...read the Olé for Mole feature about one of our products in the March issue of BBC Olive Magazine!

A few months ago, I got an Innovation Support Grant (ISG) from the Food and Drink iNet. The purpose of the grant was to help me improve my marketing and PR. Here are some things we did with the ISG grant:
-we engaged a web designer to develop our website www.ricomexicankitchen.co.uk (with sections still under construction, but almost there);
-we improved our packaging and included suggestions on how to use the products we make;
-we worked with a PR agency to hopefully help us get some editorial coverage in magazines and newspapers...and yes, we are in Editor’s feature, page 8 of my favourite magazine, BBC Olive.

This is a small mention but I hope we can build from here.

The best thing about this grant was its emphasis on working with experts so we learned the tools required so we could sustain the work they had funded. And yes, I learned lots about copywriting for the website and packaging. I also learned that if you want to be in magazines, this is a labour of love and perseverance: you need to contact each magazine, phone the right person, agree to send them samples, then the samples get lost, you follow up, and start again.
Imagine what I felt when I opened the magazine in the shop... and yes, there it was, the article “Olé for Mole” feature and a photo of our Mole (pronounced Moleh, a wonderfully rich Mexican cooking sauce). I got on the train and I wanted to show everyone the feature- but I resisted the temptation.

Now we are going to appear in some glossy magazines, the question is: How can we turn these articles into real, tangible outcomes, e.g. sales? Well, as it happened, I was visiting our newest stockist- Partridges of Sloane Square in London. He said he would stock salsas, but not the Mole sauce because people wouldn’t know what to do with it. I showed him the Olive magazine and he suggested I laminate it and place the article by the chiller. Perfect. However, I won’t be able to do this everywhere, so the question comes again- how do we use these articles and turn them into sales?

Please contact me through twitter if you have any suggestions... and watch this space!

Labels: fishbowl2, marcela, marketing, press features, sales conversion

New companies which start on a shoestring share a common problem: too much to do, not enough people to do the tasks. It’s a fine line between finding what you are best at and delegating the non-genius work.

In my quest to break even, I have delegated the book keeping to my newly appointed book keeper who is also doing some admin work for me. Other than that, I am putting in the hours to manufacture everything myself to save on costs, but then I have the big picture and strategic stuff, that I have been trying to juggle. The production has been fine, and I love it, but I haven’t had much time for the strategic stuff which I enjoy too.

The orders are really increasing and though I have enjoyed working 15 hour days, (especially because it means that the business is growing!), this is just not realistic or healthy. This is the time I need to bring in reinforcements for production. I know a catering company with some spare capacity and they can help me with production, once per week to start with and then we’ll take it from there. Although this means less profit in the short term, this is more likely to lead to orders delivered on time, and then I will have time to move the business forward.
The difficulty lies in striking a fine balance...If anyone has any thoughts on how to achieve this, please get in touch on Twitter.

Update on tackling the paper mountain and breaking even.

Labels: break even, fishbowl2, marcela, paperwork, video

Labels: fishbowl2, marcela, update

I think that marketing is a really important key to open up the sales door for my yummy sauces. I regularly do food tasting sessions at the shops where they sell my products.

It's time, however, to up my game and analyse return for investment on all the marketing activities - they all cost money. Now this is another tricky task for a novice like me: do I know how to measure the effectiveness of a marketing event, and the get figures to quantify? Er, I think you know the answer.

Take last Saturday, for example. I had discussed with Selfridges the idea of having a Mariachi band at the Food Halls. It turned into reality on Sat 31st Jan, and we had such a good time. Clearly a good thing. These are some benefits from this tasting session:

• The event was nicely publicised on the Selfridges website for three weeks and was advertised on their newsletter too.
• People tried the sauces, enjoyed the music, took photos and videos, bought.
• They took photos and videos and that will hopefully remind them of the brand. Creating awareness=sales??
• Two videos taken were particularly interesting: -one was for a blog for the daddydonkey website, they sell Mexican food off a van in London, have had some rave reviews, and have lots of followers; -another video taken by this man, the Mariachi band and I (!) sang a Mexican birthday song for his young daughter, and again, will be posted on their blog.

This is where I reach my limits as I don't know how to quantify whether the event was good R.O.I. How do I measure this? It's not straightforward. On the day, we saw 300+ people, and I will get sales figures next week.

This is what we spent:

• The Mariachi band fees.
• The time of 3 adults, including me, my lovely hubby and volunteer Rosie- thank you, Rosie!
• We paid for 4 return train fares from Derby. The tickets were cheap as we used a family railway card (The kids came with us, which could've been a good plan but they were a real pain as they were tired from a busy week, but that's another matter!).
• Samples, tortilla chips.
• Subsistance costs: meal, drinks etc.

To summarise, I think that the event was worthwhile: we sold, created awareness, and have been/will be on other websites. However, this is only my gut feeling, and I need to take the guesswork out of investing on marketing to focus my very limited resources wisely. Do contact me through the twitter link if you have any ideas or comments on this...

Labels: fishbowl2, marcela, marketing, return on investment, ROI

2 blogs ago I listed my plans for the early part of 2010. Well, this year is about tackling my paperwork and systems demons. I’m determined to implement good systems for solid financial management and credit control. It may sound really simple but now I’ve hired a book keeper, I don’t have to be tied up doing this time-consuming task which is best left to the expert. We are devising a financial control system, it’s developing really well and I feel much more on top of things.

My desk was nothing short of a bombsite. I decided that if I were to develop a solid financial system, the office systems needed to dramatically improve too, just like a tall building needs good foundations. Paperwork has been a weakness that I needed to tackle head on, improve, and move forward. Now the trick will be to maintain it.

This year is also about improving sales and breaking even. I have had my head down, chopping, mixing, potting, sending samples and selling. I will keep an update about my progress towards breaking even, but for now, my mantra is sales, sales and sales. Now that Christmas has long gone, shops are looking for new things to stock, I’m keeping focused... if you have any suggestions to help me on my quest to break even, do contact me through twitter... and wish me luck!

P.s. in case you wondered, I AM going to the gym! (but not every day)

Labels: 2010 plans, break even, financial management, fishbowl2, marcela, sales

I love having my own business. I love the fact that I develop my own products, I meet people who are really good at their jobs and generous with their advise who can help me with aspects I haven’t got specialist knowledge on- for example, testing my products in a lab for shelf life, or how to design a website. I love the opportunity, the dream that I can bring a new product to market and that hopefully people will love it too.

I also like the feeling that I can contribute to helping improve other people’s lives through generating jobs and purchasing goods at fair prices to all, and be a positive role model to my children.

There is no denying that this keeps me busy. I sometimes have to be away from home a lot and work very long hours. Yesterday, my husband and I were stuck at the Belfast airport as our flight back from some friends’ wedding was delayed, we set up camp at the comfy sofa at the coffee shop and started planning next steps for 2010. We talked business strategy, learning needs, project management tools etc... and the fact that it looks like I’ll have to work away from home a lot. “Do you think the children feel that I am not around enough? I asked him. Conflicting thoughts... I have heard them speaking about the fact that their mum is an entrepreneur and has a business, and that I sometimes appear on the paper and on websites. But then they are growing up really quickly and I say to them that though I may not be physically at home, they can contact me and I am around to talk to them.

Can you work really hard, be away from home sometimes and still be a good mum? I ask my children. They both say “yes” and I sigh with relief. They tell me that they know that I care for them and this is, I think, the bottom line. I ask them what they are learning, if anything, about the fact that I have to put a lot of time into my work. “It’s a lot of time, but hopefully if I try really hard at something I really want to do, I can be successful”, my daughter says, and well, I think this is a good lesson...

Labels: family, fears, fishbowl2, marcela, mum