Nothing Was Fishy…The Case(s) Of The Would-Be Food Business Owners

Why yes, a garlic scape does make a decorative hat band!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been privy to a couple of diametrically different conversations about starting and running a food business, both unsolicited. I’m always willing to proffer an opinion or point people in a direction when I’m able to. (Note to those seeking advice - while I’m happy to help, please email prior to picking up the phone and calling especially on weekends, some of us aren’t up at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings (or Sunday for that matter)).

The recap below shows that everyone approaches solutions and what motivates them differently (esp. in different stages of business). Do you think one of these has a better chance?

Business One: Owner is just in the getting off the ground stage, with a business idea that  is a take off from something they’re currently doing for an employer. They’re in the research and planning stage, where the owner has investigated the market viability (which looks positive) and is looking at costs for getting the project off the ground. This person (the owner) wanted a little guidance as to where to begin figuring out what they’d need for infrastructure and permits for getting to the next stage (which includes perhaps building our their own production space). I was left with the impression that this person was motivated enough to do whatever it took to get their idea to fruition (and had the support of their loved ones to do it). I think they were also burnt out from their current gig.

Business Two: Owner has been in business for about three years with a ready to eat product, and has had some big ups and downs with their product in the marketplace (including a café which opened and shuttered quickly). Owner is at a loss as to how to keep going and seemed somewhat unwilling to accept that they are the one that needs to keep their company moving forward. At this point, putting the company up for sale would probably not be feasible (they’re renting a facility, and the market value of the customers might not garner much). I’m not sure what they had in terms of a support network of friends and family. I told this person that they might want to look for a partner who was more sales oriented to foster some growth. There is no easy answer to keeping a business going without the willingness to put in the effort.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers (mostly opinions), and part of being willing to talk to people seeking advice is to gain my own perspective on issues and ideas. The post I wrote about renting commercial kitchen space is still the top visited post here. Wonder if that’ll change when I post about our newest fruit tart flavor…. 

The Gang of Three… Quibble, Quandary, Quest

I'm not usually a good scrabble player, however using big point words seemed a fitting way to wrap up some experiences of the past few weeks. 

Quibble: The Boundaries of Local

Recently, I’ve been traveling outside of our “region” (ok state) in hopes to grow our sales and distribution of tarts. In Oregon/Portland and somewhat in Washington/Seattle, (depending on who you talk to), our products are considered local. But if you fly 1000 (or more) miles, somewhere mid-air, we cross the boundaries of “local” and are seen as “sustainable” (and “clean”) products*. Neither are specific or constraining, it’s simply a different mindset when pitching our tarts to buyers. Overall, the response to our tarts has been positive and everyone is supportive of using local resources to produce them.

Quandary: The Economy and Continuing Closing of Businesses

In the past four weeks, two of my small business friends in town have closed up shop (literally). Both were retail food businesses (in two different sectors). One just had enough (a future longer post about this is pending) of the long hours and no income. The other had been trying to wait out their lease and hang on with no luck. Yes, these things happen and most of the times work out for the best in the end, but they still can be unnerving for other small business owners like myself as no business is immune. However, I think there is always something to be learned from these situations, and they both walked away with insight and experience that could be useful in their next thing.

Quest: The Fruit Tart Flavor Which Reigns Supreme

It’s been about 8 weeks since we’ve launched our line of fruit tarts. As we started out with three flavors, strawberry, cherry and ginger peach, they’ve all been selling strongly (based on how many cases have been ordered). The cherry one has been slightly more popular, but not by much, maybe 5% in the past weeks. I’m enjoying the fact they’re all neck and neck so to speak, I think we’ve hit a good range launching with something for everyone.

* As an interesting note, Whole Foods Markets defines local as anything within a 7 hour truck/driving range. 

Lessons From Having Too Much Make-Up On In Daylight… or Why It’s Important to Understand Your Customers

Like many industries, the cosmetics industry holds a twice yearly products showcases where they invite consumers to take a seat and try out some make-up and skincare products. The local location of Nordstrom was hosting one over the weekend.

Our tarts are considered higher-end existing in the “gourmet” and “artisanal” food sections of stores and deli cases (and in many cases “grab & go”). How does this tie in to a few hours at the cosmetics counter you ask? I thought it would be interesting to compare how other industries market and present higher end products to the consumer (which sometimes, is me) and see if I could gain anything from the experience.

I decided my skin and my patience could handle two product samplings from two very different skin care and cosmetic companies, with two very different results.

Cosmetic company one: In the world of higher end skin care, a mid-tier line which touts their botantical ingredients and environmental stewardship.

Upon sitting down, the product associate asks me one question about my skin (oily? Normal? Dry?) then proceeds to wipe off the small amount of make-up I had applied that morning and lather my face with products, stopping only to give me the briefest overview about what she was using and why it would be good for me. I will admit, at one point my skin was silky soft, but I could not tell you how many products it took to get there, or did I have an inkling if I would be interested in any of the products she chose. After an abbreviated make-up session (most of their color pallets were a little too natural for my liking), and a product card outlining several times daily skin care products and regimes, it was time to move on.

Cosmetic company two: (after a side trip to the ladies room to wipe down a bit of the first company) A definitely high end marketed line, lots of glossy magazine advertising touting a certain lifestyle and products to match.

Upon sitting down the product associate asks me what products I currently use, what I’m concerned about and how much time would I like to spend looking at their products (it’s free and I’m sitting, what’s the rush?). She showed me a few tiers of skin care products, making recommendations but allowing me to choose if I wanted to have it applied. End result pre-make-up was also silky smooth skin and I knew how we had gotten there. I allowed her to have some fun with make-up, since I so rarely really deck myself out these days, and I thought the eye-treatment she did was fabulous. Had I had the budget to acquire some of the products, this associate would have gotten a few sales.

The experience reinforced the importance of listening to your customer, offering them solutions and while giving them options to choose from. And while your product may not be the right solution for them now, leaving them with a good taste and feeling about your products leaves the door open for possible sales in the future.

This has me wondering, what sort of situations have turned you off from purchasing a product (in any industry)? 

Been Caught Stealing... The Past Few Weeks Digested in List

I’m stealing, erm, borrowing the format of this post from another blog post I read recently (maybe even today). It’s well published enough the interwebs will show it to you if you hunt around.

Instead of rolling with a quiet January (and into Feb) while you all were on diets and budgets, we’ve been embracing it by doing some new product development. I’m not ready to talk about what it is yet because 1) I want them to be in production for a few weeks first and 2) I’m working on perhaps having the local press actually give it some, um, press.

However, here’s a list of how my weeks have gone:

1. Sample commercially produced versions of like products. Hmmm…
2. Source some sample ingredients. Tour of Trader Joes, Fred Meyer, New Seasons. Try not to buy other ingredients not related to project (like Candy Cane Jo Joe’s)
3. Create sample recipes
4. Taste with staff. Hmmm… Refine.
5. Create next batch of sample recipes
6. Taste. Taste with staff. Too much acid pucker… Refine.
7. Create next batch of samples recipes.
8. Taste. Taste with staff. Wooo… we like those.
9. Source more sample ingredients. Tour of Trader Joes, Fred Meyer, New Seasons. Try not to buy other ingredients not related to project (like Pirate’s Booty which is on sale)
10. Recreate batches of recipes to be production candidates. How much of what did I put in that again?
11. Write down better recipes, notes, tips and tricks. Scale to larger batch sizes.
12. Make batches of production candidates again. 
13. Taste. Yup. Got it.
14. Email clients, talk about pitch and set-up dates and times to present samples.
15. Create production candidate samples to give out at said dates and times.
16. Think about where to store new ingredients. Rearrange one of the freezers. Harvest out ghosts of projects past.
17. Look at paperwork that goes with product launch. Think about marketing materials.
18. Ignore paperwork, eat extra samples.
19. Remember I owe accountant some forms for how-grateful-am-I-2010-is-ovah filings.
20. Eat more samples.

Enjoy the pic of the building across the street from us. I shot it with an iPod camera which is marginally better than my current cellphone. Still working on it… but perhaps more another bite?

The Figlet Made Me Do It (or What We’ve Been Occupied With)

Holy carp have the holidays landed on us like frozen turkeys falling from the sky and I can’t say I’m complaining (well, my feet might be a bit more tired and there’s certainly less laundry getting done at home, but who really complains about not doing laundry?).

I haven’t abandoned you, my few readers, but the coming weeks will be a bit content scarce as we truck ahead on our projects, like making pies (Pecan, Vegan Pumpkin, Apple Cranberry) for New Seasons Markets.

The photo above is one of the specialty items we’re “trying out” with them. This one is a fig tartlet (smaller format than our regular tarts), with our vegan crust and a spiced fig filling. At the sampling I did back in September, one person remarked that it “tasted like Christmas”. Hopefully customers will enjoy them enough at Thanksgiving we’ll have them through December. It is a little product trial by fire, but I am thankful to have a supportive client that is willing to take a risk.

Upcoming things I’m thinking about (when not scaling pecans or corn syrup in my sleep):

-       Website revamping (or at least updating)

-       Review of goals from the past year (I’m sure I wrote them down somewhere)

-       Goals for the coming year

-       List of cleaning projects around our kitchen (see top parens)

-       A better camera… maybe… someday

So bear with us as single handedly split our kitchen into sweet & savory, which I’ll recap once I unglue my fingers from the sugar and cranberries (and our regular tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms…)

Am (Not) Public Speaking Goddess… New Seasons Market Hawthorne Store Opening

A few weeks ago I received a call from one of New Season’s marketing staff asking if I’d be willing to say a few words at their new Hawthorne store grand opening. New Seasons is a very supportive (and large) client of ours, so of course I would want to participate in their grand opening in some fashion. In my mind I assumed there would be a few of local companies invited to speak…no, I was the only one (the other speaker outside of Lisa Sedlar the CEO was from FISH a local food bank partner).

While you might be thinking “eh, what’s the big deal, it’s just a grocery store”, the fact that I/LPPCo. (one of many possible local vendors) was asked to be part of the event, speaks volumes about the importance of building great relationships with your clients. And really, I was excited and thrilled to be able to support such a great client back.

Many of you following along outside Portland (and some that weren’t able to attend), ask for some pictures and wanted to know what I said. Below is the excerpt, in which I tried not to bumble and stumble through - along with a few pic’s.

Photo by Jill Oppenheim

When Lisa was introducing Little Pots & Pans Co. & myself, she touched upon why I don't call our tarts pasties (pah-sties). Perhaps she read our blog post. Below she's standing on a step-stool to project over the crowd (and is not actually 7ft tall!).

Photo by Jill Oppenheim

Here's the text of what I said:

Good Morning, What an exciting day to be part of the New Season’s community!

The Daily Grind, who was formerly here, holds a special place in our company history as they were one of LPPCo.’s first clients. When New Season’s announced they were taking over this area for their next store, I knew it would be an opportunity to come full circle in offering the community a local grocery store filled with unmatchable local products.

It’s only been a couple of years that we’ve had the opportunity to work along side the talented team at New Seasons Markets who are consistently remarkable in their support of locally produced sustainable products and are truly interested in building relationships with their vendors.

My own relationship created the opportunity for Little Pots & Pans Co. to produce custom holiday themed fruit tarts and pies, adding to New Season’s already enticing offerings.

Today is an exciting day for us at LPPCo., not only am I thrilled to be here as part of the New Season’s Markets Hawthorne small vendor family, we are also celebrating our own 5^th year anniversary this week as a company.

I look forward to growing my relationship with the New Seasons Hawthorne team members and wish them all the success they deserve in this fantastic new location!

Drive

I come from driving folk, where long Sunday rambling drives “just to see what’s out there” were a common occurrence while growing up. Later in life, while living in NYC, it was never a big deal to throw a bunch of friends in the car and zip up to Cape Cod (5 hours on a good day) or to visit friends in Maine (8 hours, likewise).  And as we’re an “all hands on deck” type of company, when our delivery driver decided to take a vacation week I (got) volunteered to deliver to our clients in the outer metro area.

Below are a few snaps (taken with my Blackberry) of the morning:

All loaded up (my share). The large black object in the back is one of our “coffin” coolers. It has great volume, and probably many alternative uses than tarts & ice.

Sometimes there aren’t a lot of landmarks around to guide you. It was a beautiful morning for a drive, however. For those of you in Portland, this is the corner of Cornell Road & Cornelius Pass in Hillsboro.

 Our client’s bright and sunny colors were out in full force.

Some of them are even out of this world.

I try hard to get out and about to connect personally with our clients when I'm able to. It goes without saying that all of our clients are important, and a few minutes spent chatting can lead to insights you might not learn otherwise.

So 3 hours and 6o miles later it was nice to spend some out on the road seeing our clients (you’re bringing food, who’s not pleased to see you?) and enjoying the morning. I only managed to get slightly lost once! Hillsboro, sheeesh!