We’ve hit yet another milestone at the Homeskoolie World Headquaters, and we have you to thank for it!

We recently passed the “25 Like Threshhold” on Facebook.  For those of you new to Facebook, or at least to business fan pages on Facebook, 25 likes is the magic number… the ring of fire… the threshold from digital and social childhood to adolescence.  It’s like handing in your learner’s permit for a real driver’s license.

I mean, how cool is it to put the following link on your marketing materials…

“Hey, visit us on Facebook!  Just type http://www.facebook.com/pages/Homeskoolie/101913086564844 into your browser!”

It’s not.  At least not from a marketing perspective.

It’s a lot cooler to say, “Drop by Facebook.com/Homeskoolie & tell us what you think about our designs.” For sure.

But you don’t get there if people don’t really like you and to that end, we’d like to say THANKS! to those of you who really did drop by and give us a thumbs up.  Please don’t take this post to mean that we’ve had enough already, though…  Like that kid that just got his license, now we want the keys to the car!  If you haven’t already visited us on Facebook, please take a second and swing by (we’ll even keep this tab open so you can get right back) and show us your support.  We would love to hear your comments and feedback, either there or here, so post a note to us and let us know what you think.

Oh, yea, and we also sell t-shirts and we’d really love it if you ordered one…

Yes… drum roll please… it’s confirmed!  2 verified readers of the Homeskoolie blog!  I’m please to announce that Jeff, co-founding partner of the Homeskoolie enterprise, finally came out and got caught up on my blog posts and… another drum roll please… my wife!  Yes, she also finally joined the tribe and even commented!

(Kind of feels a little like Julie Powell…)

You know, when starting up, we spend an awful lot of time in internet anonymity, plugging away at content and trying to build a base of things to share that are meaningful and relevant.  So I thought that it might be nice to share a little about why a t-shirt company (and a little start up one at that) would want to have a blog.

Our philosophy, long before we even landed on t-shirts, was to do whatever we could to encourage homeschoolers and families. As homeschoolers ourselves, we know the day-in day-out struggles and challenges homeschooling families face and the thirst for encouragement and community that is out there.

Also, as aspiring entrepreneurs, we know that there are many families and fathers in  homeschool land that desire to start new businesses or grow existing ones.  That is also a journey filled with the same struggles, challenges and need for encouragement.

So whether it’s a word of encouragement (we like to think our stuff stirs the soul or at least just gets a laugh!) or if it’s passing along a lesson we’ve learned from our many mistakes as parents or business people, it’s our intention with this blog to share our journey with anyone who’s interested and hopefully help some people out along the way.

You see, selling t-shirts pays the bills, but that’s just a small part of a bigger goal of taking what we’re learning about business and about life and passing that along to others.  We’re doing our best to Think Outside the Class℠ and encourage others to do the same.  Just like parents who want their children to experience life in a fuller and richer way than they did, we would love to know that we’ve somehow been a part of helping others get closer to their own dreams and aspirations and living a richer and fuller life.

And of course a plug for our t-shirts… we hope that when you or your children wear one of our designs, that in some small way you feel as though you’re part of something bigger and meaningful and profound.  Yea, we think they’re cool shirts, and on top of that we really believe in the message behind them!

Yes, I know this is kind of a random post for a t-shirt company website, but we’re having such a nice day & a fun lunch that I thought it would be a nice break from all the vision, philosophy & entrepreneurship stuff to share it with you!

A Perfect Summer Lunch…

Perfect, of course, is a relative term, but if you like bold flavors & easy prep, then you just may want to copy us.  From top to bottom, here’s what we’re eating today at the Homeskoolie Test Kitchen…

Chopped Watermelon – Not much can beat a sweet watermelon on a hot summer day!

Summer Sausage with Colby Jack Cheese & Water Crackers – I didn’t say the Perfect Summer Lunch was diet!

Fresh Grapes – Just the right sweetness to balance with…

The Parent’s Plate – A heaping scoop of goat cheese topped with Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Olive Oil, surrounded by a variety of olives (nicoise, kalamata & manzanillo) served on a bed of baby greens (we used arugula today since that’s all we had, but I recommend a spring mix) with some bruschetta (easy to make with a sliced baguette topped with olive oil, salt & pepper,  rubbed with garlic & baked until golden).  Somebody needs to tell the children that this was the parent’s plate (…hey, you’re supposed to ask before taking the last one… that was for mom…)!

Gotta love the fusion of bistro style, ready mix lemonade and a couple sippy cups.  We suggest a light Pinot Grigio for you wine drinkers (although all we had today was some leftover cab) and if you don’t drink alcohol, go with a San Pellegrino, chilled, no ice.  Ok, fine, use ice if it’s not cold.

Bon Apetite!

As I write this post, I’m crashing on the couch, exhausted after two full days of working the booth at the Alabama CHEF homeschool convention.  We’re not like the big boys yet who can hire people to represent us and we sit at home eating bon bons by the pool.  Nope, it’s just us and if we want to sell our t-shirts, we have to get out there and hustle for it!

I am, however, thoroughly enjoying the post-conference euphoria (the same feeling that I remember from our first conference in Atlanta).  The rush of meeting great people, talking about our designs and our vision and seeing folks embrace what was just an idea in our heads a few months ago is just totally awesome.

We consider the conference a success!  We sold more shirts than we did in Atlanta, which is still an amazing thing to me.  900ish families in attendance (as opposed to 4,000 in Atlanta) and we sold 61 shirts vs. 53 last time and a bunch of stickers.  Not a staggering number by any stretch, but enough to tell us that there’s still a market for our designs and enough to cover the expenses of our inventory & our booth.

But the feedback we received was really the best part.  All the encouraging comments from folks and the ideas for designs and ways to get our name out there was the best part.  We are really appreciative of and grateful for everyone who supported us in Alabama.  And for those of you who gave us internet orders while we were there, we totally appreciate y’all (that’s Homeskoolie for “you all”)!  It’s still overwhelming to us how you have responded to and supported us and we really thankful for it.

Don’t try to convince me that starting up a t-shirt company is glamorous!

I woke up this morning at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans.  Ever been to one?  In my day job, that’s the kind of place I get to travel to from time to time.  But I want to make t-shirts instead?  Really, now…  Well, I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’ve ever been in a place where you don’t feel like your work is making much of a difference in the world, you totally know what that’s all about.

I was on the agenda to speak to a group about using social media & technology.  Cool city, cool place, cool topic.  Looks like that from the outside for sure.  Then, after my presentation ended at 5:00 pm (yes, in NOLA), I got in my car to drive to Birmingham, Alabama so I can make it in time to set up our booth at the Alabama homeschool convention before the exhibit hall opened at 9:00 in the morning where I’m hoping we’ll be able to sell a few t-shirts.

While in New Orleans, I got to chat with some guys who are running some startups in the insurance space.  Technology companies with interesting business models and venture capital and big time connections.  And me?  I want to sell a totally low tech product to homeschool kids?  Well, yea, that pretty much sums it up!

Before I left, my boss at work made a point to ask me to hire an intern out of school for the summer to come in and build a social media campaign for the company.  Would I get the ball rolling on that?  We need someone in here who knows what they’re talking about.  How’s that for a not-ego boost.  Here I am, co-founder & creative director of Homeskoolie, the hottest new t-shirt company on the face of the earth, blogger extraordinaire, the guy who got, what, like 80 twitter followers in a whole month, who speaks at fancy hotels in other cities about social media strategies, and what am I?  Chopped liver?  And you know what?  I probably am compared to guys who really know what they’re doing.  Maybe I’ll call myself back after I get 8,000 twitter flowers in a month but right now, I guess I really am still in no-body land.

See what I mean?  We’re still trying to figure out why we’re not content coming home from a 9-5, watching TV all evening & starting over the next day.  Well, not really.  Starting something up is not always glamorous.  Exciting?  Yes.  Invigorating?  Sure is.  Hard work with not much to show for it?  You bet!  Risk of failure?  High.  Worth it?  At this point we don’t know yet!

But if we can bring some encouragement to families, to moms & kids who together are forging an incredible future and building the next generation of leaders, of faithful men & women, fathers & mothers, entrepreneurs, doctors, artists, mechanics, teachers and musicians, if we can be a part of coming alongside families and reminding them that they are part of something bigger than themselves, then yes, it’s definitely worth it!

If we can share our entrepreneurial path with dad’s (and their children) who have an idea or passion or dream but don’t know how to make it happen, and provide help, encouragement and set a real live example so they can walk in our footsteps and learn from our mistakes, then yes, it’s definately worth it!

That’s what’s driving us at Homeskoolie.  An opportunity to share our skills and passion with a community that we’re a part of and that we really believe can change the world.  Is building a company all it’s made out to be?  Well, follow us and see for yourself.  Is it glamorous?  Not always.  Is it something that’s worth doing?  You bet!

We really love this one!  We’re hoping it will be a great seller since it’s a whimsical take on Homeschooling being cool.  Would love your feedback.  Like it?  Indifferent?  Missed the mark?  Be a part of helping us develop our new designs by posting a comment or stopping by Facebook to leave a comment.  We really are listening!

Home's Cool

This shirt is yellow with a royal blue design & should be up on the website catalog next week after the Alabama conference where we’re test marketing this one as well as the three theme designs in the last post.

If you plan to be at the Alabama CHEF conference in Birmingham, let us know and stop by our booth.  We’d love to meet you!

With the Alabama CHEF convention just around the corner, we’re rolling out three new designs!  With these designs, we’re introducing some Homeskoolie themes – general categories for which we intend to have a number of additional specific designs around a main idea.

The idea behind these themes – Homeskoolie Sport, Homeskoolie Music and Homeskoolie Artist – is to represent just a few of the many activities in which homeschoolers are involved and provide t-shirt designs that can highlight your specific interests as well as spread the message around that homeschoolers actually do normal stuff!  No, we don’t all sit around in our houses, hiding out from the world…

Our initial intention was to start rolling out specific designs with the theme logo just below the collar (like our Think Outside the Class design), but we got so many nice comments from folks in Atlanta that they would like the theme designs by themselves on shirts that we decided to go ahead and have some printed up.

We’re going to offer these as an “Alabama Convention Exclusive,” but don’t worry if you can’t make it… we’ll have them on the website shortly after the convention.  Since these are a little different than our other designs, which we intended as “stand alone” designs, we’d love to get some feedback from our fans on what you think.

As always, if you like what we’re doing here at Homeskoolie, please support us by purchasing one of our shirts or stickers, leave a comment on the blog, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!  As we’re building this business, we really do want to hear from you.  Thanks for being a part of the Homeskoolie tribe!