Learning business

Well friends I have been busy taking some steps to start a successful business. I contacted my local SBA - Small Business Administration - and in turn got hooked up with the SCORE group. This is a group of mostly retired business people who volunteer their time helping aspiring young entrepreneurs get started. From my rep I got several eye-opening pointers that caused me to slow down and make some correct moves instead of rushing in and possibly getting myself into some trouble.

I have several reading assignments. One of which is The E-Myth Revisited. If any of you are thinking of starting a small business or have just started one, this is a good read. I'm about halfway through it.

The big step I have taken is to sign up for a workshop via the SBA which is all about starting a small business. This looks to be very educational. I'm planning on starting an LLC and getting all of my permits straight through the state so I'll be legal to sell a food based product... Yes, real fun stuff (sarcasm). I'd rather be hiking or fishing but I really think this product has potential so I want to do it right.

Ok, enough boring stuff. I promise to post pics of me garlic next time. Its looking good and healthy.

Take care,
Mark

First Post

Hi all. This is my first ever post to my first ever Blog. So exciting.

I am creating a web site called: www.GarlicPowder.biz. As of today, 4/18/06, the Site is maybe a month away from being published. On the web site I will be selling my homemade garlic powder made from my own organically raised Elephant Garlic. I make two types of garlic powder: regular and smoked. At this point I'm not sure whether to call it smoked or roasted. I'm also working on a smoked garlic based rub for pork butts. The research and trial & error in under way and it will be a rub for garlic lovers only. My wife and I love garlic and I have been raising it for about 8 years now. We regularly attend the Va Garlic Festival and plan to travel to other garlic festivals across the country.

I'm big time into BBQ and I have a large wood burning smoker. I like to smoke almost any kind of food so smoking the garlic was naturally going to happen sooner or later. As soon as I finished the first batch of powder that was smoked I knew I was onto something. The aroma was incredible. When my friends and family tried it their reaction was the same: you need to market this stuff! So that's kind've what lead me to create the web site and share my homemade garlic powder with you.

So, in the mean time until I get my site up & running, please use this blog space to share your favorite garlic recipes or stories about garlic. Also if you have any thoughts or ideas of things you would like to see on my web site - a site for garlic lovers - please share them too. I plan to sell garlic cookbooks, garlic presses, cutting boards, and everything garlic related that I can think of. Maybe you can help me here with other items I can feature on the site.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy my web Site when I finally get it published.

Mark