Blurg.

So, like I mentioned, there's this large, regional grocery chain I've been trying to get into. The one that turned us down twice so far.

I mailed a package a few weeks ago, only to find out there was a new candy buyer in the corporate office. I hadn't thought to call to find out who the candy buyer was because the old candy buyer had been there awhile, and I had just communicated with her before Christmas. But just in case, I called to make sure the new person received the package.

She hadn't gotten it yet, and I was more than a little anxious because I had overnighted it a week earlier with ice packs since their headquarters is in North Carolina. Needless to say, I justified that expense the first time around, but to do it again wasn't exactly top on my list.

I called today, and luckily got through to the actual person, instead of the waste land that is voice mail, and spoke with her regarding the package. Luckily, she had gotten it.

However, they are not interested at this time. What were the reasons?

1.) The pretzels don't have UPC codes, which is a requirement. Here's the tricky part about that statement. UPC codes cost over $700, and that doesn't count all of my product, or the special program you need to do your own UPC codes. And, this particular company is the only company to request UPC codes, which makes it a bit of a gamble. Now, of course, having the codes would enable me to pursue other stores, but most are too big for us right now, like Target, Borders, etc, so this was the smallest big option we had. If we got the codes and they still turned us down, then that money was spent for nothing. (for now anyway)

2.) They have two pretzel lines already that are doing well, and don't have room for another one. Now this I can understand. But, I had to ask them if these pretzels had caramel on them. All she could say was that they do a variety of things. I know what pretzels she is talking about and they are nothing like ours. You have no idea how many times someone tells me, "Oh, so and so sells a pretzel now, and it's EXACTLY like yours." I rush right over to see who my competition is and guess what? There is a scrawny pretzel rod, barely covered in chocolate with a few haphazardly dropped confetti pieces on them, usually sold 2 for a dollar or something like that. The weight of two of those is usually less than half the weight of one of my 4" pretzels.

These two reasons are way better than if she would have said, "I've had better candy from a vending machine!" but they still mean we have some work ahead of us before we play with the big dogs. Not a horrible position to be in, but darn it wouldn't it be so much fun to not have to work so hard at something??? That's a joke. I know things worth having are worth working for, but haven't I worked pretty hard at this one account? OR maybe these no's are telling me that this isn't the direction to go, yet.

We're pretty busy as it is, and with no actual employees, it's kind of amazing we do this much. Maybe once we have a few more vendors added to our growing list, we'll be in a position to hire full time people, which would ultimately allow us to get bigger accounts.

Who knows what is going to be that thing that takes us to the next level, but we're looking for it any place we can.

Still makes me nervous

I don't understand it. I have been selling these little pretzels o' mine for almost 5 years now, and every time I approach a new vendor I get nervous.

I picked up the phone today to dial a few numbers. I had a very small list of about 10 stores I wanted to contact. That first number always makes my stomach gurgle. If that one goes well, I'm usually good for the rest of the calls. But, today, almost every number I called I had to leave a message.

Either they were not there, or the manager was tied up at the moment, but not getting an actual answer can make it hard to be upbeat for the next call.

I think I did okay, but I have several to call back, and several to wait for calls from. One doesn't have air conditioning, and so chocolate isn't exactly a good fit right now. And two don't carry local products. Kind of a bummer, but it's a start.

I think the more places that carry the pretzels, the more they become recognizable.

I'm going to mail out some other packages Monday for some of the larger chains I mentioned. See, now that doesn't make me nervous.

Distributorships

Up until now, the way I've gotten my product into stores has simply been to send them some. Nine times out of ten, they try the pretzels, and they are ready to carry them in the store.



There have been a few times when I've been asked about bar codes and displays, which left me doing some massive research on the internet. These were usually solved easily without me having to actually change things on my end, which was a relief.



But, the other day I contacted Borders to see about getting my product considered for their stores. I'm currently trying to get into a few national chains, in hopes of getting at least one, and I'd even take a few stores in one, not all the stores, if they were open to that.



Borders had a different approach to it than I'm used to however. Normally I get a response that gives me directions to follow. Some want you to submit product, others just want pictures. But Borders wants me to go through a distributor.



A rep for their stores emailed me this:

"The use of distributors and wholesalers is strongly recommended, so a complete list of distribution channels should be included with your submission. A submission will only be acknowledged if a buyer wishes to purchase it and we can't obtain it through any of our current vendors."



Since my first thought was "is that English?" I decided I may not be ready for Borders yet.



I started searching for distributors online, but even that is pretty greek. So for now, I think I'll stick to the places that only require me to submit samples and/or photos.



I'm going to rely on baby steps to get me to the place where I'll actually understand what a distributor does and how to go about getting one.



Until then, I'll keep plugging away.

Fail big or go home

I've been hearing/reading a lot lately about failure in business. It peaks my interest, because I, like many business owners, struggle with fear of failure.


Donny Deutsch, God of entrepreneurial dream making, discusses this topic frequently with his guests. Most of them agree that you have to fail. In fact, most say you can't really succeed unless you fail.


Then, I read an except from a book called Bounce by Barry J. Moltz, in my BeE magazine. He says that "business leaders and entrepreneurs must acknowledge and even value failure as a natural part of the business cycle so they can anticipate, acknowledge, and recover from blows."


Wow. This sort of ties in with my very first post about holding my nose and jumping. Sometimes you can't know what's around the corner, and that's okay. Because the alternative is KNOWING what's around the corner. If everything is laid out for you and there are no more surprises, good or bad, would that make life better? I'm not so sure.


While most people don't like bad things to happen to them, failure included, most people would agree that failure and hardships do show you what you're made of. The more you can get through, the more you feel confident in what's waiting for you around that corner.


I read a book once, Growing a Business, from the guy who started Smith and Hawken. In it, he discusses how he feared each day and what problems would come with it. Each day a situation would arise that would seem like a crisis, but by the end of each day he had solved the crisis.


Finally, it dawned on him that every day there would be something to hit head on. He went to the office saying, "What problem can we solve today!?" With this new attitude he was able to take on tasks easily without worry, and most importantly it freed his mind up to think about new positive things, since he didn't have to worry about what was to come.


Being an entrepreneur/business owner is certainly interesting and challenging and entertaining. There's never a dull moment.


Embrace failure for what it is, and do what is necessary to get your busienss to the finish line.

Most recently, while watching Meet the Robinsons with my sons, (which I believe has the best message of any kid movie with its motto of "Keep moving forward") I heard a simple, yet powerful thing. One of the older siblings in the future said, after Lewis had failed at fixing the peanut butter and jelly shooter, "That's okay. "From failure, you learn. Success, not so much."


I've had multiple business that didn't go anywhere, but they were all half hearted attempts at something I didn't have my heart in anyway. However, each of those failures taught me something that I have used in DipSticks. I have taken each lesson learned and applied as often as possible in this adventure.

Nobody knows what's around the corner, and I'm okay with that. I hope it involves producing the most unique, high quality gourmet pretzels in the world, but if it ends up being diaper duty at the retirement home, I'm cool with that. Knowing me, I'd probably figure out a way to turn that into a business, too.

Keep on failing!

Good Reviews

The new hang tags have officially begun their entrance into the retail marketplace!

We dropped several turtle pretzels with the new hang tags at a few select Hallmark stores a few weeks ago, and the reviews have been great!

Customers are commenting on the nice, upscale look, as are the mangers of the stores. What a compliment, and very encouraging. It's not much fun to go to the trouble to create something new only for it to be received poorly. So, it's nice indeed to get such a positive response.

Next I will be sending some samples of our marshmallows and pretzel bark to the owner of the 6 Hallmark stores we are in in hopes of them picking up the whole line for mothers day!

I've also been including sample marshmallows in my shipments lately, and have been getting very encouraging feedback on those as well!

Looking forward to what comes next!!!

The Politics of Pricing

Deciding how to price my products has probably been the hardest thing to do. The age old battle of underpricing to get huge orders or pricing high so you can make money on small orders is a constant issue with DipSticks.


The pretzels themselves don't necessarily have expensive ingredients in them, so why do I charge $3.50 for the small 2 ounce pretzel, and $7.00 for the 4 ouncer? Well, time is money. And I spend a great deal of time on these.


Most people don't realize that the 50 cent candy bar, or the chocolate covered pretzels that are 3 for $1 that they're buying in the store are mass produced. They churn out millions of these per hour on a huge, ridiculously expensive conveyer belt based machine. In a lot of cases, no hands ever touch these candy items. No personal attention is ever given to them, they are just products to be manufactured for the masses, in turn for huge profits.


DipSticks, however, is very hands on. We hand apply every label (or hopefully soon, every hang tag), we hand dip the pretzels into caramel, hand dip said pretzels into random tasty ingredients, and then...you saw this coming....hand dip them into chocolate, sprinkle cute toppings on by hand, and drizzle adorable, artsy fartsy little chocolate swirls on each one. Then, once these hand dipped pretzels have set, we place each one in a cellophane bag, by hand. Then, each bag is sealed and trimmed by a machine....that we use our hands to operate (you thought you had me on that one didn't you?). And finally, each one of these babies are hand tied with raffia.


So, you see, lots and lots of time, and personal attention are given to each and every one of our items. We don't want to scare people off with our pricing, but we also don't want to make these for free. We hope people appreciate the very hand made nature of our products, and that we put love and care into each one. A trend does seem to be appearing that indicates consumers are appreciating, not only hand made items, but local items as well. I hope that trend remains, because I for one love a unique hand made item and would pick it before any mass produced candy bar any day.


While our pretzel pricing is pretty much set, our Caramel Apple pricing is still a little up in the air.


In comparison, DeBrands charges $20-$25 for their caramel apples. Mrs. Prindable charges $20-$26 per apple, while Amy's Candy Kitchen sells her apples in the range of $12 for a simple apple up to $16 for more decadent ones. Each of these apples weigh the same as ours, some are more decorative, some are less.


We are thinking of charging $12-$15 for our Caramel Apples. They weigh 1 pound, 2 ounces, are completely rolled in ingredients, and completely drenched in chocolate. (some of the above mentioned apples aren't completely covered in chocolate).


Does this price seem fair? We can make 200 pretzels in the same amount of time it takes to make 30 apples, just to give you a reference. (with that calculation, technically the apples should be $20)


Our Dippity Do Dahs are sold 4 to a package. We're leaning towards charging $2.50 for this, even though the total weight is 2 ounces, which is what the $3.50 single pretzel weighs. These take less time though, and are using leftover pretzels, so we can justify the lower price.

Keep in mind, too, that when selling these items wholesale, our clients want to charge double. So, when deciding the price for our items, we also have to take into account that we'll get half that for wholesale orders. We make far less per pretzel, but it is usually made up in the quantity.

Pricing isn't easy. You don't want to overprice, but you obviously have to make some kind of profit, or you'll never grow. We don't want to price ourselves out of business, especially since we're still very unknown and have lots of opportunity to grow.


A delicate job, but a necessary one that hopefully we will succeed at, without alienating ourselves.

What do you think? How does the quality of a hand made item rank in your buying lifestyle? Do you have recommendations or other pricing strategies? Let me know in the comment section!

Chicago Mart

The Chicago Gift and Home Mart is the Midwestern mecca for anyone with a product to sell.

Only buyers are invited to attend, and thousands show up to see what's new and exciting that they just have to order for their store or business.

For about two years I've been on the fence about being an exhibitor. It's not cheap. To rent a booth is expensive enough, but then you have decorations and travel costs, not to mention lodging and food for two days.

I was uncomfortable about spending that much, but more than that, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle all the orders. (such a horrible problem to have, I know)

To take some of the enigma out of this event, my husband/business partner and I traveled to Chicago on the coldest day of the year in January to see what all the fuss was about.

We spent a few hours just rambling around isles. We took some photos of booth decor ideas, and talked with a few business owners. After it was all said and done, we felt ready to tackle this.

So, for my next "hold your nose and jump" moment we are gathering ideas and moxie and headin' for the Chicago Mart in July. The very worst that could happen is I come back empty handed with a big chunk of change missing from my bank account, but the best thing is that I leave with tons of orders, a bunch of new clients, hopefully some friends or mentors, and most importantly the feeling of knowing I did it.

I'll keep you posted on the details involved with getting prepared for this event. Should be a fun ride...

Holding my nose and jumping...

So, I was watching my favorite TV show last night, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, and Jeff Foxworthy was on. He said, "You have to have moments in your life when you hold your nose and jump in" and it really rang true for me.

I started DipSticks Gourmet Pretzels the Christmas after Joshua was born. I was a breastfeeding, baby wearing, attachment parenting newbie, and never let my kids "cry it out". What does that have to do with anything? Well, I made my first HUGE order of 300 pretzels while he was just 9 months old and needed my attention every 2 hours at the very least. Sometimes I would have him in his baby bjorn while I dipped and dolloped. Other times, I just crashed on the couch for a nap with him.

It took me over a week to make all of those (I can make that in a day now!) and thought I never wanted to make another pretzel again in my life.

Fortunately for me I had a great mentor who reminded me that I wouldn't always be the one making the pretzels, and that someday I'd be able to focus on the more creative/anal retentive aspects of the business that I'm more suited for. So, I forged ahead.

Today, 4 1/2 years and one more son later, I now regularly take orders of 700 or more with no qualms. However, I have done it the safe way for far too long!

I believe it's time for me to hold my nose and jump in. I'm not exactly sure what that will mean, but this blog post is my first step. I hope to chronicle here, not only my adventures in business, but also in life.

Certainly we must make plunges in life as well. What is living if it's not to feel alive? So, with that I will say tata, until I blog again, and let the universe take it from here....