"You should sell that."
People always said that to Lori Saitz about the cookies she baked from an old family recipe. Unlike most of us, the 43-year-old former marketing and PR pro in West Palm Beach actually did. Six years ago she quit her day job at a local radio station, founded Zen Rabbit Baking Co. and began baking her butter-sugar cookies for real.
Did she have any idea what she was getting into? Uh, no. Did she have a culinary background, business savvy, any idea of what kind of licenses she needed, how much insurance to have, where to find a state-certified kitchen, who to go to for help?
Uh, no again.
So she "just sort of stumbled through it."
Stumbled well enough, apparently, so that the Food Network's Rachael
Ray recently touted her Zen Crunch bars as the Relentlessly Perky One's
"Snack of the Day."
Now Saitz and "business
therapist" Howard Paris have teamed up for a three-hour seminar on
Saturday called "You Should Sell That." It's designed to give you all
the info you need to keep from stubbing your toes while stumbling
around the darkened room of government requirements, financial
statements, business planning, marketing and distribution, and
everything it takes to be a gourmet food entrepreneur instead of an
about-to-be-laid-off wage slave.
The seminar (soon to be a
webinar) takes place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Publix Greenwise Market
at Legacy Place in Palm Beach Gardens. It will set you back $67 in
advance or $85 at the door, and you can register by going here. Tell 'em Rachael sent you.
