Working Chocolatier Q&A
Posted in:
Opinion
1. How did you get into chocolate and when did you actually start your business?I got into the industry because I was a disgruntled chocolate customer. It seems that every chocolate shop I walked into had their product on display, but didnt give me the ability to select what I wanted for my purchase. Everybody had the Henry Ford mentality when it came to selling: Well sell you any color of car you want, as long as its black..When I tried seeking out a chocolate company that would let me buy what I wanted, I then found out that nobody actually made the chocolate I thought they made. It was then I decided to make my own.
2. What was your original strategy?My original strategy was simply home recreation. I found John Nancis site, purchased some equipment and beans and for the next several months had fun making chocolate. I had a number of other business ventures on the go at that time, so this was my life balance activity.
3. How did that change and why?A number of things came together. I sold my furniture manufacturing firm. However before I did that, I used my fabrication shop in my furniture company to designed a better home melangeur similar to the one that Mr. Nanci sells on Chocolate Alchemys website. I also began making contact with some people very high up in the world chocolate scene. At this point however I was still treating my passion for chocolate as recreation. I have a book called El Toppo Secreto, which has recorded in it all of my recipes and versions of each both for the chocolate my company makes today, and also for the confections Ive tried. Some were successes while others have big red NFG written over them
4. What did you think would happen vs what really happened?As a software architect (that was my primary career), I had hoped to design The Home Chocolate Machine an iteration of a Santha lentil grinder except all computerized with a number of features that are needed to properly conche chocolate. However, it was going to cost me somewhere in the range of $3 million to get the machine finished, CSA and UL approved and into stores. I didnt want to spend or raise that kind of money, so I looked at other options. I assembled a team of advisors colleagues with specialties in various areas and bribed them with all the chocolate they could eat for some candid advice. We sat down over a couple of evenings, drank wine, ate chocolate and I listened to what they had to say.In the end it was decided by all, that I would shelve the home chocolate machine idea for the time being, and focus on opening a business that had some incredibly unique offerings, unheard of in the chocolate industry.
5. What is your vision?The vision for Choklat is very simple: Use only the finest and freshest ingredients that money can buy. Make ALL of our chocolate in house. Celebrate the flavour of the cocoa bean, and make a dark eating chocolate from each variety that we import. Let people taste the difference that the cocoa bean plays in the flavour of chocolate. Focus on truffles, and make them fresh only when the customer orders them. Find out what people want, design recipes that the like, and then give it to them.
6. Who is your target market?Our target market is an affluent adult clientele. We never offer novelty products, such as molded bunnies, or hearts, or Santas, or anything like that. We focus on two things only: flavour and service. We do offer a very limited selection of truffle toppings for kids, but other than a couple, everything is the best that we can get, and if we cant get it, we make it in house (such as our graham wafers and marshmallows).
7. How did you figure out how much money you needed to start?Lots of planning and research about a year of it, 8 hours per day. Mid Six Figures.
8. Was it enough?Yes. More than enough.
9. How long did you think it would carry you? Did it? If not, why?The money carried the business until the day we opened our doors. I actually saved money by planning all my purchases and vendors prior to approaching them. Instead of going back multiple times, I put together equipment lists for each vendor and negotiated discounts from all of them. This approach saved me approximately $30,000.
10. How long before you were in the black?We had a soft opening on August 8, 2008, and generated profit day one. All equipment and inventory was paid for in cash in advance, so the company carried no debt, other than to me directly.
11. What was the best advice you received regarding your business?The best advice? LOL, Ive already been attacked in a very nasty fashion on this forum for giving it. All I can do is reiterate that if you are independently wealthy and dont care if you sell a single confection, make whatever the heck recipes you want and proudly flog them. However if you NEED to make money and CHOOSE to make chocolate confections to pay the bills, you are at some point going to have to compromise and make something which caters to tastes that differ from yours. If people dont like what you sell, they wont pay for it at any price. Thats just the simple, harsh reality of life.
12. What are the most important lessons you learned about the business side?Lesson 1: Nothing takes the place of sound, pragmatic, planning and research. When planning a business, set your emotions aside and be realistic.Lesson 2: Business is about making money. Period. The bills HAVE to get paid.Lesson 3: When it comes to your business, put a dollar value on your time, then closely manage and track that time. For example: When I was working in the software industry, I billed my time at $100 per hour. I needed a fence made, and paid someone $15 per hour to make my fence, while I sat in the house and wrote software. My father thought I was crazy, having someone build my fence while I was at home. I had to explain to him the economies of making $85 per hour while my fence was being built for free. YOUR TIME IS WORTH MONEY. If you dont think it is, try and find someone to do your job for free.
13. How big a price did you have to pay to learn that?In 2001 I took an Internet company public on the NASDAQ stock exchange, and because of bad hiring practices, and bad management decisions, I lost everything and had to start over in 2003. My losses were in excess of $15 Million dollars. When I moved back to Calgary, I had $150 in my pocket to start over with. The last 7 years has been a very hard road and a lot of hard work, but Im back to having fun with life. Some of that fun even makes me money! By this loss, I learned that life is too short to burn the candle at both ends in pursuit of that big pot of gold the big win. Plan a bunch of small wins, and have fun building on those.
14. Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?I will never give control of any of my companies to anyone, unless it is to sell it to them lock stock and barrel. At that point Ive got my money, and they can drive it into the toilet for all I care. Until that time however I will always have the final say in all business decisions related to that venture.
15. What do you like the most and the least about your job/business? Was that a surprise?What I like the most: first of all, I dont look at my job/business as a business. I take a whole life approach. I wake up every morning with the intent to have fun and make the most of the day. I understand however that at some point in time I have to make some money, so I figure out how to have fun and make money at the same time. Case in point: I have fun making chocolate, and make money doing it. I have fun racing motorcycles, and make a modest amount of money doing that too (it pays for itself). I also have fun snowmobiling and skiing, but those dont make me money. I also have fun with my daughter. In a nutshell, I look at life with the understanding of balance. My daily focus is to have fun. Some of my activities pay the bills, and other activities are simply fun.What I like least: Nothing. If I dont like something I simply dont do it.
