Last week we met with our marketing guru, Caroline Lubbers of Goldfish Marketing Communications.

Among other things, we reviewed where we were last year at this time and noted how far we have come.
Here is a partial list of what we created and accomplished:
1) a press kit
2) a style guide
3) letterhead - both electronic and printed
4) a brochure
5) M3 award winners
6) hired 2 employees
7) had our first day of 4 events (what a breeze) to be followed by several more


Like my blog? You'll love my website,
www.handsongourmet.com

Curious about what a Hands On Gourmet cooking event looks like? Check out these fun with Hands On Gourmet photos. Or for an audio visual look at a Hands On Gourmet event, watch this 2 minute video by clicking here.

I'm finally coming up for a breath of air and a bit of blogging.

August 2006, Hands On Gourmet's business spiked. We hosted 27 events, a company record. And we maintained this momentum through January 2007.

In that time we hired our first 2 employees, increased our daily event capacity from 100 people in a day to 200 + people in a day by purchasing more equipment and finding new chefs, purchased Caterease, an event software, networked our computers with a server, and we cooked our buns off.

Each one of these developments deserves its own entry, but I won't digress. Instead, as Garnett Newcombe of Human Potential Consultants said to me last week, "keep on moving forward".
Fast forward to February 2007, a timely place to begin, as our Cisco IP phone system was installed! I have learned a tremendous amount about phone systems since then. At first we couldn't answer calls, had no idea how to switch from line 1 to line 2, and disconnected people calling to inquire about our services. Now, not only can we transfer calls, the caller hears techno beats while waiting, we each have our own voicemail, and I can make Hands On Gourmet calls from my home (as soon as I receive the extra phone unit)

We helped Cisco discover a glitch with their IP phone system. This is not because we became IP telecom wizards over night. This is because we are their smallest customer to date, with only 4 phones. In brief, if you are using line 1, you can't put that call on hold and switch to line 2. You can hear line 2 ringing, and briefly see a number show up on the screen, but you can't switch to line 2. The good news is, Jose, our phone tech, has the software from Cisco to fix this glitch.

Like my blog? You'll love my website,
www.handsongourmet.com

Great line Diana, hope you don't mind me using it too :)

This month we found out that we had been selected as winners of the Cisco Technology award!

Yesssssss!!!!!

At the moment we have one phone line, call waiting (which is disruptive), one voice mail box, and 4 cell phones between the 3 of us. Often times I'm on the main office line, a call is beeping in (the message gives my cell phone number as an alternate number to call, so that starts ringing too), while Anne and Stephen are on their cell phones. So you can imagine how lucky we feel as we are about to start using technology to help us grow our business, intelligently.

Aside from our lackluster phone system, we don't have a central portal where information is stored. We use an intranet combined with Word and Excel documents to keep track of all of the details for each event. Communication is crucial to the success of our events. To give an example, if a client has a shell fish allergy and shell fish ends up at the event, the event is ruined. (This has happened, but luckily she was gracious and understanding and relished in the other delicious foods she could eat.) But we certainly felt bad and like we failed.

We know we can use the Cisco technology as a starting point to build internal infrastructure that is integrated and improves communication and organization.

A wonderul, surprising additonal part of the Cisco Tech award is that Hands On Gourmet is the featured business in Biz Wise, a podcast that will be aired sometime in the next few months. The concept is Chief Officer of Everything. The tone is small business owner to small business owner. And the theme is taking the pain out of prospecting. A link to the podcast will go out to 60,000 people. More stats to follow, as well as results.

A film production crew came to our office to interview us and then to an event to capture the best part of what we do. We're very excited to see the results. I am especially looking forward to meeting the other guests of the show, in particular Chip Conley, the founder of Joie de Vie Hospitality. He's a local San Francisco idol of mine. The only time I've been at the same party as him, I have been to shy to say anything. Now I have just the line....

WOW! June was a thrilling month, kicked off by our Make Mine A $Million Business award receipt. Since then, Anne and I have started working with a coach. Our party favors program is about to launch. Our first brochure is at the printer. Jen and Julie of SmartsCo have organized the first SF M3 networking lunch, set for mid-August. And overall we love being a part of the M3 community. The sharing of resources, networking, and ongoing conversation that offers advice and support on everyday issues has been very helpful.