We recently connected with Amy Beyer and have shared our conversation below.
Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
In 2016, my husband and I finally took our official honeymoon after 4 years of being married. We went to Norway for two weeks so I could meet and he could reconnect with his extended family. One of our souvenirs was a bag of sea salt “made on the next island over” according to his cousin. Since then, we’ve imported over 10 tons of flaky salt, making us the largest importer of Norwegian Sea Salt in the world.
Innovation doesn’t have to be complicated. I didn’t invent sea salt, but I did see its value in bringing it into the United States. First, it was by the case for personal use in my own kitchen, but after developing arthritis and carpal tunnel from nearly 20 years as a professional photographer, I began thinking about it differently. Rather than becoming a reseller of the Norwegian Sea Salt, I wondered if it could be used in other ways as an ingredient in something of our own.
In January 2018 and with absolutely no food industry experience, I launched a gourmet, handcrafted, and award winning line of culinary salts and seasonings now called Salty Provisions. Innovation has been a driver in how I formulate all our recipes — from our very first flavor, ROASTED GARLIC SEA SALT and our most popular seasoning called COFFEE SALT, to our newest product offerings of LIQUID SALT and SAVORY ELECTROLYTE BROTHS. If it can contain salt, I’m thinking about it.
Our tagline is DO YOU LOVE SALT? If your answer is YES, we are 100% for you. If your answer is NO due to low sodium diet restrictions, we have solutions for you too. If your answer is NO because you don’t like the taste of salt, give us a try. Our main ingredient is Norwegian Flake Sea Salt. Not only does it have a clean, fresh flavor with no harsh finish, it is more mineral rich in magnesium and potassium than any other salt on the market. It is made sustainable, and comes from some of the cleanest water on the planet.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Salty Provisions makes gourmet hand crafted sea salts and seasoning blends with hand harvested Norwegian Flake Sea Salt. Located in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Amy Beyer is the founder and recipe creator of this woman owned business. She and her husband brought one bag of flake sea salt home as a souvenir and have imported over 10 tons since then. With over 40 flavors in the current collection, including their low sodium Liquid Salts, they offer something for every salt lover.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
From the very beginning, I knew I didn’t want to “pay to play”, either at the grocery store level or trying to build an online following. I wanted every customer to come to us either from tasting our products at a farmers market or craft fair, or by word of mouth. To grow profitably, I needed to keep my expenses way down. If I set up a booth at a $45 farmers market and sold $450, that’s a pretty decent return. What’s even better is when that same market the following week has over $1000 in sales. That’s over 20X return. If I saw cash flow being an issue because I needed ingredients or containers, I’d go find another farmers market or craft fair to do the next weekend. Some markets and events are consistently decent, others can be stinkers but I wouldn’t know until I did it for myself. We’ve developed loyal customers, even from the stinker markets.
On a side note, in 2019 I only had a handful of states left to complete visiting all 50. So, I decided to book a couple shows away from home so I could travel through my list and make money to fund the journey. I booked shows in Lowell, Massachusetts, to knock off New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut. I booked a show in Louisiana so I could visit Mississippi, and one in Minnesota and North Dakota to complete that part of the country. I’ve also done a few shows in California as an excuse to visit family. The lasting benefit of all this travel is that we proudly have online customers in all 50 states, and Canada.
Ultimately, every flavor/recipe we have I created by researching flavor combinations, food recipes, and regional cuisine. Before I did the show in Louisiana, I created our HOT SALT, a Northerner’s take on Cajun and Creole flavors. At the show, I had customers tell me they liked our HOT SALT better than Tony Chacheres and Zatarain’s. Definitely high praise. It even won a platinum award in a Bloody Mary seasonings competition. Our ZESTY PICKLE won a gold.
I truly believe we are the best kept secret in the culinary world — partly because of the amazing quality of the Norwegian salt we use in all our blends, and partly because of our flavor profiles. We fresh grind most of our spices, and only use real ingredients. That comes through in all our flavors.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
When I decided to give this hare brained idea a shot, I had little money to my name. My career as a photographer had all but dried up, and I didn’t want to borrow money from my husband. We already had a case of the flake salt on hand, so I would dabble in the tiniest batch sizes to create my first few flavors. After about 5 months of making my blends at home, I knew I needed to move into a commercial rental kitchen. My mom graciously gave me the $300 needed to pay the deposit. She saw how hard I was working to see if this could take off, and it has. I sold the first shakers for $100, bought more ingredients and salt, and sold that batch for $200. And so on it went. I didn’t really have a plan other than to keep making adjustments until something worked.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.doyoulovesalt.com
- Instagram: @saltyprovisions
- Facebook: @saltyprovisions
Image Credits
Photos by Amy Beyer.