We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mini Panyavong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mini below.

Mini, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Reflecting on the past six years, I never imagined Mini Fusion would achieve what it has today. Throughout this journey, we have met thousands of wonderful customers, set up booths at over 200 events, and traveled many miles delivering our sauces across Middle Tennessee. What began as an idea, with the humbling experience of selling our first 100 bottles, has evolved into an incredible journey resulting in over 75,000+ bottles sold to date. Growing slowly and steadily at our own pace has proven to be the best decision. During the pandemic, we reevaluated our business model—from how we produce our sauces to how we deliver them to customers quickly and sustainably. One positive outcome from the pandemic was the introduction of free local delivery and cooking classes, enabling us to reach our customers more effectively.

Now that we have established our customer base and defined our business model, we are excited to add two new sauces to our line this summer. These unique fusion blends will appeal to both novice cooks and those with a refined culinary palate. Additionally, we are launching virtual cooking classes to reach a broader audience, allowing more people to experience the Mini Fusion way of cooking with our delicious and flavorful sauces.

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.

Mini Fusion was created out of love and family is everything to me.When I made my first sauce, I wanted to impress my then-boyfriend, now husband of 15 years, who loves to grill and asked me to marinate some steak for us one evening. I didn’t have any store-bought sauces on hand, so I blended my own spices and seasonings, creating what is now the Mini Fusion Signature flavor. All of our sauces are made with love and pay tribute to my loved ones. Each sauce has its own unique story, which is noted on the bottle. For these reasons, Mini Fusion sauces offer a diverse range of culinary options, blending traditional flavors with modern twists. They incorporate the vibrant spices of Asian cuisine alongside American spices. Our sauces uniquely combine elements from various cuisines, making them versatile for a wide array of dishes, including stir-fries, marinades, and dips. Perfect for all food lovers, our sauces cover the spectrum from hot to sweet to umami, making them a one-stop solution for all your cooking and grilling needs.

We often hear from folks how challenging cooking Asian cuisine can be due to the numerous ingredients required, especially when making sauces from scratch. At Mini Fusion, we believe you shouldn’t sacrifice time or energy to create a delicious meal. We have bottled the diverse flavors so you can simply pour and go. From a simple stir-fry with our sauces to adding your choice of vegetables and protein, you can have a tasty meal ready in 15 minutes.

Another unique feature of our sauces is their interchangeability. You can blend the sauces to create new flavors by mixing and matching different Mini Fusion sauces or by adding mayo to our original or hot sauces to make your own yum yum sauce, similar to what you would find at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Additionally, our sauces have a shelf life of three years from the production date.

We also differentiate ourselves by offering complementary recipe cards to inspire your next meal using Mini Fusion sauces. You can find 70 more recipe ideas on our website. We pride ourselves on providing our customers with fun and innovative ways of cooking.

Our motto has always been to create more opportunities to gather around the table and enjoy a delicious meal with your loved ones. We believe that a full tummy leads to a full heart.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Setting up booths at local craft fairs, farmers markets, and events has been instrumental in introducing our Mini Fusion sauces to the community and expanding our brand and reputation. We draw inspiration from our customers. For instance, one customer shared that she mixed mayo with our original flavor to create a Japanese hibachi yum yum sauce. We wouldn’t have known this without listening to our customers. Engaging with them brings us joy as we hear about the dishes they’ve enjoyed making with our sauces and their suggestions for future products. This feedback has significantly shaped our business model and has reinforced our reputation for valuing customer input.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

You know the saying “it sounds too good to be true”? Well, we learned that lesson the hard and expensive way early in our business journey. Like many new businesses, we were eager for help to launch and grow. Unfortunately, we fell victim to a scam promising quick growth and revenue in a short period of time.

After this experience, we realized the importance of not trusting too easily and the necessity of doing our due diligence before investing our time, money, and energy in any consulting service.

We also concluded that growing organically and expanding our business the right way was the best path forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Minifusionsauce.com
• Instagram: Mini Fusion Sauce
• Facebook: Mini Fusion Sauce
• Linkedin: Mini Fusion, LLC
• Twitter: Mini Fusion Sauce
• Youtube: @minifusionsauce