What All Went into Starting This? I Mean, How Hard Can it Be?

When the idea of making and selling salsa popped into my head, I had no idea what I was getting into. 

Simply put, my thought process was the following: I will front the cash to buy the stuff for my initial batches of salsa. Then I will sell them and use that money to replace what I sold, plus a little more, and pocket the rest to buy yarn. It looked good on paper. Kinda like the 2001 Seattle Mariners. Ouch. 

It went like that at first. I made some salsa. I sold some salsa. I used that money to make more salsa. And I had some money left to spend. But as we slowly grew, after market fees, and expenses, there was very little left to put in my pocket. I was disappointed. This should be easy. I make the salsa, I sell the salsa, I replace what I need to, I spend the rest. Repeat. I was distraught. What was I doing wrong? Jim knew exactly what I was doing wrong. 

When Jim got involved, he explained to my finance deficient mind how, if I could sell more, my fixed expenses would stay the same and ... snore. You lost me at fixed expenses. 

Don't get me wrong, when we were doing the big markets every week, we were bringing in some good money. But by this time, our vision had grown, and every dime we made went right back into the business. 

And remember. It is just the two of us. No one else is helping. We have three little ones at home and he is working full time. It was exhausting. And fun. 

After our first successful market season, we talked at length about getting licensed. We knew it was going to be expensive, but we didn't think it would be too bad. *Family Feud buzzer sound*

New floor, refrigeration, stoves, large pots, licensing fees, building permits and zoning. We failed at making it go in our first "location". I was mad. If you have read my previous blog posts, you know that here is where I almost gave up. Looking back, I was a wimp. This was nothing compared to what was to come. 

Once the hurdle of licensing was cleared, it was smooth sailing. We had this gigantic 1000ft2 kitchen and for the first time, we had two people to help. We were gonna crank out salsa and we were gonna sell it and everyone was gonna pay us on time.

Give me a minute to wipe away the tears of laughter. 

I'm back. 

We did, indeed, make a ton of salsa. Most of the time, come Monday, after markets, our 'salsa wall' was empty and we had to start all over again. This was good and this was bad. We always felt like we were behind the eight ball. We felt like we couldn't keep up. 

To add to the frustration, I have a creative mind. I would come up with ideas for new salsas and say to the kitchen, "let's do this today". We could barely keep up with what we had to do and there I was, adding more. It was a cluster f*ck.

When Jim finally left his full time job and came to rescue me from drowning in numbers, payroll, general boring business stuff and the like, I was grateful. Mind you, he drives me mad sometimes. But he is useful when it comes to numbers. Numbers excite him. I have stopped trying to understand. 

So now, after years of trial and error, we have a system.  The kitchen runs pretty smoothly. Every once in a while we run into a hitch, but usually it has elements of something that we have run into before, so we know how to handle it and move on. 

After years of "I give up" and "This just isn't worth it", we now say, "I am so glad we stuck with this." 

After years of trying to find good employees and having to suffer through bad hires and almost laughable situations, we now have a team of the absolute best people we could ask for. Everyone has their niche and they excel at it. 

After years of struggling to understand why 'net-30' does not mean 'net-30', we finally have the cash flow we need, and it does not matter if 'net-30' means 'net-45' or even net-60'.

After hours upon hours of tears (only on my part, of course, because Jim does not cry), and fights about what is the right thing to do in this situation, and "are you f@cking kidding me" moments, and epiphanies, and wasted time, and stress to the maximum, and little victories and huge victories, and high-fives, and crushing blows, and private celebrations; here we are. We are still standing. 

So, please, lady who asked me at the kiosk last year, "What all went into starting this? I mean, how hard can it be?", Bring. It. On. I got this.