Sweet Excess

I need to reduce the amount I make in the test batches. How many sweets can two people really eat, especially when there's seven products in the queue and more to follow? Luckily Lil has coworkers at Queen Anne Books that are expert treat tasters and are more than welcome to take some. Anyone else want in?

I think the Thingamajigg may have just a little too much caramel on top but otherwise it's close - and oh so good. Crunchy light peanutbuttery cookie with caramel and coated with chocolate. How can you go wrong with that?

Doing things a little out of order

I think deciding on the logo design is the hardest part of opening a business. Li and I have a sense of how we want it to look but sometimes you just have to leave things to the experts. I met with my friend, and graphic designer, Sergio last week at Roy's BBQ in Columbia City. While chowing down on our Georgia Golds we talked about the art logo. I wanted something that was simple but memorable. It had to convey a sense of quality but not high brow. After hearing my ideas, Sergio agreed to take the job. His compensation? Food. He does however have a couple of other jobs that precede Sugar & Salt's, but hopefully it'll be a quick stroke of creativity on his part.

Talking logos with Sergio made us realize something. We've already snagged the domain name, facebook, twitter, flickr and gmail addresses but we hadn't done the most important step in all - registering our name with the city! Everything will be pointless if we can't secure Sugar & Salt's name. I promptly got on the website and filled out the master business application for Washington state. We probably don't have anything to worry about but I still can't help it. My fears won't be settled until I hear back that the application has been accepted. Until then we're keeping our fingers crossed and doing more recipe development testing.

First Recipe Test

Home Version vs Store Version

I worked all weekend to make sure it was all good, sending the first batch mistakes with Lil to her work, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Hanna introduced Lil and I to the food writer for Grist and she really liked our idea - to make home made versions of our favorite candy minus the freaky ingredients that are in the store bought versions. The article is going to ask readers to submit recipes of their own favorite guilty pleasures and my almond joys are going to kick off the article. My last job started the idea but this project perfected it. I just sent the recipe off today with the photos. I still owe her a picture and bio. I've never written a bio before so I'm not really too sure where to start with that. Look for it soon!

In the beginning...

I finally started doing work on the business this week. I met with Diana from Sip & Ship today and we talked about me using her kitchen space. She wants to expand her cafe business and we are working out a trade; I will help her with product development and food advise while she lets me produce my food in her legal kitchen.

I think it's going to work out great. If you think about it we are a perfect match. Since most of my business will be focused on the internet, I will have easy (and fast) access to sending the product off. She also does business cards so all I'll have to do is give her my logo and she'll take care of the rest. She's also offered to waive the fee if I wanted to set up a box for business mail there at the store.

The next steps are registering the name with the city and getting a license to operate. I also have to decide on how I want to organize the business; sole proprietorship or LLC. There are benefits on either end but I just need to do a little more research and decide which one will be best. Once that is done I can figure out all the other details. So many details!