Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Fifty Shades of Wanting....

Evening all,

I've been tinkering away with this blog for almost a year now & I have to say it's been a lot of fun. Blogs by their very nature are totally narcissistic, that's why they can become a tad (over) self indulgent. I've just had a quick look at the stats over the last year & I find it up lifting & amusing that one of my top three blogs continues to be "Fifty Shades of Delicious", one of my very first blogs.
So much for all my angst & stress...when it comes to it,  it's clear what you are all really interested in & we ain't talking about my food, my demons or cash flow issues..but rather my sleepless nights.

Actually I've been sleeping really well for the past week. I still wake up midway through as I have done for many years now, tot up the balance sheet in my head, but for at least a week now, I've fallen straight back into the deepest delicious slumber, which is full of the most bizarre dreams of fantasy & reality.
I had a very early start this morning as there was a "meet the buyers" event at Dublin Airport. Isn't that the Holy Grail of retail.....21 million passengers, most of them hungry....the shear scale of it...wow.

We started off with a networking session, which was followed by a number of presentations. At the end we were invited to ask questions, starting by introducing ourselves, our business & telling what we do.

Now,  could there possibly be a quicker way to let the assembled crowd know that there was in their midst, a food producer called Shirley from The Delicious Food Co who makes fantastic preservative free sandwiches & salads. I hate speaking to groups but I manned up, muddled through my question to a key buyer. Her answer involved a reference to a sandwich tender they are currently involved in ...this prompted a second question from me as to whether the tender is closed...("yes" was the answer).at which point the key presenter, said good humorously, "clearly we have someone in the sandwich business here today.."..

BINGO 

Later as we walked through a tour of the food outlets, I chatted to the buyer who is from a major food service company.When we arrived back  I guided her straight to my table of product samples...mini salad pots, granola pots, mini hummus pots...I swear to God they looked fab. The buyer was impressed, so impressed that she asked me if it is possible to get a full range of samples & product list to her for a key meeting at her office on Thursday morning....and hey whilst I'm at it....could I include samples of my sandwiches...

..that sandwich tender is still there for the taking ! 

Shirley
x





Thursday, February 6, 2014

Getting off The Hamsters Wheel.

Evening All,

Ask anybody who has a small business & you will find certain reoccurring themes like...ground hog day, spinning around on hamsters wheel...endlessness...

Yep...I have subscribed to them all...

When the ultimate boss of a client, who I already supply,  approached me recently & suggested I fill his fridges with my fabulous sandwiches & salads (sale or return),"take the pain & it will happen"  he said, genuinely & loaded with his experience.... I could feel my eyes filing with tears..".I've know the pain I said, I've been feeling it since I started"...& I knew in an instance from his eyes that he knew .. he too understood the pain.

That's the thing about being an entrepreneur....it's full of highs & lows. The biggest thing for us is that it's personal..my product, my work, my care, my love.....& that my dear reader is the thing we need to change...cos do you know what....to the customer ....it's only a bleeding sandwich or salad....

I'm working on that at the moment.I went out with my great friend Crona who is quite a lady, earlier this week.She started her own training company last year Hibernian Training (www.hiberberiantrainingcourses.ie). Crona worked for many years for James Farrell at PDL, they were not only colleagues, but  friends, James was the ultimate pro when it came to the sales function, there is so much to learn from James....

Crona told me  a story of how James having pitched through the public tender process for an existing contract, a contract he had held for many years & which he had put in a phenomenal amount of work for the tender. It went to a competitor...the training manager called James, "come in & I'll talk you through it ...go through your scores" ..."Nah..you're grand" James said....Crona was aghast....but hey...James' logic was spot on..."Listen it's a three year contract..it's gone...I know what we do, I know we're good, on wards & upwards...

N.E.X.T....

Us business owners need to develop a tougher skin..I'm doing that, kinda...We've gotta recognize the real opportunities and move quickly on when we know the potential sale is not going to become an order.

I'm excited about the future... Jan was a good month for sales & we were well up on last year, Business is good....really the only way is up !

Shirley x