Our 1st Growth Charts were finished and printed in April!

 Before we moved to SC, we hired our designer friend Jason to design these growth charts for us. (We love the animal numbers!) They are your typical growth chart for measuring height but with all the speech and language milestones information that I compiled a year before that for a our online speech and language screeners. I always thought it would be cool to have the info in a large printed format for quick reference for SLPs and for communication growth tracking for parents. A dream!

 

Well after many many hours of editing and proofing, we finally were ready to print. We got a good printing deal with Luke's sister's sign shop in Boise and they arrived in SC the day before we were supposed to load up and move out. And we had already sold 1 and had about 10 promotional ones to send out as well for people who agreed to promote them for us. So amidst the packing and no surfaces to cut on except the floor or bed, I had to figure out how to cut and pack and ship these asap. I ran out of time, and ended up shipping them from Hilton Head which is where Luke's temporary "live out of a hotel" SLP job was. It was crazy but fun to get our first printed products and first purchase that was not an e-product, but it was super stressful during the move too. I had to fill several orders by myself without Luke there or a car to go ship them. :). Well after a few months we had sold a few more but then there were orders for the style we were out of so we had to order our second batch. $500 bucks a pop - kinda scary. Now looking back I wish I would have got some real feedback from someone unbiased in the field before I ordered the second batch (I got some recently from Gracie's pk teacher when I tried to give her one for "FREE" and she had some reasons why she didn't take it - I was a little hurt at first but I am so glad for the RAW EVALUATION).

 

When we make a sell on these, it takes me about 10 minutes to cut one and then we pack it in a tube and run to the post office. After cost, it equals about $40/hr. Not bad, but Luke likes selling the e-products (my e-books) a lot better because we don't have to do any work for it. He wants more of that kind. So after receiving honest feedback, on my next version, I will try to scale it down so they aren't as big, and less text (even though the milestones are what I like) and more traditional, cutesy, kidsy artwork. Modern typography is not for everyone and certainly not what everyone is used to buying in the SLP field. I thought it would be fun to make it young and modern, but I forgot who the majority of my audience would be. Older, traditional SLPs. And we need first thought to be "oh cute growth chart... I think I will read it" and not "whoah that is awesome but a lot to read and figure out... I don't think I will."

Anyway, to try to end this, I will give you an update that our business, Home Speech Home is now a PLLC (professional limited liability corporation) so we can start doing contracts with other people. We are making enough passive money/month that we need to report it and probably pay taxes. We are super excited about our current projects which are 2 apps for the ipad and iphone. The "Phonological Process Finder" (being programmed right now) and the "Report Buddy", both tools for SLPs to use to make their jobs easier. We have high hopes so we are working hard on those right now. We got some laminate flooring on a good deal to replace our horribly stained carpet, but Luke says I can't start laying until I get the Report Buddy app finished. Boring! But he knows what will motivate me. And to answer your other question of "why" are we doing this? Well Luke is glad he has a job to take care of us, but is still hoping and working on other methods to change his career or work from home. That is why. We are hoping that Home Speech Home will take us there. It is doing pretty good, considering we only started 2 years ago, put it on the back burner a lot, and didn't know what we were doing. I just hope that Luke can find a little more balance and patience with his current job, and just say that our site is going to take as long as it's going to take while we do what we can to work on it but still enjoy our current life and situation in the meantime and find the good things in his job right now. It would make it easier and more fun to work on if there wasn't as much pressure and anxiety placed on it for it to eventually make enough to live on. I believe in it whole-heartedly, and will do my part and what I can to grow it and make more products/apps/etc. but I just don't know how long it will take to make how much, so in the meantime I am going to do other things to enjoy life right now, even though it isn't what we hoped for!!!