Four years ago today was the actual birth date of our business, The Vermont Spatzle Company. Marty and I decided that we were going to start our own business, and we were going to give it 110%. The first thing Marty did was to register the name of our business with the Vermont Secretary of State. That was the easy part.
During April & May, we had a lot to figure out. We both ran other people’s businesses before, but not our own. We both worked full-time jobs, so we had to work on the business in the evenings or any spare second either of us had. First, we designed our logo with a friend of mine.
Next, Marty worked on designing the label and what kind of container to put the spatzle in. There were so many options to chose from. He ordered samples, and we finally decided on the one we are still using today. He also found the right programs available online to help with our nutritional label and our UPC.
I had to figure out how to increase my batch sizes, drain, cool, package, and label our product. We sold our first package of spatzle at the beginning of June. We were in local businesses by the second week of June, and we were growing in popularity using social media. We had learned so much not only in that first three months but the first year.
We found some people who were so helpful and supportive that first year. One of our wholesale customers pointed out that the label we were using was boring and showed us that when it was merchandised in different freezers and coolers, you couldn’t tell what our product was. He also told us we needed something colorful and eye-catching.
He arranged a meeting with a graphic artist to help us, but we realized quickly that there was no way we could afford to work with anyone professional. The new label design would have cost us thousands of dollars.
Marty started making different prototypes, we would discuss them, and he would tweak them. I looked through different photos I took of the product, and bingo! A photo of the spatzle in a cast iron frying pan was perfect. Then we figured out the color scheme. Next, we had to figure out how big the label needed to be to wrap around our package not only for looks but for safety purposes.
Before we knew it, our spatzle was on the shelves of almost every co-op in Vermont and many specialty stores. It was bizarre in the beginning walking into a store and seeing our product in the cooler or freezer. We made, touched, weighed, packaged, labeled, and delivered that package ourselves. Now when I see our product in a store, I say hi to it.
I wrote the date 3/11/17 on our kitchen chalkboard that night so we wouldn’t forget when we said we would make this idea happen. No one erased it. I added the logo to the chalkboard a couple of weeks later. 3/11/17 was the day we both started living the “American Dream.”
Congratulations for your determination, diligence and vision! You two are a true team!