Well I kind fo delayed answering that question because of something I was going to wait a whie before syaing but oh heck. igourmet.com e-mailed us and requested samples of our olive oil. we are not selling our oil anywhere on the internet and of course if that website carried our olive oil it would be just awsome. Second idea there is a store in Milwaukee carries our oil, however they are sold out and waiting for the next shipment so in reality it is going to be 6 weeks before there is any oil for sale in the USA. I almost don't want to get my hopes up about igourmet.com but it's hard not to. If they don't pick up our oil then it is rather embarassing, but i guess you can't win them all. Truthfully I houndeed and hounded the buyer, I had jsut about given up, then we got the e-mail. So at elast we have an opening.
i almost forgot to write about the results of the polyphenols (antioxidents) good news there as well. All the oil is high in polyphenols all around 200mgs a kilo. the doctor said that he tested one oil at 50mg and one oil at 400 mg (disclaimer ont he 400 mg oils I researched this and typically if an oil reachers 400mg is is a bitter harsh oil) and most were around 100mg so at 200mg per kilo of polyphenols we were very very pleased with those numbers as well, i have in my mind that it is kind of A-/B+ ratinging on antioxidents so that is good.
Right now our dilmemas are the 1/4 liter bottles. We need more and in order to get more we need to order a full pallet of like 3,000 bottles. two mills use the same bottle but they won't sell us any empty bottles. We have jsut over 200 of the 1/4 liter bottles going to USA and we called our customers and asked if it was okay if we changed the bottles for the quarter liter and they said it was okay. That only leaves us like 200 bottles in inventory of our standard bottle so I don't knwo what we are going to do about that. this is really a most enjoyable small business perfectly sized for jsut me and my husband to operate. There are so many things, labels i jsut re-designed them adn they are bing shipped to us out of ohio, the plastic cap that fits on top of the bottle, the bottles then the empty boxes, we have run out of boxes for the quarter liter as well and can only get them custom made at a minimum of 600 a pop, getting sinage out ont he road adn on and on and on.
I almost forgot, we are getting private yachts out of Monaco to spend a day here. they cruise the mediteranean and stop in Marseille. I worked with the director of toursism for our city and put a pitch together and never heard back so I though we didn't get it, then this week we got the contract in the mail, and that is 125 euros per person and they figure 6 to 12 people per visit and they come twice a month. my hsuband will maek them lunch and i'll give the tour and olive oil tasting, i bet those guests buy olive oil! Little by little we try new things, we made table olives and in a couple weeks will go and have our tapenade made with our olives. We are diversifying tryig to pick up revenue form different sources, hopefully a little bit here and a little bit there and it will hopefully add up. The olvie oil only provides a modest income, it is not like we are getting rich on olive oil, so if we are able to generate these other sources of revenue that is the revenue that is going to make for a more comfortable lifestyle. I would liek to jsut order the pallet of 3000 1/4 liter bottles and the 600 boxes that go with them and be over and done with, but we are still watching the expenses very closely. i think that 2007 is going to be our breakout year, I think this is the year it is all going to come together, we are now selling only our 3rd harvest having only been here since may of 2004. I have the feeling that this is ging to be a break out year for us and that we will ahve a broad enough customer base so that I don't ahve to hound people to try our oil. One or two more customers, and really that is all we need, then we will be scrambling for oil. Actually right now we probably don't need any more new customers, but i want 2 more jsut to be ont he safe side. I never want to be dependent on selling our oil to the mill, then you are dependent on the mills. You ahve exactly one customer, the mill. When we promote our own brand i can change mills, or even build our own mill, and no one customer makes or breaks our business.
It is enjoyable to have a home based business, jsut go ut the door and we are at work. It is also nice to have it with my hsuband. Like anything new, and we both previously managed other people, we each needed to learn how to work togther and not be independently running things. It took a while but we figured that part out, and it is enjoyable having this business with my hsuband. i better quit i am rambling.
