6 Months in Business Highlights

by Joe Inskeep January 21, 2020

When we started 512 Seasoning in July of 2019 we did it as a passion project and to scratch that itch to start a business from scratch. With a little money and no direction, we set out! Where would we sell it? Who would buy it? What do we do? Ha! So, we set up a website, added some Salty Steer pictures and a brief bio so we could start sending people we knew to purchase it. We did what most people do that start a small business, went through our phones, sent mass texts, and asked our friends and families to buy. I think we sold 30 bottles in the first few weeks online from our friends list. Our next step was to get it to the public so we could gain some unbiased affirmation. We looked to our local farmers market and start hitting the market every Saturday from 10-2 selling an average of a 18-26 bottles per Saturday. More affirmation. Though the farmers markets were fun we knew we had to find retail outlets and build our online sales. We had some friends down Houston, Marshall and Liz, call us saying there was a market in Wimberely, TX called “Los Olivos” and they sell craft goods like ours. We met with John Herdman of Los Olivos to discuss our product and pricing and have since became one of our top clients selling between 3-6 cases per month of our seasoning. So, we had one Retail outlet, a big win and more affirmation. After this we started going door to door selling our seasoning and meeting other small business owners building relationships. We never knew how big the Consumer Product Goods market in Austin, TX was. It’s insane! We just happen to be in one of the largest incubators of CPG in the US. So by the end of 2019 we had the following success:

$4,000 in sales for the month of November (5 mos of being open)
16 Retail Locations
1 Menu Item being served
Over 1,500 bottles sold in 2019
3 Reviews from influencers (unpaid)

While we have seen some positive feedback and growth, we are still very much in the start up phase with 512 Seasoning and Salty Steer. We have added custom cutting boards to our products list as well as added a few more larger markets to sell our product.

We have learned a lot about small business and we still have a lot to learn, but it’s been worth it every step of the way.

Our goal for 2020 is to add 25-50 retail outlets that are aligned with our standards and to work on brand recognition throughout central Texas.

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Thank you to all who have purchased our seasoning and supporting us in this journey.