Update on sales progress and the purchase of some 'heavy' machinery!

Labels: equipment, fishbowl2, marcela, sales

BBC Olive has always been my favourite food magazine. They have gone even higher in my esteem now- one of my products is featured in it- that's two features of my products in two consecutive months! The article is called 'Buy Like a Pro' and it follows an article on Mexican food, written by Thomasina Miers.

Now, after having the endorsement from the magazine for two of my five products, how can I best use this to help sales? I've laminated the articles and placed them on the table right next to the products I've offered for customers to taste at the shop in Brighton where I've done a tasting session today. We sold out of most things.

But now I've left the shop, everyone happy with sales, what happens next? I've left the laminated copies of the articles in the shop, but I think I need a fantastic sales strategy to 'sell like a pro'. Tastings are well and good for selling on the day, but mega expensive if I look at the amount of people who we reach.

How often is it a good idea to do tastings? How to follow up in order to increase and then maintain a high level of sales, reaching the maximum potenti sales in each retailer?

Labels: fishbowl2, marcela, sales, sales techniques, selling

...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

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

Labels: 2009 review, 2010 plans, fishbowl2, marcela

I think you’ll agree with me that opting to run your own business means NOT opting for the easy option. There’s a huge degree of resilience required, which one needs to develop along the way to cope with the difficulties. As the bank said no to lending to the business, we moved on to (another!) personal loan.

Now it’s all about moving forward... due to a grant we got from the East Midlands Food and Drink iNet, we were able to have a PR agency work with us for a few months. This means we were able to write our first newsletter and we also sent loads of samples to magazines and newspapers. I had my first interview with a glossy magazine yesterday which will hopefully mean that there will be more awareness for the products nationally. We’ve had interest from other national magazines, and a large food magazine is talking about writing a feature on us which would be fantastic if all this happens.

I am also meeting a large possible client tomorrow...can’t disclose details but it’s very exciting so watch this space! We are feeling positive...

Labels: bank lending, fishbowl2, grants, marcela, personal loan, PR

Well, guess what. I have finally heard from the bank, after 3+ weeks. Inefficiency? Procrastination? Whatever it may be, but the bank said no. At this point I could “U” turn and just get a job, a salary, and pack it all iin. But I KNOW there is something out there that will work, a stone that has been left unturned.

This is a hard knock on my fund raising effort. Now we have gone so far. Larger contracts placed and I can’t develop new products without the funding I was counting on. What next?

I spoke to my neighbour, a successful, experienced builder who is going through a difficult time at the moment. He said exactly the same thing. He needed bank support to make a new project a reality. The equity was there to secure the loan but the bank said they didn’t want to make him homeless- can YOU believe it??! I’ve no words to explain my frustration.

I have been speaking with a couple of investors but they want to take their time, and my time is now. How do I say “now”, not later? How?

Do get in touch to let me know your experiences, advice, thoughts, and benefit other people in the process...

Labels: bank funding, finance, fishbowl2, investors, marcela

Just picked up the keys. Here is a sneak preview of the new food unit - no more cooking for Harrods in the kitchen at home!

Labels: fishbowl2, food unit, marcela, video

Who doesn’t like to save money? I certainly do, especially as we are trying to get our costs down so we can pass the savings to our customers. So...a couple of months ago, when we were looking at different options for our next purchase of packaging, we decided to go directly to the manufacturer as this would be much, much cheaper for us. This involved, of course, buying much larger quantities. This sounded like a really good idea at the time. The greater scheme was that we would sort our finances in November, and spending a larger amount of money upfront and have the cash tied up in work in progress (WIP) shouldn’t be a problem.

Well, now, as you may have read from my previous blogs, I’ve been going on and on about funding. Banks, investors, business plans.... all lined up, I thought. I’d been speaking with the bank manager for a while about what we need, to keep him informed and so I would understand what I need to produce to finance next steps. I had a couple of conversations with an investors’ fund too, and it all looked possible. But it all takes time. Time I haven’t got. In the meantime I need to ensure I have an overdraft facility because it looks like I’ll need it, and that is taking a while too!

Cash is king and all that. Well, that’s the lesson learned. It sounded like a great idea to reduce our costs and pay upfront but now I’m cashless... hopefully not for long. I can really see how WIP can kill viable businesses- game over when you can’t pay for the ingredients you need so you can’t produce to sell!

Labels: bank funding, bulk buy, cash flow, cash is king, finance, fishbowl2, marcela, start-up finance

I developed a business idea which I know is a strong, feasible proposition but, with only having normal jobs, no mummy or daddy to hand in large amounts of cash and no major savings in the bank, I knew that I would need external funds to realise the plan.

Back in March I decided to learn how to be “investment ready” so that my business could grow with the support of some external investment from a bank, Business Angel, private investor or venture capitalist. I went to some excellent courses run by Connect Midlands to understand the process of writing a good, solid business plan and understand the business from an investor’s perspective.

It took me a good 8 months to write that business plan with a convincing proposition and a solid set of numbers to show investors. It seems like a long time, but I needed to:

• prove my market
• write realistic figures, but keep them ambitious to make it interesting
• learn the jargon

Well, I did go to the bank two weeks ago. Here are the lessons I learned:

• raising funds is a tricky business, even with a solid proposition and plenty of passion to make things happen.
• it’s close to impossible to borrow money from the bank if you are not prepared to secure the investment from assets, such as your own house.

I know everyone is talking about banks not lending but I must admit I was sceptical to believe this, as I fiercely believe that entrepreneurship is vital for the recovery of the economy and it should be supported by the banks.

As a consequence, entrepreneurs have the option of turning to investors/business angels. These investors receive many plans to review. I have now sent my plan to the Growth Investment Network (East Midlands) who have a range of investors in their network. I sent the plan as soon as I felt it was ready and I have to be open to feedback even if it’s hard to take. Fingers crossed.

I have to keep trying, and persevering, believing and visualising that I will be successful in raising the funds I need.

Labels: bank lending, business angel, business plan, fishbowl2, growth investment, investment ready, marcela, start-up finance, venture capital

In the roller-coaster ride of running one’s own business, I used to think that having a fantastic product would be enough. Mmmm... as you know, this is far from the truth. This probably accounts for the 1% inspiration bit. Because well, as I have discussed before, everyone expects you to be an expert in your business- and in a small business, if you are on a shoe string, and a one-man band, this means expert in everything, as I do it all. Is this the perspiration bit now? The 24/7, never switching off, being always on task? Reading the paper on a Sunday looking for relevant articles, e-mails late at night when it’s quiet, cooking, etc etc.. ? I think the perspiration bit is also connected with the resilience of taking the failures as lessons to be learned, to stand up after falling, to get on with it and persevere when things may not be as rosy as one would wish for.

But then we are in the 21st Century, and I would add another element. Yes, you had your 1% inspiration in your great idea, and you are working really hard, that’s your 99%. And what about the communication bit? I think this changes the 1%+99% equation. Nowadays, entrepreneurs are required to twitter, to tell their story, to shout out their values, and they are also allowed, and indeed expected, to drive their enterprises ethically. Green issues, fair trade, sustainability...

I think this is a great time to be an entrepreneur because it’s become the norm to have ideals and to communicate them effectively. I’m starting to try to learn how to communicate with people out there about what I’m trying to do – introduce new, adventurous flavours of food that comes from growers, local and far away, who share my passion for great food and respect for the environment and people. 21st Century communication media- what a great opportunity to relate with possible customers and, hopefully, make a difference.

Labels: communication, fishbowl2, marcela, twitter

I had always thought that the word “entrepreneur” sounded so glamorous. The truth is that you are “it”, from key decision maker and strategist to peeling garlic. When people ask me what my position is in my company I laugh- I’m the CEO and the cleaner. If you decide to start your own business without your finances completely sorted and can’t afford staff, you are in for a difficult time trying to do everything. Because even if you have a business plan that maps out inflows and outflows, there is always that extra marketing opportunity that you don’t want to miss, or that packaging that you had to buy etc... spend, spend spend. I left my job early on as I was still planning the business to throw myself fully into the project, and maybe I should’ve been more patient and kept my salary for a bit longer.

Having said that, somebody said to me at the very beginning of my business journey that I should just go for it and borrow 100k from the bank. Thank goodness I didn’t do that, though. Yes, life would’ve been sooo much easier, having a budget for machinery and packaging, maybe one or two part-time staff and a salary, but I wouldn’t have known how to spend it as well as I do now. Now, I have proved a concept, I understand things what worked or didn’t work and I know exactly what I need to do next. The only small detail missing is the cash itself.

So... this week has been about focusing on raising finances and boosting my sales. Looking after my key customers and revising my business plan so it reflects what I know now to allow me to get to the next stage. I’m off to the bank today and hopefully, the bank manager will like it and believe that I can make it work. Hopefully I will be able to raise the finances and afford to pay a member of staff and the machinery I need. Feeling positive. I’m not superstitious.

Marcela

Labels: bank funding, fishbowl2, start-up finance

Everyone told me that it was a brave thing to give up my job to start a business. But deep down I was thinking, “I really want to try my best to make it work- it’ll be simple- I’ll make these amazing and delicious authentic and people will buy them. At the moment, however, some shops think that it’s not the right time for Mexican food... what are they thinking? What do they think Mexican people do when it’s winter... not eat?? What do you think??

Anyway, luckily Selfridges doesn’t think this and I am off on Saturday 31st October (!) to do a tasting session. I don’t know if I’m more excited or more nervous- I’m quite a bit of both, I suppose!!

The week ahead of me looks like an incredible juggling act of cooking, training course, kids off school, delivering, entertaining 10 girls for my daughter’s birthday party. The added complexity is that we are having new labels designed especially for the Selfridges launch, and the printers don’t want to say that the labels will definitely be ready- just keeping me on my toes! I am really really nervous about this- will the labels arrive on time?

Labels: fishbowl2

We normally start doing something new because we think we have a chance to succeed. Well, at least, that’s what I keep on saying to myself: “look, you’ve put your all, people like Mexican food, and your Mexican food has soul, YOUR soul in it” Well, yes, and???  Surely, giving your all and having a good product should be enough to make your business work, shouldn’t it? 
I gave up my job to dedicate my full energy to getting Rico Mexican Kitchen off to a good start. My idea was simple: to make fantastic authentic Mexican food so everyone in the UK could try something healthier, tastier and ethically sourced. But this game is sooooo difficult! Will I make it work? How?? Any advise welcome!

Labels: fishbowl2