I just added the Braswell’s Select Special Teas product line to Snazzy Gourmet. These teas are delicious! There are eight different flavors. All eight are all-natural and some are even organic! The flavors include Pomegranate Blackberry, Peach Pomegranate Green, Raspberry Red, Wildberry White, Vanilla Chai, Pomegranate Passion Red, Watermelon Raspberry White and Blueberry Black.

The teas are packaged in “Collectible Glassware.” It reminds me of the POM drinks. I will usually re-use the glasses multiple times over a year.

I LOVE TEA!

January 2, 2006 at about 4 am CurrySimple.com was officially live.

Ten days prior the first container of product arrived in Atlanta from a month long journey from the other side of the world, Thailand.  Admittedly, the amount of product was intimidating but there was no looking back at this point.

A day later I was spending Christmas in DC with friends and family. I was absolutely ecstatic that my business was about to launch. I was raving to my family about how I was going to change cooking Thai food at home in America. They though I was crazy of course. During our Christmas dinner I cooked up a chicken massaman curry that got their attention.

I will never forget the conversation with my mom during that dinner about the plans I had for the business. The first step was to make CurrySimple available nationwide by selling it online via my own e-commerce site. At that point I realized I needed to set up the website and get the business going immediately . I quickly decided I needed to cut my holiday trip home short. The next day I hopped in my car and drove 10 hours back to Atlanta.

I barely slept the following week working sixteen hour days and nights. I had to teach myself an e-commerce platform, build a website, take product photos and launch the website. This was my first so their was a strong learning curve understanding SSL certificates and credit card processing integrations. My goal was to launch the site on the 1st. It just sounded good. It was close. I opted out for a NYE celebration and worked through the night. At 4 am I successfully completed my first credit card transaction test. The site worked. It was not beautiful but it worked.

It was not until two weeks later when I received an order from a non-family member or friend. A woman in California decided to order the red curry sauce. I was grateful. Maybe shed a tear. It was a moment in my life I will never forget. My first real sale.

Often I forget what I have done. People still recognize me as “The Curry Guy” in grocery stores from the media blitz CurrySimple has received. It has been the greatest accomplishment of my life. CurrySimple became the FIRST packaged Thai curry sauce in a Whole Foods store. I still receive thousands of orders online yearly. Just weeks ago I got a report that we are CRUSHING IT in Earth Fare stores. Unfortunately, the weak dollar of the past few years knocked me down. I promise you it has not knocked me out.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I love you CurrySimple. You have taught me so much about international business, marketing, distribution, success, failure and have given me confidence to do anything I put my effort into.

The story continues…

I have spent the second half of 2011 planning for 2012 as I know it is going to be a big year for me. After my bad year of 2010 I knew 2011 would just be a year of recovery. Staying positive and learning from my mistakes will be the key to success this year.

THE LIST:

Fitness - 

My greatest physical accomplishment this year will be to complete my first marathon. Before 2011 I never ran more than a mile since I was probably 18. I just was not into running. It was not until October 2011 where I made the commitment to my girlfriend to run a marathon she had already signed up for. Four months is the minimum amount of time needed to train for the 26.2 mile trek.

I don’t want to stop at just one. This year will be comprised of many races and here is my list.

1 – The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer 2.12.12 Jacksonville Beach (Goal – Just finish!)

2 - Run for your Lives 3.3.12 Atlanta (Goal – Not get captured by Zombies!)

3 - Georgia Marathon 3.18.12 Atlanta (Goal – Finish in under 4 hours)

4 – Warrior Dash 5.20.12 Georgia (Goal – Top 50 for my age group)

5 – Atlanta Marathon 10.28.12 Atlanta (Goal – Finish 3 hours 45 min)

6 – Atlanta Half Marathon 10.22.12 Atlanta (Goal – Finish in 1 hour 45 min)

In addition to the above races I would also like to complete a Tough Mudder race somewhere in the US. The Georgia Tough Mudder race is the same week as my first marathon. This looks like a challenge and worth the travel.

I will continue to train at Bangkok Boxing twice a week. The Muay Thai kickboxing class is killer! It rounds out my training program. Saying that I will go to they gym and continue running weekly is a given as it is a  necessity to finish these races with a respectable time.

Travel - 

Bangkok – It is well known Bangkok is now like a second home to me. The place is so different and fun. This year I would like to take a train to Cambodia and Vietnam. I really want to see the countryside of the countries. 

Cruise – Most people are 50/50 on cruises. You love them or hate them. I wouldn’t know because I have never been on one. I have plans to take my girlfriend when her schedule permits. My schedule is a little more  flexible. I would like to go to the Bahamas. It just sounds good!

Spontaneous Trip – Wake up in the morning and say… “I’m outta here” and just drive somewhere for a few days.

DC – My home town! I didn’t make it back in 2011 but don’t want to forget where I am from. My friends are all married with kids so it would be great to see everyone. It would be amazing to show my GF around. I can imagine us running through the city and near the museums.

Random other places I would like to visit in 2012 is San Fran, Chicago, Colombia (with Danny) and wherever else the road leaves.

Business & Projects - 

CurrySimple – Things are good with CurrySimple. They would be great to get them distributed in another region in 2012. Actually it would be great! I will be more  persistent this year with my marketing efforts and building up my customer base. 

Snazzy Gourmet – I launched an online gourmet food store in 2008. It has been great! Profitable after the first few months and never looked back. I am looking to grow the business with more products, expanding the affiliate program, social media presence and our Daily Deals feature. I feel that by December of next years sales will DOUBLE.

Rolling Reubens – I am super excited to launch a food truck in Atlanta just after the first of the year. Rolling Reubens will be serving up NY style deli sandwiches in the streets of Atlanta.

Click LIke Media – Helping other businesses succeed is a passion of mine. I will continue to do so with my consulting company.

Food Truck Pages – Continue to grow a leading Food Truck directory on the web.

Eat Your Deal – Launching in January, Eat Your Deal will feature and focus on great deals related to food products.

The food truck business in Atlanta is going to take off! We have plans to launch a second and maybe third food truck in 2012.

Personal -

Blog – I really need to express my thoughs and projects more on this site. Facebook is great but I don’t own it. This is mine and always will be.

Girlfriend – Don’t mess this one up!

I am obviously a HUGE Thai food fan. Launching my own Thai food brand CurrySimple in 2006 can probably confirm that. People often ask me what are some of my own personal favorite recipes for my products. I have so many! One that stands out is what I often cook for larger dinner parties. I stir-fry the spicy Green Curry Sauce with fresh vegetables and serve it over a wheat rotini pasta. There is no doubt this is an absolute crowd pleaser. Is it easy to make? Just check out the video!

I have had the idea for a while. I have a lot of ideas though. Sometimes I pull the trigger on them but most likely I do not in order to keep focus on bigger projects.

I put my spare time to good use for 10 days. In that time I built the first version of Food Truck Pages. The site is focused on being a place to leave Food Truck Reviews, get Food Truck News and be the web’s best Food Truck Directory.

In the coming weeks I will be interviewing food truck owners about there entrepreneurial ventures. I hopefully will learn a lot from other owners and will be apply it to running my own food truck that will be launching in Atlanta soon. Adding food trucks to the directory will be a time consuming but necessary task. Once the word spreads about the site I am hoping for food truck owners to submit their own food truck.

If this project is successful I have already thought of some other industries to replicate the system. Let’s see where this side project goes!

Thanksgiving day has always been a time to spend with friends and family. It really kicks off that “Holiday Feeling.” This year I am starting it off a little different…

For the past two months I have been seariously training to improve my distance running and endurance. I am going to put the training to the test Thursday at the 2011 Atlanta Half Marathon.

The course spans through downtown Atlanta and should be an adventure. My goal is to finish the course in 2 hours and 15 minutes. What do I really want to do? Finish it in under 2 hours!

I will do an update about what I have learned from my first race. 

My latest side project is to create the web’s largest and most active Food Truck directory and review site. Food Truck Pages has begun development!

The food truck space is booming in the US. In the upcoming weeks I am launching my very own Food Truck in Atlanta called Rolling Reuben’s along with a few brilliant biz partners. Food Truck Pages will compliment everything we do with food trucks. There NEEDS to be a solid directory like this on the internet. I will be interviewing 100 food truck owners across the US in the upcoming weeks for the launch of the site. The idea is to give exposure to the industry and the owners.

More info coming soon about htis project as I work out the dev.

Check out Food Truck Pages! 

I have been working with a lot of new websites using the WordPress platform. I can tell you it has come a long way in the past few years. Creating and setting up a beautiful website has never been easier. The WordPress open source platform has grown considerably. 

Most web hosts have a “quick install” button for WordPress. This makes the initial setup so easy! It is a feature I love! One of the first settings I change when installing my theme is the “Permalinks” setting. This assigns the URL string and is very important for SEO. I generally use the same setting for every site.

The BEST PERMALINKS SETTING IS – /%postname%/

This will create shorter but defined URLs for your website. The Permalinks options are under the “Settings” tab within WordPress. Choose “Custom Structure” and then paste the code above. Click “Save Changes” and you are all set!

After a recent trip to a Whole Foods store I thought to myself… “What an adventure it has been!” The CurrySimple product development began in 2005 with an official online launch 1/02/2006. It has been by far the greatest learning experience of my life. A combination of launching my first “REAL” business that involved international trade, language barriers, 100 hour work weeks, and the absolute unknown. 

In 2006 a “Ready to Serve” curry sauce was ahead of the curve. People would look at my Space Shuttle type packaging and say “What is this?” My family in DC had no idea what I was up to with this product. Although, it was the first business idea my sister liked (and she hated the previous 100 that I never launched) so that really did say something to me. She doesn’t like anything! I put EVERYTHING I had into this. There was no turning back!

The first year launching the business was tough. The project was self-funded from my years of savings and help from Mr. Lim, my Thai business associate that passed away a few years back Thanksgiving day. (Lim I hope you can see how far the product has come from the heaven above). Three months after launch I was on the COVER of The Washington Post Food section. I was so sure I had something here. Then ABC News called for my first TV appearance. I landed a great article by John Kessler (Atlanta listens to this guy) of the AJC which really helped the product get recognition in Atlanta to kick-start it’s success.

The following two years CurrySimple ROCKED! We landed shelf space in Whole Foods and other stores around the country. Life was good. I had a great conservative assistant, Tippy, that made sure my life didn’t get out of control. I had worked so hard all my life for peanuts. It was amazing to feel a taste of success.

In 2009, the US Economy was on a serious landslide. This did NOT hurt the sales of CurrySimple. People would actually eat at home more and sales were great as they are today. The problem with the company was not the sales. It was more than that. Something totally out of my control. The steady decline of the US Dollar was really starting to squeeze margins. In 2006 the USD was worth 40 THB. In 2010 in was as low as 29 THB per USD. OUCH!!! (See chart below)

Then I started to feel the pain in 2010. A little late, but I restructured the company to become ultra efficient. A little late? Yes! The expenses for the business were SO HIGH and I didn’t realize how much it would impact the bottom line when margins were squeezed. What an excellent experience despite the financial pain at the time. It has taught me the importance of running a “lean” business. I trimmed the product line and now focus on the core products. Things are great and I am looking for continued success in the future.

The experience I have had with CurrySimple has given me the confidence and knowledge to launch and be part of some other great projects as well as help other small business owners with theirs. Learn from your mistakes and experiences. Take what you have learned and apply it to your next venture. It does get easier. Don’t worry about success or failure. You will never know if you can hit a home run if you don’t go up to bat.

Since launching my first REAL company in 2006, I have been very successful in getting the press to talk about my products and ideas. Getting in the news will quickly help launch a product and make you an expert in your industry. I never went to college to learn how to get media exposure. As a matter of fact, I dropped out after a few easy classes. So did I hire an expensive PR firm? NOPE! Did I spend a penny on getting in The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, CNBS, FOX, Entrepreneur Magazine, AJC, Parade, INC and many more… NOPE!  I am in contact daily with entrepreneurs and they are always looking for that secret tip that is going to get a local newspaper to write about them or TV station to call them and ask them to be on their show. I don’t know if I really have the answer but I do have THREE IDEAS that could help get your business more media exposure.

Contact your local paper:

This sounds so simple but is often missed. Talking with business owners over the years I am always so surprised that they have never even attempted to contact their local paper. It doesn’t have to be the largest paper in your area. Just start making connections with the writers that would cover your product. A SHORT email introduction usually works very well! 

Be REALLY EXCITED:

No seriously! Think about it… If this is your product you better be the most excited person in the world about it. Not only be excited but be able to clearly speak about why it is so amazing. If you are not really excited about your product do not expect someone else to be. Writers talk to entrepreneurs all the time. They will EASILY be able to figure out if you are truly excited about your product or not. 

Make it EASY for them to write about you:

Do you have a “Press Section” on your website? Do you have amazing hi-res product shots and photos of key members of your business? A company bio that talks about how the business got started? These are really easy things to set up. You can use a service like Flickr or Picasa to host a gallery of hi-res photos for FREE. People in the media will for sure ask you for photos while conducting an interview. It is way easier to sent them a link to your photo gallery than email a bunch of hi-res photos. The media source will then have photo choices for the article and will pick the photos that are best suited for the article. 

Always be consistent and follow up with your media contacts. Sometimes it might not be the right time for an article about your product or service. Stay in touch because the time will eventually come. It is also amazing how one article can spark many more features in other types of media. After landing an amazing feature in the Washington Post food section about CurrySimple I was contacted just days later by ABC News asking if I would be willing to do a live interview to talk about my business.