Rid: Well.... we did it. Finally. We have our prices and they are as low as they're gonna get. Amen. Michael A. and I are confident that this is the end of searching for the super low price for manufacturing our sauces. So we now move ahead.
Next comes what's called a batch test. This is where we create each of our four sauces in 3 gallon batches.
This is truly a critical stage. Because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, this is where the rubber meets the road--where the tongue meets the sauce- here's where the taste of each sauce will be finalized. Tweaked to be the sauce our sauce junkie customers will taste and hopefully love. Oh God....this is crunch time. They MUST be better than good. They MUST be fabulous. Will that take another friggin 2 months?
We are going to try and schedule the batch test for next week.
While we wait, we are also again on the move... I guess. We are still shooting for production in late August. Our fans are cheering us on. I'm working on designing point of sale items for the stores. Designing shelf talkers, decals for store windows, posters, etc., searching out suppliers for our spice display. Did I mention we were also coming out with recipe portioned spices? we're negotiating pricing and strategies with internet marketing specialists. We're finalizing contracts with the co-packer. Finalizing liability insurance coverage and costs. Hooking up with people who have been down this road and learning from them as we go. So making a sauce and selling it is simple...right? Hahaha.....ughh.
We are on a mission. We are going to give you a line of sauces that you will love. There is so much crap on the market these days. We are going to blow people's taste buds away! I guess you could say I am re-energized. I gotta admit, the price thing really got me down. The production price war was brutal but we survived. Now comes the batch test! Is ground hog day about to rear its ugly head again? Stay tuned.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
TGIS
Thank God it's Saturday! That's because my head exploded yesterday. Prices went up on two of the sauces. The co-packers hadn't called a great source we gave them for whatever they need for ingredients. Did they call them? No. Said they'd call them now since the prices went the wrong way.
See? People in this biz are amazing. We should be making sauces by now. They've known about this resource for ingredients since early June. WTF rules the roost these days......
See? People in this biz are amazing. We should be making sauces by now. They've known about this resource for ingredients since early June. WTF rules the roost these days......
Friday, July 23, 2010
The great crash of 2010.
Rid: Well....we're waiting. And waiting. Still a few details to work out with the ingredients. But I think today might be the day we get our new prices. We are ready. TGIF.
Enough of that though, two days ago, my computer crashed big time. Since I had the web design files, P.O.P. display designs, label designs, pricing info, correspondence and a million other important items on there, I was freaked. Michael A. would talk to me and it would just go right past me. "Huh?", I would respond. He might as well have been talking to a turnip. Ya see, I hadn't backed up a lot of these files in awhile. It was uh oh time---big time.
Well, my buddy, Randy, the MAC fixer came by yesterday to see what the problem was. I sat there like a scared child as he went through my drives and so on. "hmmmmm.....gee......hmmmmmm....".
"Shit Randy, don't say that. So Randy, am I a goner? Am I screwed, dead, done... out of business?"
"I'm not sure--" Randy replied. "Looks like you may have lost all your data----hmmmmm.....oh wait! You're okay! Your startup drive is fine!" I immediately went to my dog, Max, and gave him a big kiss on his nose. Bless you oh wonderful MAC guy Randy. Bless you.
Turns out I had a corrupt drive--not a primary drive- just one of four I had in my computer. Once it was replaced, we were back in business. (I was back in business). I was one happy camper.
Once I had finished hugging Randy, I told him that I was starting a food company with my neighbor. He quickly told me that his brother, Steve had been a friggin biggie in the food biz for years. Had started his own food business from scratch, had worked for Nestle's. Made a verrry handsome living in the biz of food.
Wow, it seems like every person I talk to has a relative or knows someone who's in this crazy business. I got steve's number from Randy because we'll be calling him to pick his brain and to get some insights and strategies from him. When we are ready to go to market, we will need to tread carefully. There are evil forces at work out there.... we will need guidance from people like Steve.
LESSON: CONNECT WITH EXPERIENCED FOOD PEOPLE TO LET THEM GUIDE YOU FORWARD. IT'S A NASTY BUSINESS AND THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE AND LARGE FOOD STORE CHAINS OUT THERE THAT WILL STEAL YOUR RECIPES, CONCEPTS, ETC. --ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE BIZ. PROTECT YOURSELF!
We also received a mockup for our spice display. Pretty cool. A cardboard shelf display for gourmet stores. Seemed to work well. Price is an issue however. Damn! It's tough to get these prices down when you're starting out because you don't want to by a large quantities of anything until you actually need to (AKA-getting orders). If we buy 500 spice displays now, the price will be great. But, what the hell are we gonna do with 500 displays? And where would we store the damn things anyway? We need maybe 50 to start with. Ughh.
LESSON: BE PREPARED TO OVERSPEND IN THE BEGINNING. SMALL QUANTITIES OF PRODUCTION, MARKETING MATERIALS, DISPLAYS, ETC. ARE GONNA HURT, CRUSHING YOUR MARGINS AND PROJECTIONS. BUT THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS. YA GOTTA SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY....YATTA YATTA......
LESSON : BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER DAILY.
Enough of that though, two days ago, my computer crashed big time. Since I had the web design files, P.O.P. display designs, label designs, pricing info, correspondence and a million other important items on there, I was freaked. Michael A. would talk to me and it would just go right past me. "Huh?", I would respond. He might as well have been talking to a turnip. Ya see, I hadn't backed up a lot of these files in awhile. It was uh oh time---big time.
Well, my buddy, Randy, the MAC fixer came by yesterday to see what the problem was. I sat there like a scared child as he went through my drives and so on. "hmmmmm.....gee......hmmmmmm....".
"Shit Randy, don't say that. So Randy, am I a goner? Am I screwed, dead, done... out of business?"
"I'm not sure--" Randy replied. "Looks like you may have lost all your data----hmmmmm.....oh wait! You're okay! Your startup drive is fine!" I immediately went to my dog, Max, and gave him a big kiss on his nose. Bless you oh wonderful MAC guy Randy. Bless you.
Turns out I had a corrupt drive--not a primary drive- just one of four I had in my computer. Once it was replaced, we were back in business. (I was back in business). I was one happy camper.
Once I had finished hugging Randy, I told him that I was starting a food company with my neighbor. He quickly told me that his brother, Steve had been a friggin biggie in the food biz for years. Had started his own food business from scratch, had worked for Nestle's. Made a verrry handsome living in the biz of food.
Wow, it seems like every person I talk to has a relative or knows someone who's in this crazy business. I got steve's number from Randy because we'll be calling him to pick his brain and to get some insights and strategies from him. When we are ready to go to market, we will need to tread carefully. There are evil forces at work out there.... we will need guidance from people like Steve.
LESSON: CONNECT WITH EXPERIENCED FOOD PEOPLE TO LET THEM GUIDE YOU FORWARD. IT'S A NASTY BUSINESS AND THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE AND LARGE FOOD STORE CHAINS OUT THERE THAT WILL STEAL YOUR RECIPES, CONCEPTS, ETC. --ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE NEW TO THE BIZ. PROTECT YOURSELF!
We also received a mockup for our spice display. Pretty cool. A cardboard shelf display for gourmet stores. Seemed to work well. Price is an issue however. Damn! It's tough to get these prices down when you're starting out because you don't want to by a large quantities of anything until you actually need to (AKA-getting orders). If we buy 500 spice displays now, the price will be great. But, what the hell are we gonna do with 500 displays? And where would we store the damn things anyway? We need maybe 50 to start with. Ughh.
LESSON: BE PREPARED TO OVERSPEND IN THE BEGINNING. SMALL QUANTITIES OF PRODUCTION, MARKETING MATERIALS, DISPLAYS, ETC. ARE GONNA HURT, CRUSHING YOUR MARGINS AND PROJECTIONS. BUT THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS. YA GOTTA SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY....YATTA YATTA......
LESSON : BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER DAILY.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Crazy Dave to the rescue
Met with Dave this morning at a local foodstore. He had a concern about the updated recipe breakdown of ingredients created by our new co-packer. We worked it out in no time--and will ask the R&D guy there (hairnet guy) to confirm and/or revise as necessary. When the meeting was over, I was going to ask Dave how to pronounce his partner's last name--just for fun. But didn't. Tomorrow is a good bet that we'll get our new and improved prices. Tonight we pray.
IF the prices are good and translate to a good retail price point, our next step will be to move ahead and produce a 3 gallon batch of each sauce. This test will firm up what each sauce will actually taste like when made in larger production batches. This is where we have to finesse the recipes to make sure they taste fabulous.
This is it. We either love 'em or blow our brains out. It's crunch time. Pass the Immodium time.
LESSON: WHAT YOU MAKE IN YOUR KITCHEN AT HOME AINT GONNA TASTE THE SAME AS SOMETHING COOKED IN A HUGE 100 GALLON KETTLE. THE TRICKY PART IS GETTING IT AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE.
Stay tuned:
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Waiting for our co-packing prices
Rid: Just a quick bit of news while we wait for our new low prices from our co-packer...Our company, Lizbeth Lane Cuisine is also getting ready to sell a collection of hard to find spices that are sold in RECIPE SIZED portions! No need to buy a whole jar of some weird spice for $8 when all you need is a teaspoon! Our spices will be sold in gourmet food stores and on our site in 2 tsp. pouches. Cool, huh? This idea all came about when I needed a spice for a recipe I was trying. It called for 1 tsp. of Tumeric. I went to the store--saw what a jar cost and said, "fuhhhhget it". Im not spending that kind dough for a spice I'll use maybe twice in my lifetime. That's when I had that "aha" moment. Michael and I agreed this was something to pursue. What do you think? Leave a comment.
So, we are working with crazy Dave ( the guy who isn't sure how to pronounce his partner's name) to bring these recipe portion spices to the market. Stay tuned....
And now the real story…
Michael A. here. Yes, Mr. Calm, the Suit, the sane one in the partnership. Well, that’s not completely true as I’m sure time will reveal. Just ask anyone who knows me.
But anyway, back to the “story”.
Back in the fall of ‘09 I suddenly became unemployed from my job as the COO of a healthcare company. No the business wasn’t suffering in the economic downturn (its healthcare!) and no I didn’t F-up or steal the petty cash. It was all about personality, ego, narcissism, etc... And none of it mine. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all about it. After 30 ish years in healthcare I decided to take some time and recharge my batteries, spend time with the kids, maybe reinvent myself? When we first told the kids I had lost my job, “Dad, you got fired?!?!?” And explained why I couldn’t sue the bastard “honey, that’s the way the business world is”. My daughter looked across the table an earnestly said “Dad, what do you like to do?” Wow, pretty insightful for an 11 year old! And that started me thinking about that reinventing thing. Oh, and we also got a dog because now “Dad is home and he can train it”. Someday maybe I’ll talk more about that!
But anyway, back to the “story”.
So here I am in February ’10, outside picking up dog poop, talking with my neighbor Rid. Rid is a great neighbor to have, a bit crazy (hey he shoots fireworks over the fence towards my house!) laid back (so I thought) friendly, easy going, blah, blah blah… and we have gotten along very well ever since they moved next door 8 years ago. Even more so since I got that snow blower this winter.
So we’re talking “Jeez, I (we) wish I (we) could do something different for the rest of my (our) lives. I’m (We’re) tired of _______ (healthcare, advertising, etc) what could I (we) do something that we’d really enjoy? “Well, we both really love food.” “Yeah, but we’re too old to become professional cooks, plus the pay and hours suck.” “And we really DON”T want to go in to the restaurant business, that really SUCKS.” And so the conversations went on for awhile. Then one day Rid calls me up and says “I got it…simmer sauces…we’ll be rich!” and that got my attention. Hey, I used to have a 6 figure + salary now I have a 3 figure unemployment check. “Honey, don’t quit your day job!”
So we start researching sauces, visiting grocery stores (well we pretty much do that everyday anyway, just ask our wives). Search the net (Rid’s an expert at that, he comes up with all kinds of strange s**t). But we couldn't find anything close to our idea. Actually Rid’s. He created the idea, give credit where credit is due! So we decided to start a company and give it a go. Of course, now we need to name the company. Days and days of Rid coming up with one name after another…finally I said, why don’t we keep it simple and just name it after our street? Next day Rid comes back and says your right, let’s keep it simple! So I created the name of the company. Hey, give credit where credit is due!
Gotta go pick up more dog poop but I’ll be back to continue the “real story”…
But anyway, back to the “story”.
Back in the fall of ‘09 I suddenly became unemployed from my job as the COO of a healthcare company. No the business wasn’t suffering in the economic downturn (its healthcare!) and no I didn’t F-up or steal the petty cash. It was all about personality, ego, narcissism, etc... And none of it mine. Maybe someday I’ll tell you all about it. After 30 ish years in healthcare I decided to take some time and recharge my batteries, spend time with the kids, maybe reinvent myself? When we first told the kids I had lost my job, “Dad, you got fired?!?!?” And explained why I couldn’t sue the bastard “honey, that’s the way the business world is”. My daughter looked across the table an earnestly said “Dad, what do you like to do?” Wow, pretty insightful for an 11 year old! And that started me thinking about that reinventing thing. Oh, and we also got a dog because now “Dad is home and he can train it”. Someday maybe I’ll talk more about that!
But anyway, back to the “story”.
So here I am in February ’10, outside picking up dog poop, talking with my neighbor Rid. Rid is a great neighbor to have, a bit crazy (hey he shoots fireworks over the fence towards my house!) laid back (so I thought) friendly, easy going, blah, blah blah… and we have gotten along very well ever since they moved next door 8 years ago. Even more so since I got that snow blower this winter.
So we’re talking “Jeez, I (we) wish I (we) could do something different for the rest of my (our) lives. I’m (We’re) tired of _______ (healthcare, advertising, etc) what could I (we) do something that we’d really enjoy? “Well, we both really love food.” “Yeah, but we’re too old to become professional cooks, plus the pay and hours suck.” “And we really DON”T want to go in to the restaurant business, that really SUCKS.” And so the conversations went on for awhile. Then one day Rid calls me up and says “I got it…simmer sauces…we’ll be rich!” and that got my attention. Hey, I used to have a 6 figure + salary now I have a 3 figure unemployment check. “Honey, don’t quit your day job!”
So we start researching sauces, visiting grocery stores (well we pretty much do that everyday anyway, just ask our wives). Search the net (Rid’s an expert at that, he comes up with all kinds of strange s**t). But we couldn't find anything close to our idea. Actually Rid’s. He created the idea, give credit where credit is due! So we decided to start a company and give it a go. Of course, now we need to name the company. Days and days of Rid coming up with one name after another…finally I said, why don’t we keep it simple and just name it after our street? Next day Rid comes back and says your right, let’s keep it simple! So I created the name of the company. Hey, give credit where credit is due!
Gotta go pick up more dog poop but I’ll be back to continue the “real story”…
Up at 5:15AM to go food shopping?
Uh oh.... the crazy syndrome that runs rampant in the food biz might be working its way into my life. I got up about an hour ago (5:15AM) in order to be one of the first people to visit the new Wegman's foodstore in Malvern, PA. This store is HUGE. They have even got a pub/restaurant in the place so the husband can throw down a few beers while the missus shops! Movies for kids, too! A friggin village theme marketplace that sells hot foods, bake goods, ethnic foods, etc.
Well, I want to check them out.... after all, our Simmer Sauces deserve to be only on the finest store shelves. Is Wegman's a store we want to talk to about carrying our collection? Maybe not.
LESSON: DON'T CONFUSE BEING NUTS WITH HAVING PASSION. IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU'LL NEVER WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE.
Check previous posts in our blog archive
Well, I want to check them out.... after all, our Simmer Sauces deserve to be only on the finest store shelves. Is Wegman's a store we want to talk to about carrying our collection? Maybe not.
LESSON: DON'T CONFUSE BEING NUTS WITH HAVING PASSION. IF YOU LOVE WHAT YOU DO, YOU'LL NEVER WORK A DAY IN YOUR LIFE.
Check previous posts in our blog archive
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