Mushrooms found

Rid again: It's now the 29th of Sept.  Our co-packer found mushrooms.  Wow....I knew they were out there somewhere.  So, we have that under wraps--now we need to get Cornell to approve the processes before we can go into production.  Uh oh.....this may take some time.

Today I ordered hangtags for the giftpacks that we'll sell online. I ordered handout cards-meant for consumers. I ordered the carriers that the giftpack of sauces come in. We got our new checking acct for retail and wholesale business. We have our liability insurance in place. We ordered the labels....lets see...
we also are having a meeting with our fulfillment house, who will pick and pack and ship our orders.
We need to order shipping cases and labels for the carriers.  We are working on developing PR for our company.  We are looking at some small scale advertising as well. We are arranging the trucking of our sauces (once the beauties get produced) to transport them to our fulfillment house. Michael and I will keep some of the cases for sampling and to promote ourselves to gourmet shops.  

It's easy to start a company like this--a snap.  Just cook up some sauce and hit the road.....hahahahahaha!!

Fungus problems

Rid here: We live and work near the mushroom capital of the world--Kennett Square, PA.  This area produces most if not all the friggin mushrooms you eat.  I mean, there are smelly farms everywhere-producing millions of mushrooms per week.  Michael and I even visited one of them and the tour was really amazing.  Michael A. really is a "fungi" to spend the day with by the way.   (sorry about that).

Anyway, we go into production on Monday the 4th of October. Today is the 28th of Sept.  We are scrambling to get all our ducks in a row. There are many ducks to deal with, too.

Well....... guess what?   We got a big f**kin problem-- the mushrooms we need? There's a shortage and it will take 4 weeks to get them.  Four weeks!  They are white mushrooms which are quick frozen--and all natural.  They retain their flavor better and won't spoil....AND THERES A SHORTAGE!!!

Michael A. just emailed me with the subject: FML-- so I knew it was a biggie. It is.

In the capital of the mushroom world, there are no mushrooms for us. For everyone else? plenty.
WTF.   Stay tuned.

Labels are off to....

RId here:  I sent the jar label art off to the printer on Friday.  Proof is looking a little fuzzy--am getting a hard copy proof someday. Printer said they'd send it FedEx with Saturday delivery-because we are on a tight deadline now.  I waited patiently for that orange and purple truck.....and waited..... and.....

It never came.

WTF!  Here we go again! Oy friggin vay.  Why us? Michael and I must've done something really really bad in a past life.  Seems like everything starts then stops. It's moving ahead--no wait! It's not.

Been waiting for the data sheet specs now for about 10 days or so.  Co-packer is going to get back to us on that.  I also emailed the jar company and asked them for the info. I'm all excited about who will respond first.  Anyone wanna bet on this one? (Didn't think so...)

The label printer gal is great though. She returns our emails within the hour.  Holy shitake mushroom!!! It's really a treat to be thought of as an important client. I think I'll stop writing for now and just bask in that wonderful feeling of being "a valued customer".  A h h h h h h h h h h........

Oh, don't forget! We go into production a week from tomorrow. October 4th is the big day!!
Yup. Yessiree. Oh yeah.... Indeed. Absolutely. Fer sure.  Okeedokee.  Can't wait.  Too excited to sleep.
Am putting suicide prevention number on my speed dial.......

Pinch me!

Rid here:  Well, it's been about a week since I last posted anything. At that time, we were getting ready to go out and buy chainsaws and hockey masks--and pay those co-packer guys a visit. Michael sent them a firm email or two and asked them point blank if they even wanted to do business with us. His email to them was, "direct, harsh, uncompromising, yet business-like." Geee. It seems that may have fixed the problem.  For now anyway. There was a point where I asked Michael A. if we should consider creating our own co-packing facility.  Sure, if we had a spare million or so laying around.

Well, it was just me thinking out loud.....

They are now actually responding to our emails and phone calls!  Just friggin amazing! Everyone is copying emails to everyone so nothing slips between the cracks. For awhile, we were dealing with craters, not just cracks.

Their R&D guy informed us that the reason he hadn't responded to my emails about important, time sensitive issues was because of his SPAM filter.  Huh? Really? Okay..... who knew?! I nver thought for one minute that our business was considered SPAM.

Long story short is....they are responding. We got nutritionals. We're moving ahead with processes and labels and fulfillment issues because they have decided that maybe we are worth the effort.
I sure hope so.   Once the market gets wind of our simmer sauces, we will be producing much larger quantities of sauce.  We'll be building the brand.  And will be entering into a whole new realm of the business--brokering, distribution and retail merchandising. (OY! can't wait)

October 4th is now the deadline.  Their deadline.  We will be ready. Will they?

Tick tock...tick tock

Well, its now Wednesday the 15th of Sept. and we are still waiting for the fourth nutritional to arrive. They (co-packers) said last week it was coming---so where the f**k is it?   Again, they are AWOL. They have vanished. They're gone. No response.

Michael and I are about ready to go ballistic on them. We have called. We have emailed them. No response.  Not even a courtesy, "we're busy today but will be in touch with you tomorrow" kinda email.  Nothing!!

I'm afraid we will not be making our production date of the 27th now. They have dropped the ball so many times I'm starting to think they have taken the ball and gone home.  It is without a doubt, the worst case of mismanagement I've ever seen.  They obviously don't get it.  We small potatoes just don't matter to them.
We small potatoes know of other food companies looking for a co-packer--companies that produce large quantities--(big $$$) and we could recommend this co-packer. But won''t do that now.  We small potatoes will be growing pretty quickly in the future, if we can ever get these friggin sauces produced and could make our co-packer some real money.  But it's a case of who are we going to trust (and use) for these larger orders. Now, our confidence level is at about 0.015 on a scale of one to ten. They really don't get it.

I have never known such frustration. But we are in it so deep now, we need to see this through. Get the last nutritional, get the labels I sent three days ago approved by their R&D guy, get the Cornell approval to the processes and get final FDA approval of it all.  

So, I'm making a prediction. Are you ready?
It will snow here in beautiful Berwyn, PA before we get these sauces produced.

stay tuned..... be patient.... please. The sauces will happen. I think. Maybe. Hopefully in our lifetime.

Yikes!

Rid: I no sooner post the previous ranting post when my email chime goes off.
It's the nutritionals!  Sent by our co packer to Michael A. at 1:09AM this morning.

wow. Maybe I'll call off that phone call to the suicide hotline......I do have them on speed dial just in case...

Small potatoes in the land of corn.

Rid here: I have been in business for 35 years. I have never come across a situation like this before. You see, I have been an ad guy my whole career. It's a deadline business. That means there are deadlines. The reason they call it a deadline is, if you miss it--you're dead. Plain and simple.

Our co-packers have a deadline now....and has for the last three weeks. It's Sept. 27th. Thats the day we are supposed to go into production. Well guess what? It aint gonna happen. And you want to know why it aint gonna happen?  GUESS.

Im ready to call the suicide prevention hotline. Maybe Michael and I can get a 2 for 1 deal. Or we could arrange a conference call with them. because we are slowly losing our minds.

Our co packer guys dont return our calls. They dont return our emails when they say they will. They say something is done--and its not. They claim they will "send it right over" and don't.  They don't know if its done. They think the other person was supposed to do it.  They think, they think they know what is happening and who they think is looking into it and when it will be ready to be sent to us but it's not because there is another client in the plant that day.  (that made no sense, right?--welcome to our little saucy world) They think it will be ready by EOD. It's not. They think, think, think, and know absolutely nothing.  The best part is, when Michael calls, they answer with a cheery, "Hi Michael, whats up?"  It's our blood pressure that's up, dude. Poor Michael...he came over last night and his eyes were so small I couldnt find them!

Sept. 27th is just 16 days away.

Right now we need to know the list of final ingredients and get the nutritional labels from them. It's been 3 weeks.  When we asked them early last month how long it took to do the nutritionals, they said it would take about 4-6 hours to create them.  No problem.... Yesterday Michael A. was on the phone to our contact person (whatta yuk) and he told Michael the nutritionals were wrapping up and he would send them over via email. He didn't.

We need to get them on the labels with the ingredients so we can get the f**king labels printed in time for the 27th.  Im starting to wonder--Sept. 27th of WHAT YEAR?!

We need the box dimensions and weights of a loaded box so we can get a quote from the fulfillment house. And add this info to our data sheets, which also need to get printed. It aint happening-- they suggested we use a new 6-pack carton instead of the standard 12. We took their advice.  Cool. Now they tell us that there are no 6 pack cartons out there that will handle our sized paragon jars. WTF on steroids.... they are going to keep looking. Meanwhile, we need answers. Maybe we stick with the 12 pack carton?  Stay tuned.....

Looks like production will be in October...no, November....no,.... how 'bout, before I die.

Lastly, when Michael A. was talking to our contact guy (OY!) about this n that and complaining to him about how nothing is getting done, our contact guy replied, "well Michael, we DO have other clients you know".

Huh?   He said what?   You're kidding.   No.     He DID say that?

Upon hearing this tale from Michael, I thought that if I said that to one of my ad clients because I was late with a project?.....I would no longer have that person as a client.  You gotta be f**king kidding that anyone would say that to a client, no matter how small the client is. You might infer it--but in a way that's not insulting or rude.  Try using tact.

So we wait. We lose another week. And the co packer guys prove once again that they dont care about us. We are small potatoes. What THEY forget though, is our next run after this small one will be 1000 cases. And after that? Maybe 2000 cases. That's of each sauce....

 "well, we DO know other co packers you know".