Temporary Climax

Today I finished the second provisional patent. That at least makes it seem like I'm a little closer to caught up. On the other hand, while I was reviewing the claims from the original patent to update them for the new design, I decided that they were not that great. Hopefully, I'll have made enough money by the time I get my first office action to pay for better legal assistance in this world of "you get what you pay for". Other news of note, I emailed my manufacturer friend because I still haven't actually gotten a contract with his firm. He said that the molds were all designed and things were moving on schedule. (Yes, I believe him.) He is going to China next week and will come back with all the details and a review of my molds :-) I also got an email from the marketing company. They wanted me to review the updates to my webpage design. The page looked better. They had also added a banner across the top: "Call now 555-1212". I about crapped my pants. No! I can't possibly have every yahoo who is too lazy to read calling to ask "whatsit?" I told him we'd have to make some other action link up there. Then I thought, no, I need to be able to answer calls with legit questions that aren't on my FAQ. I'll probably have to hire an answering service so that customers don't always get a machine. I can't possibly answer phones while I'm working a full time job. Then if they get new questions I'll have to call the customer back myself. Oh crap, I sound like the companies I always complain about where the person answering the phone is clueless. This one needs more thought. For now, the banner will direct them to a pre-order page. I'm going to see if I can get customers to make a deposit in advance to get valves at wholesale price before they go in the stores. Of course the deposit would be refundable and there would be a clear indication that they are pre-buying, etc. We'll see. It would be fun to have orders before I even had parts :-) My blackberry just lit up so I could watch it crash for no reason while sitting on the desk...nice. Maybe its time to update the operating system.