On Flexibility

Q.  You seem to have many interests when it comes to the food business – from your product list alone, you’re producing sauces, jams, rubs and other things like chili.  What do you think is the most important thing to success for your clients?

Wow…that one is really a hard one. 

I think that we assume that our clients have a passion for what they’re doing and enough money to support them and their food habit.  If I had to choose one, it would be flexibility and an ability to adapt.

When I first started down this path after being a nerd in the area of systems engineering, I thought that just creating my own signature pasta sauce which is THE.BEST.EVAH was good enough.  I thought that the business would just come because the sauce was so good.  What I didn’t realize then that I do now is that I do not have a passion for retail sales. 

I’ve worked with people in the past who didn’t have that flexible approach to business and were what I would consider one trick ponies.   If I came up with an idea to do something, I’d get answers like, “we’re not going to expand our product line,” or “that’s too labor intensive to make a go of it,” or ‘”we’ve never done that before,” or some other excuse to not even give things a try. 

I always wanted to hear the answer of “Why Not?” 

I’ve found that if I had stuck to my first thought and wasn’t flexible enough to change that I would not have found success.  In changing the fundamental aspect of what I was doing I found a renewed passion.

My newfound plan of attack is to take the facility that I have my eye on for purchase and utilize it in many new ventures.  By using the facility in a flexible manner and taking a “Why Not?” approach, I think I can scratch as many of my personal itches as I want.

I want to make pickles of all kinds.  I want to pickle jalapeños and other hot peppers.  I have an idea to make bacon and sausages.  I want to have a street vendor license and sell take out Italian sausages with peppers and onions and my pasta sauce, and hot dogs Buffalo or Chicago style. 

I want to open up my facility to people who want to start their own food business, whether that’s baking pies and cakes and cupcakes or starting a catering business or creating sauces or selling sandwiches to go from a roach coach. 

I want my community to know that I am a force to be reckoned with when helping startups startup.

FoodProductLaunch.com is my grand idea and my great passion.  I want to help as many of you as possible go from Your Kitchen to the Marketplace.  We take the scary out of the process!

TJ Gallivan

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