'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