We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trish Hines. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trish below.
Trish, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I hope my legacy will be one of encouragement to other entrepreneurs, to get out there and make their dream of owning their own business come true!
Trish, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where barbecue is king! Outdoor cooking has always been a part of my life, not only providing some amazing food, but lots of wonderful memories with friends and family. The world championship barbecue competition is held every year in Memphis, at Memphis in May, and I have judged there since 1996, and have also been a competitor. I think it was just natural progression that the sauce business grew from there, a definite labor of love! I started Sassy Q BBQ in 2014, selling at local farmers markets, starting with 3 sauces and 1 dry rub. The product line has grown to 7 with the addition of 3 more dry rubs and are sold in 2 major grocery chains. I’m actively working on two more products, hopefully that information will be coming soon!
The grocery business is a challenging, non-stop environment and being able to participate is a definite source of pride, particularly in the barbecue world, that is predominantly male oriented. It’s a pretty cool experience to walk into a grocery store and see your product on the shelf!
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
When I decided to take my products to market and make them grocery store compliant, I had to research co-packers (who do this type of work for small food companies) who work with sauces and spice blends. There are a lot of steps that are involved, such as lab testing, getting the recipe right (make sure to get that non-disclosure agreement!), label design, production pricing, etc., so it’s essential that you have a good relationship with your co-packer. I actually left one co-packer early on, when I discovered I was being grossly overcharged. The greatest lesson I believe I have learned is to be patient and not rush the process. You want your product to be perfectly represented!
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
As far as on-line sales, Sassy Q is available exclusively on our website, www.sassyqbbq.com. I tried Amazon a few years back, but I believe they made more money from me in monthly fees than I did from sales! Ha! Now that Sassy Q has grown, I may revisit the Amazon platform as well as some others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sassyqbbq.com
- Instagram: sassyqbbq
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sassyqbbq/