I've shipped packages (at least once) to 522 backers across the world, with the last round of packages shipping out internationally this past Thursday. That means that, for the most part, I can see my living room floor again! It's happy and sad all at once, because while Dice Candies is just beginning, the Kickstarter portion is ending. Sure, I may be back to Kickstarter in the future for some other amazing idea that I decide to learn from scratch and do because "it's a damn cool idea," but it's never the same as your first time. So, I wanted to do a little wrap-up post on how things differed and changed from December to now.

Where the Money Went

Looking at the spreadsheet I have for income vs expenses for this project and beyond, the income (after Kickstarter and Amazon fees as well as some special order D20 income) is +$15,300.10. Looking at expenses, which includes some packaging for the future Dice Candies business, stands at -$16,471.44. None of that was money in my pocket for my time; that was never my intention.

Those expenses are also lower for one big reason: I had almost 100 hours in the kitchen (at $20/hr) waved due to me trading web design and photography time in a 2:1 ratio (2 hours of kitchen time for every 1 hour of my skill work), and while I have already done some of that work, I'm committed to owing another 30ish hours of that work for the owner of the commercial kitchen. So, that would have been another -$2000 in the expense column.

I probably wasted about $1000 making mistakes. From doing too many things at once early on and ruining a batch of molds, to getting distracted and almost burning down the apartment (instead damaging 2 pots beyond salvage), to making twice as much sugar dice as I actually shipped (it was thrown or given away... it wasn't good enough)... Through all of this, I wasted money on mistakes and assumptions (sometimes it doesn't work out the way you originally planned). On the plus side, that's a less than 7% waste ratio, but on the down side, it's still wasted money. It's amazing how changing a minor detail when it comes to making sugar can make something no longer high enough quality. Candy is hard, people.

I chose BONUSES for Backers rather than income for me. Maybe this breaks some secret rule, but I'm all about transparency, so here goes. Against the advice of some friends and family who thought it better to hold onto that extra cash for the things I didn't account for, I decided to reinvest it into you. Why? Because I wouldn't be Dice Candies if it wasn't for Kickstarter and your support. So given a choice, I would rather spend more money to make sure that you are BEYOND happy than play it safe. Many succeed by playing it safe, but when it comes to fans and supporters, I'd go cliff diving, because you've already chosen to do that with me and it's the least I could do to say thank you for your trust.

Overall, I did a damn good job of estimating costs, running numbers, and estimating my time when I put this project together. Of course, I didn't plan on 5x's as many backers, so when the schedule took longer for me to produce the product, that also meant that the earth continued around the sun and temperatures got warmer. That meant higher costs and risks. So I'm not infallible; I can live with that. 

What Now

I'm currently producing dice for distribution and for stores across the US to carry the product. Starting with chocolate first (I can make it faster), and then with sugar. I'm also planning through the end of 2012 exploring sales through Amazon Fulfillment and maybe ThinkGeek as well, just for the holiday season. I'm hoping that with continued growth, your support (spreading the word, buying more dice), and a bit of luck, that I'll be able to accomplish three things at the end of 2012: take a small salary for my work, hire at least a part-time employee (I 1099-MISC a few friends at the moment for some manual labor), and purchase in bulk some custom packaging that will reduce costs (they are way too high) and improve the brand's look.

In the shorter term, I plan to hold a Google+ Hangout to talk about anything BUT Dice Candies some time next week (I'll announce and link to it on Twitter and Facebook), and I hope some of you will join me. I'm also attending Denver Comic Con as a representative for Gamerati, which will not only be fun, but will... no, it will just be a lot of fun. If I'm really lucky, I may even go to sleep and wake up at the same time two days in a row!

Finally, once I get caught up on orders, I hope to take a week and write an e-book on Tips and Tricks for Kickstarter (sometimes I can't suppress the author side of me). The best part? I'll give it away to all of you, for free, once it is completed (I'll post a backer update when the time comes).

Have I mentioned that I Appreciate Your Support?

I do. A lot. Though I hope the sentiment has come across, I believe that while intentions are great, saying the words are even better, so Thank You! I'd hug you if you were here, and not to brag, but I'm a pretty damn good hugger.

On Tuesday night, myself and a group of friends volunteered over 30+ hours of time to cut, shrink wrap, tape, burrito, label, and ship a TON of rewards. More importantly, all of the prep work (cutting thermal bubble wrap, making boxes, shrink wrapping) was completed, leaving just the remainder of wrapping, boxing, labeling, and shipping in my hands. Needless to say, I am indebted to the kindness of my friends for saving me a week of work by myself.

That means that I took two separate trips, for a total of 7 totes, to the post office today and shipped out a bunch of rewards. All but 1 of the $100 sugar rewards, all of the $50 and $60 rewards, and a few of the oddball rewards (people who changed things after it closed).

I'll be spending tonight and this week boxing and labeling the rest of the rewards ($25 chocolate and sugar rewards) for shipment on Monday, May 7th. About 40 of the remaining rewards will be boxed on the 7th for shipment the same day, due to adding a cold pack.

With that final batch, every backer who filled out the survey will have been shipped their reward. There are < 5 individuals whom Kickstarter and myself have tried to contact to get shipping info over the last few months, but to no avail. If I ever get that info, I'll send them their rewards.

A final note for this post: If you receive your reward and you are disappointed, please don't hold it in; let me know through email or Kickstarter so we can resolve the issue. I do my best to guess the weather and ship appropriately, but stuff happens that I can't control. Your satisfaction is my goal: I wouldn't be here without you.

I couldn't go to sleep last night until I had solved a problem. That problem was figuring out how many packs of candy dice (1 pack = 4 sets in a 2x2 configuration) I could fit in a box, specifically shopping the Top 25 best selling boxes from Uline (best prices). It involved some popsicle sticks, a measuring tape, and some sketches. I even calculated shipping costs and weight. This was from 1am to 3am. I couldn't go to sleep without solving this problem.

Clearly, I'm the one with the problem.

Things are moving along well. I've switched to a 6 hour shift in the kitchen, making 200 sets per shift (chocolate). My back doesn't love me, but I've been able to develop some new tricks to speed up the entire process, since kitchen time is $20/hour. I'm altering my days with time in the kitchen and time at home, packing or prepping boxes for shipping. I've also acquired all the materials for my super-secret-special-packaging for the 3 TEXAN Reward backers.

As of Monday, April 9th, over 50% of backers will have either received their rewards or it will be en route to them. That represents 35% of the total dice sets necessary to satisfy all of the rewards. For some states, I'm cold packing the boxes to ensure they arrive unmelted (see the image below for my 'hot zones'), and this takes notably more time and requires packing on the day of shipping. Worth it? Yes.

Time to get some rest after another 14 hour day (there was a workout in there and cooking dinner). If you haven't visited the website in a while, the gallery, stores, and products pages have been updated.

I wonder what tonight's dreams will bring...

Just a quick update to let you know that, totaling up all of the March backers and now all $15 backers, 20% of the rewards have shipped! If you are a $15 reward backer, you should be getting it via USPS by Saturday (excluding international which will arrive next week). Seventeen backers were in warm or edge locations, so I packed them with coldpacks (pictured below) and sent them as part of that 20%.

I'm making more sets every other day and will be working on the $25 chocolate only rewards next, with shipping goals for Mon-Wed only to stop it from sitting over the weekend somewhere. The downside is that I thought it would be 2 hours in the kitchen, and it's actually closer to 3.5 hours, plus 1 hour boxing, for 100 sets. I'm getting faster, but do know that I am working hard to get this done for you ASAP.

FINAL NOTE TO INTERNATIONAL FOLKS

Thanks to the small percentage of international folks who added $5 to their reward level selection to help defer the added shipping costs. I'm not withholding rewards for those who did not include the extra amount, because I'm cool like that. However, I wanted to say thank you to those of you who did give a little extra: You are amazing.

Cheers,
Mario

PS

Taking any action photos with the product and your friends/kids/family/store? Send them along via the email address on dicecandies.com. I'd love to see them, and if they are good and I have your permission, I may even add them to the gallery! People + Candy = Happiness.