Hi friends!
I posted my most recent business update on the Secret Sauce Co NZ website, but because we haven’t launched yet, I have temporarily deactivated the website. The website was expensive to feed, especially since there isn’t an income stream from Secret Sauce Co NZ (yet). With the site down, I realised I should probably post the business update here for anyone curious.
To be fair, there haven’t been any changes since the last update. Despite this, we have people asking left and right for an update. I love that Secret Sauce Co NZ hasn’t been forgotten by all those (very) patiently awaiting our launch. And I do promise, when we have a proper update, you will be the first to know! The only thing I can tell you is we can’t rush God’s timing. I thought Secret Sauce Co NZ would have been up and running for a year and a half by now, but God keeps saying not yet. I had ambitious plans to get Secret Sauce Co NZ launched right after Louis’s birth, but that was my plan, not God’s. Ultimately, He has the aerial view and knows the perfect timing for the launch. I have a limited view, so I don’t! And I trust Him with this business, as He gave me the idea back in 2018. Truly, it’s His business.
Here is the update I wrote exactly a year ago on The Scholarly Sauce blog (Ha! I didn’t plan that). Also, I have added a donation button to the home page of our site and at the bottom of this post, for anyone keen to help fund the launch of Secret Sauce Co NZ1.
Happy reading!
Hi friends!
Many people have approached me, asking how the sauce business is going. There are so many people on the edge of their seats waiting for us to start selling. Trust me… so are we! We are itching to get started, but we have to make sure we dot our Is and cross our Ts. The Ministry of Primary Industries has set out extensive regulations (aka red tape) that we need to follow to start selling our product. It’s not only time-consuming – it’s expensive!
The good news is we have done everything in our power to get Secret Sauce Co NZ completely set up on the back end. I have engaged whom I’ve needed to engage (an accountant, etc.), and as far as the physical product, everything is ready for when we hit go. You would’ve seen in my recent update on our socials that our jar labels have been designed and are ready for print. We also undertook a complete brand overhaul. Yep! Before we made a single sale, we changed our branding. It wasn’t in the plan, but it ended up being necessary to be able to achieve the jar label designs of my dreams.
Oh! And we’ve worked with Massey University (and have done science in our kitchen) to give our sauce a one-year shelf life. We even own lab-grade equipment to do pH testing ourselves on each individual batch. When I say everything in the background is done – I mean every last detail! I have spent more time than I can recount working on Secret Sauce Co NZ.
So what’s the holdup? Well, we personally invested everything we had saved up (plus a small use of debt leverage) to get the business set up thus far. What we invested was able to cover the physical setup of the business. Now we are at a point where we need to get our Custom Food Control Plan evaluated and verified, which will cost thousands more dollars. At the moment, we just don’t have that, so this is our pause point (I won’t say stopping point, because we will resume when it’s time).
I thought sourcing funding would be the cure-all, but it turned out to be a dead end. I had a funding meeting that seemed promising and reached out to additional funders – all to no avail. Turns out, there are very limited options for funding new startups in New Zealand. Before you start sending me links to all the opportunities that are available, save your time. I’ve already read all the articles, and I don’t qualify for any of them, for one reason or another.
While it’s a little disheartening, it’s out of my personal control, so it won’t do me any good to worry about it. We do have a plan, as always! We are working to rebuild our savings and, honestly, relying on God. {Edit to add: God had a different plan. He has us completely resting right now. He has put us in a position where we can’t build our savings, and He is teaching us to rely on Him as our only source. Also, He has expanded my skill set during this waiting season in many areas —sewing, baking from scratch, homeschooling, etc. This is much bigger [than us] than we even realised.}
We know He has a plan and a purpose in the waiting, so we won’t rush the process. If He has a different way He wants to provide for this business, then we know it will happen in His perfect timing.
“At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen.” Isaiah 60:22
So now we wait, save, and trust. In the meantime, I am getting more and more excited for the launch of Secret Sauce Co NZ. Once it finally happens, it will be really incredible!
Until Next Time,
Jacqueline
- All donations will be deposited from Stripe directly into the Secret Sauce Co NZ business bank account. ↩︎
The Cullums Immigrate 