Small business start up

In this episode, the last of the season, we discuss seven of the most important lessons from the first season of this podcast about starting and growing a home-based production business.

Despite our best efforts, it was not possible to book guests for these last few weeks of the calendar year. It shouldn’t have been surprising, as December is the busiest for home-based production businesses. But we are still learning ourselves! Instead, we are using this opportunity to close out the year and season one of the podcast. We examine themes from our 14 guest interviews to see if there are any universals for new home-based producers to consider as they start their own businesses.

Of course, the answer is “no.” Everyone is different, and all entrepreneurs must approach their businesses with their own special circumstances in mind. Nevertheless, I did find a variety of common themes across interviews and discuss the top seven briefly. We call these the seven secrets for Small-Scale Business Success.

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates. 

In this episode, Torchbearer Sauces founders Vid Lynch and Ben Smith discuss how they turned seven years of weekly parties into a thriving 15-year-old sauce business. As early innovators in the flavor-based hot sauce movement, they credit their success to decisions about reclaiming the production process and putting in the time to really get to know their products and customers.

As their seven-year run of weekly dinner parties of 15-30 guests each started to wind down, Vid, Ben, and Tim had to figure out what to do with the peppers that they had been growing in their garden. The answer, well, start a hot sauce business, of course! It was the end of the growing season, though, and they needed more habanero peppers to make their first batch of sultry sauce. So, the first decision they made was to rent a trailer for a 72-hour road trip to farmers’ markets in Texas, where they were able to find only half of the markets that they had researched (the other half were no longer in existence) but still return with 666 pounds of fresh peppers. And so it began…

Don’t let these cheerful and low-key gentlemen fool you, though. They put a lot of thought into their business before starting off on that fateful journey. Their seven years of experimenting had given them the knowledge to create their first product, and a year working with a small business association and a supportive dad helped with the establishment of the business. They even won three national awards for their first hot sauce, which was produced with the fruits of that first Texas trip (yes, habanero peppers are fruits, so pun intended!).

One of the many things that is so interesting about the Torchbearer Sauces story is that they started their business working with a co-packer. However, after that partner sold the business, and follow-up with the new management was a bust, the founders decided to start making the sauces themselves! They credit this decision as transformational in the growth of their business. It gave a chance to build efficiencies into the production process and experiment with smaller batches, thereby helping to grow offerings much faster over time. 
 

Now, 15 years after their first product launch and working out of restaurant and fire hall kitchens, Vid, Ben, and their team are going strong with their own production facility in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania (sorry, I mistakenly referenced Mechanicsburg, PA in the episode, which is just down the road from Lemoyne), market penetration into local and regional stores, as well as a strong online presence with food and other merchandise, and longstanding relationship with companies such as Heatonist and Hot Ones to bring national visibility and acclaim. And, they still seem to be enjoying every minute of it!

You can find out more about Torchbearer Sauces and their incredible product lineup at https://www.torchbearersauces.com).

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates. 

In this episode, Tony Morrell discusses one of his obsessions, home beer brewing, how his process has changed over the past eight to nine years to assure regular brewing awards, and how he is thinking about turning his past time into a commercial venture.

Tony Morrell received his first home-brewing beer kit eight to nine years ago. Excited to try it out, the results were pretty terrible. It could take a few weeks to taste one of his concoctions, and the results were often close to what brewers call “drain pour”—so bad that you have to throw it out. The learning curve was steep, and the ingredients that came in the initial kit were not the best quality. Tony was so discouraged that he stopped brewing for about a year. However, as Tony and his friends continued to test local options, he knew that he could do better. He also enjoyed drinking seasonal beers but have a wider window when these would be available. So, he studied up, bought new ingredients locally, and tried again.

One game-changer over time was access to a new yeast, from Norway, that speeded up the fermentation process. Tony no longer had to wait six weeks to test the results of his experimentation. Instead, he could try many of his beers after only four to five days, cutting the wait time by 50 to 70 percent. This miracle yeast also brought rich new flavors, called esters, that created exciting new flavor profiles. The new yeast and other procedural changes helped Tony create beers that have consistently won awards in local competitions. He is definitely on to something.

Tony enjoys brewing so much that he is contemplating opening one or more breweries. His latest two Brewers Choice awards will give him the opportunity to test his interest at scale, as he will have a chance to brew his Guava Strawberry Sour Ale in large quantities at the Pour Man’s Brewing Company. Tony will be able to use this experience and ongoing conversations with other brewers to see if he will enjoy turning his hobby into a career. He is already thinking about locations, combining a new brewery with another passion, outdoor living, as well as branding.

Tony discusses these issues as well as other thoughts about how he would set a new business up for success—some of which might seem in contrast to the advice of previous guests. Why, for example, might Tony think about starting larger brewery initially instead of a micro-brewery at a smaller scale?

You can find out more about Tony’s award-winning beers on his Instagram feed, at (https://www.instagram.com/tmorrell1/).

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates.