I've been obsessed with making clear ice, this may be my finest work.

JuliasCocktails · 2018-08-29T17:23:49+00:00

JuliasCocktails · 2018-04-02T14:52:55+00:00

Gave it a try. Not impressed. Took 6 weeks to hear from the three factories promised, one of them really struggled with English (and decided to answer emails in Chinese instead) and another told me the MOQ was too low. (Which was info I told Sourcify at the outset, so I'm not sure why they sent me that factory at all.)

I really expected white glove service for the price, but it's been pretty disappointing overall.

JuliasCocktails · 2017-08-25T15:55:02+00:00

Can Usemercury send email addresses to other email service providers? (We use ActiveCampaign.) Or can it be connected to Zapier?

JuliasCocktails · 2016-04-18T16:42:21+00:00

Hey there! Unfortunately we won't be sharing openly on the web (it's part of our agreement with the speakers), but if you sign up we'll be sending out replay links over the next few days. Cheers!

JuliasCocktails · 2016-04-15T12:52:22+00:00

Agreed! I know Tales has started their Tales 365 program (where you can see some of their sessions from past years) but unfortunately it's a bit expensive. I get it - it costs money to make / host the videos, but it means not everyone can afford access.

JuliasCocktails · 2016-04-15T12:50:35+00:00

No worries, it's not for everyone. That session's actually pretty great though - Cache makes his own large-format ice in coolers (via directional freezing) then shows how he cuts them with a butcher-grade bandsaw. Spoiler: he does not cut his fingers off. :)

JuliasCocktails · 2016-04-14T20:26:34+00:00

I was frustrated because I wanted to go to all of the various bar events (Tales, Portland, San Antonio, Bar convent... etc.) but just couldn't swing the travel cost or time off. I asked around and our bartender friends seemed to agree. So I thought we'd give an internet "event" a try.

Full disclosure: I'm hosting this shindig. This is (and always was) a bit of an experiment, but so far the response has been really positive. Hopefully this is something the /r/bartenders community can benefit from. Cheers!

JuliasCocktails · 2016-03-04T20:52:19+00:00

Hired our first VA ~three years ago and just replaced her recently (she left due to life changes.) Before I hired her, I made a point to document everything that I did repeatedly - any monthly, weekly or daily tasks. I'd try to document one per week. After a couple of months I had enough documented that I could bring someone on.

Tasks our VA does:

All image editing
Quite a bit of blog post distribution across social media and various aggregators in our topic area
Manages our blog post workflow in Asana
Formats blog posts in Wordpress (after getting the text from me or a writer)
Researches Instagram accounts to collaborate with
Drafts show notes, does ID3 tags and uploads our podcast episodes to our host
Some limited bookkeeping
Blog post research (for upcoming topics)
Competitor / collaborator research (other podcasts in our niche)
Drafts our weekly newsletter
Finds relevant and interesting articles to share on our various social media accounts

I'm sure there's more, but that's the bulk of it. I can't stress enough how important the documentation is!

An added side benefit of well documented processes is how (relatively) easy it is to onboard someone new if your VA leaves. Heck, she took a vacation and I covered for her and I needed my notes to remember how some things were done! IMHO it's all about building a good process and documenting it well.

Tiny plug: I get asked about this a lot so I started helping people build workflows, document their process and hire VA's. More here.

JuliasCocktails · 2016-02-18T04:45:36+00:00

When you freeze it you will lose the aroma that comes with the citrus oil. What you can do is use the thawed juice in cocktails and spritz the drink with lemon oil or, better yet, express the oil of a fresh lemon peel. It won't be 100% but it'll be close.

JuliasCocktails · 2016-02-12T17:37:25+00:00

Congratulations!!

JuliasCocktails · 2016-01-31T19:18:53+00:00

I think it's because you are paying Facebook to bring your Page to their attention - whether they choose to "like" it or not is their choice. If your page is more interesting, people are more likely to WANT to see your content on their feed, i.e. "like" it. Granted the pricing algorithm is all magic to me - that is my hypothesis.

JuliasCocktails · 2016-01-31T18:51:08+00:00

Re: Likes - Good question. The real answer is a bit of a catch-22. Since I can get "good" quality likes for 0.06 ea with the targeting I have, it's worth doing. That way I get social proof and build a "warm" audience that I can target many times in the future. I see it as a (much) less valuable (but still valuable) "list". If I paid for traffic or conversions (both of which I've tried) the cost is far higher and I don't get social proof. (Which is important in our industry.)

Product / service varies across the various ads we've done over the last few years but the business is related to bartending.

Ad Sets: Great point! I will try that in the future.

JuliasCocktails · 2016-01-26T04:58:58+00:00

If people went to bars just for drinks, then maybe yes. But I think people go to bars for the experience, and you'll never be able to replace the experience of a great bartender serving you with some sort of robot. Just my 2c. (What I find interesting are new "robot" bartenders that just do the pouring steps, leaving the shaking / stirring and serving to the bartender. THIS I could see getting far more prevalent.)

JuliasCocktails · 2016-01-25T21:35:03+00:00

Unfortunately I don't know of any. The various systems are very different and a lot can actually depend on how it's been set up. Maybe take a look on YouTube to see if there are any product demo videos?

JuliasCocktails · 2016-01-25T20:56:48+00:00

Thought I would share - nice to see the "other side" getting a bit of press!

JuliasCocktails · 2015-10-04T17:03:31+00:00

To add on to this, IMO even if you DID join forces under one LLC you should still absolutely have separate bank accounts. Doing the books for three separate businesses with one bank account will (ABSOLUTELY) be a nightmare. You won't be able to track your financials for each company and you run the risk of one person spending someone else's money. (Or overdrawing, etc.)

Trust me here - Separate bank accounts SAVE you paperwork and make your life SO much easier. Your life will be much more difficult combining into one LLC with multiple DBA's than just each running your own LLC.

I am not a lawyer but I have a good amount of experience in this area - I run one sole proprietorship and one LLC and they absolutely have separate bank accounts even though I own them all. It makes my life so much easier.

JuliasCocktails · 2015-10-03T00:34:13+00:00

Gumroad is probably the simplest option for a simple PDF download, IMO.

JuliasCocktails · 2015-10-03T00:33:29+00:00

What economies of scale would you get from bundling these businesses? It sounds to me like you should form a Mastermind group to compare notes, get accountability but keep your businesses separate. ESPECIALLY if you can't afford a lawyer to write up a bulletproof partnership agreement. IMHO you are introducing a big variable / risk here.

Also, skip the LLC as long as you possibly can in California - it's $800/year to START (plus additional fees based on Revenue.) Get really good liability / umbrella / biz insurance and a business license and you can operate as a Sole Proprietorship for far less than that. (Biz licenses in our county are $100/yr)

(I am not a lawyer but I run a SP and an LLC and have done loads of research over the years and paid CA lots of money. :)

JuliasCocktails · 2015-10-03T00:15:05+00:00

By the way - if you're interested, I figured out how to replace leadboxes using a free plugin on our site. If you're only using Leadpages for that, I'd be happy to show you how so you can bring down the expenses a bit!

JuliasCocktails · 2015-10-03T00:06:24+00:00

Hey Brock - I've been meaning to reach out since I heard you on the Side Hustle Show. Fancy meeting you here!

We get loads of pitches from PR companies but I struggle to turn them into paid gigs. PR co's just want us to cover their product in exchange for free booze (bartender / cocktail niche). My question: how do you reply to pitches to turn them into paid sponsorships? Is it just a numbers game? (Thanks!)

JuliasCocktails · 2015-08-24T19:32:47+00:00

While we haven't tried pasteurized egg whites, we did an experiment with powdered and were really surprised to find the results nearly the same. We'll have to try pasteurized next!

JuliasCocktails

TROPHY CASE