Welcome to our weekly update of the "Founder's Log" a blog dedicated to the progression of American Butchers JERKi, highlighting the things we've accomplished thus far in the past week, paths we are currently working towards right now, and unchartered paths we hope to accomplish in the upcoming week! Starting a business can be a tough decision so I've added this so you can stay up to date with things I've learned along the way! Have a question, don't hesitate to leave a comment below!
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A look into the past week
Hard to believe it's almost been a month since we last added an addition to the Founder's Log. The reality of trying to write weekly updates for the jerky business has been overwhelming. I feel a big part of it tends to be the lack of change and input in the development of our objective! The business is developing and we are taking steps every day to make gradual steps in the right direction but sometimes even I feel overwhelmed and feel enough is not being accomplished to share!
I suppose that is the point of these segments, to show you, the reader, exactly what's going through my mind and behind-the-scenes of the JERKi gang. Do I think these updates are providing any value or benefit to those surrounding our business? I think not but they have been quite a story for me to look back and read through to see how much progress we've actually accomplished in such a short time.
To continue the trend of the past week, we have focused a great deal on finding new and improved ways of packaging our jerky. As our entire product is done in house, from slaughter to marinating, to smoking, and distribution we have an overview of the entire operation. I know a few jerky businesses that enter the industry and come out with a copacker or utilize a commercial kitchen to outsource on all their goods. What is a copacker or commercial kitchen? You would provide this business with a list of ingredients and steps to make your product how you deep fit. They then will go ahead and produce that product utilizing their kitchens and facilities. It can go as far as the distribution of the product as well!
Today
I'll continue the conversation of making the product easier in today's section. This week we had a business, out of Fort Worth, TX reach out about the possibilities of providing packaging for our jerky. What does this mean? If you've ordered any of our jerky products, you'll know that it comes in a folded paper packaging that is all hand folded. Typically when purchasing jerky from a store, oftentimes you'll find it comes in a plastic top tear bag that is a common standard across the jerky industry. We originally were trying to steer clear of the iconic jerky bags as we wanted to brand ourselves as the alternative. After realizing the time saved and the costs associated with our current packaging, alternatives were in need!
When they reached out to us we realized the amount of time that could be saved in order to produce more and eliminate the large fluctuation in production times. This is still in the works and nowhere near complete but it gives us something to think of in a different direction!
I want to just throw in a concept here that I will develop as these blogs progress and more of a mental note for myself here.
"Treat your business like it's own marketing company"
Cheers to the Future
So what does the above statement mean? As a marketing company, the entire structure is to market your business and inform others of your objective and business model. This is the main difference between an advertisement agency and a marketing agency. If I can effectively become our own marketing agency for our business and think about informing others about what it is that we do and how we do it, then we can potentially generate the engagement that we strive for! What does becoming a marketing agency entail? That's a great question and something that I actively want to pursue more details on.
The greatest example I can think of when it comes to a business that focuses entirely on marketing their product and getting you to understand who they are and what they do rather than trying to sell you their product is RedBull. Their entire concept stems around the goal of influence through sporting events, sponsorships, community involvement, and all-around social engagement. As a matter of fact, even going to their website, you can't purchase a can.
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The Founder's Log is designed to be a behind-the-scenes of American Butchers JERKi. With that, I encourage you to ask any questions you might have regarding our product or about the business! Hope to catch you next week, Same time?
-Calvin