What's to say....

Evening all,

Some say "life's a bitch"...and do you know what...sometimes it's true.

Today, life has truly  been a bitch.....today I picked up two new clients... there are some exciting things happening on the business front....but still it's been an awful day.

This time four weeks ago which was St Stephens Day I was sitting with Mr Delicious, our very close friends Cliff & Susan & her brother Declan & his super gorgeous wife Christine (who were over from London with their 2  kids)here in front of a big fire, sipping wine, eating humous talking about our plans for 2014.

I met Declan in Susan's at her child's First Communion  about a year ago. He was great fun, I liked him immediately, probably because he had a lot of Susan's traits..(.ya really gotta meet Susan to know what those traits are, what a special person she is... she's a fun, fun. fun gal...) but   he also had this cynical sense of humour that appealed to me....especially when the red wine ran out...

Last year Declan got one of those rare but manageable cancers & 4 weeks ago as we chatted in front of the big fire, Declan,  dressed like The Fonz in his Daz white T shirt & jeans, we talked about his cancer. For Declan it had been a tough year but he was on a trial drug & felt really good...he looked great albeit thinner than when I first met him.

Things have not been great for Declan since Christmas, with one health challenge after another. Yesterday Susan went to London to be with him & Christine. Today surrounded by his family he died. What's to say...a funny vibrant man with a beautiful wife, four great kids,three bereft sisters...simply not here anymore..gone...

Susan text me today before he died saying it was "unbearable" Does a word  exist that can top that after death.

This blog is an account of my life as a food producer....but way above being a food producer is being a friend, having friends....and I have been blessed with so many, close, close friends...Susan & Cliff are two of those I've been blessed to have in my life Today the dramas of my food producing life are nothing compared to my beautiful friends pain.

There really is nothing more to say.

RIP

Shirley

The Midas Touch (again)

Evening All,

Oh yes, it's been a great start to 2014 even if I say so myself. At the end of last year I decided to dive flawlessly & splendidly into 2014 & I am proud to confirm that I've done that.....not bad for a girl who wouldn't jump off the side of a boat without a life jacket.....I know it's early days, but "start as you mean to go on" & all those cliches spring to mind.

In 2007 before the crash I remember a period when everything I touched turned to gold. A new supplier who picked up one of our brochures from our kitchen passed it on to the next client on his route. This led to a chain of events that was astonishing. That clients' sandwich provider had just that day gone out of business, they called me, I went to see them, leaving with a hefty daily order in my pocket. I found out who the ex sandwich suppliers' other clients were & I called all of them. One of those clients was Ernst & Young who we then started supplying…. this

led to us becoming an approved supplier for a major food service provider, which led to accounts in PWC, RTE, Google,Citibank, Deloitte, ESB....& more..

A random knock of the back door of the kitchen of The Law Society as I was passing one day, led to us providing firstly sandwiches for the in house cafe & later all the catering for their regulations department.

The defunct sandwich provider had made sandwiches for Avoca  in Suffolk St so I called them had a meeting bringing along a selection of our gorgeous sandwiches & before I got back to my car, Avoca had placed their first order with us and so we made sandwiches for the Avoca brand for a few years…..

When the crash came, our top quality expensive sandwiches were a casualty in the sweeping cost cuts that affected everybody….

I remember getting a call from Davy Stockbrokers in 2008 cancelling all orders for the rest of the year. I was indignant ….a stockbroking company cutting out the pastries & sandwiches to save a few bob…it seemed ridiculous…..

The reality was that Davy knew the economic tsunami that was coming our way…they were buttoning down the hatches, doing whatever they needed to survive…

We too, like Davy survived the onslaught…sure…we lost accounts, but we won some new ones…we reinvented ourselves…. we fought back….we even had some great years...

But there is something about this year..The beginning of this year feels for the first time that things have really settled since that economic tsunami struck….I feel we are ready to conquer the world again the way we did in 2007. There is a confidence in the food industry...so we are going to attack this year with The Delicious Food Co brand…already I have secured a new client.. an existing client wants an additional 1,200 granola & yoghurt pots for next week….three occasional clients have booked in nice pieces of business for next week as well….& that’s only week one…all extra business on top of the other daily deliveries...

I went to a presentation last year & the message was simple….”believe & it will happen, ask & you will be given” The thing is you have to believe, really believe, believe it in a way that is part of you…I don’t know where that comes from but having dived off the diving board without my life jacket, into the clear waters of 2014 so splendidly & flawlessly…

I believe.

Shirley 

Navigating the course of 2014.

Happy New Year Everyone,

In case you missed it & as a reminder to myself...a blog I wrote in December finished with the following:

"My brother called me yesterday, he reads endless "motivational" books and has a deeply philosophical view on life, as well as an amazing house, a big job  a beautiful wife & four fab kids.... (ya see they do work....those books)

He suggested that "we"......meaning me of course, get into a different head space for next year, to celebrate the highs & focus on the positives, of which there have been so many for Mr Delicious & me.

So that's what I'm going to do...I'm going to stand on the diving board, side by side with Tom Daley, remove the demons from inside my head....and dive head first,  flawlessly, splendidly into 2014 ...

FREE.....

I'm repeating this as it's something I want to take into 2014 with me, it's how I want to start my year and it's how I want to be in 2014. On paper we achieved great things at The Delicious Food Co in 2013 yet those achievements just never translated into the same sense of success in my own head. Maybe my expectations were too high... That's the thing about success....it ain't always on the spreadsheets...it's  in your head....

So yesterday I got straight back to work.....we finished the year with a whopping 25% increase in sales from the previous year..yes & I do know that "turnover is vanity, profit is king" but the final accounts  aren't done yet....still.... we have a great base going into 2014....I'm no longer the delivery guy....the white (straight) jacket is gone....(see blog Men in White Coats) I'm the boss...I'm holding the reins of this frisky pony that is The Delicious Food Co & we are going to navigate the course of 2014 ...clearing each hurdle with real panache & style...winning

you just watch this space....

Shirley x