Imagine you’ve created a great product and have monthly sales of $30,000, even though you only sell it at a farmers’ market on weekends.
What would you do next?
If you’re Jennifer Broe, you shut down your stall, pull your product off the market and spend the next four years revamping your business plan.
That may sound crazy, but the story of Baby Gourmet holds lessons for any farm enterprise.
Broe got into the baby food business following the birth of her first child in 2006.
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Unimpressed with pureed baby food sold in jars, she started making her own, and soon other moms were asking to buy it. The Calgary resident immediately suspected she had something special.
“When I went into large supermarkets, there was a long aisle lined with baby food that I would never buy and feed my child,” she said. “I could see the opportunity.”
She joined forces with her sister, made large batches and sold bagged, frozen cubes at the Calgary Farmers’ Market. Veggie beef barley, fruity chicken and rice and pumpkin waffles were an instant hit. Sales were $4,000 in just the first month and hit $30,000 a month in 16 months.
So why stop?
It’s because Broe was able to step back and look objectively at her business. The problem was the product was frozen, and grocery chains charge huge listing fees for space in the frozen food aisle. As well, mothers don’t shop for baby food there anyway. Broe figured she had a shot at going national if she could create a shelf-stable version of her baby food.
So she went looking for advice. Many told her she was crazy to stop.
“A lot of people suggested doing multiple farm markets,” said Broe.
“ ‘You’re doing $30,000 a month here, but you could be doing $60,000 if you went to the one in Edmonton or Granville Island in Vancouver.’ That would make sense to some people, but it wouldn’t have brought me closer to my ultimate goal, which was the mass market. Something inside of me said if I did that, I would never get out of the farmers’ market.”
Broe couldn’t see how she could oversee production and sales and simultaneously “learn about food processing, pull together a solid business plan, research packaging, raise capital, and hire an executive management team.”
She did all that, but it took four years. Along with creating a shelf-stable product in resealable foil pouch packaging, she found an investor who became the chief executive officer. Even before returning to the marketplace, she struck a deal with Walmart, and later with other major food chains and today Baby Gourmet is the top specialty baby food company in the country.
“What I made in a year, I now make on a monthly basis,” Broe said.
But don’t be blinded by the scale of her success. This business started in a home kitchen and Broe was once just another vendor, albeit a busy one, in a farmers’ market. Her story is about what it takes to take your business to the next level, whatever that might be.
“It’s very common to find people who are innovative and have a great idea, but get so wrapped up in the day-to-day of it, they never find time to really focus on the big picture,” she said.
That doesn’t mean taking a four-year hiatus or spending your days hunched in front of a computer writing a business plan. For Broe, the key was getting out to meet people: food processors, business development officials, entrepreneurs of all sorts and anyone who might have useful information.
“I made contacts with whoever I could,” she said.
“When I stopped going to the farmers’ market, I spent two years reaching out to as many contacts as possible. Really, I just did my homework.”
Some advice she rejected, such as sticking with farmers’ markets. Sometimes she was rejected: not everyone believed a mother could start a national food company. But she was always willing to listen.
“I think the people I was talking to face a lot of entrepreneurs who aren’t willing to listen, who aren’t willing to take advice because they think they know everything,” said Broe.
“I was like a sponge. I wanted to learn.”
All kinds of people in Canadian agriculture are great at what they do, but could be doing much more. However, it means taking a bit of time away from the business and seeking advice, which are surprisingly hard for most of us.
Working on your business, rather than in it, is such a familiar adage that it’s almost lost its meaning. Until you meet someone like Jennifer Broe, that is.
