How many people know what goes into starting a food/drink business?
It seems pretty simple right? You've made something that friends & family love, Aunt Marie (who always said at age 4 you could be a famous artist while looking at your crayon scribbles) puts it out there that you're food is something SHE would buy from a shop. Next thing you know you get a little stall at your local farmers market, spend all your weekends slaving away, hand making your precious gift to the world. You may be lucky enough to have some local shop owners get back to you about your samples, you make a little on the side supplying local businesses and it makes you happy- you have achieved what many others fail at. A much smaller amount go further than this.
This wasn't our path, and I still really don't know if thats a good thing ..... or a bad thing.
I came to this realisation when our 720 litre mixer arrived on site. It was taller than me, couldn't fit through the door and has a motor comparable to a modest size speed boat. This was the moment you poo your pant- you realise that this isn't a modest step up in production to enable you to get more clients, no - this is your first step in production!
Right now - PECK has 0 sales, 0 income, and it has been this way for the past 3 years. The drinks have hit every concievable technical challenge along the way, and often we have realised why no egg drinks exist in the market.
BUT
We are more confident than ever, with every step we move closer to ripping a hole in the drinks cabinet, and filling that hole with something that is totally different. It helps when central to your conviction is a great tasting product. We always knew we were going to get stupidly big equipment for our first setup. This is because we 100% believe that we are going to need as much capacity as we can afford. From just 1 article published in food navigator, (https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/10/17/UK-beverage-start-up-Peck-creates-high-value-for-unwanted-egg-protein), we have started conversations with companies that could see us have Nationwide coverage within our first year of launch. If we would have started small and upgraded equipment piece by piece, it would take x3/x4 times longer.
So re-visiting the 'poo the pants' comment- it does have context, but only when you combine it with 'Paula Radcliffe'. Your options are these:
1) You stop the race, go home, wash and clean, and tell yourself that no-one noticed and you won't let it happen again.
2) You suck it up, keep on running with your brown goo, because you know that race leads you to a massive win.
This isn't the greatest metaphor for a food business- I do realise that, but it does illustrate that we are going BIG from the start. It's scary, but sometimes it's the scary things that stretch you and make you grow. I'm drawing a line in the sand.....and setting the date. 01/01/18. If PECK isn't available via our website (as a minimum!) then I will have to:
1) drink a raw egg every day (filmed) until the drinks are available
2) get pelted with an egg every day (filmed) until the drinks are available
Its called accountability. I'm the head of this ship.