Product Demos Galore

I'm writing this morning from my computer as I wait for a shipment of our Cupola Cookies & Clouds to get picked up and sent to our distributor.

This past weekend the temperature got up to 68 degrees, a sure sign that Spring is on its way!

This is also demo season for us. Two weeks ago, I drove down to the Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland to do a couple product demos at Whole Food stores in the area. Let me begin by saying how much fun it is to visit different Whole Foods locations! You know those people that take road trips to visit different baseball fields around the country? I'm seriously thinking that the equivalent of that for me would be taking a cross country trip to visit Whole Foods stores (and I'm not just saying this because the stores carry our products).

Here's how my product demo expedition worked out:

Whole Foods Harbor East (Baltimore, MD)- Located right by the Inner Harbor. My demo location was right in the front of the store, which was fantastic- I was able to get customers that were entering the store and those standing in line to check out to sample or Cupola Cookies. And as a bonus, the store had a great coffee bar!

Whole Foods Vienna (Vienna, VA)- This store is situated right in the heart of this small and cozy town, which is just a couple minutes from Washington D.C. Customers at this location seemed especially enthusiastic about our products.

Whole Foods Fair Lakes (Fairfax, VA)- Next to the flagship store in Austin, this one has to be the mother of all Whole Foods stores. The store's gelato bar (yes, gelato!) almost did me in. If it hadn't been so cold, I would have definitely tried some, but decided to go with some hot coffee instead. If only I had had more time to peruse! We actually did our product demo at this location as part of a Gluten Free Fair event that was being held on a busy Saturday afternoon. In total there were about 20 gluten-free vendors participating in the event.

We were even featured on a healthy living blog, The W.H.O.L.E. Gang, as part of the Gluten Free Fair event. Check out the post here.

Our next set of Whole Foods demos are coming up this weekend. This time we are going to be at 6 different stores over 3 days and my mom will be coming with to help. See you on the road!

A Baking Place Of Our Own Enables National Distribution

After a bit of a blogging hiatus, we are back!

I could make all sorts of excuses as to why we haven't been posting more frequently, but the honest reason is that we have been so busy. But we've got lots to show for it, I think.

BIG UPDATE #1 - MOVED INTO OUR OWN DEDICATED FACILITY!
If you remember, since we started our business in late 2007, we have been baking our products in a commercial kitchen incubator. The kitchen incubator was located 1 1/2 hours away from home, so we were losing 3 hours each time we needed to bake. This, combined with the fact that we needed to increase our production capacity, meant we needed to find a better alternative. Enter a small, clean and simple commercial space my mom found that was available for lease in a charming town just 20 minutes from where we live. The rent fit our budget and after lots of discussion, we decided to sign a lease.

It took us about 2 months total to secure the required permits, make some minor updates to the space and bring in equipment, but we finally completed the big move!

Loading up palettes right outside our new baking facility.




BIG UPDATE #2- WE ARE TEAMING UP WITH A NATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR


Cupoladua Oven is officially a vendor with Tree Of Life, Inc., a leading marketer and distributor of natural, specialty and organic foods. We are so excited to be working with Tree Of Life, as they supply products for some of the foremost retailers in the U.S. including Wegman's and Whole Foods. This brings us to update #3. . . . .


BIG UPDATE #3- WHOLE FOODS EXPANDING DISTRIBUTION OF OUR PRODUCTS!

If you remember, we were very lucky to have the Whole Foods in Pittsburgh carry our Cupola Cookies & Clouds. Now, our products are making their way to additional locations in PA, OH, NJ, VA, MD, and Washington D.C. For specific locations in these areas, please check out our website at http://www.cupoladuaoven.com/cupoladuabuy.html.

And that's my succinct update. I'll be in touch soon with more tasty details about how the business is coming along.

Stay Tuned for Some Big News!

Hi everyone,

This posting is going to be short and sweet, but I wanted to let you know that Theresa (mom) and I have been working on a big project, which is kind of my excuse for the infrequent blogging the past month or two.

The news is very exciting, although I can't tell you what it is just yet. Let's just say we like to strum up a little anticipation before we announce anything.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays! More to come soon, I promise.

Small Businesses in Today's Shaky Economy

I'll be avoiding the craziness this year. But good luck to all
braving the Black Friday crowds!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving all!

With the smorgasboard of turkey and trimmings behind us and Black Friday (also known as the craziest shopping day of the year) upon us, I have been thinking more and more about the state of the economy and how it has been affecting the small business owner. I'm sure you have heard the media and politicians go on and on about how the economic crisis (as it has officially been called at one time or another in all major newspapers, television news networks and online blogs) has had a negative impact on entrepreneurs of all kinds around the country.

I'm generally a glass-half full kind of person, but unfortunately, for the most part, I agree with the pundits and politicians on this one. Of most concern to us, since we are a growing business and will most likely need to expand our production capacity and our marketing plan in the future is the ability for small businesses to secure additional funding. This is typically done through a small business loan, but since the economy has gone beserk over the past few months, banks have been tightening up on credit.

The issue is that even before the economic crisis happened, it was pretty difficult to secure a small business loan from a bank, even if your business had great credit and you had good personal credit. If your company is just 2-3 years old, in many cases banks still consider you a start-up, which puts your company into a higher risk category for defaulting on a loan. Adding the economic woes on top of this scenario doesn't give small businesses, especially the newbies, much of an opportunity to prosper in a timely way.

I'm hopeful that this time next year, SBA loans will be on the rise, instead of declining as they are at the moment. Sorry if this sounds so pessimistic. I do actually think that things are looking up.
With a new administration in the White House come January 2009, I am curious to see what kinds of changes will be made to improve and encourage businesses to grow.

Tasty Travels

Can you believe that November is already here? It's amazing to think that in just a couple of weeks it will be Thanksgiving and then in another couple of weeks Hanukkah and Christmas. With the holidays just around the corner, our retailers have been stocking up on all sorts of specialty foods, including our products.

This is also a great time of the year to be doing product demos. I think in general, the best marketing you can do for a food product is to let people taste it. There are so many options at any one store and it's often really difficult to get your product to standout, even if it's something new. I think product demos are especially important for us because our Cupola Cookies and Cupola Clouds are pretty unique products and provide us with the opportunity to talk to consumers about what makes them so special.









Sampling at the PA General Store in Philadelphia.

After having done numerous demos these past couple of months, I have to say that many customers are surprisingly candid about what they think about our baked goods. Of course, we don't expect everyone to like our products, but when I started doing these demos earlier in the year and received some negative reactions, I would get a little flustered. I think my reaction was due to the fact that I'm naturally pretty non-confrontational.

But along the way I have learned that of course taste is subjective and I shouldn't take it personally. Plenty of people love our goodies and my mom and I really feel that the products we are making are nutritious, delicious and of the highest quality.














Visited beautiful upstate NY to demo at Chappaqua Village Market.

In just the past two weekends, I've clocked a total of about driving 800 miles! I don't know what I would have done without NPR and my carefully selected podcasts.

Goodies for Foodies

Recently, I stumbled across a wonderful site called OneGoodie, which I instantly fell in love with. There are two sections to OneGoodie- the first is called OneFoodie and the other is OneMommie. Everyday OneGoodie features one fun, interesting and unique product on each section of its site.

Earlier this week, OneGoodie actually featured our Cupola Clouds on their site! We were so excited about this. What's even better is that I was a OneGoodie fan and subscriber even before we worked with the owners of the site. For those of you who are foodies (and by foodie I mean anyone who likes to eat, drink, or for that matter think about food!), OneGoodie is also a great way to keep in the loop about innovative gadgets and delicious treats, not to mention great gift ideas as the holidays approach! Check it out for yourself here.

Cupola Cares- Share Our Strength Online Promotion

Did you know that 12.6 million children in America—that’s one in six—are at risk of hunger? From now through the end of the year, we will be donating a portion of our online sales to the non-profit Share Our Strength, which seeks to fight childhood hunger across the country in more ways than one.

I wrote about our partnership with Share Our Strength (SOS) earlier this year, but this non-profit does so much to fight childhood hunger through its numerous programs and events that I think it deserves another plug.

One of the major initiatives that the organization sponsors is the Great American Dine Out, where individuals can help out just by dining at participating restaurants across the country. The Great American Dine Out took place this past week, from Sept. 21-28. I was excited to find out that one of my favorite local restaurants here in Western PA, Passport Cafe, participated in the week-long event.

Here is a really moving promo that was created for the Great American Dine Out:



Although the Great American Dine Out is over, you can still help out! Here are a couple ways:

• Keep an eye out for A Tasteful Pursuit, a touring dinner series sponsored by SOS that features some of the country's top chefs.
• Operation Frontline provides knowledge and skills that help surround kids at risk of hunger with healthy foods where they live, learn and play, providing nutritional information and classes.

And of course, you can also do your part by purchasing some Cupola Cookies and Cupola Clouds through our online store!