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Okay some folks are like ‘wait, what exactly does your wife do and why do you have so much food in your kitchen right now?”
At @mjwhansen’s suggestion, a quick thread about my wife’s very cool online business!
At @mjwhansen’s suggestion, a quick thread about my wife’s very cool online business!
First, a bit of background: Patterson (my wife) is a trained executive chef. She’s worked running culinary teams at the Olympics 3x, and her last job before jumping to entrepreneurship was exec chef for DiBruno Bros here in Philly.
She also started a pulled pork & chicken BBQ mobile food business that she ran for a few years during the summer seasons. I’m not doing her career justice here!
The theme across her career, though, was that she’d get recruited for her power-combo skills of creative culinary work + managing food teams.
But every time, the pendulum would swing heavy to management and pull her out of the creative work.
“I just want to play with food!”
But every time, the pendulum would swing heavy to management and pull her out of the creative work.
“I just want to play with food!”
So after her last corporate job left her burnt out from management firefighting, she decided to bet on herself.
She wondered what kind of business she could do from home, focused on creative food work?
She wondered what kind of business she could do from home, focused on creative food work?
Through research and experimentation, she found three ways she could use her skills to make money (and stay focused on the creative work!
She primarily does three things:
* new food concept R&D
* new food business consulting
* recipes and food photography for food product biz’s
She primarily does three things:
* new food concept R&D
* new food business consulting
* recipes and food photography for food product biz’s
The middle option, new food biz consulting, is the thing she does the least.
Since she was in corporate food for so long, she is MUCH more business/finance savvy than a lot of passion-driven restauranteurs.
She helps them with everything from menu consulting to operations.
Since she was in corporate food for so long, she is MUCH more business/finance savvy than a lot of passion-driven restauranteurs.
She helps them with everything from menu consulting to operations.
I know she loves the clients she works with, but as anyone who does consulting knows, this work by itself is very hard.
People are thick headed, and don’t listen. And it’s hard to get paid what you’re really worth.
People are thick headed, and don’t listen. And it’s hard to get paid what you’re really worth.
New food product R&D is super interesting, but also in the minority of her income.
Imagine this: somebody comes up with a food biz idea but isn’t a chef themselves. Just like in tech, the food world is full of idea guys!
Imagine this: somebody comes up with a food biz idea but isn’t a chef themselves. Just like in tech, the food world is full of idea guys!
Also just like in tech, those idea guys often have no idea how to get a food idea from the test kitchen to scaling the recipe with a copacker.
Patterson gets hired to prototype the food ideas, and once they settle on a final version, to prep the recipe for scale production.
Patterson gets hired to prototype the food ideas, and once they settle on a final version, to prep the recipe for scale production.
The third pillar, and by far the largest portion of her work, is with food companies who hire her to come up with recipes (and shoot accompanying photographs of the finished product) that highlight the food product in action.
This is where things get really interesting to a fellow business person. 
Think about how food marketing works. Not enough to get someone to buy a product once.
What a food company wants is for people to USE the thing they buy, and feel good at using it, so they want more!
Think about how food marketing works. Not enough to get someone to buy a product once.
What a food company wants is for people to USE the thing they buy, and feel good at using it, so they want more!
In the past, those recipes appeared on/in packaging, and in magazines. Nowadays, it’s all online.
So clients sign a retainer for Patterson to come up with new, fresh, on-trend ways for someone who buys a product, to use the product. She has package choices with/without photos.
So clients sign a retainer for Patterson to come up with new, fresh, on-trend ways for someone who buys a product, to use the product. She has package choices with/without photos.
Her clients use her recipes/photos in their email newsletters, on Instagram/Facebook/Pinterest, etc. Since most of her clients are heavily e-commerce, it’s easy to directly attribute her recipes/photos to revenue growth.
So basically:
- Clients are food companies who pay Patterson to show their food “in action” through recipes and food photos
- She comes up with food concepts, does all of the work from home
- Most of her business is repeat business & retainers!
- Clients are food companies who pay Patterson to show their food “in action” through recipes and food photos
- She comes up with food concepts, does all of the work from home
- Most of her business is repeat business & retainers!
I also wanna make it clear: this is 100% her business, her success. She’s learned a ton and grown it all, her way. I’ve got nothing to do with it other than supportive partner and flavor beneficiary 
Besides being extremely proud of her, I genuinely find the business interesting because I’m a biz nerd in general and it’s provided a cool lens into the world of food product businesses, food ecommerce, etc.
I’m a firm believer that opportunities like this exist in basically every industry. My best friend is crushing it in the wine industry (pun intended) after I spent YEARS telling him to stop putting up with restaurant bullshit and go out on his own.
The key is, as always:
- Figuring out who the customer is (in this case she knew better than to focus on restaurants!)
- Figuring out what problems they have, that are costing them money, and that they’ll reliably pay to fix.
- Doing the work to get, and keep, those clients.
- Figuring out who the customer is (in this case she knew better than to focus on restaurants!)
- Figuring out what problems they have, that are costing them money, and that they’ll reliably pay to fix.
- Doing the work to get, and keep, those clients.
I think that’s gonna end this thread. 
I could ask her your questions, if you have them! Maybe we do a “food biz Q&A” where I interview her with your questions?
I could ask her your questions, if you have them! Maybe we do a “food biz Q&A” where I interview her with your questions?
