Devine Times

2nd Annual Caliente BBQ Contest

The Guy — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:45:49 +0000

As the defending champion, we were obliged to return to defend our crown. Well, on a whole it was a blast. The weather was absolutly miserable! Rain, snow/hail, high winds, freezing cold. Any one of those is enough to keep me in the house and under a blanket with a hot tottie. All of those together!?!?!? In late May!?!?!? On Memorial Day Weekend!?!?!? FREAKY!!

Joining me was Tim and Elayne. We relied on each other to keep our spirits up and to keep going. I don’t know what I would have done without them!

RESULTS>>>>>

1st Place – Brisket

2nd Place – Ribs

2nd Place – Chicken

New Font Look

The Guy — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 01:49:00 +0000

We changed the font on the company name to a more readable style!

The Guy — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:31:12 +0000

OUR FIRST AD! The Lincoln County Fair is in August. We are putting this ad in the fair magazine. It is going to be a 1/2 page ad. Since it’s for the county fair, not really concerned with getting much of a return in sales but can measure website traffic and fan page collection. Part of our marketing plan is my concept of a fusion of ‘Word of Mouth’ & ‘Seperation Factor of Six’.

Zestfest 2011: Fiery Food Challenge – 2nd Place Logo Design!

The Guy — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:00:25 +0000

That’s right! Marketing: Logo Design – 2nd Place.

POW! That is awesome! One of the largest Spicy Foods and Barbecue shows and competitions in the country (1 of 2). We only entered the logo competition because our product release is not til late March. I have always thought our logo is fantastic.

Happy Birthday to us! 1 Year old today!!!!

The Guy — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:18:13 +0000

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.

Responding to Comments…

The Guy — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:49:06 +0000

We have been absolutely overwhelmed with both the amount of comments and with the absolutely positive direction of the comments towards our site. Oh yes, it has been a massive amount of work both gathering some and writing some of the mountain of information that is here. Lots and lots of long nights forming and writing, designing tables, photo editing and everything else that went into it. Well now, visitors are starting to give us feedback. BOY! It all seems worth it now! We have been refueled by the positive feedback and we are ready to start the next phase. I am taking the next day or two to answer all the nice comments and will from now on just try to keep on top of that. We thank you all for the wonderful comments. Please help us spread the word about Dante’s Devine Gourmet Foods to your friends, family and coworkers by turning them on to our site. We will be releasing our first products this March. You can sign up for our RSS feed at the lower left of this page. We also invite you to join our Facebook Fan Page for more information and special promotions. You can connect with others who appreciate both our products and the information we gather for the the person who, as our motto says;

Cook like you mean it!

Thank You… There is much more to come so keep coming back!

Filtering Information

The Guy — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:19:16 +0000

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.

Show Recap…

The Guy — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:05:44 +0000

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!

A business is made up of people.

The Guy — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:11:49 +0000

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.!

Fancy Food Show – Day 4 (Final Day!)

The Guy — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:33:38 +0000

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.