Seize the Day or Lose it ..(.honour that you have the choice.)

Evening All,

It's been almost a week since the new creative work was presented, since then I've been to the funeral in Donegal of a man who died too young, too soon, too unbelievably fast. A man with a smile who lit up the world & whose impact in life was like a comet of brightness on everybody he touched.

It was hard not to come back from Donegal angry with the unfairness of life, juxta positioned with the need to grasp it, squeeze every precious moment of out of it...to honour a life that was too damn short .

But try as I might I felt shaken & scared, how could have I posted such positive stuff when life is so fragile....it's like being in a fog. 

Today I got a call asking me to produce 100kg of salads per day for a major blue chip business, Wow,  I need to see how I can possibly work that into our daily work schedule. Later  I had a meeting with a potential new client who has been trying without success to get a range of seriously healthy  fresh food for his international clientele. He felt he'd met a blank wall, after exhausting his bank of mass producing suppliers, until a former client told him  she knew exactly who he should call...well that would be me/The Delicious Food Co..samples going in on Thursday.

After that I had a meeting with my daydreambeliever ; things are moving on there too, we have  a plan...we have a target to launch at Bite, an Artisan trade show in RDS in Nov, that means we need to settle on a creative direction, get it printed , all product finalised & put together for what will be a template of what could well be the first Delicious Food Co outlet,...it's a mammoth task.

But  let's face it if I can do that in four weeks...whats a 100kg extra of salad per day.

If I've learnt one thing in the last week it's that tomorrow is promised to no one

I'm going for it !

Shirley

x

Brand New ...in every conceivable way

Evening all,

Next up, after my  daydream believer stood me up I had a meeting at 3pm with the design company to see initial concepts for our new packaging.

As we all sat in the board room I felt very nervous. To see my beloved Delicious Food Co presented through somebody else eyes, well that's a toughie. Mr Delicious wasn't there...food to prepare for tomorrow etc.

The first concept involved tweaking our logo. I have to say I was kinda shocked, I love our logo...I felt as though somebody had taken one of my kids on a day trip & returned with all their blonde curls cut off I was looking at the same child....but now...different.

The second concept pushed that boundary further…not only were the curls gone....but the hair had been dyed too…same child, but more different....

I wanted to cry.

Finally the third concept; basically my child was gone & a new child was presented as a better one, Not only that, but part of the concept involved photos myself & Mr Delicious...NEVER!

Any kind of creative process is a "journey". A journey that starts somewhere, maybe somewhere that the client doesn't like or is defensive about. Changing a logo is particularly hard/ sensitive to accept for a business owner because that logo is our public identity, part of who we are, the public face of our hard work.

As I walked home, two of the concepts stayed with me; enveloped me; challenged me the way the creative team wanted. Great creative work does that, so maybe, part of the change I need to make is not just my wardrobe, my PR, maybe I need a brand new approach in every sense of the word, it's certainly food for thought.

Btw

On the way home my daydreambeliever called....so sorry about today's mix up, meeting rescheduled for Tuesday....

sorry, sorry, sorry

Shirley
x

Where has my daydreambeliever gone....

Evening All,

I promised to keep you all updated on my "journey" to put me & my beloved Delicious Food Co on the map. 

So here we go.

Just after I posted my last blog about how my daydreambeliever wanted to start talking margins, which in his language meant we might be getting serious....he disappeared. Texts went unanswered, until yesterday when beep, went my phone suggesting a meeting  at 12.30 today. At noon I got a text " leave it until 1pm" I had planned to get home, put on a one of those new outfits, dress to impress, show him I'm taking this seriously.

Things didn't work out that way & I just about made it to the meeting wearing the warmest thing I could find at 6am this morning; a bic pen; a debit card & my phone which proptly died on my arrival. It didn't matter...he wasn't there.

I waited for a while, but thought to myself, what's the point if he was interested he'd be here. We've worked together before and back then he was clear;if I didn't deliver on his expectations, my phone would go unanswered, texts unreturned and I would slowly realize I was being dumped. Suddenly it was beginning to look like, that was happening before we'd begun.

I walked to the van dejected,  kicking myself for declaring this possible adventure in social media

wondering how could I rewrite the story....


Shirley

x

Contender Are You Ready.....

Evening All,

So...
I want to be taken seriously, to  be a contender for 2016 IMAGE female entrepreneur  of the year. I want "The Delicious Food Co" to be in everybody's mouth...on everybody's lips, literally. I want to be the one offering advice on radio & in the press to start ups, on how to keep going when the going gets tough, how to raise finance, the pitfalls to avoid....

 I want to really feel the success I've achieved this far. Ten years in business, a doubling in sales since the beginning of the year...I want it because I've earned it, and more importantly because

The Delicious Food Co has earned it.

I've earned it  through sheer hard graft, a ten year commitment

to producing wonderful healthy preservative free  salads & sandwiches, solidly working away building relationships with clients and customers 

No more sitting quietly hoping that somebody picks up on our story..., I should know by now, that ain't going to happen., I am going to have to go out & grab that spotlight & shine it on our kitchen in Smithfield, on our team & on our products. 

Things are already afoot. 

There is a new packaging design on it's way; we finally got round to entering into Blas na hEireann where we were finalists in the Hummus category; I have bought myself a great working wardrobe for meeting & pitches...and as for my day dream believer who sees a big future by merging his knowledge & skillset with ours at The Delicious Food Co, let's just say he wants to talk margins & in his language that means we could be getting serious.

Watch this space !

Shirley

It's a new dawn... It's a new day... It's a new life for me..... And I'm feeling good

Evening All,

It's taken a while for me to register that I am no longer a blogger.

I am somebody who used to write a decent humorous blog about my life as a producer in the food industry.Over the past two years I wrote about all sorts, my brand, my van , Mr Delicious, cash flow issues & sleepless nights, my kids & the dog. I told you  endless stories about things I was going to change (but didn't). To my own embarrassment I still don't have a website & I am still driving the van.There was a blog about setting up my office at home, becoming the type of business woman I read about in business supplements....I was to start jogging down the canal & to take up yoga in between closing deals & munching raw carrots.

Instead I've gained a stone & my cheekbones have all but disappeared.

Maybe I just got a bit fed up of that persona I portrayed, maybe I lost a bit of confidence, maybe somebody came along & burst my bubble.

But now things have changed, subtlety, quietly but very significantly. In my own way I am growing into the business person I've wanted to be in earlier blogs. Our business The Delicious Food Co has  almost doubled in size since the start of this year. Instead of  rationalising these sales in terms of ten years of lucky breaks, I know without a shadow of a doubt that we are celebrating our tenth year in business with such phenomenal growth, not just because we are good, but because we are great at what we do.

I am leading a team who are fully committed to myself & Mr Delicious and our growth phase. We have taken on some new blue chip clients , we have a potential investor who has a vision for a a chain of  Delicious Food Co proper healthy food outlets & we are finalists in Blas na hEireann food awards for our amazing Hummus.

So here we are; you & me (again)

 I'm  ready to share the next leg of this food producers adventure as it unfolds
check in every now & then see how I'm getting on

......next time you see me the cheekbones will be back.....

I promise !

Shirley

Overnight Success...it takes years

Evening All,

Earlier this year I told you that this being our tenth year in business is the year we finally become an overnight sensation.We may well be into the second half of the year and you may well think...what happened with that, but I promise you things are on course for that overnight stardom.

If we were an X factor kinda company I'd tell you quietly & in confidence that we have made it through to judges houses....Simon Cowell & "his team"has been working away with us. Simon is confident that we have the most potential since Leona Lewis in 2006 to fill stadiums or in our case supermarket shelves.

 We've been focusing on what kind of artist /producer we need to be. We've agreed we will not do cover versions, we are serious authentic artists, we will produce our own lyrics /recipes, we will stand out in the market

 .....we will make  millions for him & for  us.....

Simon is beyond excited & so are we. Just as Leona quits his Syco label, along comes The Delicious Food Co.

Everybody needs a day dreamer believer...we might just well have found ours.

Watch this space !

Shirley

x

Young Blood , Old Turk....Foodie Prophet

Hi Evening All,

I know, I know, I know....

A few months ago I promised to get back to writing a weekly blog about life in the food lane. I'm sorry to have let you down, but I have an excuse, honestly I do. I finished my last post wedding blog, telling you that it was mouth to mouth resuscitation I needed to get my body breathing again. I was so, so tired at the end of May and that aching tiredness stayed with me all through June.

As I crawled shattered out of bed each morning, my main goal was to make it through the day to crawl back under that duvet as early as possible and try to recharge my fading batteries.
The tiredness was exacerbated by the sheer volume of work we got through at
The Delicious Food Co.

It was by all accounts an exceptional month  as shop after shop sold out of our wonderful salads & sandwiches, new clients came on board and the excitement in the kitchen grew. We have a superb team in the kitchen, and each day as I would arrive in guiltily  with yet another order, increasing the burgeoning work load...Mr Delicious would groan but our young & exciting team would simply smile & rejoice for our good fortune.

"Another 500 salad pots for client X"..No problem !, "400 Hummus Pots"..Hooray!, "Two new sandwich accounts to be delivered before 8am"....Yippee !, "48 kilos of mixed bespoke salads"..Fab! and joyfully they would send me off again like a foodie prophet to gather more orders and bring them back to the kitchen to be fulfilled.

Last week I gave a lift to one of the team and  worried to him about the work load on everybody, especially Mr Delicious.With youth on his side he confided in me ..."don't worry Shirley..I have explained to the guys, that  Mr Delicious  is  an old man, whilst we are young , we can do the work, we are happy to work, you  just bring in the orders and we will make it happen.

So to honour the lads and their relentless energy & positivity, I  feel my old energy slowly & ryhtmically trickling back through  my veins, I am back on track....hungry for business, sniffing out leads at every office building I pass.

So if you crave great food in your office or local deli...watch out 'cos I am coming to get ya!



Shirley x