The man behind the scenes and at my right hand who makes it all happen.
Hello all, I wanted to introduce you to a gentleman who has really brought Mama’s Fire quite literally out of the parking lot and into your homes. He has been kind enough to share his story today. What follows was written by our operations director Clint.
“Working with the cottage industry of Mama’s Fire Gourmet Sauces under the umbrella of Sacred Works Project’s 501(c)3 non-profit status has been an interesting, definitely challenging situation for a guy who came from the corporate and manufacturing structured styled environments. My introduction to this realm of accounting began with a casual conversation in a parking lot. Later on, after even more conversations (on the same parking lot), Jesse and I sat down over lunch and coffee to discuss what exactly it would take to begin building a viable company structure. That conversation was in reality my interview; a two-way interview in that our discussion was to determine if I really wanted to join forces with this gentleman. The end result was that it led to us purchasing and installing QuickBooks on my computer. Jesse then turned over to me his previous months of Sacred Works Project’s banking statements along with an accumulation of other business records. Among those records were copies of his 14 invoices to his original customers. That was mid May in 2010. Things have only gotten better since then.
At that point in time, there was no actual organization to everything outside of the company name and Jesse’s passion to make Mama’s Fire real. Despite everything against him, Jesse had managed to create and get two products registered and protected. He had survived getting his recipes documented and found a co-packer to produce his products. But the amazing part is that he had managed to get product on the shelves of several co-ops, a few health food stores and several mainstream national grocery stores. Those first 14 invoices were from September of 2009. Now we have product in more than 40 nationally known grocery stores here in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Also there are about another 21 co-ops, health food shops, meat markets, as well as local roadside stands. A local restaurant Venti’s with 2 locations now uses our sauces to the extent we had to have product packaged in cases of 6 – ½ gal jugs in place of our standard cases of 8 oz jars and 12 oz bottles. We deliver about 6 cases to them every month…and they only have two principal menu items that uses the sauces. So we know we can provide restaurants as well as grocery markets with Mama’s Fire product.
Looking at us now you would never imagine that we’re still a small organization. Jesse conducts all of his business from his cell phone and email; and I work from my home and out of my garage packing up promotional samples to prospective customers, internet sales, and food bloggers. We now have actual Mama’s Fire Gourmet Sauces and Sacred Works Project letterheads, invoices, price lists, product description sheets, business cards, recipe cards and brochures for sampling situations. We even Mama’s Fire shirts for those times we do in-store samplings and catering for requested and special events. At present, our only external advertising is two large decals on my truck windows, and a local bicycle taxi wheels around town with our advertisement.
We recently completed our Prospectus as we begin seeking out funds to help us take Mama’s Fire to the national markets. We are thrilled at having gotten this far in the short time it has taken us. Jesse has met and gotten to know some remarkable people in his mission to bring Mama’s Fire to the masses. It keeps surprising me when one of them suddenly appears out of the mist of our frustrations offering tidbits or accumulation of information to help us solve a given difficulty we face. We also know the struggles that have gotten us this far are only the beginning. To reach a larger portion of the national market, we are actively searching out distributor(s).
But part of the greatest news is that Jesse and I are not alone anymore in this journey of making Mama’s Fire Gourmet Sauces known throughout the country. There are now five of us as the core of our operations.
We have a gentleman who directs the in-store samplings for the sauces here in our local areas, going hither and yon letting the public taste both sauces.
Now we have an Executive Chef of record who creates various menu items with both sauces that are incredible. He has produced meals for intimate groups of 6 & 8, and has put together dishes that have fed hundreds for us. His last feat was to feed 50 college instructors at a local college a full BBQ lunch for their in-service day. The only thing I think he hasn’t done with the sauces yet is create some kind of dessert.
The last person is a lady with an extensive background in business organization and planning. She has already began taking over more of the day-to-day responsibilities as we continue to grow; and most likely the one who will take on the management of the non-profit Sacred Works Project when Mama’s Fire Gourmet Sauces separates to become an S Corporation.
Now with all this being said, I have only one more thing to relate. Amidst all the madness of every new dilemma we face in our goal of making Mama’s Fire a household known name, we have been very committed to only three things.
1) Keep plugging away at offering our sauces to every food and gourmet blogger we can induce to try the sauces; and letting them post their opinion. Thus far, our efforts have been quite pleasing. Three of these individuals have come back with a one-phrase comeback. “Mama’s Fire is AWESOME!” Not a bad response for a company whose first staff meetings began on a parking lot.
2) We keep approaching new independent stores, and small to medium sized grocery chains to keep building our customer base to be more likely for a distributorship to pick us up.
3) We face every new challenge as a learning experience. A friend of mine once said it perfectly…“You don’t know what you don’t know.” Both Jesse and I have marched into situations where we were so far are out of our league it was apparent that we needed additional education in the ways of dealing with the lingo and protocols of the grocery markets. So we step back a moment to find the necessary answers and quickly step back up to the plate to go forward.
Now the five of us have our weekly meetings at a local coffee house to bring each other up to date on individual progress and to plan/co-ordinate our next efforts.
p.s. – Jesse and I still have occasional meetings on the parking lot; and yes, we still sometimes joke about our humble beginnings.”
It has been a great journey so far, and really we are just at the beginning, one day we may actually get out of the parking lot, although I do enjoy my second hand smoke. Thank you Clint for everything, I really mean it.
Sacred ingredients…Enlightened taste
