In honor of National Follow Your Dreams Day, we turned to some of our foodie entrepreneur friends to see how they made their vision come to life. Our friends Val + Zach Fishbain from Spread The Love make DELICIOUS jam and peanut butter -- featuring their goods nationwide and at Barry's Bootcamps across the country. Here's how they got started with their business + followed their dreams.
Here's how it went down:
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How/why did you begin your company?
5 years ago, as we were planning our wedding, we were thinking of something unique to give our wedding guests. We wanted to share something from the heart, something that we actually made. We were already making homemade peanut butter from our Vitamix blender, so we decided to just make a bunch of it and put it into jars for everyone. Even though it was going to be a lot of work, we decided this would be the perfect gift for 150 of our most favorite people. And that’s how Spread The Love started.
When did you know you wanted to start your company?
Our wedding guests started asking us for more peanut butter just a couple of days after our wedding. That's when we knew we had something special.
What actionable steps did you take to get it going?
We researched what kind of paperwork needed to submitted. And in the process, we learned that LA County issued a Cottage Food License for artisan food-makers to manufacture out of their home kitchens. This was very helpful since we didn't have to rent kitchen space. We put a lot of work into identifying the right suppliers for our ingredients and materials. We also asked a dear friend to design our logo. We were able to launch our business with $5000 that we invested from our own savings.
What is the mantra of your company + why are those values important?
Be patient. What’s the rush? Sustainable growth takes time.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow their dreams and start their own business?
You’re going to hear “no” a lot, but don’t let this discourage you. This is a big part of your journey. It’s going to help build character and will teach you patience.
5 years ago, as we were planning our wedding, we were thinking of something unique to give our wedding guests. We wanted to share something from the heart, something that we actually made. We were already making homemade peanut butter from our Vitamix blender, so we decided to just make a bunch of it and put it into jars for everyone. Even though it was going to be a lot of work, we decided this would be the perfect gift for 150 of our most favorite people. And that’s how Spread The Love started.
When did you know you wanted to start your company?
Our wedding guests started asking us for more peanut butter just a couple of days after our wedding. That's when we knew we had something special.
What actionable steps did you take to get it going?
We researched what kind of paperwork needed to submitted. And in the process, we learned that LA County issued a Cottage Food License for artisan food-makers to manufacture out of their home kitchens. This was very helpful since we didn't have to rent kitchen space. We put a lot of work into identifying the right suppliers for our ingredients and materials. We also asked a dear friend to design our logo. We were able to launch our business with $5000 that we invested from our own savings.
What is the mantra of your company + why are those values important?
Be patient. What’s the rush? Sustainable growth takes time.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow their dreams and start their own business?
You’re going to hear “no” a lot, but don’t let this discourage you. This is a big part of your journey. It’s going to help build character and will teach you patience.
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To find out more about Spread the Love, click here or follow them on social media @spreadthelove :)
