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?
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
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.....
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.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
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!
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!
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!
Friday, April 1, 2011
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.)
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.)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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.
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.
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