Dante’s Devine Gourmet Foods LLC cane into existence today! That is the LLC part; and that is the important part! Dante’s Devine as a company-work in progress has existed for over four years. Well, what has this year been like? Let me tell you, if you have never started a business, you would hardly believe it. While at the Food Show in SF, I talked to several of the exhibitors who were small business which they had started between 5 and 15 years ago. After making a comment to one and getting a particular response, I decided to try it on all of them and to a person, I got the exact same response. I told them that I will be releasing my first products this year and that I had been working on this for over four years. They all congratulated me on my achievement. I then said that I originally thought I would have had my product out within one year. Everybody’s response:

• First – A large smile and try to hold back a laugh.
• Second – Shaking their head a little as if thinking back.
• Third – They say, “Yeah that is what everyone thinks.” (EXACT WORDS!)
• Fourth – They say something about by about the end of the second year in the effort, most decide that it is just not going to happen (for whatever reason) and give up.

Kind of made me feel good that I’ve made it this far.

These next few days/weeks I will be filtering that massive amount of information I received from the show. The highest priority items are the bulk spice and the spice bottle distributors. Of next importance would be co-packers and then label producers. Most of the information collected pertains more to how different companies present their products, that is on the back burner for now. Production is my focus right now, the clock is ticking down to March.

Success… total success! All the points were hit. Just some of the information attained:

Booth Layout – Go Big or Go Home! Uniform dress, sinage, additional lighting, product display, staff seating & refreshment. Going the budget route could actually do more harm than good. All materials are storeable and resuseable so form an overall plan and get one piece at a time… over time.

Documentation – Business cards, pricing sheets, package & show deals, product information packages.

Staffing – LONG DAYS! Personality and knowledge create the attitude. Attitude is everything!

Preperation – All staff need to know the talking points! Scheduling and complete communication and flow of information is essencial.

N.A.F.T.S. – Join! Lots of benefits. Lots of help and information. LOTS of leads and contacts!

I’m back home from the N.A.S.F. T. Winter Fancy Food Show. I realize that I have said probably in every post that it was an amazing show but I need to say it one more time. I have lots of information to filter through and I want to give a special shout out to a few of the exhibitors who took their valuable time during the show to “school me”. The information they gave me was worth more than just thousands of dollars, it was worth months and maybe even years of mistakes, stagnation and frustration. The organization is stocked full with business which are willing to help each other. Yes business is business but businesses are run by people. And the character of the people I met was admirable. This is an organization which I will be proud to be associated with. I raise a glass to the members of the N.A.S.F.T.!

The show has come to an end today. As far as I am concerned, in every scence of the word, this trip can only be considered a Total Success! The information gathered is mind blowing, the connections made staggering and the future direction of the company crystalizing! It is a certainty that I will be joining this organization. Talking to dozens of the members who were presenting in booths. The information that was gladly given to me concerning general business information was amazing to me. I will be scouring the information gathered and being sent to me over the next few weeks. How information packet are sent out to perspective clinet is of great interest to me.

This evening at around 10:00 pm, we hit what I consider to be a milestone. We received our 100th and 101st Facebook Fans! We also attained it in a kind of unique way. I am attending a ‘Social Media in Marketing’ class tomorrow and they stated that any small business with at least 100 Facebook Fans would receive some additional counseling and materials. At the time when I found this out, I was at about 80 fans. So what I did was post this information on our fan page and asked the current fans to ask one friend to become a member based on their recommendation. It worked! It was also a good and successful experiment. Calling Dante’s Devine fans into action.

I think the Facebook Fans will now be known as… Ring Bearers!

Day 3 started where Day 2 ended. I tracked back to the booth where I was when the convention closed the day before. 10:oo am and I continued walking the convention… 2:15 pm… finished! That was something. Now back to talk to some of the booths where I got some good information. The amount of information I have received these past few days has been close to overwhelming. One more day to float the floor and make contacts. I got to meet Guy Fieri (well I shook his hand as he was passing by going to a booth to do a presentation.) today. My business connections network has expanded exponentally! I will have at least a dozen thank you for your time letters to write when I get home. Got the information to join the N.A.S.F.T. (National Association for the Specialty Food Trade) who are the people who put this event on. Once I join, it takes 2 years before you can present at a show.

The show opened and what a show it is! I was there when the door opened. My plan for the day was just to walk the entire floor and see ALL the booths before I started seriously talking to people. I started on task, I did have short conversations with a max of 2 booths per isle. I started at 10:00 am I started, at 3:15 pm I finished the first floor. Started the second floor at 3:30 pm and at 5:00 pm the convention ended for the day. I got about 20% of the floor done. This is a HUGE show! An example as to how valuable the information I am receiving is; I need to go into the city and get a luggage bag to carry home all the presentation information I am getting. Had not budgeted $25.00 to check a bag plus buying a bag… YEAH! Budgeting something like that! I’m not on a shoe-string budget, I’m on an aglet budget! This trip is still worth every single penny spent! Still meeting people willing to talk to me, collecting cards and passing out cards.

Oh the food! It is the Fancy Food Show!!! The exhibitors lived up to the name. Fancy in taste and presentation.When it comes to Dante’s Devine making a booth for this show, the phrase that stuck out in my mind was ‘Go Big or Go Home!’. A budget booth will do more harm than good. As big as that show is, like me, a booth has about 5 seconds to grab the passers-by attention or they are gone to the next booth! It’s also a personality thing. You have to be willing to start a conversation with someone in that 5 second window. If I slowed down, someone engaged me in a conversation! That means the staffing has to have passionate and knowledgeable people.

Day 1: Seminar day… besides the speaker presentations and their Q&A sessions which was over the top, just talking to and networking with all the other small business owners that were sitting all around me made the whole trip worth it. Trading business cards and talking to other business about symbiotic relationships was amazing! I met several of the businesses that wanted me to contact them when I showed up at their booths. THis was a networking session on steroids! This was just the first day!!!! I will spend the night looking through the magazine which list all of the exibetors based on all kinds of different catagories.

The 2011 winter Fancy Food Show at the Center in San Francisco! Over 1400 companies displaying their products. Multiple conferences, seminars and demonstrations. My main  reason for attending is recon. I want to see how others set up their booths for impact and presentation. What they wear, how the booths are staffed, how products are displayed, what type of samples are given out, what sort of promotional materials are being used… in short, I want to learn as much as I can in 4 days so that I can start formulating Dante’s Devine own convention display package. I will be talking to as many people as I can, collecting every bit of promotional materials I can carry and taking lots of pictures. I also plan to pass out lots of business cards!

It’s a new year and we are ready to roll in 2011! Kicking off by going to our first convention… The Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. We are entering the logo in The Fiery Food Challenge. AND rolling out our first products! That’s right; we are finally launching! This is going to be an incredible year, so hold on tight! More information will be posted soon.