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.