The road to putting the world's best Wood Filler on the shelf.

Testing lab produced samples of GoodFilla.

I am naive.

This self awareness has been forced upon me in the process of bringing my new water based wood filler to the market.  I thought that the manufacturing process would be a slam dunk.



Here is how it was listed in the planning stages:

1) Give formula to lab
2) Lab makes formula
3) Lab gives formula to me for approval
4) Come up with a brand "Gork's GoodFilla"
5) Test the name, it's received well
6) Test the new filler in the shop, it works.
7) Publicize that I have the best water-based wood filler in the world
8) Send samples out to show how great our wood filler is
9) Get inundated with requests and purchase orders
10) Ship the world's best wood filler from the factory in Tinley Park, Illinois.

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Adding pigment to see depth of color saturation. Looks great.

Steps 1 through 8 went flawlessly.

Here, so far, is the reality based list.

9) Tell sample recipients to toss their samples because it appears the pre-production product's shelf life is not long enough. (I did get an email telling me that one of my prospective customers tested it anyway, and loved it)
10) Manufacture more pre-production samples and test for shelf life.
11) Ship the "World's Best Water Based Wood Filler" to customers.
12) See steps 8 through 10 above.

My business coach has told me that this process is completely normal. My gray hair agrees.

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