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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, product, sales, food truck, baking, money, stores, food, grow, eat, restaurant, sell, test, investment, events, big, brazil, market, pay
SPEAKERS
announcer, Amr The Internet Guy, Silvia Martinelli
announcer
Online with Amr, the internet guy streaming today on your favorite podcast platforms. This podcast focuses on entrepreneurs and business owners helping them become more successful and conducting their business on the web without being stuck with technology, getting a headache, pulling their hairs out or buying expensive software.
Amr The Internet Guy
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of online. My guest today has an incredible success story coming to you from British Columbia, Canada. Not only that, but she has been on the Dragon’s Den. So it’s the first time that I actually interview somebody who’s been on TV, telling their story as an entrepreneur and seeking investment. If you don’t know what the Dragon’s Den is, Google it. It’s the Canadian version of Shark Tank. So, Shark Tank is the US investment or entrepreneurship show where entrepreneurs take their products to shark investors and try to secure not only an investment but a partner who will help them to grow their business and make it so big. So these entrepreneurs, the shark entrepreneurs are some famous people like Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary and others. And then here in Canada, we’ve got Jim Treliving, who’s the Boston Pizza guy, Michele Romanow, Majeed, me and house Arlene Dickinson and others. It is actually quite a big deal when you go in, you know, you go on national TV, and sometimes you get the investment other times you don’t. So my guest today did not get the investment did not secure that investment, which sometimes could mean like the death of your growth plans, because you need that money and you need that partnership. However, she has persevered together with her husband. And not only that they have grown their business without external investment, and without giving any of their equity away. But a few days later, they were able to sell their company for a good profit. So without further ado, let’s meet Silvia. Today I have Sylvia Martinelli with me. Hey, Sylvia, how’s it going?
Silvia Martinelli
It’s good. How are you? Oh, good.
Amr The Internet Guy
Thank you. So there is a very interesting story, but we’re going to get to it in a minute. And the first thing is, I would like to, I would like you to introduce yourself. Where are you based? Then what you do.
Silvia Martinelli
I’m based in Port Coquitlam, which is close to Vancouver area. And I do consulting for small businesses that want to do food startups.
Amr The Internet Guy
So specifically, food startups,
Silvia Martinelli
it’s actually I can do it for other small businesses, too. But my, the majority of my knowledge is in the food industry in the context that I have to
Amr The Internet Guy
perfect. So those were the one who wants to have a food truck as well.
Silvia Martinelli
Yes. Yes, anything I do with food, anything to do with food retailing, either making yourself or manufacturing or wholesale selling to stores? Or like a physical location then I have various what got
Amr The Internet Guy
you into the food industry?
Silvia Martinelli
Well, I’ve always been a little bit involved with food industry. When I was in Brazil, I worked for the owner of three franchises for McDonald’s. So that was my first job and I was with him for 10 years because we he had a lot of stores that he added to his portfolio. So it was always like in sales training people and then like knowing procedures for restaurants and stuff like that. And then when I came to Canada, I went more to the area of sales and marketing, which is my college and my masters. But then I went to food again, I wanted to have my own business here. So a lot of opportunities for creating things and small business owners. F first I worked for cobs bread, as as a franchisee a possible franchisee for a year. Because I wanted to know like if that was my my thing Yeah, like Yeah, learn learn the local ways of doing things and then that’s when I figured out that no I didn’t Why
Amr The Internet Guy
do you say possible franchisee? So what happens you go and open a shop and is like is the franchise pending or something
Silvia Martinelli
they actually have a program that is called managed to own. So you work for them for a year. It’s awesome. If you especially if you’re really becomes
Amr The Internet Guy
a manager of one of their existing franchises, and if you like you like they like you, yes, you go in and buy like another franchise,
Silvia Martinelli
or that one or the same one that you’re managing or another one that opens up right. And the good thing is that they give you the most challenging ones of course.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah wasn’t making money. Yeah, exactly.
Silvia Martinelli
And it was great because I actually turned it around like we were in within six months. I had trained everybody in sales. And I wasn’t great in baking though. But I was great in sales because that’s my area and I retrained the whole team, and we were in the top five growing locations in Canada.
Amr The Internet Guy
Are you working? Save? Which location? Was it?
Silvia Martinelli
Yes, we I was in the Richmond center. The one that is behind the mall?
Amr The Internet Guy
In Richmond. Yes. Okay. Not glow. I don’t know if the Port Moody one is still operating. I’m not 100% Sure. Actually,
Silvia Martinelli
I’m not sure about that one. But honestly, the the challenge with that location was nobody knew we were there. And it was there for like four or five years when they took it’s right
Amr The Internet Guy
next to the liquor store and the liquor store is always busy. I know,
Silvia Martinelli
but at that time, they were like, I think there was SkyTrain was coming and then the skytrain isn’t the other side. So everybody was towards the other side.
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, yeah, they get out of like when you’re in that street in in Sutter Brook village. And if you exit any restaurant, you’ll be automatically heading towards the skytrain. Rather than heading. In the end, we
Silvia Martinelli
had a huge competitor inside the mall, there was this Chinese bakery, which was like everything. Yeah, yeah. So they had cakes, they had everything. So like the competition there was fierce. And so I had to be creative with the marketing plans, to differentiate yourself. Yes, engage with the community, you know, with the products towards them and get, like a sponsor some events, some sporting events is quite
Amr The Internet Guy
interesting. Because, you know, like, it’s funny, because the the show here is called online. Right? But because we discuss business, and there’s a lot of the business lessons that we hear day in and day out, is for stuff that people are doing, right. But offline. Yes. Which is great, because people think that if you go online, you don’t have to do anything offline, but it’s completely wrong. All
Silvia Martinelli
you need to do all you have
Amr The Internet Guy
to do the face to face stuff, sometimes. With a little bit of technology.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. Sometimes, like you see an ad online, okay. And then you think that shop is very far away from you, you don’t look at the address, right? But if you pass around them, that’s the shop. And then they’re doing stuff in your communities like, Oh, I didn’t know you’re, you’re here, you know.
Amr The Internet Guy
So what do you like when you say connect with the community? Like if you’re if you’re a Cubs bred animal? What did he do? Like? How did you kind of encourage people to come and talk to you?
Silvia Martinelli
So the first things that I found out that before they open the mall, they had some groups doing genetic not gymnastics, is that I think a style sheet. You know, those?
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, dancing, dancing, it’s kind of a mix between martial arts and dancing.
Silvia Martinelli
Right, exactly. And they did that when the shopping mall was closed. And it was a huge group. So I just I started to take in fresh bread, that we just baked samples.
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, my God, this smells Yeah. Like usually,
Silvia Martinelli
to this group, and say, Hey, by the way, when you’re done with your exercising, we’re open already, because the mall would only open around 10 Yeah, but we were open until we were six in the morning. You know,
Amr The Internet Guy
you’ve given them like some free samples. Yes, that smell good. And then just freshly out of
Silvia Martinelli
the out of the oven and said were there if you need anything further. And then also, I found out that they had some moms who come in and say, Oh, do you do hotdog burns because we have, you know, events with the kids. So we would sponsor the events and then like do half price or something like that. And then or make specific hotdog size for the kids and in the sporting events or when they had soccer or something in the community center. So things like that. The other thing is, everywhere. We went there like if I went to the bank, I would take some treats.
Amr The Internet Guy
Going to deposit some money. It got
Silvia Martinelli
to the point that one of the guys thought I was heating on him
Amr The Internet Guy
because he you bring him food.
Silvia Martinelli
Usually they they alternate right people. This guy for some reason, like oh,
Amr The Internet Guy
this nice lady keeps on giving food every time she brings me
Silvia Martinelli
cinnamon buns. She must be into it. You must be in love. Yeah. And then he was really disappointed when I said, Oh, I’m engaged. And he saw that. He was like, oh,
Amr The Internet Guy
bring you food. Don’t worry
Silvia Martinelli
about the food door.
Amr The Internet Guy
I’m not in love with you. But the bonds never stopped.
Silvia Martinelli
Or what happens was then when the bank had the staffing event, they would ask us to do the catering. Oh, that’s great. or sometimes they had staff meetings, right as a goal. Do you do like big orders? And yeah, we do. Right? And also the customers, right that went to the bank, they would see us like, Where’s this coming from? Oh, we have a bakery right behind the mall. Oh, really? So it picks up conversation, right? And of course, I would go to the bank, like lunchtime or somebody.
Amr The Internet Guy
Exactly when people are hungry.
Silvia Martinelli
Because at that time, it was downtime for us. People go more in the morning or in the afternoon. So yeah, it was just creative ways, though.
Amr The Internet Guy
Just playing the subliminal game, like lay on the senses.
Silvia Martinelli
No. Yeah, there’s nothing like freshly baked. But no. But then the retail location, it was just draining because most of the franchises that got into the program, they were bakers, that, that hires people for sales, right? Yeah. So but there are specialist bakers. And I was here when they even when I was at McDonald’s, I was terrible in the kitchen. But in the sales,
Amr The Internet Guy
but that’s good. Like, you know, it’s good to, you always have to play for your strengths. Because I mean, I, I see sometimes, like tons of advice that I in my opinion is not good. Because it makes people want to focus on something that they’re weak at, and make it stronger, rather than focus on their strengths. And just kill it. You know, like, I don’t know, like, if there’s something that I don’t like doing, it’s way better for me to spend my time training someone or hiring someone, I hire someone who’s good at that. And then focus on what I’m good at. And then together as a team, we kill it. This is, you know, maybe I’m wrong. But this is just my opinion,
Silvia Martinelli
I don’t think you’re wrong at all. That’s actually what made the difference at their location. Because the thing is, the franchise program had this thing in mind that managers always have to bake, you have to be one of the bakers, because all of
Amr The Internet Guy
them make sense because you know, be very weak in sales and marketing,
Silvia Martinelli
that that’s where their system and it worked for a lot of places. But I told them like I was the first one who actually had sales background, and not baking background and I
Amr The Internet Guy
relations. I mean, the training you get in McDonald’s is unbelievable.
Silvia Martinelli
Yes. So I told them, You know what, I just, I did it their way for a while. And then you show them your way. And then and I was exhausted because I will do both sides. I will do all the day. I will be there at three in the morning, two in the morning. Oh, to try to learn the baking to Yes, yeah, you had to go through. But then he got to a point I was like, can you see yourselves every time that they give they leave me like a week alone or something that they wouldn’t come check. I would just go to sale. Yeah, then like, train, train, train someone else to do the backup baking and sales. And then I think it was one of the my managers went on vacation. And then I said, just give me this month, this month, you’re going to be gone. I know. Because their thing is that they thought that nobody would be interested in in be a corncob. Baker, they thought the baker has to be full time. And that’s it. And they don’t want to have all this Baker’s full time they want to they prefer to have them
Amr The Internet Guy
started the new job. So
Silvia Martinelli
I created own call to the job. Yeah, yes. So I created and I hired you because when one of the they they call in sick or you have to go and then I have to be there into closing for sale. Yeah. So then that’s what I did. I hired people that didn’t have the costing all the time is just uncle. Yeah, yeah, to be on call, right. And such as give me this man. And that was the month that we went. And we went from, they have this ranking of the top five stores that are growing every week in Canada. So we build up that at the end of this month, we were in the top five, with 40% growth from the year before. Wow, in that week, and then that that time, the owners of the franchise, they’re from Australia, and they have like 700 stores in Australia or something. One of the owners called me and said, What did you do?
Amr The Internet Guy
What are you doing? Different?
Silvia Martinelli
What are you doing? They’re honest. So it’s a combination of things. And so from there, I was able to, to really like have more freedom to do my stuff. But again, franchises they limit you on the everything
Amr The Internet Guy
and to do things their way, you can’t change any of the ingredients or Yeah, which
Silvia Martinelli
is okay, but I’ve been a very creative person and then that’s why it’s good to have this experience. So you find out what you like and what you don’t like. And I was like I like this experience, but it’s not perfect. I would want to create my own products to come up with products from customer suggestions.
Amr The Internet Guy
So this is this is the part The I know, but the listeners don’t know. Yeah, I think you moved from there and you became a baker? Yes. Like you started to say, Oh, I don’t want to bake.
Silvia Martinelli
So I’m gonna open a bakery of manufacturing.
Amr The Internet Guy
And he went on and create your own product, which is nobody there was a twist was it? did sell it frozen, frozen if I remember, right chosen you let’s talk about this experience what happened then
Silvia Martinelli
so so so look at that I took the baking out though, like I made it frozen so people can bake themselves, they don’t have to burn Oh, just put it together and then and then just put it in the oven and have freshly baked at home or you mix it like you You do, right? Yeah, you make the dough. You mix it you freeze it raw, like the little balls, and then the person just put it in the oven. But they also feel that they made it right, but because it’s actually baked in your house. So
Amr The Internet Guy
where did the idea come from? Like, why? What did you think? Here’s what I’m gonna do next.
Silvia Martinelli
So I thought, okay, I wanted to I don’t want a restaurant because I knew conduct bones and other restaurants. Yeah, I thought restaurant
Amr The Internet Guy
kudos to you guys out owning restaurants. It’s a very hard yes,
Silvia Martinelli
no, it’s a tough business. And for a restaurant, you need a family to run. Honestly, you need like a group of people that are running different departments with different skills. I knew I didn’t have that. So I said baking is nice. Baking is challenging, which I like. And also the idea wasn’t actually to have a location anyways to be retail. Yeah, the idea was to create a dough, create the products, outsource the production and just be on the sales side. That was the original idea. Problem with that was at that time, it’s a new product. And
Amr The Internet Guy
I mean, this is it’s so much fun, because the way I’m looking at it is like, Okay, what did I not like in my past job is like I’ve got a product to sell, but I don’t have a lot of control over the product. I bet if I had more control, I’ll sell more. So let’s go and create my own product. Yeah, I can focus on this fields
Silvia Martinelli
on the sales side, right, I can create my own as per customer suggestions I can have I don’t have
Amr The Internet Guy
a product to sell or make a product so the idea of making the product wasn’t because you’re in love with the product it was because you wanted something to sell
Silvia Martinelli
tackle, but also like I love the book because I missed them from Brazil. Yeah,
Amr The Internet Guy
what was the product? Sorry, we did enjoy
Silvia Martinelli
Brazilian cheese puffs. So they’re a little cheesy, but you grow up eating in Brazil and it’s a welcome snack. So when you have friends over that’s what like instead of saying to your friends oh, let’s go for a coffee. You actually invite them into your house for a coffee. And you serve this cheese puff so Okay, so a welcome thing.
Amr The Internet Guy
So it’s a little round cheesy for home.
Silvia Martinelli
Round cheesy, but you bake them. Right like it’s a like a golf ball size. Okay. Yeah. And then you just eat them. It’s addictive though.
Amr The Internet Guy
What’s the name of the not your brand? I know your brand was called ottimo ottimo. Yeah, but what’s the name of the product itself in Brazil
Silvia Martinelli
In Brazil was bombed occasion. Which is if you translate
Amr The Internet Guy
it can I try and save that? Save that again. One more time?
Silvia Martinelli
Well, the Kasia bound occasion bow like P
Amr The Internet Guy
tone. Yes. Occasional. Yes. So you made pound occasional. Yeah, I forget it in about a couple of minutes. Okay,
Silvia Martinelli
which what is your pronunciation is pretty good. And it means cheese bread cheese. Because there was a call and cheese bread. But here I said if we say cheese bread, they were going to imagine a loaf of bread.
Amr The Internet Guy
Which is Yeah, yeah, like garlic like how they garlic
Silvia Martinelli
like the cheese bread that is here. So I said we have to create a name. So we came up with the puffer so they spend in the oven. Yeah, and they’re more light. So we came up with cheese puffs. But because cheese puffs here also means cheese. Or something. We have to say Brazilians style GS boss became the name of the product. Some of them they call cheese rolls, but when you imagine cheese rolls, I imagine like a roll of cheese, right? Yeah, not like a bun.
Amr The Internet Guy
So you went on and you mix this in your own kitchen in the beginning.
Silvia Martinelli
In the beginning, I made it by I couldn’t sell it though, because we found out along the way in our research that the flower that we needed, which has many orchids, the roots that comes from Brazil, Brazilian flower, you don’t have any you know, and but it was gluten free. So we said maybe we can get into this market of gluten free specialty foods because they’re willing to try different things. And at that time, all the gluten free stuff was disgusting. Like he was really bad. The market was Starting to get to that everything was really weird. The beginning healthy was tasteless. Yeah, it was. So it was like, maybe that’s the way of getting in for them to try. And then eventually we can transition to just appetizers, cheese bread or whatever, like we wanted to sell to. But right now we need a niche to get in. Yeah. So that’s what we decided. So I did some test batches, the home for friends. But as soon as we decided to go commercially, which was a trade show, I decided we’re going to do a test run. So we’re gonna rent a kitchen and make the product and then try to sell it because your friends, they’re gonna tell you that they love.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah, exactly. Like your family will always, you know, even if the product is not good.
Silvia Martinelli
They’re gonna eat it. But I before I put all my money, all my efforts and everything in like, you know, it’s just like, I don’t do have things. I just jump all the way
Amr The Internet Guy
leap of faith. Yeah.
Silvia Martinelli
I said, let’s test it out. And I wanted to see if we sell it if it’s sellable, right? Yeah, if people would pay money for it. So I set up this trade show. And then we created like a packaging label and everything. And then we rented this kitchen. And the idea was, I went to this guy who had a kitchen with gluten free and some equipment. The problem is because of the timelines that we were working with and his timelines for his production, we didn’t have time to test the equipment in advance. So by the time I had to do the production, I already have to do the production for the tradeshow. And the door was too heavy for his equipment. Mm hmm. Yeah, so his equipment was was anyways, at that time, I did not know how to adapt the dough. Now he knew now I know how to go for any equipment. But at that time, I didn’t have that knowledge. So what ended up happening was that I had like, hundreds of kilos of dough that I made, that we had to roll it by hands.
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, because you can’t use the equipment. No.
Silvia Martinelli
And it’s time sensitive. Because there’s cheese in it. Yeah. temperature sensitive. So I wrote 10,000 puffs in 18 hours. Oh boy, the setup of the trade,
Amr The Internet Guy
like you pulled an all nighter
Silvia Martinelli
just doing that. So we did rolling dough. I did the whole thing during the day. And then I call up friends. Yeah, to help to help pack like freeze it. Like thank God, the guy had a flash freezer. So we could freeze it just a few hours and just packaged. Because if he was a normal operation that wouldn’t be able to do it. But yeah, you throw it Yeah. Next day, I didn’t walk and I said, Well, if I pass this night, and this sells, I know that I beat the worst. Sick if we can get to the show. And so we went to it with that was 2013, the gluten free Expo that was like when they overwhelm the tradeshow there was lineups at the back. We sold out in four hours. Wow. Four hours of the trade we sold out. And then I said Okay, so that’s that so we can work with this.
Amr The Internet Guy
And that’s good. So you you’ve created a product. I wouldn’t say out of necessity, but like kind of you know, the franchise part didn’t work. Yeah, I wanted something to sell. So I created my own product. And I wanted to go and test the market. And it looks like the market loved it. So so the next is just to take this to the next level. But my question, and it’s for our listeners and viewers who don’t know, you appeared on the Dragon’s Den? Yeah. And was that 2013 still?
Silvia Martinelli
No, we went in it was 2016. Yes. So for those
Amr The Internet Guy
of you guys know, I love Dragon’s Den. It’s the Canadian version of Shark Tank. So Shark Tank is in based in the US and and Dragon’s Den is the Canadian version, and it’s got like some nice people. I like I enjoy watching the Boston Pizza guy. Yeah. He’s awesome. He’s fun. And yeah, there are a few of them. They’re like they change some people change. Some people go some people come. But in general, you’ve got Michelle Romano is always there. And you’ve got the queen of beer
Silvia Martinelli
and wine. Lounge it Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy
The mandate lady. Yeah. And then number number four always changes. So we had I think, right now there’s a guy who owns cinemas in Montreal,
Silvia Martinelli
I think so the time we went it was Joe from Joe Fresh from Joe Fresh. Yes. And then we had Michael that worked with imports exports. Oh, yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy
So what happened? Because I mean, I watched that like I let alone like, I didn’t know that I’m gonna meet you in, in person at some point. But I know right. I watched that back in the time I think they record and then by the time the show comes out is almost 910 months later, so I’m not sure
Silvia Martinelli
it’s actually yeah, it was almost a year later because we did in 2017. Yeah, it went on there. 2017 We went in it was maybe maybe 2016. So it was March Sep 2017. That went on air.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. So the thing is, what I remember is that they didn’t give you money.
Silvia Martinelli
No. They were tight with their, with their wallets that they?
Amr The Internet Guy
I think you weren’t asking. So for you guys. I’m going to put the link to that episode so that you can watch it if you want to as well. You’ll have it in in in the podcast notes here. But I think I can’t remember how much were you asking? Was
Silvia Martinelli
it 66 65,000? For? I think it was 20 or 30%? of the business? Yes. 20% of the business that
Amr The Internet Guy
your valuation was about? 300,000. Right. Yeah, three,
Silvia Martinelli
it was either 2325 or 350. That we got a we got a proper and your
Amr The Internet Guy
sales were about what at the time.
Silvia Martinelli
At that time, I think was 80,000. That maximum sales, we’ve done ourselves. So you’re kind of very word getting there. But again, like at that time, that’s the valuation we got on potential business, because we’re just getting into new retail stores. Right. Yeah. So the potential of sales, and at that time again, it was just my husband at night, which was really just me the two of you. Yeah, cuz he had a full time job. I just leave him on the weekends. Right. So
Amr The Internet Guy
we need was a weekend gig for him. For him. Yeah. And I think my analysis when I watched the show at the time, it was basically I think two things. I think your ask was not big enough for them to get excited. Because sometimes, like even if their own half of the company, it’s still like, what 100,000 150,000 It’s not that much. And they probably think, you know, we could invest in something bigger. And the other thing is, I think people sometimes are a little bit scared when they’re dealing with perishables.
Silvia Martinelli
Oh, no, for sure. It is a very challenging markets. And, and what Jim said, actually, when he wasn’t on air, he said, you know, if I got it in like he got excited. When did you
Amr The Internet Guy
get into Boston? Pizza? No. Be a great appetizer. I
Silvia Martinelli
know. I told him. But no, if they don’t do a deal on the show, they cannot do a deal on the side with you. Oh, it’s your chances on the show. But the thing is that one thing he said when we’re leaving, like you will I don’t think he was on camera. If he was they cut it? He was like, if he got it in like it like soon, very soon he would take over the company. Because you
Amr The Internet Guy
read the brand. Yeah, he gets
Silvia Martinelli
the first round of investments. For you. Yeah, you that you need more, because you need to
Amr The Internet Guy
expand, just tell yourself the whole company.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. So basically, he said, No, I, you’re going you’re doing well, you know that you might just get private investors or something like and just is still be your thing.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. But I think people go to the den, not necessarily because they need money. I mean, yeah, it’s good to have a bit of investment, if you need it. But in most cases, you probably get there because you want experience, you want distribution. You want the connections, and I can get you in the big stores. And they can help you do it online that a lot of
Silvia Martinelli
I think timing as well. Because again, when you start the business for me was like always excited to grow, grow fast, grow fast, go more,
Amr The Internet Guy
I’ll give you the idea of I want to go to Dragon’s Den at the first place.
Silvia Martinelli
I watched the show before and then for some reason, even before I had the idea of having a business, I thought oh my gosh, I would love to go there one day, you know, I always had this. Like sometimes
Amr The Internet Guy
I’m gonna be there one day, even if I don’t get the money.
Silvia Martinelli
I’m gonna be there one day, which is like, you know, be challenging, you know, to present this guy’s to be in front of them and have a business or have an idea like that will be like, I don’t know. So what
Amr The Internet Guy
do you do to get into the den? Do you sound like a businessman or like, yes,
Silvia Martinelli
you send you upload your business plan and you also send information on your business and the growth,
Amr The Internet Guy
how much you’re selling. And yeah, what’s the product and how you’re modeling?
Silvia Martinelli
The marketing, what’s the future plan, cash flow plan?
Amr The Internet Guy
And at that point, you said you had about 80,000 in sales? Yes. Where was the sales like in shops and stores or no event?
Silvia Martinelli
Events, farmers markets and some stores some little stores right? Wow. We’re just getting introduced
Amr The Internet Guy
yourself and speak with the stores. And yes,
Silvia Martinelli
yeah, one by one. So that’s the other thing too, that I noticed that other food businesses that I’ve met or other businesses in general, when they go they are in a different level that I was where the where you already have distribution established. You just need to grow distribution. You already have staff and it’s pretty amazing
Amr The Internet Guy
if you’re doing 80k Because I from the Dragon’s Den, and probably from what you told me earlier, when we spoke, you’re kind of new here like 2012 2013. When did you arrive here?
Silvia Martinelli
Oh, no, I came in. It was 2006. But then I worked. I worked I had the English courses that I worked in sales and logistics before I actually went to open
Amr The Internet Guy
my own. Okay, now
Silvia Martinelli
to build a down payment, right? So money.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s good. Because you arrived here as a new immigrant? And yeah, as you said, like you needed to take English courses and stuff. And that takes time. Yeah. And for you to know, you know, the region. And it’s not, you know, every province here has its own kind of business culture. BC, in my opinion, at least is like a little bit more relaxed. Yeah, for example, then Ontario, which will be fast paced, and, you know, some kind of like, bang on. While here. People like to take the time think about it. You know, take it easy. Yeah, get the business eventually. But you know, relax. There’s no, you don’t have to call me 10 times a day. Like,
Silvia Martinelli
I know, that’s what I found weird because then Brazil’s kind of like the East Coast. It’s Go, go, go, go, go go. Yeah, this is business. I had to like,
Amr The Internet Guy
kind of talk to people get scared. If you’re like that. Yeah. No, you have to tone them down.
Silvia Martinelli
So you don’t scare them off.
Amr The Internet Guy
I’ve been there. Yeah. Done that. It’s like, is this guy having what 10 coffees a day or something? Was he like,
Silvia Martinelli
I know. And it’s just like, you have to slow down and sometimes it’s frustrating because you’re like, come on.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah, but it’s good that you know, you’ve you’ve reached 80,000 in sales. Yeah. 80,000 a year. Which is better than a job right? Like
Silvia Martinelli
exactly that’s that was that’s that was basically
Amr The Internet Guy
to replace your salary and even up to a little bit yeah,
Silvia Martinelli
but the thing is that to also when you’re growing the business and you don’t have investors you leave all the money in the business of course yeah. Because you don’t need to
Amr The Internet Guy
grow right? It becomes a bit tight in your personal life because you want to keep as much money as you can in the business because you also have to buy stuff you have to buy ingredients you have to you have to rent a commercial kitchen you this was the
Silvia Martinelli
biggest challenge for us actually, always it was always people and money because as we got to bigger retailers, we started selling to save on whole foods Loblaws like all the big players in the market, you need marketing funds, you need demo demonstrations in the stores with people and so you always need more people and more money to invest after the
Amr The Internet Guy
show. What happened you didn’t get the money what No, what did you decide to do then?
Silvia Martinelli
We said okay, so we got this far. Right now we’re getting the contracts with the stores anyways, because I said
Amr The Internet Guy
I really became aware like yeah,
Silvia Martinelli
came all this way here by ourselves right? And even without the money like I was getting the contracts with the stores like I told them like I just closed the deal with Avon and low blows like all of those those deals too big so I said we’re just going to grow in as lower base but at least right now we people will get to know us they will know Yes. And that’s a big exposure as well as we had a lot of people contacting us when the show went on air interested in like either partnering or you know,
Amr The Internet Guy
did our site crash after that
Silvia Martinelli
he went on air like then the that night was the the name and it was good because actually like people got mad at the dragons because they all ate the product and they said the product was good so the thing is that it was a good
Amr The Internet Guy
a good kind of a good marketing or you know even Michael he
Silvia Martinelli
ate the house of jalapenos also my sales for jalapeno flavor went up like crazy, you know?
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, Mike is the guy was the funny jackets. Right? Yes, yes.
Silvia Martinelli
I love this jalapenos. That’s it the by sale for jalapenos just like skyrocket. So how we got the benefit of the exposure, you know, and people were just mad at the drugs were so bad they didn’t buy your product just just to prove them wrong. I’m like Yes.
Amr The Internet Guy
And as a bonus, you will enjoy it. Yeah.
Silvia Martinelli
Whatever. And then so it was it was good it again, when you don’t know a lot about business to like, at that time, I did not understand what like, was the biggest problem was later, when you get into more business you talk to other investors you talk to like bigger players in the market, then you see things you didn’t see in the past to see oh, this wouldn’t work this will Oh, that’s why they didn’t do it, you know, you get a better understanding of of what you needed to have in place before you went. But when you are trying, you’re just trying to just send all the paperwork and then go through the process of like the they have processes where you present to producers and stuff. And you know, then you get selected. Yeah, it’s kind of like a competition. Right. And,
Amr The Internet Guy
yeah, because they want to present something that will also be entertaining. Yeah.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, that’s the thing too, and a good story,
Amr The Internet Guy
because the story is very important. Like, yes. You know, I remember he, I think I’m not 100% sure now, because I’m going to put the link there. So hey, guys, don’t quote me on this. But I remember something about Silvia saying something like, I couldn’t find that product here. So I’ve decided to make it. Like it’s something I grew up, right. Did you say something similar to
Silvia Martinelli
what it is? Yeah, I couldn’t find it. I grew up eating it. And I was my favorite snack. And where’s it? There’s nothing here?
Amr The Internet Guy
It’s funny, because there are a few Brazilian restaurants here and do serve it, but I don’t think they sell it outside the restaurant. No, there was your business opportunity right there.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. So basically, so the certainty I had was that there was no issue with the product. It was challenging with this distribution and everything else. Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy
But you had this lined up already. Like, you know, you’d be in talks with, like seven foods and the rest of them.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, but when you start a food business, yeah, you you really think and that’s what I wanted to leave out there for people that want to start a food business, in your mind is that if you have a great product or great food, I’m a great chef, and then I work really hard, then that’s enough. And it’s not enough.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah, it can kill you.
Silvia Martinelli
You know, you need to do the planning. More important than the business planning is actual planning, like, do the action, get the business planning and do those actions and do the follow ups and talk to people that are in the industry that you’re in, talk to successful people that are in the industry, so they can give you advice? And tell you the challenges and try to predict the challenges because like it, they just show up in your door. And it doesn’t matter how much you work sometimes it’s just the market like you said, there were some stores like one of the one of the chains I was talking to for years, I’m dropping off samples to their office. Everybody loves the products the buyers not buying. And then I finally get to meet the guy. I ambushed him in the tradeshow. I’m like what is wrong? Like,
Amr The Internet Guy
tell everyone loves it? Yeah. Did you not eat it?
Silvia Martinelli
No, they even told me Stop dropping off samples. I was just like, really? Like, you’re gonna get it? And he goes like, oh, no, yeah, I know who you are. I know your product. I was waiting, waiting out to see if your business survived. So fast.
Amr The Internet Guy
Because I think also if, if I’m a store and I put something on my shows and people like it, I want to make sure that I’m going to be getting like a continuous supply. Yes.
Silvia Martinelli
But you don’t see like this when you were I’m three years in business. I’m success. They don’t sit because a lot of businesses die in the first five or something. Yeah, so they wanted to give you some room to actually grow and to be certain that right like and, and go. But then he gave us a chance right? So really, it didn’t matter how much it really worked in the past. We needed to wait it out we need to get the successful outside so we could get to them. You know, we wouldn’t get to them in the first year or the second year or the third but we try
Amr The Internet Guy
so I think many of these business lessons are as well are suitable for any business not necessarily just the food industry. Yeah, it is there are like we’ve been discussing some app you and I on the site and and you know some of the stuff you said here also goes for it also goes for you know, test your product. Talk to the people in your industry, talk to your customer or customers
Silvia Martinelli
customers told me Oh great. The original was great, but like I would want a garlic like like garlic bread. I would want a spicy version. I I never eat
Amr The Internet Guy
like I and suddenly it becomes non Brazilian becomes more Canadian,
Silvia Martinelli
but again, yeah, who who is eating it? Who? My target market? Is it Canadian people? Brazilian as well that means from Brazil but who is actually maintaining my business alive? I need to please them.
Amr The Internet Guy
Exactly. So it’s not you can say, Oh, the recipe is Brazilian and we don’t do it was garlic. Oh, no, this is a sure way to die.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. What would you like to have? We’ll test it out.
Amr The Internet Guy
You want me to do it in maple syrup? I’ll do it. Like,
Silvia Martinelli
you know, because I was I wasn’t good with the idea of the jalapeno. I don’t eat spicy food at all. But they said we weren’t jalapenos. We want some like, okay, customers, when jalapenos I tried, the fresh version almost died. Because it’s just like, there’s an oil that stays with you. And then I tried to pick up versions. That’s the one. And then we tested. We brought it to the farmers markets, we put like a lower price point for them to try. And then it was good. And then we moved forward to creating that one.
Amr The Internet Guy
So today it’s in any store, like Save On Foods Walmart
Silvia Martinelli
is listed. We’re not at Walmart, Walmart is another level. So the ones that we’re not is superstore Walmart and Costco.
Amr The Internet Guy
Okay, yeah, Costco has their own chain anyway, they’re not
Silvia Martinelli
those three, there was just like we are in save on low blows. By low choices, Whole Foods. IGA is safe ways.
Amr The Internet Guy
Oh, so the closest thing to me here would be IGA and Port Moody.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. And then, yeah, that’s pretty much like where they are right now. And again, like after depends if we know, Safeway, but we were not in all the Safeway. They have different chains. So even
Amr The Internet Guy
the Safeway next to your house. So
Silvia Martinelli
now that we’re actually going to some samples, when the other one, the one
Amr The Internet Guy
that I know you sold the company already. And that’s
Silvia Martinelli
a job right now. Right now we just do cones, I just do consulting, they just say, go back. There. Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy
So what does that like? Okay, let’s, let me give you a practical idea. I don’t think I’m doing it. But it’s just because every time I go back home, to see my family in Egypt, they asked this question, is there any Egyptian food restaurants in Vancouver or in your area or around? And I say, No, we there’s, I think sometimes, there was a restaurant in Coquitlam, that opened for a few months, then it closed again. And the reason is, Egyptian food isn’t mainstream like it. It’s a little different from what people are used to here. And you know, you don’t have a big number of Egyptians Arabs or people who would have tried it elsewhere. So it’s really hard to build kind of the buzz around Egyptian food. But there is one dish, which is a vegetarian dish, we call it cautionary, and it’s kind of it’s a mix of rice, lentils, pasta, with fried onions on top and hot sauce. Wow. And it’s really yummy. And that is the only dish that I can see. Making it outside Egypt like it’s, it’s brilliant. It’s easy to prepare. Well not that easy, but like kind of, you know, the ingredients or
Silvia Martinelli
ingredients are familiar to people that are here available. Yeah, it is
Amr The Internet Guy
really good and it’s fully vegetarian. And it could be like a food truck
Silvia Martinelli
product Yes. That will be a better as a food truck product or even as like I said at farmer’s market just attend
Amr The Internet Guy
a quick snack you don’t have to have a big dish. And he’s very famous if you go to Egypt you have to eat kosher it’s like kind of you know, the famous
Silvia Martinelli
Moses eat this thing. Yeah, the street food. And you guys better other thing too with a lot of people think food trucks first but honestly, the first step is actually just the tents and the farmers Mark. Yeah, you build your customer base enough to get enough funding. They’re coming
Amr The Internet Guy
back now after COVID Like, you know, I know last year,
Silvia Martinelli
yes to then go to food trucks because food like the tent, you just pay when you go in the events even you pay from out of your sales. And then the you need a limited license, which is much easier to get than the food trucks needing a specific license for each CD you’re going to be parking on. And the cost of having a food truck built is very high. So it’s better to build your base first in the market.
Amr The Internet Guy
Crazy enough. I’m not doing it but just as an idea. If I’m crazy enough to say hey, you know what I’m going to bring cursory to Vancouver. White, what does a consultant like? How would a consulting service helped me
Silvia Martinelli
it will be like exactly like this in the planning stages, right? Like, for example, you’d say, I would want to do a food truck, right. And I will tell you like a food truck, the minimum amount, I’ve seen people pay for them as $45,000. Right out of the bat, and then there’s the
Amr The Internet Guy
business minutes for the truck and the licensing, just
Silvia Martinelli
just the truck, just the truck, each license each license to operate is in each city for each event is individual. So for example, and also like there are different cities. So for example, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, New Westminster, Vancouver, North Vancouver, South Vancouver, the all the different divisions Burnaby. So out of the bat, you have to pay for at least 10 licenses to be able to cover those different events, those different locations that we’re going to be part, right, and that’s expenses coming out of your pocket no matter what, and you need stuff. Because you won’t be able to work in all the old events, then you need ingredients. So the first thing is that start small, then grow larger. Right? And first of all, again, you did not test this product with Canadians or with the population here or even with the regions here. Right? Because my product, so better in some markets in some cities and other cities, right? Yeah. So that’s why I would say attend a cost cost $200. That’s it, you will last you like ears, okay, you get a tent, you go to a farmers market, which is usually $40 per farmers market, or $60. Which you recover right there. Yeah. Then you make your product and you start going to the individual markets and selling them. When there’s summer. There’s summer festivals, where there’s 1000s and 1000s. And 1000s of
Amr The Internet Guy
people Yeah, yeah, many cities
Silvia Martinelli
have different many cities that have them. If you have a truck, you pay two $3,000 to be there. If you have a tent, you pay maybe 300 400 to be there. Right? So you test it in this cheaper way. Then you test your market, you see how much sales you get, then you save the money to invest in the truck now that you build already, like some rapport with the customers that they will give you feedback they’ll give you to try different sauces. Yeah, they’re gonna give you suggestions, right? Or adapt like this adapt like that. Now
Amr The Internet Guy
you go with, what do you do to listen to your customers? Like, do you I mean, this? I know, it’s a very basic question. But do you just take a pen and paper and write down what they tell you like?
Silvia Martinelli
And they tell you right at your face to like, like, I always had like a little notebook with like, with me or something like to write on, on like, I had my to like my, my changing something to write on. And it was they will give suggestions. And also I’ll ask for them. I will put like little signs. Try this. I will have samples in the front. Let me know what you think. Right? So sometimes the customers they won’t give you suggestions if you don’t ask for them some some some of like button, rare occasion. But I would make it very clear for them that it was new here. It’s a new product. Give me some feedback. How would you eat this? Because like, again, even how you eat them, right? In my business plan. I put them like we ate them in Brazil. We eat them in Brazil with coffee in the morning for coffee. Yeah. And for Canadians that doesn’t resonate at all for them as a starter, right? Yeah, exactly an appetizer. I never thought about it as an appetizer. Right. But that’s how they eat it. Yeah. So that’s how I had to No, I
Amr The Internet Guy
wouldn’t. I wouldn’t think I would have cheesy bits with my coffee. Right?
Silvia Martinelli
I know. But again, but they have like bacon and stuff with their coffee, which is weird to us, you know, I wouldn’t know. So basically, is you have that’s why I say I spent months building my business
Amr The Internet Guy
to study your market as well. You have
Silvia Martinelli
your actual market because when you go in, then reality hits and then you can adapt and not spend so much money or stick to like one thing when the other is the is the truth. Right? And stay flexible. Yes. Imagine if I build all my marketing materials based on the coffee idea.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah, exactly. You you would have wasted so much money. Yeah. And you’d be frustrated because you’re not selling because there’s one component that you put in there that people don’t really see.
Silvia Martinelli
Yes, you know, the other thing about the food business and that you got to be careful is a lot of people come with the same thing like like you said, like they either go like Oh I need to have a food truck or I need to have a restaurant like I have this family recipe and to full go full blown restaurant retail rental. food inspections would like the
ISIS a sure way to get broke.
Silvia Martinelli
That’s why they break it in the fridge. Hear her second year maximum? No, you need to get your food tested, you need to go to festivals you need to get that those recipes refined to your target market unless you are from like a big population. Right that that already know that food. Yeah, like, in my case for me, like, if we didn’t have a lot of residents here even
Amr The Internet Guy
for example, if you’re in Surrey, and you’re selling something that would appeal to the population there, then you’re doing some kind of an Indian food or something. Yes. Yeah. Because people already know what you’re doing. If you do it better than others. Yes, your sales are kind of guaranteed if
Silvia Martinelli
that’s what it is, is getting burnt it’s what I tell people. Let’s say I was doing cookies right Canadians know what cookies are. I just do different flavors. I
Amr The Internet Guy
or cakes. You have a venue be in competition with every god. Kanheri backup. So it’s
Silvia Martinelli
both ways but at least you have something guarantee everybody needs cake. Some guys will give
Amr The Internet Guy
your uniqueness but educate the market and kind of train their taste buds. Yes. On
Silvia Martinelli
your customers listen to whoever’s paying for your for your service or
Amr The Internet Guy
product. Yeah, don’t get in love with your product.
Silvia Martinelli
No, because again, like I would never have done the jalapeno ever. Yeah. became my second best memory make
Amr The Internet Guy
me want to try it. Next time I’m in the shops. It’s in the freezer section sexually.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, freezer section. And if it’s not, you have to ask for it. Because after COVID We lost space in a lot of the Yeah,
Amr The Internet Guy
of course, because there was not the foot the foot traffic wasn’t there anyway.
Silvia Martinelli
So now they’re getting it back. So like if you don’t find it when you go just requesting the customer service, then they have to order.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. So we’ve covered that part is like using a consultant saves you from doing the same mistakes or the common mistakes, saves you money. I mean, yeah, you’ll be paying the consultant but it you’ll be spending money in something that will not work because they’ll give you the tried and tested methods.
Silvia Martinelli
Not only the testing methods, but also like the legal and like not the legal but I have a lot of stuff to learn about because
Amr The Internet Guy
there’s the license on
Silvia Martinelli
licensing the contract. Yeah, all of the all of the proper documentation that you need to have in place, and properly before you go to the public. Because if someone eats your food and gets sick, you’re liable. Yeah, you’re, you’re done. You know, you’re done before you started, right. So it saves you money had they can actually saves your business. Because they’re
Amr The Internet Guy
deceives you as a person is what could be really liable for something bad,
Silvia Martinelli
right? Yeah, you can. Okay. Especially for food. You can you know, you have to put things in place to to be safe.
Amr The Internet Guy
What I know also that you sold the company, was it last year? Yes. Yeah. Okay, so you grew Timo? Yes. What was your sales? Like when you sold it?
Silvia Martinelli
I can’t really give you the number. sign confidentiality, but I would say three times of what we were before. Yeah. When we started, I would say kinda like that. But again, our sales was going down because of the vendor.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. Because mainly if it’s big stores where you’re like, there was
Silvia Martinelli
no store sales were good. It was just the events, right? A good chunk of our sales were based on on on in person events, and those were canceled. Yeah, right. At that time, we were much better off. We had already started like stablished. Stores orders. We even like when I sold the Ottoman because I didn’t have the facility anymore. We kind of got out. We had back orders. The guy who bought it, bought it
Amr The Internet Guy
with orders with orders. Yeah.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah. So it was very, very good that that time is so from the grocery side. And he could sustain itself too, right? Because the guy who got it has a coffee shop business too. And he was closed for the pandemic for the coffee shop. Okay, so we were the Life was
Amr The Internet Guy
good. Yeah. Cuz he got something that he can sell and make money and it already has its own customers. The brand is established. Yes, that’s a good idea.
Silvia Martinelli
It all started there. So basically, you just have to keep going and then just growing,
Amr The Internet Guy
making it and then you have to train their team to make it right. Yes. So that they can so I use the same quote about
Silvia Martinelli
six months, training them on all the procedures and everything. And also like, again, metals background and all the training background. I had training for everything. I had Excel spreadsheets and checklists for events for everything. It’s all there. So it’s the system is all set up. You just have to learn and take over and basically that’s pretty much how they’re going right now. We’re having our Businesses were more towards how can we grow again? Right. But at least they maintained the same? Yeah.
Amr The Internet Guy
It’s pretty good. I mean, one of the things that also we mentioned, and we laughed about was when I asked you if your website crashed, and the reason for that. So even though you’re not selling the product online, like people are not ordering from the website, but people want to come and check you out, they want to come and check what you do. And this is a very common thing that I see. And, you know, regular non techies do this mistake all the time. Oh, they buy hosting from the same company. I’m not gonna mention any names, everyone would know who I’m talking about here. But
Silvia Martinelli
we don’t know, we just see template by here exactly. That so
Amr The Internet Guy
people go on and buy hosting from the same company, where they registered their domain name, because it’s easier. And you’re presented with these things on checkout. And it’s so easy to just click, click click and pay. In most cases, it can work for a small website that’s not growing or doesn’t have, you know, a lot of traffic.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, any work for us. So as we needed them,
Amr The Internet Guy
once you want some interaction, and you want to add, you know, like an opt in or, or some kind of a call to action, or really, not just bring traffic but bring traffic into our funnel, because traffic on its own. If they come and bounce, you don’t know who they are, yet. There’s no interaction, you didn’t get the details, right. So once this starts, you actually need great hosting. And even that company without mentioning any names, again, do have some good plans. But the thing is, nobody tells you, like, upfront. Here’s what you need. Here’s like this is kind of, I don’t know, the whole phrase process becomes so automated to the point that no one explains things to you anymore. Yes. But so for those of you guys, if you’re and this is not my word, these are the words of a good friend. If you’re serious about your business, you have to be serious about your hosting. Website. Hosting doesn’t cost a lot. But it can cost you a lot in lost revenue if it’s not done. Right. And the website itself, of course, like the design of the website, is it designed to convert? Is it easy for people to find the information? What action do you want them to take? Things like that. And it’s important, and it’s part and I think, probably Sylvie, you tell people that as well. It’s part of when you’re starting up, it’s part of the things that you have to plan the things that I have to think about. Because everyone has a website, like I haven’t met anyone now, who has no websites. In fact, clients who come to me to build a new a brand new website, that will be their second or third or fourth business. Like they already have one for another business. But the thing is, what happens is that people so overlook that part, because some of the companies tell him, Hey, you can build it yourself.
Silvia Martinelli
You don’t even think about the host, you don’t even think that they’re gonna be overwhelmed. And then what it does what it does crash and you call them hey, I’ve just been on TV and I need to contact these people. Yeah, they’re like, there’s nothing we can do. Oh, my God. So you lose. We lost prime three, four days of Yeah, until you moved your host. Until then we just had to move hosting and trying something like to have at least a form that people can could contact us. And that’s huge. Because imagine, like, imagine if you’re spending money in marketing campaigns and in lead generation, and then you’re like, when you get the volume, throwing it down the drain. Exactly. You’re just like burning money. That’s why you
Amr The Internet Guy
need a web consult.
Silvia Martinelli
You need both sides, you actually have to plan for the growth.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. If if you’d like, you know, I mean, I’m not saying this to brag here. And it’s not because I’m here. But generally speaking, for a situation like this, if you have a web girl or a web guy, and you tell them, hey, you know what, my site crashed. I was on TV, the so many people coming, the person could have moved you in a couple of hours. But because it was just between you and the company, the hosting company, it will be back and forth. And you have to go on the chat and you have to go on the phone and you have to send emails, and it takes forever. whereby if you had somebody locally, they can just like go hey, you know, just move me put me anywhere.
Silvia Martinelli
Yes, no, it was a long support process that doesn’t go anywhere. And yeah, nobody knows what happened. Of course they don’t take the responsibility for the thing going
Amr The Internet Guy
on. Nobody ever admits it. Yeah.
Silvia Martinelli
But you’re the one who loses, right?
Amr The Internet Guy
Yes. And that’s what I tell people all the time as well, like you. Many people ask me for SEO? Or, you know, I get emails sometimes, hey, do you do SEO or ad campaigns? Or, you know, anything to do with advertising on Google or Facebook and whatever? And my answer is usually yes. And no. No, I don’t do ads. Like, I’m not the person. I know, people. I know companies. And I use companies. And there’s one that I usually recommend to people, for Facebook, ads, and you know, to help them with the ad creation and the campaign itself and managing it and stuff. It’s not, it’s not difficult. But when you’re a business owner, it’s one less thing out of your plate. But there is absolutely no use of spending money on advertising and doing all these campaigns. If your website itself isn’t ready to receive the traffic, it’s not just the hosting, it’s also where to direct the traffic because people make the mistake of putting their homepage as the link in their ads. You don’t want to direct people to our homepage to get lost. You want to direct people to a landing page or to the action. Yeah, to somewhere very specific. So they don’t get lost with all the details that you have on your homepage and then just bounce, or you want to like direct them to a downloadable or, you know, somewhere like your your goal is to capture the person’s name and contact details. That’s it. That’s your main goal. Once you know who the person is, you can communicate with them later on.
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, at least you know who they are like that they actually came.
Amr The Internet Guy
Yeah. So it’s not about dazzling people with a beautiful looking homepage or, you know, some, like some people tell me, Oh, we just want to create the buzz. Okay, what does this mean? Everything must have a goal, right? Like, so you’re advertising, you’re spending money? What does the word buzz mean? Because they say, oh, it’s, I don’t know, a brand recognition or whatever. Okay, how do you measure that? Like, it has to be numbers, it has to be something that you can touch. Otherwise, you just spending money.
Silvia Martinelli
That’s the other thing I say to write. Sometimes when people start a business, they have this money for a startup. And then I said, spend wisely and don’t spend your whole budget? Because, yes, guess what, you’re gonna need it down the road, as you grow as emergencies show up? And they do. It doesn’t matter how well you do your business planning. stuff shows up?
Amr The Internet Guy
Like I said, I look at it as an investment. Right? No, I had five case
Silvia Martinelli
scenarios, none of them worked. It was a combination of some and some other things that were not even there that I couldn’t see it because you don’t know. Right? No, you have to have budget you have to be if you if your plan is to grow to actually have a proper company that is going to grow and because I said what’s the point of view is not was not to grow, it is not to you have your business going, right. You have to plan it, talk to professionals in each of the areas and do it properly. You know, because it will save you a lot of headache down the road, I can tell you that
Amr The Internet Guy
was the most fatal or the most expensive mistake that you did along that journey. Since starting, you know,
Silvia Martinelli
I can tell you like the will door few of the most expensive was actually to creating the manufacturing and not really outsourcing. But again, if I outsource, nobody knew how to produce it. So it was like a choice. But I can tell you what the this was the expensive and the most painful one was, I when I was in the face of like I need to grow, I need to grow, I need to grow. I mean, I’m getting out like stuck in a wall because some of the stores are blocking me because I don’t have a distributor. I got a distributor without checking their references. I just like you know, when you’re in desperate mode, we need to grow to have money, I don’t have time. For this. We need to and I jumped the thing and just found this people and believed everything didn’t check. And that almost killed us because they were kinda like a group of companies that were kind of like a scam thing that they will get you in. They will say they were on those stores that were not on the stores that were using my name to get to those stores. And they pay the first invoices and they didn’t pay six months of my invoices. They were getting paid from the stores and didn’t pay us. And if I had done the proper kosher, they take your product, sell it, take my product sell to the stores, but they’re not paying you for it. Pay me for it. Then I had to go to court to get to them. I want the case to took me two years to get parts of the money back, because then they closed the business that I had the business with. Yeah, yeah, they had all this companies tied up where they move the money. So that one mistake of, you know, you’re in a hurry, you were trying to grow, you’re kind of desperate, in the depth, desperate spot to grow fast. And then you don’t do your due diligence of checking references, checking, proper contracts, and everything cool
Amr The Internet Guy
people, like, Call someone say, call someone do my head
Silvia Martinelli
call. If I asked for three customers and call them, I would know that they call your
Amr The Internet Guy
own competition, it doesn’t matter.
Silvia Martinelli
Doesn’t matter. Exactly. You still have your niche. It took three years of our life. And almost that’s when I had to fire people. Because I didn’t have I had to cover all this materials and all this stuff. Imagine working for six months and not getting paid. Yeah, being Stephen B, I had to then start over and from scratch, and restart. So that’s why when I say even when we left and having to three times the sales we had is an achievement because we really almost broke I had to sell my other car, I had to burn I had to sell his bike to put the money in the business to keep going. Everybody was gone. I was making this product two in the morning, I will pick up Bruno from this coke, Wheatland and go to Maple region. After his shift, he had to help me with production. So we had to go to almost nothing again, and start over. You know.
Amr The Internet Guy
So there was a very painful and expensive mistake.
Silvia Martinelli
Exactly. So that’s why then I have I have now like, first of all, like what I got for my business legal services like legal advices that I paid monthly. For all the contracts for everything that I had, I will check references. Yes, everybody that I’m working with, and then in any important decisions like that, you cannot not have time for that. Because it can
Amr The Internet Guy
Yes, indeed. Like if you’re busy in production. We have to stop. Make time because that’s your lifeline that make
Silvia Martinelli
time because when you do decisions in a hurry, and you and I had that feeling you know when you have that gut feeling that this is a strange This is weird.
Amr The Internet Guy
You have to listen to Yeah, you sometimes Yeah, you got this telling you and you see some red flags. Yeah. You think oh, maybe I’m just overbearing like like,
Silvia Martinelli
Yeah, I’m just rolling. I’m just worried or whatever is just I’m just tired. Yeah. And no, those are no, no, no, tell us stay away.
Amr The Internet Guy
Perfect. So I mean, we have packed, I think we’ve packed a lot of advice. And you’ve given a lot of consulting for free during this.
Silvia Martinelli
At least the basics, right? Get the basics,
Amr The Internet Guy
especially for the food truck, guys. Hey, there’s a lot of free consulting here. You got to listen
Silvia Martinelli
back. For the rest, I can save your money for the rest of the stuff that you don’t even know.
Amr The Internet Guy
No, we haven’t said anything. We haven’t said much about the restaurant stuff. Were we leaving this for paid consulting? No. No, we love you guys. And we’re really happy that everyone is open now. And we hope we don’t get closures again in winter because of COVID. I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. I’m just hoping that the economy stays open. And you know, we’re we’re fine. If we have to wear masks again. I’m good. I don’t really care as long as my favorite food outlets are open.
Silvia Martinelli
As long as we can put our face out right. And get some food.
Amr The Internet Guy
Thank you very much Silvia. It was a pleasure. And yeah, we’ll be in touch. Yes, perfect. Take care.
Silvia Martinelli
Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye.
