Hello ..It's me...

"Hello...it's me

"I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet"

I love these lyrics by Adele, because  most of us have someone or some people in our past with whom these sentiments resonate, people we have loved & lost, through death, timing, stupid misunderstandings, geography or a million other reasons.

In 2013 I used to write a weekly blog about my life as a small food producer in Dublin. I wrote fearlessly & honestly, and I connected with a lot of people. At the height of our recession, I recounted what it was like to be a small business owner. The highs of new clients & growing sales. But I also told my story of how little I slept with worry, how cash flows issues affected me, how fearful I was, how vulnerable I was.

At a dinner party, a friends husband suggested that I revealed too much, (I didn't know he read the blog) another loose tongue suggested the same. I never revealed anything in those blogs that I wouldn't have told you if we met for coffee, but those comments along with other things, took the wind out of my sail.

Gradually I stopped blogging thinking who would want to know my story

These days it now seems that everything  has to have a filter...shiny stories, with shiny filtered photos, fab abs & gluten free/vegan/protein overloads/ no sadness or reality on social media well that could damage the shiny brand.

I  want to tell you about the world as I see it & hopefully like last time round you will hop into my van beside me as I wind my way around Dublin delivering The Delicious Food Co salads & sandwiches, and you too might see the world as I do.

So, having spent the past few months looking for a new angle on the blog....I'm going to go back to what I do best & that is tell my own foodie, business story.. warts & all

"Hello

It's me

I've been wondering...."

Shirley x

(Crona...this one is for you babes xxx)

  

Ciao Bella.....Italy here we come

Evening All,

Last year we didn't get a holiday. The kids got away to various far flung locations but Mr Delicious & myself didn't manage it. All that work  without the reward of a week in the sun can pull you down, especially as week after week you wave friends adieu as they depart on theirs, looking bronzed, relaxed & ready for another year when they return.

In April I had lunch with my brother and he told me he had booked his summer holiday, two weeks in a camping site in Italy, flights to Bologna train to campsite....happy days.

When I got home I checked out the cost of flights,they  reasonable enough I thought. That's my form Think : Action: Stop:...the follow through is the bit where I fall down. However the next day I checked the flights again & already they had gone up by a whopping 300euro for five of us, so without further adieu I whipped out the credit card & booked leaving 25th June

Campsite booked, holiday sorted !

Last week I got an email from the campsite welcoming us, looking forward to seeing us etc. The next day I got an email confirming cancellation of the booking...don't ask. We did manage to get another booking in another campsite as it seems we had reserved about 6 via booking.com/ direct/trivago etc...

On Wednesday I was checking out car hire from airport, but it closes at 12 midnight & our flights arrives at 11.30, trains stop at 10pm.  A taxi would cost 250 (& you really would have to tip the driver having spent so much time together), so we've booked a hotel in Bologna, train to Pescheira is booked for Sunday, after the match.

So with the lads in the kitchen briefed to within an inch of their lives....we are heading off in a few hours to the airport, for our first holiday in a few years.

Now I just need to book  my travel insurance

Ciao !

Shirley

Dancing in the Rain !

Evening Everybody,

Well now..wasn't that some week ! 

Glorious sunshine deliciously piercing our mood making our skin  tingle with a positive virus:  shaking the negativity of endless rain &  years of gloom. Dublin city was alive with sunshine & culture:Tall ships in the Liffey; acre after acre of gardens & food galore in Bloom ,a  music festival in  majestic Kilmainham, thronged by teens immune to the beauty of their surrounding, but mesmerized by the brilliance of Groove Armada in the Dublin night.

 We are alive, we are back and we have survived the forty days of rain, inflicted by our septic banks...&  by god  didn't we  all  we earn that sunshine.

Last week we reached our Linked Finance target ten days ahead of schedule and for that myself & Mr Delicious want to thank everybody at Linked Finance especially Conor Mc Aleese and every single person who backed us. We thank you, not just for the commitment to us but those of you  who subscribe to the ethos of principled people to people crowd funding.

We attended our first big trade show last week at the invitation of BWG, it was exciting & daunting  in equal measures...."I have three shops in Tralee you'd be perfect for us"..what's the margin,/central billing/national distribution/ sale or return...".it's all still in my head, in a nutri bullet, waiting me to push the "blend" button,  as I wonder how to process the enormous potential and ponder if this is the direction I want to go in.

The retail premises I told you about fell through, yet immediately a much brighter prospect appeared,  is that Karma, or me just being sunshine drunk, well I'll know tomorrow & I will keep you posted.

Last but not least is the news that our first fully branded fridge is now open for business in Spar Dame St, where you will find a full range of our delicious products In a world where healthy eating has become a religion, it's high priests/rock Gods suggesting their way of  goji berries & porridge is the only key to a happy  life , our message is simple;
keep food simple, avoid processed prepared meals, make a dining table from anything, a door, a plank of wood...treasure it, share your simple food with family & friends.
beacuse around that table however coarse it may, that's where memories are made.

And most important next time it rains  get out & dance in it !

Shirley x

Disclaimer
Much as myself & Mr Delicious would like you to think this is a picture of us...only in our dreams ...

Something old, somethng new, something borrowed. ( Part 2)

Evening all,

On Sunday I wrote about our adventures in the scary world that is crowd funding, an adventure we are currently embarking on with Linked Finance. Crowd funding for your business is a very personal thing. For most of us who own a small business, they can be  as much part of us as our family, it's fair to say that they often get more attention than our children as we negotiate the highs & lows of the associated relationship, suppliers, staff, cash flow.

Consider you have a troublesome child,  no matter how hard he/she pushes you, taunts you, causes you sleepless nights you will love that child regardless. You will make endless sacrifices for it, you will protect it no matter what, you will be loyal and unforgiving for criticisms you feel are unjust.

And just when you think you can take no more, they will smile at you or hug you, give you something back, that justifies the love, makes everything worthwhile.

Small businesses are just like that, so undeniably personal & connected, we feel their pain as much as  if they are a living part of us. That's why crowd funding ain't easy. On Sunday I compared it to going on Tinder, putting yourself out there, seeing who is attracted enough to make a move.

Yesterday morning we were funded to the tune of 20%, but by yesterday evening we had hit an astonishing 75%....that's a lot of affection coming  in  the direction of my troublesome child and I am proud as punch that so many can see the potential of this, my unorthodox fifth child.

Tonight we are 84% funded, just 16% more to go, So a massive thank you to all of you who believe in my child as much as I do and have lent to us and for those of you sitting on the fence 

 BELIEVE!

Shirley x

Disclaimer:

 For Mr Delicious, I never been on Tinder (I swear !)

For my four amazing children, 

you have never been troublesome and thank you for sharing me with the fifth child !

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed .....

Evening All,

Last week I wrote my first blog of the year, I didn't promote it on social media the way I used to, I had to get writing again, make sure I'm comfortable with what I'm saying. Ironically in the same week I had a number of people question why I stopped writing, they had been enjoying my story, so to quote the amazing Dolly....

"Here I go again"...

 I told you about the many things that were  happening for us at The Delicious Food Co, new packaging, new shop, new crowd funding with Linked Finance....it's a busy scary time,

We first put our toe in the water of Crowd Funding a few years ago  via the wonderful team at Linked Finance. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept: lenders commit to lend money to small businesses at a rate decided by them in an auction type process. It's a simple idea, the banks will give you 1% on your savings, but take a risk, back a small business (vetted by Linked Finance) and you might get up to 15% on your investment

.https://www.linkedfinance.com/loan/delicious

Everybody is different, but if I had money to invest in a small business I would certainly expect no greater rate of return than the banks. It's a moral/ ethical thing for me. So we have opted for a three year fixed rate of 8.8%, so reaching our target may be more difficult when we exclude those offering above this rate, but we will feel better about our new business partners.

Crowd funding is a difficult personal exercise, you need to write a profile of your business, your accounts are published & available to those registered with the site....you feel very exposed & vulnerable.

 I suspect it's a lot like being on Tinder...putting  yourself out there & seeing who's attracted enough to make a move.

So far we have over 26 wonderful people who have backed us to the tune of almost 20% in 3 days and we are not just grateful but touched.....For you & all of you coming down the track, I want you to know that we have been invited by BWG  to exhibit at their annual Suppliers Conference in Citywest on Wednesday, in the category of Emerging Suppliers. and I want you to know that when I am there promoting The Delicious Food Co, I will be doing it not just for  Mr Delicious,our team  in the kitchen & me, but I'll be doing it for you, our current  lenders and our future lenders, making you proud,

ensuring your return on your investment, hoping you spread the word...of this innovative world of  crowd funding..

Shirley x

If you have a minute  check out the blog I wrote when we last crowd funded with Linked Finance in 2014...I think you'll enjoy it.

http://deliciousfoodco.blogspot.ie/2014_03_01_archive.html

Good Friday...(glorious & exhausted !)

Good Evening Everybody,

It's Friday 6pm,

 I've opened a bottle of wine, which I am delightfully sipping, whilst Mr Delicious sleeps deeply on the sofa, a glass of white wine poised precariously in his hand. I daren't move it, as he might wake up & if ever a man needs some sleep  it's him. 

It's been early starts all week for us, so when I woke up this morning and he had already left I thought I must have overslept ....but it wasn't even 5.30am  when I stumbled into  my home office  blindly  searching for my last two contact lens.

The dog benefited from an extra long walk & I was at my stainless steel work table by 6.15am.

The last few months have been mental, so much going on in some directions, so little in others....my daydreambeliever  in missing in action  (but I'm sure I'll find him, I always do). Business continues to grow with all the excitement & pain that comes with it....bigger supplier / wage bills, big highs when the cheques come in & enormous lows whey fail to arrive within an expected time frame.

One minute I'm lovin' it, and the next minute  I'm sellin' it !

If you are an small business owner, I know you'll share the agonies &  ecstasies of this roller coaster ride and if you are in a safe pensionable job, well I loathe you & envy you in equal proportions.

Next week I am going to do something I have done  before & that is to expose myself to the general public and do some crowd funding...I can't manage this growth without help so I'm going back to a space I know & lets see what happens...

The new packaging will be ready next week, so that feels like the end of something & the beginning of something new.

We have first option on a site for our first retail space , which we also hope to agree on  next week..how exciting is that !

Tonight we got final confirmation that whilst the fridge in our van is super COOL..the engine of the van is DEAD...so  we also need to buy a new van, asap.

And all of that has to happen between the actual work of producing our delicious products.

Yesterday morning myself & Mr Delicious decided that the best way to get a better work life balance over the summer was to start training, so as he drove the hired fridge van around the city, on our deliveries, I signed us both up for a charity cycle to our favourite festival of the year....

Electric Picnic 2016, we're coming to get ya...and we'll be on our bikes

Shirley

x

'Tis the Season ...Rejoice ...

Evening all,

Tomorrow is Tuesday of Christmas week... 

What a gift just to be here, to be alive, to celebrate this momentous time of year, a time  that grows bigger & bigger with every year that passes; a time of year that captures our lives in a way that no carefully poised selfie can possibly do.

Every year the first Christmas card that arrives through our letter box comes from Mr Delicious' oldest friend Kevin, who emigrated to New Zealand many years ago. That card has been the reminder of a relationship that endures despite the miles & the time lapses.Each year it arrives with his address on the back of the envelope and year after year Mr Delicious puts it somewhere safe, paying homage  to a friendship that is  so far away & yet so near. This year there will be no card from Kevin, as he died tragically & so suddenly in June this year whilst out running in NZ just weeks before he was due to come home to us in Ireland with his wife Susie, where we were all going to party like the old days.

On Christmas eve at our traditional gathering, our core gang have been all be bereaved in the most tragic way;  Barbara has lost an ex partner & Emer the same friend,  to sudden death: Crona's beloved nephew died just 11 weeks after this magnificent & beautiful man & father  (42) was diagnosed with a brain tumor.Our son  Charlie was on his J1 in San Francisco, and returned home to attend the funeral of his pal Nick, killed in Berkeley, before returning back to complete what should have been a trip of a lifetime. Marie's beautiful dad Eddie, a man who at his funeral was (correctly) described as the definition of a gentleman, also passed away this year, whilst her beautiful son Keelan, is always fore front of our mind every year, at this very special gathering.

I am desperately sad & I  am intensely  grateful.

 Desperately sad for the losses we & so many more have suffered. But I am also grateful that today,  so close to Christmas, Mr Delicious, our children, my mom & all our siblings  & their children are here.

My blog is supposed to be a business blog: my life as an SME owner, but tonight as I reflect on life, there just doesn't seem to be a fitting place for such commentary.

Where ever you are I hope you are in a place to  share a peaceful happy Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

Shirley xx

"and there was homecoming...

after 40 years in the states,

all dressed in dollar green, he comes home to his own faithful Kathleen..

they hug by a dresser of shiny plates....

oh Happy, Happy scene ..."

by

Patrick Kavanagh

Yours, Eternally Optimistic...

Evening all,

Sorry I  skipped town for a while...it was kinda nice

 Life had been  so busy I sorta crashed. & opted out. As those of us who are self employed will know "crashing & opting out" consists of keeping going, same old same old....it's an in joke in the world of self employment that only those with the luxury of a PAYE job, have the luxury of having a nervous breakdown.

 Many years ago, stressed to the hilt, I went to buy catering buckets for salads in an outlet in Finglas, tears rolled involuntarily down my face as I conducted business. "500  x 5 litre buckets please, do you have orange lids, how much is that including vat" " that's great thank you". "here the cheque" " yes please put them in the back of the van"...not a single sole asking if I was okay....I take it I wasn't the first basket case to arrive in the depths of the recession in such a state.

Last months crash came when my daydreambeliever stopped believing albeit momentarily. There was a misunderstanding that I hadn't been aware had occurred. We met up had a long chat which  revealed more about each other  than any amount of legal documents could reveal...I'm glad it happened & I think we are now back on track.

To have somebody invest in your business is about so much more than money (at least it is to me), it's about the relationship that you have with the investor, how you get on, do you share the same vision, can you work together, it's about compromise.

When I was first approached about this possible co (ad)venture....my daydreambeliever, (emphatic that this was an initial chat),  concluded whatever happens, if we do try something & make a killing, great...and if it doesn't work out...in unison we said
 "we won't fall out"

I remain eternally optimistic !

Shirley x

Seize the Day or Lose it ..(.honour that you have the choice.)

Evening All,

It's been almost a week since the new creative work was presented, since then I've been to the funeral in Donegal of a man who died too young, too soon, too unbelievably fast. A man with a smile who lit up the world & whose impact in life was like a comet of brightness on everybody he touched.

It was hard not to come back from Donegal angry with the unfairness of life, juxta positioned with the need to grasp it, squeeze every precious moment of out of it...to honour a life that was too damn short .

But try as I might I felt shaken & scared, how could have I posted such positive stuff when life is so fragile....it's like being in a fog. 

Today I got a call asking me to produce 100kg of salads per day for a major blue chip business, Wow,  I need to see how I can possibly work that into our daily work schedule. Later  I had a meeting with a potential new client who has been trying without success to get a range of seriously healthy  fresh food for his international clientele. He felt he'd met a blank wall, after exhausting his bank of mass producing suppliers, until a former client told him  she knew exactly who he should call...well that would be me/The Delicious Food Co..samples going in on Thursday.

After that I had a meeting with my daydreambeliever ; things are moving on there too, we have  a plan...we have a target to launch at Bite, an Artisan trade show in RDS in Nov, that means we need to settle on a creative direction, get it printed , all product finalised & put together for what will be a template of what could well be the first Delicious Food Co outlet,...it's a mammoth task.

But  let's face it if I can do that in four weeks...whats a 100kg extra of salad per day.

If I've learnt one thing in the last week it's that tomorrow is promised to no one

I'm going for it !

Shirley

x

Brand New ...in every conceivable way

Evening all,

Next up, after  daydreambeliever stood me up was a meeting at 3pm with the design company to see initial concepts for our new packaging.

As we all sat in the board room I felt very nervous. To see my beloved Delicious Food Co presented through somebody else eyes, well that's a toughie. Mr Delicious wasn't there...food to prepare for tomorrow etc.

The first concept involved tweaking our logo. I have to say I was kinda shocked, I love our logo...I felt as though somebody had taken one of my kids on a day trip & returned with all their blonde curls cut off I was looking at the same child....but now...different.

The second concept pushed that boundary further…not only were the curls gone....but the hair had been dyed too…same child, but more different....

I wanted to cry.

Finally the third concept; basically my child was gone & a new child was presented as a better one, Not only that, but part of the concept involved photos myself & Mr Delicious...NEVER!

Any kind of creative process is a "journey". A journey that starts somewhere, maybe somewhere that the client doesn't like or is defensive about. Changing a logo is particularly hard/ sensitive to accept for a business owner because that logo is our public identity, part of who we are, the public face of our hard work.

As I walked home, two of the concepts stayed with me; enveloped me; challenged me the way the creative team wanted. Great creative work does that, so maybe, part of the change I need to make is not just my wardrobe, my PR, maybe I need a brand new approach in every sense of the word, it's certainly food for thought.

Btw

On the way home my daydreambeliever called....so sorry about today's mix up, meeting rescheduled for Tuesday....

sorry, sorry, sorry

Shirley

Where has my daydreambeliever gone....

Evening All,

I promised to keep you all updated on my "journey" to put me & my beloved Delicious Food Co on the map. 

So here we go.

Just after I posted my last blog about how my daydreambeliever wanted to start talking margins, which in his language meant we might be getting serious....he disappeared. Texts went unanswered, until yesterday when beep, went my phone suggesting a meeting  at 12.30 today. At noon I got a text " leave it until 1pm" I had planned to get home, put on a one of those new outfits, dress to impress, show him I'm taking this seriously.

Things didn't work out that way & I just about made it to the meeting wearing the warmest thing I could find at 6am this morning; a bic pen; a debit card & my phone which proptly died on my arrival. It didn't matter...he wasn't there.

I waited for a while, but thought to myself, what's the point if he was interested he'd be here. We've worked together before and back then he was clear;if I didn't deliver on his expectations, my phone would go unanswered, texts unreturned and I would slowly realize I was being dumped. Suddenly it was beginning to look like, that was happening before we'd begun.

I walked to the van dejected,  kicking myself for declaring this possible adventure in social media

wondering how could I rewrite the story....


Shirley

x

Contender Are You Ready.....

Evening All,

So...
I want to be taken seriously, to  be a contender for 2016 IMAGE female entrepreneur  of the year. I want "The Delicious Food Co" to be in everybody's mouth...on everybody's lips, literally. I want to be the one offering advice on radio & in the press to start ups, on how to keep going when the going gets tough, how to raise finance, the pitfalls to avoid....

 I want to really feel the success I've achieved this far. Ten years in business, a doubling in sales since the beginning of the year...I want it because I've earned it, and more importantly because

The Delicious Food Co has earned it.

I've earned it  through sheer hard graft, a ten year commitment

to producing wonderful healthy preservative free  salads & sandwiches, solidly working away building relationships with clients and customers 

No more sitting quietly hoping that somebody picks up on our story..., I should know by now, that ain't going to happen., I am going to have to go out & grab that spotlight & shine it on our kitchen in Smithfield, on our team & on our products. 

Things are already afoot. 

There is a new packaging design on it's way; we finally got round to entering into Blas na hEireann where we were finalists in the Hummus category; I have bought myself a great working wardrobe for meeting & pitches...and as for my day dream believer who sees a big future by merging his knowledge & skillset with ours at The Delicious Food Co, let's just say he wants to talk margins & in his language that means we could be getting serious.

Watch this space !

Shirley

It's a new dawn... It's a new day... It's a new life for me..... And I'm feeling good

Evening All,

It's taken a while for me to register that I am no longer a blogger.

I am somebody who used to write a decent humorous blog about my life as a producer in the food industry.Over the past two years I wrote about all sorts, my brand, my van , Mr Delicious, cash flow issues & sleepless nights, my kids & the dog. I told you  endless stories about things I was going to change (but didn't). To my own embarrassment I still don't have a website & I am still driving the van.There was a blog about setting up my office at home, becoming the type of business woman I read about in business supplements....I was to start jogging down the canal & to take up yoga in between closing deals & munching raw carrots.

Instead I've gained a stone & my cheekbones have all but disappeared.

Maybe I just got a bit fed up of that persona I portrayed, maybe I lost a bit of confidence, maybe somebody came along & burst my bubble.

But now things have changed, subtlety, quietly but very significantly. In my own way I am growing into the business person I've wanted to be in earlier blogs. Our business The Delicious Food Co has  almost doubled in size since the start of this year. Instead of  rationalising these sales in terms of ten years of lucky breaks, I know without a shadow of a doubt that we are celebrating our tenth year in business with such phenomenal growth, not just because we are good, but because we are great at what we do.

I am leading a team who are fully committed to myself & Mr Delicious and our growth phase. We have taken on some new blue chip clients , we have a potential investor who has a vision for a a chain of  Delicious Food Co proper healthy food outlets & we are finalists in Blas na hEireann food awards for our amazing Hummus.

So here we are; you & me (again)

 I'm  ready to share the next leg of this food producers adventure as it unfolds
check in every now & then see how I'm getting on

......next time you see me the cheekbones will be back.....

I promise !

Shirley

Overnight Success...it takes years

Evening All,

Earlier this year I told you that this being our tenth year in business is the year we finally become an overnight sensation.We may well be into the second half of the year and you may well think...what happened with that, but I promise you things are on course for that overnight stardom.

If we were an X factor kinda company I'd tell you quietly & in confidence that we have made it through to judges houses....Simon Cowell & "his team"has been working away with us. Simon is confident that we have the most potential since Leona Lewis in 2006 to fill stadiums or in our case supermarket shelves.

 We've been focusing on what kind of artist /producer we need to be. We've agreed we will not do cover versions, we are serious authentic artists, we will produce our own lyrics /recipes, we will stand out in the market

 .....we will make  millions for him & for  us.....

Simon is beyond excited & so are we. Just as Leona quits his Syco label, along comes The Delicious Food Co.

Everybody needs a day dreamer believer...we might just well have found ours.

Watch this space !

Shirley

x

Young Blood , Old Turk....Foodie Prophet

Hi Evening All,

I know, I know, I know....

A few months ago I promised to get back to writing a weekly blog about life in the food lane. I'm sorry to have let you down, but I have an excuse, honestly I do. I finished my last post wedding blog, telling you that it was mouth to mouth resuscitation I needed to get my body breathing again. I was so, so tired at the end of May and that aching tiredness stayed with me all through June.

As I crawled shattered out of bed each morning, my main goal was to make it through the day to crawl back under that duvet as early as possible and try to recharge my fading batteries.
The tiredness was exacerbated by the sheer volume of work we got through at
The Delicious Food Co.

It was by all accounts an exceptional month  as shop after shop sold out of our wonderful salads & sandwiches, new clients came on board and the excitement in the kitchen grew. We have a superb team in the kitchen, and each day as I would arrive in guiltily  with yet another order, increasing the burgeoning work load...Mr Delicious would groan but our young & exciting team would simply smile & rejoice for our good fortune.

"Another 500 salad pots for client X"..No problem !, "400 Hummus Pots"..Hooray!, "Two new sandwich accounts to be delivered before 8am"....Yippee !, "48 kilos of mixed bespoke salads"..Fab! and joyfully they would send me off again like a foodie prophet to gather more orders and bring them back to the kitchen to be fulfilled.

Last week I gave a lift to one of the team and  worried to him about the work load on everybody, especially Mr Delicious.With youth on his side he confided in me ..."don't worry Shirley..I have explained to the guys, that  Mr Delicious  is  an old man, whilst we are young , we can do the work, we are happy to work, you  just bring in the orders and we will make it happen.

So to honour the lads and their relentless energy & positivity, I  feel my old energy slowly & ryhtmically trickling back through  my veins, I am back on track....hungry for business, sniffing out leads at every office building I pass.

So if you crave great food in your office or local deli...watch out 'cos I am coming to get ya!



Shirley x

Here Comes the Bride ....Mouth to mouth required !

Evening all,

At the end of last month I sat down & started to write a blog. It was a cold Sunday afternoon,dinner was in the oven & I was sipping a lovely glass of red wine. The house was clean & I  was in a very chilled zone.The topic of my blog was energy, the kind of energy that pushed a business forward, the kind of energy that no amount of hours in the gym or  Red Bull can activate, the kind of energy I had been feeling of late.

I was trying to explain, that, that  kind of  energy comes from somewhere deep within you. It's a kind of energy that pulls you out of bed, when every bone & your body is screaming no !An energy that comes from being excited about your business or your life. As I typed away merrily, sipping my wine, I became very  aware that at 6pm Mr. Delicious, was not yet home. After a very long day (& week) he was still in work, It felt wrong to write about energy...I knew he was exhausted & despite my own excitement about our business, I was beginning to feel tried too.

No sooner had I committed the blog to "Drafts",than the energy I'd been eulogising just minutes  earlier seemed to abandon my body  and  bizarrely I have been exhausted ever since.The daily rhythm of  life, up early, dash, dash, dash...deadline after deadline culminating with the organisation of a wedding on the June bank holiday weekend finally caught up.

....I cannot even begin to describe how much energy the organisation of a wedding saps from a small event planner...it looms in the distance overshadowing everything until two days before it arrives. Like a well prepared Leaving Cert student you know you've put the work in..but what if something goes wrong...this is the most important day of somebodies life & they've given ME the responsibility to organise it.(What were they thinking..!!.) It consumes every ounce of your being. My bride was gorgeous, her wedding was planned by her in meticulous detailed excel sheets & folders...my plans for her wedding were a few scribbles at the bottom of the Cater hire list.

The success of her wedding was in my hands...I trusted me & my team, but she was right to be nervous. Her wedding was in my head, only I could see it.

On the morning of the wedding I probably got more good luck texts than the bride herself.The wedding in a private house was a triumph...my team from The CaterWaiter were sublime...Mr Delicious was outstanding ..the bride was overwhelmed by our transformation of a beautiful drawing room in Rathmines to a fairy tale wedding banqueting hall.

As for me, with dinner out of the way & the dancing in full swing, people were offering me champagne, toasting my great work, but as the release of pressure took over & the exhaustion impaled itself in me, I knew that it wasn't a drink I needed  keep me going, 'twas   mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Sweet dreams !

Shirley 

Lucky Breaks: The breadman, the auditor & me.

Evening everyone,

There is no doubt about it but every business needs a lucky break.

The biggest break we ever had came in 2006, when a bread supplier came in to pitch business to us, his bread was great, but didn't come in commercial sizes, so wasn't right for us. As he left he picked up a brochure we had produced. His next call was to a small Gallery/Cafe whose sandwich supplier had ceased trading,He passed on my brochure and two days later The Delicious Food Co were the new sandwich supplier. Enquiring as to who the previous supplier had supplied I found amongst others two gems.

 Ernst & Young and Avoca Suffolk St.

I made contact & set up meetings with both clients. After pitching to AVOCA, they were so impressed they had placed   their very first order with us before I'd even  got back to the car. It was the start of a great relationship &  we continued  to make sandwiches under the AVOCA label for a number of years.

The next client, Ernst & Young as it was known then, was a bit more tricky as the catering facility was run by a contract catering company.Getting on the approved supplier list was as difficult as getting a mortgage in 2013.
 However the EY client loved us & ultimately he called the shots.

This required an audit of our food business...to be honest we hadn't a clue. Sure we had a HACCP system, but it was basic. Our (commercial) kitchen was full of cookery books, pretty ceramic platters, a kind of Kath Kidson meets Martha Stewart, mixed with a little bit of Nigella (to keep Mr Delicious smiling). The scope of the audit was 32 pages long & covered things I thought petty ...specification sheets for packaging materials....water certificates...a corporate responsibility statement...OMG..

But the auditor (who had flown in from the UK to do the audit), saw something in us, a small business making seriously good food, albeit in a slightly disorganised way. The audit took 12 hours as both he & I looked for a way to get us over the line: the line from Martha kitchen to a proper professional food business..and we got there (achieving A grades, no less,  in our past two audits for that same client)

Ultimately that one act of passing on our brochure, transformed our business & led to clients that included not only AVOCA, EY, but Citibank, PWC, RTE, Google, Yahoo, Deloitte, Bank of New York..and many many more...

Now wasn't that one hell of a  lucky break !

Shirley

Me, Bord Bia & The (Dublin Food) Chain Gang

Evening All,

By now if you've been paying attention you will know that I'm a bit of a procrastinator...

Benjamin Franklins'  quote

"why put off  until tomorrow when it can be done today"

has been amended in my head replacing "today" with "tomorrow", 

 Leaving things to the last minute, pulling things out of the bag,  well,  that's something at which I excel  I always know I'm onto something I really want to do when I start early, plan in advance & hit that deadline fifteen minutes before it expires.

So, when I got an email from Dublin Food Chain announcing a trip to London with a group other Foodies & Bord Bia to suss out food trends over there I was on to it like a bat out of hell. I emailed by return with a very definite "expression of interest" and despite the trip being over subscribed three fold , as one of the early birds I secured a much coveted place on board.

Dublin Food Chain was started a few years ago by  James Burke a man with a wealth of experience in the food business with a vision & passion to put something concrete together that would bring small food businesses together to share ideas, to mentor & to inform each other.The work that James, Bord Bia & LEO  are doing to support small food businesses is phenomenal.

However despite all the help that is out there I find it difficult to take the time to reach out & explore the many options for help that are available. Self employment can be a lonely place which is why I was so excited about this trip, not only would I have a chance to see first hand what the trends in the ready to go market are in London, get ideas for packaging etc, but I would get a chance to meet my fellow foodie colleagues.

The trip was last Friday and it was a triumph,It was organised with the skill of a military operation. Starting in Kings Cross we visited food business after food business, taking pictures, absorbing the trends, connecting with each other. We walked miles in the sunshine, exchanged tips & stories of the  worries & successes of our businesses, we swapped business cards,  made & received suggestions that might be useful to each other.

At the end of the day, tired, excited & inspired I realised that the most important thing that I took from the day was that in the food business in Dublin, with such a wonderful supportive community nobody need ever feel alone.

Bless you all.

Shirley
x

(Owner of The Delicious Food Co)

Something Fishy's' Going Down !

Evening All,

Last week I promised myself that I would go back to writing a weekly blog about life as an SME owner & keep you updated, amused &  comforted that:

a) you are not alone if you too are self employed

b) that boring but pensionable job, you have considered forfeiting 

might not be quite so bad after all.

All businesses depend on one thing above all else & that is THE CLIENT. Without clients there would be no business.Clients are the oxygen that breathes life into our dreams of self fulfilment. It's important to have a good spread of clients, to never be over dependent on one, although we all wish for that special one, The Mr Big, who's business takes care of ours, with orders rolling in & the ultimate bonus of prompt payment that appears in the bank on the same day every month, without ever having to ask.

Last week I got a call from a key client, could I meet him to discuss where management were going with their expanding  business

I stock a number of their stores & whilst  not quite Mr Big, this is a piece of business I value & would not want to lose.

I went to the meeting, dressed to impress, yet feeling defensive. I knew what was coming..they are revamping their fresh food business, somebody "up North" will provide Crayfish sandwiches...it's a very sexy EXCLUSIVE  proposition & by exclusive I not talking about the Crayfish.

So I did what I do best when faced with Beechers Brook, I held on tight, dug deep & tackled it head on.

Now, I can't match the fantastic prices of a mass producer, my products may not be the best packaged product on the shelf ,but

my sandwiches are made the morning they are delivered. The bread  is made locally by The Bretzel Bakery, we buy all our vegetables in Smithfield, we employ five of us in our kitchen  Every penny we spend & make supports local jobs.

We matter !

I urged the client to consider this; that we like so many others need his business to do what we do. The success of a business is not just in the bottom line, it's how it supports so many small businesses like us and it is the small businesses like us who are the backbone of this economy.

Later that evening I got a call, the owner had heard my pitch and if I am willing to be flexible, he is willing to be flexible too, so as they sayin the music business
 "it's not over 'til the fat lady sings"


As for our sandwiches...forget Cray Fish, we'll be filling ours with nothing less than
 Dublin Bay Prawns.

 Delicious !

Starting Over...

Evening All,

When I started my blog two years ago, I fell happily into the rhythm of writing a blog every week, punching out tale after tale of the  life of a small business owner. I think the blog hit a chord with other small business owners as I revealed the highs & the lows of my daily  journey around the

 Food Lanes of Dublin, owner of The Delicious Food Co.

In 2013 the positive feed back that I got to the blog kept me buoyant personally when I might have otherwise sunk. It was wonderful to share the big successes & not be afraid to tell it as it was when things were tough. What I loved most about the blogs I wrote then was the honesty of them, the lack of fear of  

the freedom of my own expression.

The beauty about writing a  blog is the anonymity of it. I don't think anybody writes a blog for people they know, they write it for themselves (at least I do) and then cyber it out there into the universe to 

see where it lands, who  connects with it. If you write a personal blog like I do, you need to stay strong or the careless (often well meant) whispers about revealing too much can dent that treasured freedom.

So, starting from next week I intend to go back to writing a weekly (humorous) blog on the life of a small business owner,  warts, beauty spots & all.

Why not hop in beside me & come along for the ride , it will be fun.

I promise!

Shirley x