After a rough financial analysis, I’ve concluded that StarPups*Shanghai Buddy Snaps isn’t going to grant me household breadwinner status. Bummer. I guess with any cottage industry, the desire to keep things small scale and well technically illegal prevents you from doing the mass marketing, branding, and advertising that brings in real dough.

The thing is, we don’t want to spend capital on a store/bakery. We just want to do it out of the apartment. Second, we’re not interested in registering the company and obtaining food licensing. That would not only be expensive but time-consuming as well and who knows how long we plan to stay in Shanghai.

So for now, StarPups is a hobby/side gig. I’m having a lot of fun adding new features to the website, designing my biz cards and product packaging, learning about free advertising venues, networking with dog peeps in teh community, and testing out different treat recipes (unfortunately, i need to find more taste testers, as R and M are getting a bit pudgy). It’s a good learning experience. One thing I gotta work on though is NOT micromanaging. Even though I’m not a graphic artist or web designer, I have this tendency to want to do all those things myself. For now, it’s okay I think but once things pick up, it may be wiser to delegate tasks to the pros.

My latest batch of treats were peanut butter flavored– a sure favorite. Previously, I made treats with apples, oats, and fruit. The response was positive but certainly not as enthusiastic. Fortunately, the PB snacks are easier to cut out. This batch definitely LOOKS better than the previous ones.

Yesterday, John finally found a bike worth buying. He’s not really that picky, but for some reason, we were having the toughest time finding a sturdy bike with strong breaks. We’re done the searching. My friend Wendy recommended that we check out Decathlon, a European sports megastore. That place was awesome– tents, sleeping bags, tennis raquets, rock climbing shoes, you name it. Too bad we’re not athletic enough for it. We had never been to this shopping center before. In the basement, there was HOLA, the closest thing to a Bed Bath & Beyond here. Still no stand mixer though.