Ok well, this is Cape Town and our weather changes more often than most people change their underwear! Apparently summer is meant to be here already, but I'm hard pressed to say that it has finally arrived.
Part of me is dreading the impending heat - something that I don't enjoy that much ... I'm more of a "spring has sprung" kinda girl. However, the joy of summer time is the awesome food and delightful social times with friends!
I've started doing meals, sandwiches and salads for people recently and its going pretty well actually. Its slow going to get it all up and running. Building a client base up of people is hard work, but I'm getting there.
The first thing I did was plan a menu and then source packaging for it. I found a fantastic company called Green Home that supplies biodegradable food packaging. Now I have to tell you that I have approached a few other packaging companies over the last few months and I've been so disappointed with the response that I've received. One company sent a rep to see me and after three weeks of waiting for a quotation I eventually sent the manager an email voicing my disappointment. I did receive my email after that, but the damage has been done and I don't want to use them. So I wasn't holding out much hope when I contacted Green Home asking to see samples.
However, I was soon to be pleasantly surprised! I was contacted by a delightful lady called Alison who immediately set up a meeting with me at my office. She arrived with another rep, also named Alison. They took such interest in the vision and dream for the future that Annely and I have for Treacle Studio as well as what I am currently doing with the meals, sarmies and other goodies. They made me feel like I wasn't a small fry client but someone special that warranted great service. For this, ladies, I am truly grateful and you now have a client for life!
Yes the product is a little more expensive than other non-green products, but the point is that if we're going for a certain feel to our brand then we need to make sure we package correctly too. Its about the bigger picture. So I'm all for going green as I believe many people are. I have a friend who mentioned that she won't buy certain well known products because they're not packaged in biodegradable packaging. Amazing how something that seems so simple can make a difference in how people buy.
So, these are the menu's I put together:
You'll notice I've mentioned "vouchers" on these. Well as you know we are obviously all going through interesting times financially and we all have to budget budget budget. So to help with that, I've come up with a sort of "coupon" idea. You can budget what you want to spend on bought in meals for the month ahead and purchase those "vouchers" from me ahead of time. This not only helps with the budget but allows you to plan meals ahead without the hassle of having to worry about cash at the time of purchase. All the meals are great for the freezer too.
So as you can see, I'm still being a busy bee. When times get tough, I get industrious :)
If any of you are interested in finding out more, email me on meegyn@treaclestudio.co.za
xxx
M
