Before we move on to the store update, you should note that this entry is also our very first podcast! I’ve been wanting to do a podcast for a very long time, but didn’t really have a great reason to do it. Then it hit me that it would really add a lot to The Baker’s Dog website. It turns out that taking the video was the easy part. It was all of the editing, learning, copying, pasting, and waiting to get it out on the Internet that made it harder! I don’t think we’ll podcast on a regular schedule and it won’t always be video. So be sure to subscribe (RSS or iTunes) and you’ll be updated automatically! Without further delay, here’s the video I slaved over that I hope you really like:

Baker’s Dog Podcast: In Living Color from The Baker’s Dog on Vimeo.

Since we don’t have a money tree, and given these uncertain economic times, we’re trying to control costs where it makes the most sense (cents?). Therefore we decided to paint the store ourselves. The only hesitation in our decision was considering that a few walls are as high as 25′. We looked into ladders and scaffolding before I ultimately decided we should rent a scissor lift for speed and safety. (The fact it has an actual joystick and makes “robot noises” may have had something to do with it. But whatever.) I picked up a 19′ scissor lift from the local equipment rental place and little did we know how wobbly the lift gets at that height! It was really scary until we took a couple of rides to get our bearings. On the first day, we put a coat of “new construction” primer on all of the walls. This type of primer is super thick- it’s basically thinned out plaster. We were exhausted by the end of the night.

The next day, we got the colors on and the thinner interior latex went much quicker (though not quite as fast as in the video). The overall the paint job is a decent one. But I think we’ll stick to making deliciously healthy pet treats. We chose a neutral gray for the front half of the store and a pumpkin orange for the back half. I gotta’ admit, the impact of the orange when standing at the front door is pretty cool. We picked orange because it has a decidedly modern feel when it’s beside the gray foreground. Plus, we figured orange can be a fall color when it’s coupled with brown accents or a beachy summer color when coupled with electric blue and yellow.

We decided to go ahead an keep the scissor lift for a full week to clean up the lights, do some finish work around the windows, and clean the glass. The following day, we did some touch up while our amazing new little printer was installed. It’s really hard to explain how the printer actually cuts the stickers out, so I grabbed some video of that as well. We’re going to experiment with quality settings and the material we print on so we get the best looking and easiest to apply labels we can.

The feedback and reaction we’ve been getting on the packaging has been nothing short of amazing. It just gets me pumped up even more to get things going ASAP! Now, I need to get hopping on the website side of things so you fine folks can upload your photos with no muss or fuss. If you’re a subscriber to the website, you’ll probably be asked to help us test things out before we go fully live. You and your dogs be rewarded for your efforts!

 
Also on YouTube.

 

 Baker's Dog Podcast Episode #1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download