A Business Update
Hi friends!
Many people have approached me, asking how the sauce business is going. There are so many people on the edge of their seats waiting for us to start selling. Trust me… so are we! We are itching to get started, but we have to make sure we dot our Is and cross our Ts. The Ministry of Primary Industries has set out extensive regulations that we need to follow in order to be able to start properly selling. It’s not only time consuming - it’s expensive!
The good news is we have done everything in our power to get Secret Sauce Co NZ completely set up on the back end. I have engaged who I’ve needed to engage (lawyer, accountant, etc.) and as far as the physical product - everything is ready for when he hit go. You would’ve seen in my recent update on our socials that our jar labels have been designed and are ready for print. We also undertook a complete brand overhaul. Yep! Before we made a single sale, we changed our branding. It wasn’t in the plan, but it ended up being necessary to be able to achieve the jar label designs of my dreams.
Oh! And we’ve worked with Massey University (and have done science in our kitchen) to give our sauce a one-year shelf life. We even own lab grade equipment to do pH testing ourselves on each individual batch. When I say everything in the background is done - I mean every last detail! I have spent more time than I can recount working on Secret Sauce Co NZ.
So what’s the hold up? Well, we personally invested everything we had saved up (plus a small use of debt leverage) to get the business set up thus far. What we invested was able to cover the physical setup of the business. Now we are at a point where we need to get our Custom Food Control Plan evaluated and verified, which will be thousands more dollars. At the moment, we just don’t have that, so this is our pause point (I won’t say stopping point, because we plan to resume).
I thought sourcing funding would be the cure all, but it turned out to be a dead end. I had a funding meeting that seemed promising and reached out to additional funders - all to no avail. Turns out, there are very limited options for funding new startups in New Zealand. Before you start sending me links to all the opportunities that are available - spare your time. I’ve already read all the articles and I don’t qualify for any of them, for one reason or another.
While it’s a little disheartening, it is what it is and it’s out of my personal control, so it won’t do me any good to worry about it. We do have a plan, as always! We are working to rebuild our savings and, honestly, relying on God. We know He has a plan and a purpose in the waiting, so we won’t rush the process. If He has a different way He wants to provide for this business, then we know it will happen in His perfect timing.
“At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.”
So now we wait, save, and trust. In the meantime, I am getting more and more excited for the launch of Secret Sauce Co NZ. Once it finally happens, it will be really incredible!
Until Next Time,
Jackie
