I would first like to thank each and everyone on the board here for sharing their thoughts, opinions and at times, guidance. The community here has made tremendous impact on my life and to which I am greatly indebted and thankful.
As most people here, I am looking to take back control in my life. Not that I’m hell bent but definitely more motivated now than ever before in my life. When I was younger, I used to think “there has to be a better way†but as I’ve matured (im going to be 37) I’ve learned that “there has to be a more rewarding wayâ€.
Through an odd series of events and often comical circumstances, I purchased a failing startup through an acquaintance.
It all started early 2000’s, I had been invited along on a road trip down south with a group of very successful business owners. Our common thread was motorcycles and we were headed to Daytona for bike week. The whole entire trip, we ate trail mix. We ate good, bad but often times ugly trail mix along the way….and in case you’ve never noticed, trail mix is expensive. Anyway, on the long and grueling ride home, the guys were talking about starting their own trail mix company. They all had very strong personalities and were very competitive in nature. The whole entire time it was discussed their focus was on a high end, quality product. Being interested in being a part of something of this nature interested me and said I would be interested with what little cash on hand I had at the time. I was not taken to seriously though. Not sure if it was because I was a blue color worker or not but I was determined to be a part…somehow. I even thought about a name for this venture and had blurted it out. They loved it.
That would be the last I saw or heard from these guys in a long while. I then bumped into one of the guys and he said ‘hey, so and so and I started a trail mix company and we named it happy trails trail mix. This really is not the name and was changed to protect the guilty. Hahaha. Anyway, I was like yeah great…. thanks for letting me in on it and your welcome for giving you the cool name. I felt defeated!
Everywhere I went, someone was talking about happy trails. Everyone in my circle was talking about it. Kinda pissed me off. I looked at everything they did, their packaging, their marketing and said I could do better. They cheese balled it and they acted like a bunch of a$$ clowns. They were a local success and did not take it much farther than online sales and a few convenience stores. Not that I had formal experience, just real world knowledge and some common sense. I knew I could do better and really make something of it.
Time passed and I kept coming back to the thought of showing them up. I started to research websites and ecommerce systems, the market and audience, suppliers, food handling laws, packaging equipment, etc. I started to purchase small amounts of products and developed my own blend and handed it out to my friends to see what they thought. I printed out different names on a vision board and looked at it for months, all waiting for it to come to me. All in an effort to launch my own brand and directly compete with them for market share.
Then one day the phone rang….it was a friend of a friend of the “acquaintances†who said ‘hey…I heard that one of the guys sold out his share of the business which he felt was more of a hobby to concentrate on his very successful business of many years. I then called the other partner and said I heard that his partner sold out and was interested in purchasing the entire company. He was shocked but after some back peddling, he said he would put a number together and get back to me.
A few days had passed and he called to set up a lunch meeting to discuss. He was a sweet talker. He could sell snow to an Eskimo. He talked about all the assets and top line revenue. That’s all well and good but show me the financials! Who are your suppliers? For some reason I did not get the warm and fuzzy and shook on “we’d be in touchâ€. About 6 months passed and I had been ignoring the few calls and emails he made.
“I need to know right away because I have someone else interested at asking price but told them You had first right and refusal†was the icing on the cake. I immediately called him back and offered him a ridiculous number and called him out on the fact that he had no one. For some reason I just felt I needed to flex my muscle. This guy was the poster boy for being a clown. He laughed at me and we ended our conversation. A few days later he called me back with a counter offer. I said that I would no longer honor my offer therefore cannot consider his counter offer. He then asked me where I was at and replied with a number even lower than my first offer. It was an embarrassing moment for me when the number came out of my mouth so I followed it up with, sign over 100 pct of the LLC stock to me, website, product and accounts. Everything but the financials. I don’t want them as its obviously not doing well.
He agreed! And a few days later there I was in a parking lot of the bank where their account was signing over all the paperwork. Then it was off to the local watering hole with my better half for a celebratory drink. Good things were to come!
So it’s been two years since that day in the parking lot and have made a lot of progress, learned quite a bit and forged many friendships. We rebranded with a more professional logo and website, trademarked the name, obtained insurance, outsourced production and packaging to another company who was better equipped and have gotten this into one local convenience store. I’ve researched and test marketed different price points and portion size. We are making enough money to cover our expenses every month and at the end of last year we started to see the numbers go into the black. Not drawing a salary by any means but is going in a positive direction.
While I am very proud of what we have done without any formal training or experience, we are not only successful but are doing much better than the last owner ever dreamed of doing himself. I have been in the holding pattern now as I formulate our next series of actions to bring our product to market and bring the business to the next step and hit it big. Admittedly, I’ve been stalled. I have outlined a few items that needs to be accomplished but not sure how to execute or the best way to execute.
I was deeply affected by the passing of Steve Jobs. I often admired him and for the brand to be marching to their own beat. I’ve sorta been the same way. My own beat plays 24/7 and of which I can only hear apparently. Ive been asked what I am dancing to and would reply with my hand cupped to the ear….you don’t hear the music?... Anyway, as you have seen, there has been so many snippets, interviews, videos and other great things that has been flashing all over TV, Radio and the net. And there it was… that ray of light from the clouds. An interview where Steve had said “Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people.â€
This was it, what I had to do! I had to reach back out to my fast lane family. I needed to share my story so that others can garner whatever might be found useful for their own trek, perhaps some entertainment value and ultimately with the hopes of seeing what guidance any of you may have to help me along my journey.
Once you’ve tasted the product, it sells itself. We got to many street fairs and 3 day festivals and give free samples and 8 out of 10 people make a purchase. We’ve identified that we have to work on getting our product out there. Teaming up with a distributor to get it into stores and then offering free tasting events to sample our product to help the stores generate their first few sales. While the tasting events have worked, distribution has not. Established snack route companies are offering less to purchase than what it cost to make the stuff let alone make 25 cents on the bag.
So what I had come up with is to offer a business opportunity to where I sell at a one time fixed cost the license to distribute my product by county or groups of counties (protected territories) to entrepreneurial minded people. They would then seek out their own convenience stores, gas stations, sandwich shops, etc and develop their own route. Along with this license fee would be all of the equipment they needed to do a street fair or other sales/market venue and all the training and support needed.
What do you think about this idea? What about price points? What is realistic? Does anyone here have a similar type business and if so, what have I not thought about? What else should I consider?
In the end, it is my goal to establish a strong brand and at the very least create a decent stream of income.
What do YOU think?
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