Shelf Wars....

Evening all,

Monday morning our van broke down and has been tucked up in a garage for the past two days, whilst they figure out what's wrong...

The net effect of this is that I have been late delivering to all my shops....and by the time I get there, my shelf space has been filled by competitors....

I swear to God they'd rob my grave if they could...

Whilst it's a war zone out  there in the fight for chilled fridge space, there is a certain etiquette that  must be respected...if you are the first in store...you are entitled to stock 'em high & let the merchandising staff worry about how to make it look nice...but you must leave space for your fridge partners.

Yesterday, in one store the Sushi guys had taken over the asylum....today was even worse....They had removed my products completely & stuck them on the bottom shelf....I was so annoyed...

Then I went into Fresh in Camden St...where the manager pulled me to one side....it seems Mr Delicious has been playing the same game....with the competitors sandwiches....he's been putting their sandwiches BEHIND ours....

I have to say, it's out of character...he's normally a nice,  respectful guy....but he did have the decency to blush when I pulled him up on it....his card has been marked by both me & the manager

it's not how we do business in The Delicious Food Co.....

......not at least whilst anybody is looking...


Shirley

London's Calling....

Evening all,

Being a small business owner can be incredibly rewarding but can also be incredibly stressful...(now there's a word that keeps reappearing in my blogs). When things start really mounting up & I know I am hitting a wall I book a flight to London, where my vbf , Jeremy, puts me up, looks after me, takes me to the hippest joints in London, listens to my woes (in very small doses) dishes out some no nonsense advice, runs me lovely smelly bubbly baths, takes me for breakfast in places where Bucks Fizz is part of the full English....

Tomorrow I'm off & it couldn't come at a better time.

Yesterday was one of those days which was a true mix of great news & not so great news. I got a call from a client most people would kill to have on their client portfolio.We had worked together before, but a  decision from the top two years ago, meant I was replaced with a new kid on the block..."nothing personal...client likes to mix things up...no problem using you again....etc..", yet it didn't seem like it was ever going to happen and now it seems like it will. I've been keeping in contact, letting them know I'm still here, still hungry for business & still the best small producer in the fresh food market. The client called me yesterday, beaming down the phone... I am back in the mix....I'll tell you more when it happens for real...meeting next Thursday, with orders to start immediately.

I got that great news on my way to my "Going for Growth" monthly meeting...it was when I left that the not so good news came, something I had worked tirelessly on for for months was being canned. Everybody around me was relieved, they could see how much I'd put into it & felt I had given too much already & that the expectation from the other side was never going to be met. I'm upset, but I will get over it and I've learnt a valuable lesson...about written contracts...managing expectations.....

Yes, I can be available 24/7, you can have my ideas, access to my talents ...

....but it will cost ya....

I am really excited about this London trip, tomorrow evening I'm meeting a gang I used to work with in The Independent, for the reunion of a colleague, who is coming home from Australia. Jeremy & I worked there together, whereby all accounts ....whilst talented, I was totally unmanageable (he was my boss). On Thursday I'm meeting my beloved friend M. who I met on day one at UCD where we studied Irish, many years ago...  she now...works for a top bank  where she is a serious player... I'm meeting her at the bank, which we will follow with drinks & a catch up in Gordon's Wine Bar.

 A few years ago she  found God in a way that I find both admirable & amusing in equal measures....last night she called....wanted to run something by me...on Thursday night there is dinner for the women from her church in Fulham......she was just wondering...and feel free to say no....but...em....would I like to attend with her......

I would LOVE to....I told her...

So on Thursday night, this hippie food producing chick, will be forgoing the nightlife of Soho, for dinner in Fulham, with the gorgeous M. & her bible worshipping friends (all 25 of them), who mean so much to her....I am honoured that she asked me...

I just hope to my God they serve alcohol...


Bon Soir,

Shirley

I'm Home !

Evening all,


The big move is complete...I've surrendered my bolt hole....my little private oasis in Smithfield & I'm back in the 'hood in Dublin 8.....Actually, I've left 8 stuffed archive boxes & a broken chair behind...but I will pick them up ....real soon..My office in the utility room is far from ready, so HQ is in the living room....a beautiful Victorian high ceiling room with a big sash window.....destroyed by the presence of multiple cables & wire, two printers & another 8 archive boxes ..my OCD is in overdrive.....

I've mentioned labels before in my blog & swore that the labelling machine wasn't coming with me. Who was I kidding...a control freak like me....I'm the label queen after all.....but, just one day after setting up the printing machine guess what ....Mr Delicious who doesn't know how to send an attachment with an email, never mind print a label, is upstairs in HQ printing out tomorrows sandwich labels.

Life is about to change even more radically than I had previously thought was possible.....& I can't wait...


Shirley

Choices, choices, choices

Evening all,

Yes it's blogging time...let me see what I have to tell you..

 Actually have loads of news. But the thing is when you are blogging about your  business, you can't just tell all...you have to.try to balance the bad stuff whilst keeping it real and if I do nothing else in this blog I want to keep it real...

The Mr Big story has been a distraction...( and we are still free falling...if his parachute doesn't open, it wasn't me ...I swear...not this time anyway.......), but the other side of things has been tough..We have been so busy, but the cash flow has simply not matched the effort. It's hard to stay positive when you are working 60 hour weeks...yet a haircut & colour with Olive in Style Club  just isn't in the budget.

This week I am finally moving out of my office. On Tuesday I threw caution to the wind & went to see my 12 year old Rosie,jump hurdles in the national schools athletics finals in Santry.....to hell with work. She is the youngest of four & I've never been to Santry School Finals..I've even coached under tens athletics for two years, but never saw my teams run...one work commitment after another.

On Wednesday I threw caution to the wind again & went to see a motivational speaker, Declan Coyle at 7.30am...he may well have changed my working  life. He was inspirational. His message was simple..you have a choice..there are two platforms in life...a red one & green one  The red is negative & the green is positive....we decide ourselves which one we are going to be on. My natural place is on the green one, but I sometimes slip on to the red one...& that's a hard one to move off. He went around the room asking everybody about the challenges they face in their business/life. When it came to me I said fear was my biggest challenge...making that leap from where I am to where I need to be...the fear of not getting paid in time to pay my suppliers, of over extending myself & my business...more sleepless nights of worry....

Believe.... he said & it will happen. I know he's right. I have three kids in private school & I never doubt that I will cover the fees....but a haircut & colour with Olive for me...well that is always always challenge....Without making a choice I've made a choice.....I'm no longer on the red platform...I'm on the green....it's so much easier to leap from one place to another when you know where you are leaping to...


And so,  before I sign off ...I want you to know, that, tomorrow at 11am, I'll be sitting in Style Club, tin foil in my  hair, whilst Olive updates me on the latest shenanigans in her truly eventful life whilst applying my American tailoring signature look...

Shirley
xx

Reality....it's a tough old game

Evening all,

It's a tough game this food production gig....sometimes I love it & sometimes I just think..what on earth am I doing. There must be 100s of easier  ways to work a sixty hour week. A few blogs ago  I wrote about moving out of my office & setting up at home...eating raw carrots ....jogging down the canal...living life at a slower pace. It's a month later & whilst I have dumped  everything that's not coming with me, the new office is not coming together as I hoped.

The utility room which I planned to resemble a double page spread in Elle Deco...which would be entitled

 "How she does it in the Utility Room

one super woman's approach to maximising space... ".  

   

  is not looking good.....

Yes everything has been binned in the office, but the utility room is still full of washing, camping gear...wellies...and the kind of stuff I will never ever use again but which I will never throw out. I feel like I'm in free fall & I'm not talking about the one with Mr Big. I'm free falling between my current office & my utility room, I'm free falling between getting more sales in & working more hours, my head is like a full sponge...it can't fit in another thought....and there is so much time to think as I lie awake all from 2.30am  til just before the alarm goes off at 5.30am....

Last week we were so tired we almost messed up big time... A lunch for 100 to be served at noon in an office building with no kitchen. (same day as Mr Bigs first order....) .the previous evening at about 7pm I called Mr Delicious from my office offering to help him out (I had been in work since 6am he had been in since five)..."no", he insisted "you go home to the kids...the Beef Bourguignon will take another few hours"....."Beef Bourguignon"....I replied in horror..."it's Beef Stroganoff .... wait I'll call the client see if she'll run with that".....no way it had to be Stroganoff.....

So... we went with the only option open to us in a crisis &  carefully drained the kilos of beef of it's red wine broth , cut the individual pieces of beef into strips, added required amount of sour cream....simmered.

Oh yes...the Broganoff was to die for...

Them's the breaks Part 5...SPAR Troika...are coming to town

Evening all,

I promise not to write about my big break after today, except to let you know, how me & Mr Big are getting along. Monday which was D day...was moved to Tuesday....I'd bought all the bread ready to start but Mr Big  isn't interested in those petty little issues..he's only interested in bar codes & margins.

He's not even that interested in the fabulous new packaging design that myself & my Creative Goddess Orla had created for him..but the new packaging does look amazing. On Tuesday morning I rolled up before 7 am  in my little van with over 250 sandwiches, wraps & salads, made exclusively for his flagship store  under the new brand identity  I had created for him. He was in the store but left without saying hello....but he did call me half an hour later...there was a problem with the bar codes ...get it sorted... & quick...

Ya see, he does care.....

Mr Big is a a bit of an enigma..I'm trying to work him out..I like him & I suppose as long as he needs me, we'll be fine...so, yes we've finally bungee jumped off the edge of the cliff, we're both in free fall and both hoping to God that we make it out alive....

This is a big week for all my SPAR clients....the SPAR Troika are coming to town. SPAR is the biggest retail franchise in the world and there is a massive  delegation of SPAR VIPs arriving in town on Monday, everybody is under pressure.

 Consider the pressure in the Dept of Finance, before the arrival of the Troika and their symbolic walk form through town to The Central Bank a few years ago..and that will give you some sense of what's going on in my shops...

That's why Mr Big is so stressed and I really want him & his store to look great.

Other clients don't need my help, everything is  under control. Mr Mmmmm,  of the super posh SPAR in Dublin 2 (he has 4 shops in Dublin 2), had his gold front signage removed & re polished a few weeks ago, he's the SPAR godfather/son.....a Fergal Quinn protege....There will be no pictures of the SPAR Troika walking from his shop  with a homeless person in the background....no sir. Mr Mmmmm will have all the homeless to Milano's where they will be munching posh pizza...after  he has carefully worked out the margin....negative publicity minus cost of lunch divided by neg publicity......60% plus....no returns...

Oh yeah...


Shirley x

Them's the breaks ...Part 4

Hi there,

Sorry I haven't been in touch for the past few weeks. I've been very busy & mentally exhausted, there is always so much to do and trying to get myself & Mr Bigs new working relationship off the ground has been quite a challenge. Mr Big takes some managing....After agreeing to do something really funky with the packaging...."it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission" he told me in response to my concern about tinkering with a well established logo...."don't you worry about that....."  reality kicked in & suddenly my creative goddess & myself were left with a situation where he wanted to merge our fab funky colourful graphics with a long established traditional logo.......DISASTER. Frankly it looked awful and having started the ball rolling on this one..I had no doubt where the finger would point, when Mr Big realised the same.

Mr Big doesn't answer his phone, his mail box is always full....Today I needed to talk to him, get some decisions...A quick text.."Can you call me URGENTLY" worked a treat. As I said before at this stage we need each other....I need to learn as much as I can about  mass market volume production....he needs his fridges full on Monday morning...with produce produced under his brand....Today, I found a solution to the packaging design, I will use his existing labelling with the traditional logo intact, but will have our graphics printed separately & apply them to the packaging....we will merge the old & the new....it will look great....

This is a risky venture for us @ The Delicious Food Co....all our sandwiches are made on gorgeous breads from artisan bakeries, Arun & Bretzel on the morning of delivery. But the reality is that the majority of people  who buy prepacked sandwiches buy them in wedge boxes, and they buy thousands of them....this client sells up to 1,000 sandwiches a week, from Monday I'll be making them...I'll also be making all his salads. It's a different market, but our core philosophy of making all our food with love & care will continue...it's just that the bread will be....em...a  tad more robust with the help a preservative or two. The margins are really tight on this one, so it's all about volume. It's really exciting and challenging...we're nearly there, tomorrow Mr Big will get  samples of everything....as well as a letter outlining my terms & conditions of sale which he has agreed to, but which I don't think he heard...

This will be a match made in heaven or will all end in tears....We're still in our bungee jumping gear Mr Big & me...but there's no going back now...

on Monday we go to the edge of the cliff and we JUMP.....


Shirley