In mid-August, we were accepted into a cohort through the Good Food Accelerator called "Go 2 Market." The Good Food Accelerator is a program through FamilyFarmed, a non-profit organization here in Chicago with this Vision: "FamilyFarmed expands production and access to Good Food and cultivates a more equitable, healthy and sustainable food system. We will do this by connecting and informing a diverse community of Good Food producers, entrepreneurs and consumers." We were introduced to this organization by our good friends at Chocolate Inspirations, a fellow small business here in Roselle, IL. They completed this program and we're so excited about it that the owner called and talked to me for over 30 minutes about how amazing the experience was, how much she had learned, and how much growth they had seen in sales due to the knowledge obtained. She highly recommended that we apply for the next cohort, and we were accepted!
Over the last 6 weeks, I have taken part in a weekly 3-hour meeting via Zoom with 8 other entrepreneurs who own CPG (consumer packaged goods) food companies. Each week we have a different expert from this specific industry come to present on topics such as finance, branding, marketing, e-commerce, and more. I was also assigned a mentor I meet with weekly to receive help and feedback on the improvements and changes we are making with That Rub to help us grow.
It has been an amazing experience so far, and I don't have words to explain how much I've learned and how much I still have to learn! As a husband and wife team, both with full-time jobs outside of our business, our desire is to be able to grow our sales to the point where we could afford to quit our jobs and have our business as our only income. The only way to do this is to drastically increase our sales, and we see a great opportunity to do that through grocery stores, beginning with local, then regional, with a goal of large chains selling our product in the next 3-5 years. Our biggest obstacle with this plan has been scalability, meaning we don't have the time or resources to make enough product to be able to sell to grocery stores, since we have been self-producing.
I'm excited to share that after much research, I found an amazing co-manufacturer in Michigan who has a team that produces spice blends for different companies. They will be hand making our product going forward and will allow us to focus our time on the next steps in the selling process instead of blending the seasonings ourselves. We have tested their samples using our recipes and they are perfect, just as if we made them ourselves! Their service will allow us to scale as we grow and increase order size as we secure larger retailers. We received our first order (2 pallets of That Rub!) THIS WEEK and I could not be more excited for this next big step for our business.
Samples arrived! (pictured above)
If you know of any small grocery store owners/managers, or retail locations that our product would be a perfect fit, please email us with the contact name/email and we will reach out, as we now have LOTS of product in stock to sell! Also, please keep us in mind for your holiday shopping. That Rub is a unique, inexpensive gift item that ANYONE can use and enjoy :)
Lastly, our long-awaited seasonal blend, Holiday Blend, is now available! Tony created this blend last year with the intention of an easy way to season your holiday turkey,
however, it became an immediate top seller, and our customers use it on turkey, chicken, pork, veggies, and potatoes! It is a savory herb blend with hints of rosemary and sage and just tastes like comfort. It is only available November 1-December 31, so buy NOW to avoid a sellout. There are 2 options- the individual bag and our Holiday Kit, which includes a bag of Holiday Blend for your turkey and a bag of Original Blend for your ham...it creates the most AMAZING glaze for ham! They are packaged together in a burgundy cinch bag. Buy for yourself, or family/friends! As always, we appreciate your support.
Here's our turkey from last year. I wish you could smell it, but hopefully, you'll try out the Holiday Blend yourself this year!
