We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kourtney Terry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kourtney , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Coming up with the name of my business was difficult. Before we started Taste T Love, we spent weeks intentionally going over the color scheme, logo design and of course the name. Our oldest daughter came up with the name of our business. The idea was to incorporate our last name (Terry) into the name of the business. We circulated maybe 5 names with our last name in it. Simply put, the letter T in Taste (T) Love, stands for Terry. The name has grown on us over time. We love it.

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.

My name is Kourtney Terry. Prior to starting my business, I worked in corporate healthcare. I was in the position of trying to figure my next phase in life. At the time, I had also just had my third child. I made baby food for him already. However, it was getting to the point where I felt like there just wasn’t enough time in the day. Making baby food was something I loved to do for my kids and wanted to continue doing. After having to buy baby food, I eventually realized that none of the food compared to what I was making at home. I started taking pictures and sending it to family whenever I would make food. I also started talking to other moms and realized that a lot of other parents struggled with the same problem. Not enough time to make it at home. And not 100% satisfied with the offerings from their local grocery store.

We currently offer fresh fruit and vegetable purees in 4 ounce pouches. We currently have an online store and serve a number of our local childcare centers.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This story is hard to share as it was also a hard lesson to learn. As a food business, certain licenses are non negotiable. A few years into my business journey I needed to move to a different kitchen. Whenever you switch locations, it is imperative to update your licenses with the local department of health as well as the department of agriculture. The department of health was pretty easy. However, getting in touch with the department of agriculture at that time was a struggle. The ag. guy that I had gained a relationship over 4 years had moved on and the organization was in the process of transitioning. I made the decision to go ahead and move to the new kitchen without having heard back from them. Although I still tried to communicate with them over months, timing just never lined up. Eventually, after speaking with someone, it was determined that Taste T Love Baby Food would need to do a voluntary recall until our license was updated appropriately. It was probably one of the worst periods on this journey. We lost one childcare contract and another MAJOR contract that took us months to obtain. The resilience in this story is that I really wanted to give up. But I didn’t The contracts and childcare centers that we retained showed a ton of faith and trust in us and that was enough to keep me motivated.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Taste T Love is currently in the process of pivoting. My children are no longer of baby food age. That doesn’t take away from the desire to serve children in my community, however, they were the motivation behind the start of my business. With the change in the economy, it has been necessary to find a more consistent form of revenue in business. We are currently pivoting our business model to focus more on childcare centers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tastetlove.com
• Instagram: @tastetlovebabyfood
• Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/latest/home?asset_id=2018621515125123&business_id=973929129431703&nav_ref=fb_web_pplus_settings_menu#
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-terry-a5871014/