the coming year, you can rest assured that Nutshell will be there in support, with our growing range of product offerings to provide protection for what, after all, are fast becoming increasingly sophisticated devices.

Kiwi music: The Alibis

I am truly stunned by just how much you can do with today's technology.

Apart from obviously toting the device in a Nutshell, my little iPhone 4 had opened a door to creativity that was previously the domain of technicians and videographers.

This little video was put together in a couple of hours...after being recorded late one night at a local club.

While some may argue that an iPhone is tainted by its association with Apple, the platform has given developers of previously niche market products a readily accessible portal into the mobile space.

You better believe that no matter which phone you select, regardless of the OS, this technology is really going to change the way we do things.

Who (and where) the bluddy 'ell are you?

We regularly engage in customer discussions. And the ways you all spend your time with your nutshell is, quite honestly, just amazing. From the bush to the boardroom, and every possible, conceivable way between.

So much are we are intrigued by what you do, we thought a competition could be the order of the day...and we are working on inviting you to post us images of the way you use your nutshell in your every day world.

This after we've worked out how to best enable you to add your image, along with a brief description to share with us all. And how to score them all.

The Judges?
You..of course.

After all it's our competition.

The Prize?
Let's work on that.

Now that's a thought.

What do you reckon??

Making Time Stand Still!

We all know about magnets and the problems they can potentially cause if left to their own devices.

If you are not careful around magnets, they can wipe your swipe, erase the data on a floppy disk and generally play havoc with information that is electronically stored in a form where the 'state' of bits are altered according to the whim of the data stored therein.

But did you know that magnets can also make time stand still!

I admit I was not aware of this. Not until recently, when a customer of ours in Sydney contacted me.

"Do you know that when I put my Tag Heuer watch on top of my nutshell case with a mag-tab when I shower, I find that time has stood still?" he asked.

"Why no," said I. "How can this be?"

Apparently his watch, and many others like it, are very susceptible to magnetic influences; their movements are so delicately balanced that they will actually stop recording the passing of time if they are placed within a magnetic field.

But only for the duration of the time they are under the influence of the magnetic field. Remove them from the field and they perform again. Perfectly.

Except for that one small, seemingly insignificant fact that they are now running behind time in the 'real world'. And that can be a problem. Especially if you are inclined to base your life on the time.

Now, that is not to say that there is anything special about the magnetic fields generated by our mag-clasps (be they tab or full flap). There are lots of other cases to contain handhelds in the marketplace that use magnets.

The most famous of them has to be RIM BlackBerry.

RIM has for many years embedded a small magnet in the base of their belt cases, and use its influence to put their devices into a standby mode, which drains less power but still enables emails and messages to be received with no problems.

Many of our competitors use dual magnets to achieve a firm clap; the magnets are reversed polarity, so that they actually 'want' to attach to each other. And, to my knowledge, there is at least one other case manufacturer that actually uses four magnets in their flap closure. Four! Un-freaking-believable.

At Nutshell we know that the devices we protect are complex, delicate (comparatively) pieces of electronics, which do not need much to upset them, if they are that way inclined.

For this reason we do what we can to minimize their effect. We contain our magnet between two pieces of steel. This action results in an ultra-strong attraction between the plates but actually limits the amount of magnetism that leaks out into the surrounding environment.

But it is obviously not enough to minimize magnetism; in a perfect world you have to eliminate it altogether. It may be a very slight, very minute, magnetic field, but it is obviously still enough to make time stand still.

That's why, for folk who are really concerned, we offer hook'n'loop Velcro as an alternate method of keeping your Nutshell shut.

Makes sense.
Doesn't it?

Does the lining make a difference?

At Nutshell we are always looking for better ways to make our products ever safer and increase our (still very small) market share.

To this end last year we introduced the single-magnet-caught-between-two-pieces-of-steel. If our customers are a measure (which they are) this has been a resounding success. Today over 75% of our belt cases are shipped with that single magnet closing the case.

Why a single magnet? Easy - to minimize as much magnetic leakage as possible. The sort of leakage that can potentially cause problems for delicate electronics.

How do we know if it is effective? Well, let's just say that so far very few customers have come back at us and told us in no uncertain terms that what we are doing is wrong and a complete waste of time. In fact, praise for the development has snowballed the emails.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. For example most Blackberry devices demand we strategically add a small magnet to enable their auto-shut function. And in a strange twist, the latest Motorola Droid device will not continence a magnet anywhere near it. Apparently Motorola designers decided the best way to change the state of the Droid when loaded into a car cradle or similar was to use a small magnet - darn! So for this device we strongly recommend users choose our Velcro closed cases (should they choose a tab or full flap across the top of the case).

Now it is time for us to consider making yet another ground-breaking shift; replacing the synthetic liner we currently use with one made from natural fur; to wit the shaved pelt of the possum. Not only does this add value to the Nutshell by providing a plush liner. it adds an anti-static property to the case.

New Zealand's possums are apparently pretty unique in the animal kingdom.

A genetic development of the Bush Tailed Australian Possum, our little critters were introduced from Australia many, many years ago.

And they changed. My - how they changed!

Where the Aussie possum had to survive by munching on the leaves of trees that had taken millenia to develop protective measures to counter their appetites, when they hit New Zealand they must have thought they were in Nirvana; our trees were not only very tasty, they were also unprepared to resist the attack of the possums.

Today the New Zealand possum is regarded as a pest; there are more possums in New Zealand today than there are people - and sheep. The New Zealand department of conservation estimates some twenty to seventy MILLION possum roam our native forests, munching their way happily through thousands and thousands of native trees every year.

As New Zealand is a country that prides itself on its clean, green and ecologically pure status in the world, the attack of the possums has rent a huge scare on our pristine environment.

To that end the possum is one of our most reviled predators; not some warm fuzzy little beastie but a ravaging, scavenging molester of our soft, supple and very edible native trees.

But - I digress. Suffice to say the New Zealand possum is a pest of the first water.

However, its hair is most prized for several reasons; not only is it sleek and warm, it is antistatic, meaning it repels electro-magnetism.

How? Darned if I know, but unlike most other creatures the possum in New Zealand has a pelt that is made up of hollow fibers...not solid ones...which apparently contain an oil that expands in cold weather and shrinks in warm.

This may have something to do with the possums ability to keep on munching its way through the forests when the temperatures hit sub-zero. It certainly has something to do with the fact that the little beggars breed faster than they can be knocked out of the trees.


So...watch this space.
Possum pelts are on the way.

Just remember.
It's a Nutshell - naturally!

PS: there has so far been one comment about this item, in which a very good customer expressed concern that we may make this liner a default.
So far, that is NOT our intention.
We shall be offering this liner as an option...and take it from there.

Network Solutions gets small biz forum together

Here's a vid from a recent webinar I attended...at 5 am in the morning.
The sunrise was great...so were the speakers.
But possibly more fascinating was the thread running alongside the vid...between the more than 200 viewers.
The main topic of conversation appeared to be the growth of social networking, like this I guess, and how it can be 'leveraged'.

Lever away say I







ENDEND

Creating a small home network; simple you say? Oh yeah!

OK, so they tell me this is an easy task.

Maybe it is, if you have six years of network tech training and a MS VP status.

But hey, all I want to do is network a very small cluster of two hardwired machines and one wireless device together.

"How hard can that be?" I ask myself.

Faaarking near impossible.

For a start the wireless tablet and one of the desktops are running XP, the primary machine ( mine) is running Vista.

Aaargh. Not even Methuselah himself would have the patience to keep trying, and trying, and trying again to get this to work.

Ah hah, "create a wireless network connection," reads the appropriate Network application window.

OK.
No problems...put this in here and pull it out.
Put it in there and shake it all about.
Should work.

Oh Yeah! Like hell!!

"Not recognised. No software loaded".

Huh! All I want to do it get them talking to each other.

Ah well, I give up. No wireless connection; hardwired only.

I guess it's gotta be easier than using Linux, or Mac OX.
Hasn't it?

ENDEND

Making the Move

It has taken less than a month, but today Nutshell starts operations from its own little office.

For the past fourteen years Nutshell has been working from my kitchen table, literally.

We have had a manufacturing operation, where the work gets done, but for the main the admin of the website and the constant attention to the needs and ministrations of the Internet have been my responsibility. And this is honestly not the type of work that can be done from someplace else.
o...it has been my 'joy' to have my house cluttered with the stuff I need to do the job; the books, papers, ancillary bits and bobs that have made Nutshell the small but growing force it is today.
And now it has moved...

Not far, just from the house to a small office out the back.
Originally, post Christmas, I decided I wanted to get on with restoring my old car, and the best place to do that was in a shed constructed and attached to the back of my little old garage, a standalone one built God Knows When - probably about the time of the last ice age.

But circumstances change. My partner has informed one and all that the dreaded rot has set is and he is not for this world as long as we all would like, and I have realised that there is no way I can continue to do what I do on my own....so

The shed has become the office
Lined, sealed and carpeted...it is now officially the office of Nutshell Corporation.
A small space on the edge of the wilderness.

From where I sit there are no houses, no signs of human habitat other than mine. Tall trees march majestically down the valley; pines, gums, tress that are dropping their leaves as autumn encroaches relentlessly upon us.

A peaceful space that will, I am sure, serve us very well until Nutshell properly 'gets its act together' to move to more palatial spaces....sometime in the future.

But for today. We are here.


END END