I just CAN NOT DO THIS anymore, Lori thought in despair. It had been almost ten years since she founded Zen Rabbit and this company she’d created based on a family cookie recipe had pretty much consumed her life for the entire decade. It was like her child, although for some reason, this child refused to develop according to schedule. At this point in the life of the business, the company should be profitable. She should have a fulfillment company managing the packaging and shipping of products, as well as an assistant to handle administrative stuff and perhaps a handful of other team members taking care of media relations and online engagement.
Yet there she was, in the midst of another busy holiday season, packaging orders at all hours and dropping them off at the post office, doing all the work herself and wondering where the money was.
The concept of The Gratitude Cookie product and helping business professionals say thank you to their customers was a solid one. Lori truly believed in the strength of the idea, but the day in day out frustrations and ongoing challenges were wearing her down. Persistence had always been one of her strongest characteristics and it was a big reason why she’d made it this far. She hated the thought of giving up, but maybe it was finally time to throw in the towel.
Lori was a shy child. All her report cards said “Lori is a very good student, but needs to learn how to speak up in class.” At home she never shut up, earning the nickname “motor mouth” from her Uncle Richard. However, out in the world, she was afraid to speak to strangers, say the wrong thing or make a mistake. Even though she usually knew the right answer, she would wait until called on rather than raise her hand and volunteer. In school, writing was a safer, more comfortable method of communication.
Remarkably, it was as if someone flipped a switch that day her parents dropped her off at college. As they drove away, she immediately headed for the broadcast studio on campus, ready to meet new people, turn on a microphone and start a career in broadcasting. She loved any opportunity to educate an audience and share information.
As it turned out, her first jobs after graduation involved much more writing and no broadcasting. But her new found confidence in talking to people she’d never met before, along with her well-honed writing skills and creative way of thinking contributed to a successful career in corporate communications and marketing.
Years later, when she was struggling with figuring out what to do next in life, she again flirted with broadcasting and became an on-air radio personality. Those gigs were part-time, with crazy hours and little pay though. So inspired by an entrepreneurial friend, Lori decided to once again turn away from broadcasting and instead take a family recipe and turn it into a business.
It was never her intention to be the next Mrs. Fields. Based on her experience and skill in corporate marketing, Lori chose to take this product and make it a tool for business people to say thank you to their customers. Surely her success in marketing all kinds of products and services for her past employers would translate to success in her own business.
While there was no way to anticipate all the challenges that come with running a business – hurricanes destroying baking facilities, the death of a business partner, shipping logistics – she soldiered on. She stuck it out. She built a strong brand and created the image of a thriving business. No one would suspect that her company wasn’t really as successful as it looked from the outside.
She understood and was okay with the idea that building a business is hard work. She saw that other entrepreneurs struggled too, but eventually, at some point, it seemed like they all caught a break and voila! their companies made it onto the Inc. 500 list. After ten years of fighting the good fight, Lori was really questioning her abilities. If she was such a great marketer, then why was she so bad at selling her own products? She had studied the best sales and marketing gurus, attended tons of conferences and enlisted the services of expensive business coaches. Why didn’t she have more clients? Why wasn’t she making more money?
At the same time, because she created such a picture of success, Lori would consistently get phone calls from people referred to her by a friend of a friend. “I have a recipe for granola,” or “I have an idea for starting a company with my barbecue spices.” “You’re doing so well, can you offer some advice,” they’d ask. Even if her business wasn’t at the point she would have liked it to be, she did have some level of knowledge and experience she could share with them. She could point them in the right direction, at least as much as a 15 or 30-minute phone call allowed.
Entrepreneurship takes its toll on many a personal relationship, even when the business is making money. When it’s not, the strain is all the more brutal. One partner is pushing as hard as possible to make the business work, and often the other is financially supporting the household through a traditional job. Lori’s husband felt a lot of pressure as the sole provider and resented her business for taking so much of her time and energy without delivering a financial return. He consistently reminded her this situation was “not what he signed up for.” He would have loved for her to give up and get a job. There were several years of ongoing arguments punctuated with days of not speaking to each other followed by a few weeks of détente before the cycle started again.
Now in addition to feeling like a failure in business, she didn’t have the support she wanted or needed at home. How do other people DO this she wondered.
Although she and her husband had moved away 15 years ago, Northern Virginia is where Lori had long considered “home.” A summer trip there convinced her that she needed to move back. Energetically, she’d never felt south Florida was her place and 12 years was long enough to live somewhere you don’t love. Her goal was to get back to Virginia, no matter what it took, within the next 9 months. She announced her plan and told her husband he could come with her or not. Either way, she was going. He chose to join her. It was an emotionally and financially challenging move, but definitely the right thing to do. For a short time, Lori took a marketing consulting job because that’s what was necessary to pay the bills. Not everything changed overnight, but her relationship improved, her business expanded.
How other people DO this, Lori discovered, is by stacking the deck in your favor. Putting yourself in an environment that is conducive to your personal and professional growth. Moving to another place if that’s where you’re more comfortable. Surrounding yourself with people who love, support and “get” you.
Even though Zen Rabbit had still not reached the advanced level of success she visualized, Lori started thinking about how she could monetize the advice she was giving to start up food entrepreneurs. She’d once heard a speaker talking about how three-year old children don’t so much look to twelve-year olds as role models as they do to six year olds. There’s too much of an age gap between three and twelve. They want to learn from someone older but can’t relate as well if they’re too much older.
So even though she wasn’t running a million or even a quarter of a million dollar business, Lori did possess valuable wisdom that could potentially save business newcomers a lot of time and money. After a bit of research, she concluded that while there were a few other people out there targeting food businesses, no one else was really doing what she had in mind. She could be the six-year old teaching the three-year olds. Without completely giving up on Zen Rabbit, she established FoodBizCoach.com as a resource for all those people with great recipes and dreams of building a food business but no idea where or how to start.
The most exciting aspect of this venture was the interview component. Lori’s idea was to record interviews with successful food business entrepreneurs. Then she could share the recordings with the newbie audience and both she and they could learn from a variety of sources about the shortcuts, pitfalls and triumphs of those who’d gone before. This seemed a perfect combination for bringing her marketing talents, experience in the food business and broadcasting passion full circle. Perhaps she would even make connections that would benefit the Zen Rabbit business.
How’s it working out? This journey has just begun.