Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brian Podgorski. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Brian , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
I think as a business owner this is something that crosses the mind often enough to remember the feeling. Anyone can have those days where it seems like this could be the end to the life of your business. It is not an abnormal feeling I think until your business reaches certain sustainability milestones. Everyone has a different threshold when it comes to what they are comfortable risking for their business.
That being said, I do often think what if? What if I had quit my job sooner, what did I miss out on? Thankfully not long after going full time I quickly found myself with less and less free time. It was easy for me to fill a day with meetings about our hot sauce company and time at the kitchen. This only continued to be the case as time went on and word spread about our small businesses. We soon had to find ways to increase our production with the current man power we were working with. Quickly adapting our process to be more efficient increased our productivity, which allowed us more time to focus on growth. As the year continued on demand would increase, and we did better than we thought possible for our first year in business.
The last time I thought about getting a day job my wife Nikki had already joined me full time, we were fully safety net free. We were expecting a record year in business given the quick growth of our small brands the year prior. Plans for the year were made and expectations were set. Come spring of the following year, when we were both full time, it became clear this would not be the same year as before. Traffic at our markets, the frequency of whole sale orders, and web sales were all on the decline. We were doing more markets/events than the previous year but we were struggling to meet the goals that were set, even getting close to the bare minimum required to get by. Should I get a day job I thought…
We did entertain doing some part time work. Over the past 2 years we have picked up skills in the kitchen, getting a kitchen job wouldn’t be so bad. Honestly we left our careers just to have more time with each other in the kitchen. After interviewing at a couple spots, having conversations we never thought we would have with people we thought we would never meet, we were reminded of why we went into business for ourselves. Why not just do more pop ups? Luck was on our side for some recent food events where we prepared dishes that were well received. Encouraging responses to all types of food that we are not known for. A little bit of buzz was created about what we were up to so we decided to run with it.
Going back to where it all started, our love for being in the kitchen together, ended up being the answer to my question. Cooking good food and serving people became our new day job.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Brian Podgorski, my amazing wife Nikki and I own and operate several local small businesses. We are self taught Chef’s and entrepreneurs, our businesses are based in St. Paul. Being originally from South St. Paul its great to be operating in my home town. Nikki and I both come from various sales fields but our time was mostly spent in the kitchen.
Since the day we met the kitchen is where we loved to spend our time together. As time went on we picked up more and more tricks and friends and family were soon impressed by our food. Early in our relationship Nikki was in a very serious car accident and we were unsure what our future would look like. After her recovery our plans to create something for ourselves, from scratch that would one day sustain us, went in swift motion as it became very clear that time is not guaranteed.
In January 2020 we created our first social media page for our brand new salsa/hot sauce brand, The Salsa Collaborative. The Salsa Collaborative is a small batch, craft salsa and hot sauce company. We also make various other condiments such as hot honey and chili oil. Some of our products are in collaboration with local MN chefs, restaurants, and businesses. Everything is made by hand and in small batches by only Nikki and I. Our materials and produce are supplied by local businesses and farms. Recipes are wrote in house and are fresh takes on old classics along with some funky stuff we come up with. Being that we are self taught we are allowed to be as creative as we want to be. All of our proprietary recipes are very low in sodium, and are shelf stable. This is great for people with dietary restrictions or for those particular in their condiment choices. Our wide eyed creativity will continue to lead our approach into new recipes and should produce exciting options in the future! You can shop us online, at one of our local retailers, or at our farmer’s markets and events.
Not long after we would start our second brand, an asian fare and baking company called Roll’d Up Mn. Specializing in asian fare and scratch made by hand baked goods. Roll’d Up is most known for its buttery magic mashup of Brioche and the Croissant, dubbed the Brissant! We sell our baked goods to local chefs and at our farmers market stands and events. Taking the same approach as with TSC(The Salsa Collaborative) has quickly grown the audience of Roll’d Up. The Brissant bun created by Nikki was the edge we needed to take home our first East Side Burger Battle Championship last year. Our Milk Bun helped us become back to back East Side Burger Battle champs this year! Soon after we were featured in several local magazines, papers, and buzzing social media food accounts. Roll’d Up will continue to offer more hand made, scratch baked goods along with fare from Nikki’s Cambodian and Korean heritage.
We often do pop up’s for our competition winning burgers and all other types of food! The best way to keep up with what we are getting into is to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. All types of content can be found from our food events and of us in the kitchen throwing down!
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We actually do everything for our businesses ourselves. From creating the label designs in photo shop, new recipes and products, to sales and distribution. Creating our own pop up events, menu’s for events, content creation and management of our social media accounts. Everything. When it came time to taking our businesses commercial we had to teach ourselves it all.
Coming from strong sales back grounds we knew we could sell our products once we had them. So it began with writing the recipes and learning how to make them consistent and repeatable. Being precise with your recipes will be key to this. We didn’t want to have someone creating and producing our products as that would eliminate the very reason we went into business, to cook. Next came scaling, there is no real easy method for this but I recommend percentages. It will get you close and you can tweak from there, take all of the notes. Along the way we incorporated the processes that make our products safe into the recipe writing process. That way everything will exceed meet/exceed standards while staying true to our creativity and purpose for the recipe.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Nikki and I are very hands on with every part of our business. We are quick to answer any emails or messages we receive. Doing multiple farmer’s markets per week, along with local large scale events, allows us to be face to face all the time with new and return clients. People get to meet the folks responsible for the bottle of sauce they keep on the table. They get to hear our story first hand, they get to see our passion for what we do and what it means to us. For us it’s the best way to meet new clients and to grow our business, but also to retain our clients. People realize that we are who we are, and our products are consistent just like us. They know that every time they come to see us they are going to leave with the same experience that drew them to us in the first place.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesalsacollaborative.com and www.rolldupmn.com
- Instagram: The Salsa Collaborative / Roll’d Up Mn
- Facebook: The Salsa Collaborative / Roll’d Up Mn
- Twitter: salsacollab / rolldupmn
- Youtube: The Salsa Collaborative