Starting to use blog, look here for updates about the company

Hi, we have had this blog up since 2010, but haven't really been using it much.  Our main website http://greenleafnutrients.com/ has everything needed about products but is focused on static ecommerce, and doesn't allow us communicate with the customer on various things.

Well lets start, our webstore will be down from October 31-Nov 13, this is due to key staff leaving on vacation and since we are fairly small, we don't have people to replace the core responsibilities, so the only option is to just shut down for the few weeks we are gone.  I sent out an email to our customer base informing them about the upcoming downtime, and advising if there was any purchased that needed to be made it should be done before the site goes down for a few weeks on Oct 31st.  I also included a coupon for 20% discount due to this inconvenience, the coupon code is October2012 if you haven't used it yet.  It is an unlimited use coupon while valid!

Future list:  We have things setup for the future, including finishing our product line.  We have the core product line our already, but missing a few things that make us complete, such as

• Hydrolyzing Enzymes
• Full organic booster from plant extracts, ala Liquid Karma, Multi Zen and Nirvana.  The good news is we already have this product complete, including labeling, and will add it up on the webstore soon, just pending a few ingredient resupplying.
• Mychorrizae and beneficial bacteria product.  Right now it looks like we will split this up into 2 products since there apparently is issues with microorganisms competing with each other and some dominating if done all together.  We are looking to have a product with very high population counts and also low cost, so supplying this is a bit of a challenge as of now.  
• Cloning hormone product/starter product with IBA/IAA and possibly nutrients and auxins/cytokins.
• Silica product.  However, instead of selling a new separate silica product, we will probably just include Silica into our main base nutrient Logic Grow and Aficionado series, so our main nutrients will be more complete and not have the need to purchase another product.  The challenges on this include solubility/pH issues which we have yet to test.   A competing nutrient "Veg + Bloom" already includes Silica, so I think stepping up the game and also including it would be the right move here.

Besides just adding more products, we are also looking to change the pricing structure.  We have a few considerations, but we will be likely lower prices across the board on everything, and may lower prices even further and take away the free shipping option, and charge people actual shipping costs.  I am not sure if this is the best idea, I'd like to hear some feedback on what people thing about that.  Having free shipping makes things very easy to calculate for checkout and estimating costs.

Finally, we are considering different packing options.  The silver airtight packaging we use now is very flexible and allows us to scale up and down easily.  Some competitors have plastic tubs, however these would raise shipping costs considerably, also raising packaging costs as the tubs themselves may costs a few dollars depending on the size.  We are also looking to add a "bulk" product option for many of our products, which would consist of about 33lbs of product in heavy duty plastic bags, zip tied and sealed.  This would provide the best value for the customer, although very rudimentary packaging would mean the customer would have to immediately move the product into a 5 gallon plastic bucket upon receiving, to keep it airtight.  Buckets are only about $3, so it would end up saving the customers a lot of money in the end, especially for high volume customers with large gardens. 

Ok!  Thanks for reading our first blog.  Any feedback would be appreciate, you can contact us through our email or through our main webstore contact form.  thanks!