New Year New Direction!

**tormat** · Jan 31st, 2013, 01:21 PM

So having too much time with no movement at all, many projects started and none with any real movement in them, and just being sick with my life and myself, I decided to do something I haven’t done before. START! And I mean really start.

I have a product, its mustard sauce. It’s really good. There is nothing on the market like it. So the only ways to know if it’s any good, let people try it. I gave out about 10 jars in November. I gathered all the feedback I could, it was used at parties for the holidays and it came back with great reviews.

That went well. But that was November. That’s as far as any of my project usually make it. And I stalled for the entire month of December. I had people asking to by my mustard and I was doing nothing about it. I looked into the laws, and saw that it would be hard to do it legal, so I panicked. I did nothing.

But then someone said something to me. Nothing original, but it still is profound. “Why don’t you just make some and bring it into the office and sell it.” That’s it. I asked myself why not? So I did. My goal was to get some in before Christmas, and I made 22 jars of it and brought it in. I sold out. I sold out in 1 day. That’s a success! But that is not a stopping point!

The next thing was to look at the local laws and regulations again. I am in the US, and I am in California (we regulate everything to death!), but a new law was going to go into effect Jan 1 that would allow me to produce mustard in my home kitchen legally with only some minor restrictions! I applied for the permit under this new law on Jan 2. I have been pushing through the permit process hard up until last week; I made it through all the environmental health regulations and only have the planning department to go. Then I can sell in stores or anywhere else I want (though there are some restrictions, one is a big one, but its regional permit and not sales permit for the state).

I made a second batch of 56 jars 2 weeks ago and have sold half of it to the same people! I have sold 50 jars so far to the same 50 people in less than 1 month.

But that is where I have been, and that doesn’t help me.

My goal is to be in the local grocery store by the end of February month, in order to do that I have to:

-- get my permit finalized
-- site map
-- planning paper work
-- get labels printed
-- find a new 8 oz jar
-- talk to the grocery store
-- get insurance

The next stage is the long term goals:

I want to outgrow the permit I am working on finalizing. It has a $35k gross income limit to is per year. So I want to use this permit to test the larger market and pay the expenses to get the state sales permit (or federal, I have not researched this too much), with should be $6-9k including the professional kitchen.

Update the website to sell online (again the local permit restricts this, yah food…)

Talk to some restaurants to use my mustard sauce.

Get into a grocery chain.

Automate (outsource) the labor.

Create a second flavor.

I am posting on here so that I have put this all in writing and out for others to help me stay accountable and to help me achieve my goals.

Will you help me?

**Amail** · Jan 31st, 2013, 01:51 PM

Congratulations - sounds like you've got something viable there!

I know very little about the food industry. I looked into it a year or so ago when considering making my wife's awesome carrot cake for sale. You can rent out commercial kitchens if you're jammed up with the gross sales limits. It's cheaper than buying/building one and will be a good stopgap measure when the time comes.

Getting your product onto shelves is going to be very difficult. Shelf space, and shelf height, are all tightly controlled and hotly contested things. You may be better served looking for a specialty distributor - that's their job.

**McNandez** · Jan 31st, 2013, 02:12 PM

I'm not sure what kind of grocery chain you're thinking of getting into, but you might want to look into other shops as well. As Amail said, shelf space in the big chains is tightly controlled.

When you mentioned "mustard", that made me think of bar or BBQ food. I like mustard, but only seem to have it with stuff like pretzels or hot dogs - if I were to try your product, I would likely need to run into it at places like BevMo, or my local microbrew shop. I live in Los Angeles, though, so there are lots of places like that around. YMMV depending on where you are.

**tormat** · Jan 31st, 2013, 02:32 PM

I understand how hard it is to get on a shelf in a grocery store, but that’s why it’s the big goal. It also has the biggest distribution. I have no idea on how to do it yet.

I hope to be back filling that goal with specialty shops; it should also help grow the demand. I already had one specialty shop ask to have the mustard as an exclusive. (huge complement, bad business idea)

I don’t think there is as much money in specialty shops, unless they are high traffic, and then they have to be addressed one at a time.

The idea of using a specialty distributor is a great idea Amail! I didn’t think about having someone else do the leg work on that!

McNandez this mustard is more of a BBQ sauce. In the Carolinas they use mustard as the base to some of their BBQ sauces and this is inspired from that.

**tormat** · Feb 5th, 2013, 04:50 PM

I had a great day yesterday!

Got the last of the paperwork filed! (that turned out to be a bigger headache then I expected)
Got the site plan finished and submitted!
Got some tester Jars ordered!

Thats like half my list for the month!

**campbellronald7** · Feb 8th, 2013, 07:39 AM

Congrats, go ahead with the ideas in your mind.

**tormat** · Mar 4th, 2013, 10:50 AM

Okay, first of March is here and I have made progress. Never as much as I hoped, but government slowed me down.

I finally got my permits! (2 days ago... they took everyday the law allows them to take)
Found a source for my jars and cut my costs on the jars below $.56 per jar (when I was at $1.10)-- orders 250 jars for first batch.
Finalizing my label now, should have them ordered this week.

The goals for March is to have 3 stores selling my product, and on the shelves!
Put product in the 3 people that I have wanting to sell the product for me.
sell 250 jars!

I need to come up with a UPC label, anyone give me any direction on this?

**andyredsox** · Mar 6th, 2013, 02:16 AM

Just continue what you are doing right now. Stay focus, always think about your goal, and do whatever you like to achieve that goal. Good luck, and congratulations, I hope to hear from your achievements.

**tormat** · Apr 2nd, 2013, 04:09 PM

OK April update time!

Just got back from a trip in the Caribbean, though it came at a bad time for the business, I am not letting it slow me down.

I am scheduled to meet with the buyers from 5 markets this week. I have the product at 100% ready and have cases standing by, though the markets might have some of their own requirements.

I also have shows scheduled for the next 4 months and will be at shows selling direct (to brand and create demand for the stores)

I have not figured out my UPC symbol yet, not sure that it will be worth spending $750 a year for up front, till I have sold more.

If anyone could give me any insight on the UPC side of things I would be appreciative.

Goals for this month:
Get into 3 market shelves.
Sell 5 cases to markets.
Sell 5 cases at shows.

**tormat** · Apr 4th, 2013, 10:58 AM

Ok, coming back from a vacation, my goals are way off base and don’t match my real motivation.
I already sold 2 cases and got into 2 stores in the last 2 days.

I need goals that will push me.
Though I want to build out at a good rate but I do not to ever want to have to tell my wholesale market that I am out of stock if I can help it. (Or I don’t want to plan to be out of stock)

The new goals for the month:
Get into 6 stores (on the shelves)
Sell 10 cases to stores
Sell 5 cases at shows
Find better source for ingredients

I know this is not a huge shift in goals, but at the moment it is large for me. Not only am I doing all the marketing but I am also making the product (and working a job). My suppliers are slow at the moment and take over a week to get ingredients, sometimes as long as two weeks. This will be the hardest task because it also directly effects costs, though I am hoping that I will be able to lower my costs with this move.

**Determined2012** · Apr 4th, 2013, 01:17 PM

I think you can get the UPC barcode for $3... Scroll through Vigilante's thread on I'm addicted to automatic bank deposits...

**tormat** · May 13th, 2013, 01:36 PM

Looks like my May post is late.

So, update first. Good news bad news, I met all my goals, I guess that means they are not advanced enough. I need to be sure I am getting stretched in my goals.

So I have sold almost 40 cases (we are half way through May now…)
We have product in 6 stores.

I have found one additional supplier for the ingredients, but still would feel better with one or two more; I really want to drop my first supplier.

Due to lack of supplies, we really got slowed down on the amount of product we could make and the stores we could grow into. We do have three products now (really three sizes) and have sold all three.

I am going to wimp out for the month of May though (even though I just stated I need to set higher goals) and try to build of my stock to 15 cases on hand (most ever had was nine and I sold six the next day). This is to get ready for a major store push in June and try to get 10 stores all selling more than one size.

I am also starting to look at a larger facility and permits. More stock will help with the costs involved with this and seeing that I am to the point that the next case sold will bring me to the break even on the cash side of things it’s time to get that capital moving again. (Not completely true, because I have not paid for my supplies from revenue yet, it’s all on credit)

So I need help on setting goals that push me. And motivate me as well.