Lessons Learned!

So there we were at our very first Farmer's Market selling our wonderful Veggie Burgers.   We had signs and a list of ingredients.   We had a little marketing sheet that told people who we were.  We also had a mini grill to heat up samples.   It is funny how you can attract a crowd with free food.   Anyway we were so proud of ourselves.  We were asked lots of questions that we felt very comfortable answering.   We knew our food-- that is until we got the one question we never in a million years expected.  

There are three different types of Veggie Burgers that we make.  One is our Barbecue Burger.   It is made with homemade barbecue sauce---which has Worcestershire sauce in it.    Theresa developed it because she felt kids would like it the most as it has a sweetness about it.   Imagine our surprise when a potential customer asks us ~and I quote ~ "is the Worcestershire Sauce vegetarian?" 

Picture a dumbfounded look on our face....see we had no idea that Worcestershire sauce is not technically vegetarian....since it has anchovies in it.   Who Knew!!!

So there is our first lesson that we learned about people's food issues.   We looked into it and found that there are not many companies that sell a vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce.   Luckily we did find Annie's Naturals which puts out a Vegan Worcestershire sauce....which is what we now use.   I guess the old saying is correct "live & learn" ~which helps to make things better.

In the Beginning Part III The Farmer's Market

One of the biggest things for us was where to sell our Veggie Burgers.   Theresa got in contact with the Chatham Farmer's Market and they were very interested in the idea of selling something different. It was the Market's second year and they wanted to expand.   They gave us  list of things that are required for setting up a stand at the Market and we got to work.  

We bought a tent----nice and red to stand and go with our logo.
We got a grill, tables, cash box, utensils and some signage.   We even had T-Shirts made up.  We were so professional~

We were really excited and nervous about selling the burgers.   I must admit I wasn't in sales mode right away....Theresa was great at it.   Having been in retail you would think I could come out swinging....it took me awhile to warm up.  

The first time we were there it took us awhile to set up.   Now we are pro's!  We were very well received....people loved the burgers.   We gave out samples and talked them up.   It was nice to have repeat customers as the weeks went on.

In the Beginning Part II Logo & Tagline!

So deciding to start a business is not actually hard, it's the stuff that comes after that can be a bit of a challenge. 
Now that we had the name we needed a tagline....once we had the tagline we thought we needed a logo.
Again we asked the family for assistance.    Some of the taglines were ingenious....{I would mention them here but who knows we might want to use them some day.}
We finally agreed on the tagline of  "Keeping the Earth Green~One Plateful at a Time"....I am not sure but I think my sister Ann came up with it.   She is writer and has helped us alot through all of this. 
Ok now for the logo~ Theresa had some ideas but couldn't get them across.   I googled the word "logos" and found a site that let us do it for free.  I always go for free when I can.
We played with the site for awhile....colors, shapes....it was fun.   Finally we got what we have now.  It is a nice logo....but someday we might change it!
There was still so much more to do.

In the Beginning

My sister-in-law Theresa is a great cook.   A few years ago while sitting in her kitchen she told me how she had developed these great veggie burgers.  She said she thought she could sell them but wasn't sure how to get started.   As I was out of work, which is why I was in her kitchen, I told her that it was a great idea that we could do together.   We started a partnership that day.   We did research on how to start a company~not as easy as it looks.   We went to seminars  took classes and read books.   The whole family was enlisted to think up names for our new company.  

Here were some of our ideas:

"T"'s Table
Trilogy foods
Special "T"S
speciaTy Foods
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There were a lot of "T" suggestions ( her name is Theresa and we call her "T" ~so you get the idea).

She of course being modest really didn't want her name involved.  She also didn't want, which I agreed with, to have 'burger's in the title in case we ever wanted to expand.   That was a smart idea.   Finally Theresa thought since we wanted to show how healthy our veggie burgers were and that the ingrediants were natural she envisioned a garden.  Since the burgers are not sweet it was automatic that they are "savory"----hence the name THE SAVORY GARDEN.   We searched and searched to make sure no one else had our name and then we incorporated ourselves.   That turns to have been the easy part.