We can breathe again...

Ahhh....finally slowing down... a few orders per day now. If I never see another packing peanut, it will be too soon.   The flurry of activity was great however!  We were pushing orders out the door at a rate of 60-75 per day.

Now it's time to re-focus....get back into family and friends and enjoy the Xmas holiday.  What am I giving to people? Simmer sauce, of course.  Oh and for Michael A.?  Hahahahaaaa....it will bring tears to his eyes. He will jump for joy. A dream come true.
Oh, and a bottle of good scotch, too.

Merry Christmas!

We got peanuts!!!

What do you do with over 20 huge bags of peanuts? I'm not talking about the ones you eat--I'm talking about the ones you use to ship packages. Well..... we have been going bonkers here at Lizbeth Lane since last Monday, shipping out over 200 packages of our fabulous simmer sauces to folks all over the country!!

Our story aired on CNN over a one week period beginning last Saturday. A great story which was beautifully produced by CNN. When it first aired, Michael sent me a text message:  Wow--28 orders so far.  We thought that was pretty good. Then.....40...60....80...120....OMG....150.......and growing!

We hauled our butts out to Handi-Crafters beginning Monday to assist in filling these orders.  They were great.  We came home at the end of each day totally exhausted but feeling really good knowing that people wanted our sauce!  They loved the mention of Handi-Crafters as well, who we use for fulfillment.

Our Facebook friends list has been growing by the day.  Gee...never thought we'd have 130 new friends in just a few days.  Emails loading up our computers! Business inquiries! Now it's Friday and has calmed own somewhat. Orders are still coming in but it's no longer a tsunami of paypal orders.  

Be sure to view our story which is now up on CNN's website. It might just help you work up an appetite for a great tasting entree made with one of our simmer sauces.  Thanks to all who have ordered. Be sure to spread the news... and the joy of it all!!

http://yourbottomline.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/13/boomers-simmer-up-success/

CNN airs our "story"!!!

Rid here...
Yesterday we got an email from Jennifer at CNN with the schedule of when our story would be on the air.
Michael and I were like two little kids on Xmas morning. We simply couldn't wait to see ourselves. I immediately thought about the fact that you look 10 lbs. heavier.  Uh oh.  Oh fergetttaboutit!!!  I had to do demos in one of our stores today, so I missed the first airing. Michael was busy working at that time as well. Damn!

Michael stopped over about a half hour ago so we could watch the 5-6pm airing of our touching and poignant story.  It was grrreat!!! We actually looked like a couple of smart savvy guys, who knew what they were doing.   Well....that's because we do. Sorta. We still have plenty to learn and lots of hurdles to face. That's the food biz.

We are getting plenty of online orders, emails and comments and new friends on Facebook.  Great!!!

Thanks, CNN and thanks to my daughter, Stacey, who used to be a Producer for Anderson Cooper. She's the one who was able to get CNN's interest in us in the first place.

Great....and then....

First, we're in the ACME in Paoli. For those who don't know, ACME is a chain of 120 stores in the SE Pennsylvania and NJ area.  We are starting with one store- Paoli and will roll out into others. as time marches on.  Ugghh. Would love to be in all 120 stores in one shot. Oh well....
So, there I am shopping at the Paoli store with Michael when the Manager came up to us and told us that our sauces were now on the floor. Michael and I raced over to where they were on display only to find that they had only 3 of the 4 sauces for sale. The Roasted Red Pepper was missing. HEY! That's one of our biggest sellers!  Customers go bonkers for that one. We talked to the Manager and emailed him as well. He must check with his  (our) distributor to see where the hell those cases of Red Pepper are.  When they get the Red Pepper is anybody's guess. Hope it's soon. It's weird seeing only 3 of our 4 sauces on the shelf.

Again, there is this "thing" about the food business. For every good thing that happens, there is a "thing" that goes haywire.  You get into a store---one SKU is missing.  You get a meeting with a store to present your product-- but need to wait 3 months to meet.  The store wants your simmer sauces-- but beat the crap out of you on price, demanding free fill or paying to get an off shelf position (that means you get out of grocery aisles and into the perimeter where all the customers travel).... like the meat dept. or produce, etc.

Doesn't matter. It's rhino time. We just gotta keep charging ahead.  Clawing for every bit of business we can get.  Can't go after new business now though. It's the holidays and managers and buyers are all going nuts with the holiday crush. We will be calling them right after New Years.  Got to go now...
tomorrow I demo for 4 hours and need to get ready.

I hope I sell every last jar of our simmer sauces.

Getting sauced in Ohio of all places....

Last Monday, Michael A. and I hopped an empty Southwest flight to Pittsburgh. Carry-on only. We were on our way to produce our largest run to date. Over 13,000 bottles of simmer sauce! No security line. No pat downs. Wow... it was too friggin easy getting there. Not a good sign. Once in Pittsburgh, we hopped in our rental car and drove one hour to Boardman, Ohio, where our newest co-packer was. We checked into our hotel. Michael was so excited because he had become a Priority Club member. They had a goodie bag waiting for him. A bottle of water, a bag of pretzels and a voucher for a couple of free drinks.  He kept elbowing me that he was member and I wasn't.  Like I give a s**t.

We dumped our bags in our rooms and headed over to the local Longhorn Steakhouse. An easy 30 second walk across the parking lot and the now damp grass. We bellied up to the bar and hoisted our scotches in a prayerful manner, hoping that the next day would be a good one.

Michael ordered the stuffed filet (I think it was a filet). Supposedly stuffed with lobster with a lobster tail perched on top of the steak.  The menu made it look soooo goooood... I ordered a massive cowboy ribeye. Baked potato. Sour cream. Dressing on the side please.  We polished off another round when our entrees arrived.

Michael's stuffed steak looked like it had been flown in from Bangladesh. "What the hell is that?", I asked. He stared at it and quickly realized he had made a crumby choice. My steak was superb. So much for the Priority Club membership.  Michael coaxed the bartender over--a sweet young girl who was so sorry that Michael's steak looked like roadkill.  The manager then approached cautiously, expecting us to yell or something.  I just dove into my ribeye and watched Michael wrestle with his inedible disaster.

They brought him another entree about 15 minutes later, as I wolfed down my last morsel of dinner. "WTF is that... looks like the first one", I said. It really did. Another dead imitation of meat with a wimpy lobster tail from an obviously midget lobster.  Michael called over the bartender and the manager again.  They apologized profusely. We were kind, yet Michael now felt a wave of incertitude invading this meat matter. He ate a few bites and pushed the plate away.  I now realized how handy that little bag of "Priority Club" pretzels would become for Michael. (ha)

Long story short. We only paid for my dinner! The bartender apologized 14 times. The manager? 23 times. And one last faux pas....we ordered a final round of Dewar's and the manager came back and said that they were out of Dewar's. I have to admit, I figured this was an ominous sign of things to come.

Next morning, we drove the 2 miles to the co-packer.  They did a spectacular job. Dead on...no... better than that. Our four simmer sauces tasted the best they've ever tasted.  All went well. I also videotaped some of the production for CNN to use in our upcoming story on....CNN.

Our flight was delayed almost 4 hours. Spooky nightime flight back to Philly, through rain and darkness and clouds the whole way.  We made it home.....around 11:30pm.

Wait til you taste the latest batch!

What a production!

Rid here again...where the hell is Michael? Wish he'd enter some of his deep thoughts. Oh well....
On Tuesday we fly to Pittsburgh and drive an hour to Boardman, OH.  It's time to make more simmer sauces.  We blew through our last run and must make plenty more. We have a ton of orders to fill from our Haddon House distributor and Avenue Gourmet, who we just recently started doing business with. Interstate Foods in Phila. is sending along orders, too.

On this trip I must take my HD video camera and get some shots of our sauces in production. Some of what I shoot will be included in the CNN story, which will be airing some time in December! I MUST make these shots dramatic! Cinema at its finest!

A few weeks back I shaved off my beard because at our co-packer, they make you wear these stupid looking chin nets. I mean, you look like a friggin fool! Since CNN was going to be there shooting, there was no way I was going to let them shoot me wearing one of those lame nets on my chin. I don't want millions of people seeing me looking like some jerk. The head net is goofy looking enough!  Turns out, CNN won't be making the trip next week, so there was no need to shave the beard. Oh well, it's growing back nicely.  Looking rather white though....ugghh.

Well get ready world, over 13,000 bottles of our fabulous simmer sauces are about to hit store shelves. Hopefully near you!  If there's a store nearby you, let them know they should be selling our superb simmer sauces.

Til later....all you sauciers!!

Is a book deal in the works?

Rid here.... just to let you know that I've decided to write a book about this adventure. The way I look at it, if the biz goes belly up, (it won't)  at least I can publish the book and make millions that way. Ha!
The book will probe deeply into the minds of me and Michael. Dissect our thoughts and emotions.  Confront the darker side of the business. It will tell the story in a way that can't be told on this blog.
A saucy, piccata laden thriller like no other!

I will keep you informed of where the book tour will take me. Some of my friends have indicated that they'd like to join my tour as paid book buyers. I have had to tell them that, alas, a Gulfstream IV can only seat 10 passengers.

Jennifer and JP pay us a visit

OCTOBER 28: CNN Day

It was CNN day!  We were actually going to be interviewed by one of their producers. I had a slight twinge of excitement and a load of butterflies just thinking about it. “what if I screw up or just go blank?” I thought.  It was all ridiculous anyway, as I had been down this type of road before. Michael and I had told our story to so many people. It was something we could do in our sleep. 

At 10:45, a white SUV pulled up in front of my house and out popped two young people.

One was the producer. Jennifer was in her late 20’s and was quite friendly and attractive.

The camera guy was named J.P.  Both were great. I felt immediately at home with them. So did Max, my golden, who ran through my legs to greet them in his usual retriever style. They came into my house and looked it over. I showed them the kitchen and “unsold” the prospects of shooting there because the layout just wasn’t right.   They checked out the living room and nodded that this could work well.  Jennifer saw photos of my daughter, Stacey on our bookcase and was excited seeing these photos. “Look J.P., it’s Stacey, do you remember her?” she blurted out. J.P. did remember her from when my daughter had worked at CNN for Anderson Cooper.  She was a producer for Anderson and stayed at it for about 3 years.  The work was rough. The hours were brutal. News never takes a break.  This was why we got the interview in the first place. It was Stacey who connected us with Jennifer.  So, knowing this fact was a pretty good reason why I didn’t really care where we shot the interview. 

We strolled over to Michael’s house and it was decided to that we shoot in his kitchen. He had an island in his kitchen which would be a little tight but enabled JP to set up his camera on one side as we sat on  the other. It worked out well.

Damn, we were good! Jennifer asked a bunch of questions that we had heard before but we attacked each with vigor. We were good….no, we were great! We bounced comments back and forth and we were like a well oiled info machine. After 45 minutes or so, it was over. Next would be a quick trip to our fulfillment house, Handi-Crafters. This is where my stepson works every weekday. They hire people with employment barriers--in other words, they are special needs folks.

It was just a 40 minute drive. We pulled up, JP unloaded the equipment and proceeded to shoot three of their workers, as they packed orders of our sauces in cartons. They did a great job, too.  These special needs people do a great job. Better than others. They take pride in their work. They smiled. They hugged us when it was over. It worked out beautifully.

We bid farewell to our CNN friends afterwards and told them we’d be in touch the following week to coordinate other upcoming film bits that needed to be shot for our story.

I needed to go home and crash. A one hour nap would work just fine. So I did. I love naps. But this was a special nap that day. It came after knowing that we would be on international TV. Seen by millions of people around the world. My imagination had us getting calls from Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Russia, even India! We would find out soon enough though, as we are scheduled to go on the air sometime in early December. We will let everyone know ahead of time.

Oh yes, it was a great nap indeed. 

Living on the edge!!

Well, again, we have been so busy that we haven't had time to make entries into this blog--til now. Up to our necks in logistics, and expanding our markets.

Lots is happening, that's for sure!  Michael A. and I have been traveling a lot and lining up brokers to hawk our simmer sauces. We have also hooked up with a large distributor which sells to many of the best food store chains along the east coast.  This distributor is hosting a large trade show next week in Orlando and we'll be there exhibiting our fabulous simmer sauces. What makes this show unique is that its strictly for buyers from food stores. Its an order writing show!! No pussy footing around here my friend, so we're hoping to write a bazillion dollars worth of orders and finally start turning the corner financially.

Man, we have spent a ton of money to get this company moving.  Money for displays, airfare, hotels, tolls, marketing, consultants, and when some big orders hopefully come in, we'll need to spend a s***load of money on a large production run of our sauces...like 1000 cases of each sauce. That comes to 24,000 jars of simmer sauce!!!  Yes... we are in it up to our necks now.  This isn't the little startup deal anymore. We are now running with the big dogs.

We have learned that the ONLY way to make money in the food biz is to sell volume.  we love our gourmet retail clients--they also helped us learn a lot about the food business. But we are also focused on volume sales to finer food store chains like Whole Foods, the fresh Market and the likes.

We are now "living on the edge".  Right there on the brink... of becoming a real player in this food business. These are anxious yet exciting times for us!

Orlando, here we come!! Oh, please be good to us.....please!

Going for broker!

On the brink. Yes...that's where we are. The edge of greatness? Not sure, but it's the edge of something big.
We have been meeting with brokers and distributors who handle the east coast. They all seem to want to do business.  We kick around pricing, trade allowances and promotion allocations...fees, timing, expenses and listening to our consultant, John, who chats it up with whomever we are meeting with-- he seems to know every friggin person in the business! 

This broker/distributor thing is the tricky part. It's also a reality check. The dreams of making oodles of cash are gone. At least for now. Michael and I have quickly realized (ugghh) that this is a volume business. The margins are slim. You have to sell a ton of product in order to make any money.  It's not like making a hat in China for $0.90 and selling it in the USA for $20.  Those are definitely NOT food businesses!

If you want to make gobs of money, don't do the food thing. Sell widgets. Or a goofy hat. Or the next pet rock.

We will probably end up making 10-15% profit before taxes.  The hat guy will make a tad more, don't cha think!!??

But hey, it's only money (or a lack of) and Michael and I are in it for the long run.  We shall press on and WILL sell volume in good time. First, a pallet. Then two. Then a pallet of each sauce. Then 2 or 3 of each. Then a truckload....

Stay tuned....

The "WOW" factor takes hold

Well....we are back from 3 days of selling, selling selling at the DC Fancy Food Show. It was a roaring success!  We "WOWED" a large number of interested companies that might be able to help our simmer sauces grow and expand in the retail marketplace.  We met retailers, distributors, brokers, packaging, co-packers, food sources, internet gurus, media outlets and a slew of other companies and people who love our samples of the best simmer sauces on earth. We were even interviewed by CBS radio so we could tell our story!

What impressed us most, is that the majority of those we met "got it" in terms of seeing how unique our simmer sauces are. They understood that the glutted sauce market did NOT apply to our unique niche.

Was the show a success?  We won't honestly know for a few months. You see, it takes awhile for these contacts to come back to us.  Nobody was buying at the show except one new retail customer who made a pretty large order!

As for the rest of our trip-- Michael A. had a room with a busted TV, so they moved him into a frigging huge suite with living room, sauna, balcony with a panoramic view of the whole city!  Im not angry about this....nawww.....   but I won't forget about this either.  He owes me one, since Im the guy who was able to get our rooms at half the going rate. (don't cha think he should've given me that room as a token of his gratitude for having saved the company hundreds of dollars?----no? I didnt think so....)

It was also blazing hot. 107 degrees on Tuesday.  People were cursing the heat as they struggled to pack up their stuff and move it out of the convention center.  The center had the worst system (none) for helping small exhibitors like us to move in and out.  We had to use regular elevators to move our stuff!
The line waiting for these two---yes two..... elevators were long and the wait was over a half hour.
THEN....we had to take another elevator, which was shut down.  A real mess!  Oh...and the people parked outside the DC convention center waiting to get packed up were all given parking tickets!

Nice, huh?

Oh well....the show is over and now it's just about to begin for us!  Stay tuned.

What a week!

Won't go into details, but we had a verrry promising week!  We met with some heavy hitters in the food biz who were willing....even eager to possibly do business with us.  John, our consultant, said that these meetings were some of the best he had ever sat in on. (and he's been in the business for something like 30 friggin years).

I think we're right there....right on the cusp of something big.  I feel it.  I just hope whatever it is, it makes us money.  We aren't even close to paying off our investment capital and it will be awhile before we start paying ourselves something.  But hey! You gotta pay if you wanna play.....!!

We're off to the Fancy Food Show in DC today.  Michael has been running around like a lunatic, and so have I --however in a far more relaxed and "everything is cool" kinda way.  "We're making a list and checking it twice.....gonna find out who's......"

We'll load up Michael's SUV and barrel down I-95, set up in the convention center this afternoon.  It's going to be a friggin zoo!  A bazillion exhibitors fighting for parking spots at the center to unload their foodie stuff. Sweating... cursing.... short nerves... sounds just lovely, doesn't it? Show starts tomorrow. It will be interesting. Three days of who knows what.  It will be exhausting. It will be a true learning experience....and it will be expensive.

Gee......wonder what we're forgetting?

Whole Foods....where art thou?

Lizbeth Lane Cuisine makes the finest simmer sauces in the solar system....right? Right. That's why it's so frustrating that it's taking a long time to be approved by Whole Foods.  We have waited 9 weeks so far.... three Phila. WF stores want our sauces in their stores. More will be lining up soon..... our vendor form was submitted by a local WF manager, which corporate needs to approve.

I mean, Whole Foods is a fantastic store and we are fantastic simmer sauces--a perfect marriage-- we're unique (and loved--like Whole Foods!)  Our sauces are quickly becoming staples in customer households!  We're not some weird, exotic glaze or marinade that might get purchased once a year.  Our fans purchase our sauces 2-3 times per month!  We're certainly NOT another pasta sauce (Oy! The world doesnt need another super duper pasta sauce--or another BBQ sauce...or salsa!)

So, we'll be patient and hope we get approval soon. Like within a week or two.  Remember, the food biz moves sssssslowwwwwlllllyyyyyyyy.....

Yikes!

First, Michael and I are getting excited about the upcoming NASFT Food Show in DC.  We have a ton of stuff to drag down there:  food, cooking equipment, displays, simmer sauces (duh) and our cool new shirts with our logo on them.  It's either going to be great or it's gonna be a bummer.  I think we'll be verrry successful! I know one thing for sure.....we're going to be exhausted when it's over.

DC bound

Hey, all you foodie folks out there... this is just to let you know that the greatest simmer sauces on earth (ours) will be in Washington DC for the NASFT Fancy Food Show.   We will be set up in the new products pavilion and will be demo-ing the hell out of our all natural AND GLUTEN FREE simmer sauces.  They are so delicious. You'll love them all at first bite.  So, if you are in the food business, be sure to stop by.  Looking to be represented by brokers and handled by distributors, too.  We will have order forms ready to fill in and will also have some tasty little discounts to offer new retail customers as well.
See you soon!

Gluten Free or not too free, that is the question

Well... Michael and I are breathing a sigh of relief today-and celebrated last night with fireworks, vodka and red wine.  You see, we have always been gluten free, however a business contact emailed us about a week ago and mentioned that our ingredient list on our superb and tasty Marsala simmer sauce contained malt extract.  UH OH!!!  Thats a wheat thing....UH OH!!  Holy S**t--we have a warehouse full of jars with labels that say gluten-free on them. This is not a good thing at all!  Another friggin obstacle to deal with that will end up costing us a friggin fortune to correct.

Michael and I freaked out a little because we hadn't actually tested our simmer sauces clinically to make sure they were gluten-free.  I mean, gluten intolerant customers had tried all our sauces and loved them all. No bloating, headaches or cramps or whatever happens to those with celiac disease.  Everyone reacts differently. We knew our ingredient lists- but somehow overlooked the malt extract in the Marsala simmer sauce. So, as a precaution, we uttered the words in unison, "We gotta get these babies tested--and tested FAST".

So we contacted a reputable lab and sent off our sauces to be tested for gluten levels. Then we sat and waited for the results. The results were emailed to us the next day in a lengthy report.  Tadahhhhhh...gluten allergens are all less than 5ppm!  I kissed my dog,  Max over and over. "We're gluten free Max--we're gluten free!" He looked at me like I was some blubbering idiot.  Well...I was at that moment.

We are now not only certified crazy for going into this business, we are now certified gluten-free!

It's spring already?

Rid here- Again, I apologize for not posting more often. Michael A. and I have been super busy moving this soon to be famous food company forward. It's a LOT of friggin work, thats for sure. We've been hustling our simmer sauces like mad.  Demos in stores.  Calling on reps and distributors. Even talking to exporters.  Gee, Lizbeth Lane in Japan.

Some things however haven't changed. For one, everyone is soooooooo slooooooww to get back to us. We get requests for samples and our super slick sales kits all the time from stores, reps and distibutors.  They all seem so excited when they ask us for our samples. So we bust our butts to ship them the goods.....then nothing.  No response. No followup. Nothing.  We call. They aren't in. We email. No reply.
If you're going into this business, be prepared for little if any response from all these folks who seem so interested in you. They will make you crazy.  Sometimes I think they just want free food...

But once in a blue moon, we get through to them and ask if they've tried our sauces. "No, not yet" they reply. Oh right, it's only been 6 friggin weeks since we've sent the samples!

The good news however, is that a lot of good stores are ordering. We also have reps who are covering territories in MN, ND, MI, WI and others who are coming on board soon.  We are also working with online wholesale portals, where stores can order through them--we pay a commission to the portal for sales.

We also just lined up our first distributor who will be covering PA, NJ, DE and MD.  We want to establish distribution in order to expand our brand into larger stores while selling to the smaller stores as well.  Our pricing is geared to compliment both markets.

Bottom line is this.... patience is a real virtue in the food biz. I have always dealt with deadlines in my advertising career-- gotta have it done by X date-- so this slow pace is killing me! When you combine the slow pace with the "Whack-a-mole" type of trying to find distributors-- there's one! Nope, he's gone--look another--where'd he go?--it can be torture....and costly.  You oughta see our UPS bill!!  Now I understand why it takes so long to turn a profit in this business-- you spend all your friggin money on shipping samples! Maybe we should charge them for the samples. Naaaahh.  
(Gee, wonder how they like our sauces?--we may NEVER know.)

Wow--what a ride so far.

Rid here:
Well folks, it's been a long, long time since we added to this blog. For a good reason though....we're extremely busy!  Michael A and I are jumping through so many hoops to drum up business and market ourselves to the trade, that I feel like I've joined a friggin circus.

I'm not sure where to even begin....  so I'll start at the beginning.

We started on our "get the word out" efforts by hiring marketing maven, Eileen Acello.  She's a foodie and has been marketing food items for a zillion years. She also teaches at St Josephs University in....tada... food marketing. wow.....   It seems like everywhere we go, there is someone who says they are in the food biz or know of someone in the food biz.  Totally amazing.

So, our first piece of business was with a great, 2 store chain of stores called, "A Taste of Olives". I called them out of the blue and they called back and said they wanted to place a pretty big order!  So Michael and I were running around like knuckleheads getting it all together.  We delivered the sauces and point of sale.
As it turns out, they sold the sauces in a matter of a few weeks and ordered more. People were actually buying our simmer sauces and loving them.  Hey, whats not to love, right?

We are in PA, NJ, MD. WA and more stores are calling every day!  (They saw our ad in the 2011 Gourmet Retailer Buyers Guide.)

We have done sampling in a few stores and have found that when people try them, they buy them.
I mean, people are going totally nuts for these sauces!  We had to do a second production run within weeks of our first sales.

We've also tightened up our accounting, inventory controls and have been able to reduce online shipping costs. UPS prices are a killer if you dont't make it to a threshold where prices drop considerably. And--did you know they charge an extra $2 to deliver to a residence?  Yup. They do.

Well, 2011 is the year in my mind where we will know whether these sauces fly or not. We are targeting volume sales by trying to get into upscale food chains like Whole Foods and Fresh Market.  We are also finding that being gluten-free is a really big deal.  Its opening up a whole new market for us as well. We are going to be picky though.  Our sauces are the finest out there. So the stores, whether brick & mortar or online, need to be the finest, too. We're hunting for reliable distributors, too. We are going to focus on the mid-atlantic area this year and "Go west" from there. (well, we certainly arent going east)

We are also working on a super secret line of gourmet pizza sauces.  Mind blowingly delicious and different than anything you'll find in stores.  We have a ways to go. Finessing and getting them on par with the simmer sauces.  These will not be your typical red sauces. Oh no......these are Lizbeth Lane Gourmet pizza sauces.  A whole new niche... a new world of "gourmet pizza saucedom".

Stay tuned. Stay hungry for more.