Starting a Food Product Business

Christin Marvin 0:08

Are you currently an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur with the goal of creating a food product to bring to market ? If so , tune into this episode . This week , I have an inspiring conversation with Gloria Badilla , founder and owner of Chilttepica Salsa . We discussed the steps Gloria took to bring her product to market the moment she knew she needed to quit her full-time job and go all in on Chilttepica , and how she built a team that has stood by her side for 10 plus years .

Christin Marvin 0:41

Welcome to the No Hesitations podcast , the show where restaurant leaders learn tools , tactics and habits from the world's greatest operators . I am your host , Christin Marvin , with Solutions by Christin . I've spent the last two decades in the restaurant industry and now partner with restaurant leaders to help them overcome burnout , increase retention , reignite their passion and drive successful businesses . I also work directly with restaurant leaders through one-on-one coaching and group workshops to help them identify their blind spots , build their confidence and overcome challenges in their business . If you're curious about learning more , visit my website at ChristinMarvin . com . Slash contact to book a 15-minute goal planning session .

Christin Marvin 1:28

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Christin Marvin 2:15

I hope you enjoy this episode , Gloria . Thank you so much for being here today . Gloria and I met , just to give you listeners a little bit of backstory . We met at a Tucson City of Gastronomy event the third Thursday of every month . Down in Arizona Forge we have a Heritage Food series and Gloria is a you're certified a certified artisan for TCOG , correct , Yep . So Gloria was able to come on or be a featured guest and share her story and I was absolutely blown away with your drive , your determination , the story of your company , which is Chilttepica Salsa , which we're going to talk a little bit more about in a little bit , but also your journey of creating the product , getting into Costco and the community that you've been able to build and the team that you've been able to retain . So excited today to really showcase a lot of those stories and help people understand where they can find your product and just learn a little bit more about you . So thank you so much for being here , Appreciate it .

Gloria Badilla 3:25

Thank you . Thank you for having us and to have this space to share our story .

Christin Marvin 3:30

Yeah , absolutely . Well , let's let's start with telling the listeners about what Chiltepines are . Will you talk about what Chiltepines are and then why you decided to use Chiltepines to start Chilttepica ?

Gloria Badilla 3:43

Okay , chiltepin , it's a pepper . A lot of people gets confused if it's a pepper or a berry because they're so small , this little , they look like a berry , but it is a pepper . It's a native to the Arizona Sonora Desert and it's a pepper that we grew up having on our table . So when the time came to that this dream of ours as an immigrant to this country having your own business it was not far from our thoughts to have to make something with Chiltepin and the Chiltepin it's called the mother of all peppers .

Gloria Badilla 4:21

It's one of an ancient pepper and also I don't know if you guys know that the only reserve of Chiltepin is here in Arizona . It's a little bit east of Tubac and there's tours that sometimes a couple of people do here in Tucson to the reserve and it's you better do it during the fall or something like that . It gets too hot in the summer to do that absolutely so .

Christin Marvin 4:52

This was really a family business for you and something that's really close to your heart .

Gloria Badilla 4:58

Yes , it is , chiltepin pepper came to us . I mean , since I can remember seeing it actually in our Nana's house , older generations would have Chiltepin and a little molinito , which we call Chiltepineros , in the middle of the table . So when you were just having whatever you were having , lunch or breakfast you would have that so handy that they were right there for you just to crush and to put it and put it over your food .

Christin Marvin 5:32

Awesome . And is that what kind of inspired you to make all the products in your line ? Because you've got the salsa right , You've got the peppers themselves , You've got the spice blends right .

Gloria Badilla 5:41

Yes , actually it just kind of evolves from salsa , everything that we have right now . It has been in a process . As life takes you through different journeys , you just kind of develop what's next for us . The way we started Chilttepica , I can tell you , was not in our future , in our radar , to go this way . We knew we wanted to do something like I have a small business , a family business , being that we like that sort of stuff . At the time we decided to do this , it was we had regular jobs . My husband was working and I was working in . A couple of friends of ours lost their home around the 2009 , 2008 crash , the housing market crash , and that one day actually , I had both of my neighbors lost their homes .

Gloria Badilla 6:42

It went very close for two of us , so we decided to . It was a New Year's Day . We were talking , my husband and myself , saying what would happen to us if we had no job tomorrow . And then that's why we did her . We said , let's do something .

Gloria Badilla 7:02

And we did not even have the slightest idea how to become an entrepreneur . Nothing at all . We just I was working in the accounting business and he was in operations for Budweiser , so it was just totally I mean totally out for us . And then I said well , since you are always in charge of making fresh salsa for our friends and family , I said we'll make salsa and we'll sell it . And that was the end of the conversation . And a couple of days later I said but if we're gonna make something , we're gonna make it properly , nutrition label , with a nice label , and one of the things that I told them . I said I don't wanna see Gloria salsa on a jar . I knew I just said it on my name on a jar for salsa . So it took me quite a few months to come up with the name of Chilttepica , which is part of the Chiltepin pepper , the first part and Pica in Spanish is to get hooked on something .

Christin Marvin 8:11

Awesome .

Gloria Badilla 8:12

So , and we just put it Chilttepica . The double T was just for fun and I wanted to introduce a little bit of our culture . Being Mexican born , I did put our flag , our Mexican flag colors , on my little flower on top of the name . So that was just a little think of my background there too .

Christin Marvin 8:40

Yeah , I love when you were originally telling your story . One of the things that really stood out to me was how intentional you are about what you want . You seem very clear , very driven . You talked about your accounting background and how you like things very orderly and you talked about the process of filling in all that paperwork with Costco . But it's funny to me , I love that you , this kind of idea , just crafted from kind of started as a backup plan , of how are we gonna protect our family and our investment and have a little bit of a safety net . When did you really flip that switch and say , okay , we're gonna go all in here and make this a full blown business ?

Gloria Badilla 9:19

Actually it took quite a few years Since we started , about 20 , I wanna say 11 , in the midst . It was kind of crazy because we were doing it on Fridays , saturdays , because we had my husband was working for 10 . So he was off Friday but , I , was on my work on Fridays .

Gloria Badilla 9:40

So we were trying to do Friday , saturday and Sunday as we could . And it was crazy few years there because I was doing a farmers market on Thursdays . So I would leave work at 3-3-30 , run to my farmers market at four and going back to my story about Costco , it was just it was me being persistent because it never done on me until the health department , when we were doing all the paperwork , said where are you going to sell your sansa ? And then I said I had no idea .

Christin Marvin 10:21

I mean .

Gloria Badilla 10:22

I lived in knocking doors and everything . This is my product , which you carry it , and I said , well , if you ask me , I wanna sell it at Costco . And that kind of sparked something for me and I started emailing corporate in San Diego Two years later . That's when they gave us the opportunity . They gave us an appointment , I remember in September of 2014 . We made our first delivery in January 2015 .

Christin Marvin 10:58

Wow .

Gloria Badilla 10:59

When we landed that opportunity . I remember asking my boss , and I still keep tabs on him and I love him . He was a great boss to work for . He was very , very nice . I told him . I said , bill , I need to go part-time , this is getting crazy on me . And he goes Gloria , you can't leave me now . He was going to lose the controller or something . Something was happening . Sure , it was a family business . So we were very tight . I said , bill , I cannot do this , I can't , I'm going crazy . Then I said I need to or I will leave . I left . It broke my heart . It was hard for me to leave that job but I couldn't go part-time .

Gloria Badilla 11:48

Make a long story short . We're in Costco . My husband was telling me for months you need to leave that job . It's going crazy . It was hard because when you're structure , you have your two paychecks , you have your mortgage and it's like how are we going to do this ? What about if Costco says no in six months ?

Christin Marvin 12:13

Yeah , you know , you can do Right .

Gloria Badilla 12:15

So I said , as long as your paycheck covers our mortgage and we can eat , we'll figure it out .

Christin Marvin 12:22

Yeah , okay , yeah , I learned from you that and I know if Costco eventually did you share they did pull you guys out or put you back on the wait list with the pandemic or what have you . But I remember you telling me , or telling us that day that Costco carried eight local products which I had no idea , and so every time I go to Costco now I'm looking for the local product . But you also shared a little bit about you know what the marketing behind everybody that's handing out samples at Costco too , and then that's an additional cost to the product right to the business owner . So those things were super

Farmers Markets and Business Success

Christin Marvin 12:57

fascinating .

Christin Marvin 12:57

I want to go back real quick to the farmers markets , because one of the things that I love about Tucson is that our farmers markets are all year round and there are some listeners and some clients that I've worked with that are creating products or have created products , and we talk a lot about the farmers markets here because they're big business . I mean they're low cost to entry and it's a pretty consistent clientele . I know it can be seasonal here with the snowbirds and summertime , but talk a little bit about how . Did you find success with the farmers markets in introducing your product that way , or would you not do that again ? Tell us about your experience with that .

Gloria Badilla 13:38

I love farmers markets because it's a one-on-one and business-wise . I can tell you that you don't personally . Okay , Chilttepica did not make a lot of money going to farmers markets and one of the reasons is being so me particular with things . I noticed that a lot of small business don't and don't take me wrong if any small business are listening to us today here but it is cost-effective . It's not cost-effective to move it this way because liability , not a lot of small business carry liability and , being the person that I am , like I said I had to . I mean I couldn't take a chance with a product not having liability and it gets kind of expensive .

Gloria Badilla 14:31

A lot of homemade products or small business don't go to the extent of having , like all my products have nutrition labels and some of I don't want to say all , but some of the products on farmers markets don't go to that extent . It's kind of expensive . It's about $500 , between $300 and $500 to do a nutrition label at the U of A Agriculture Lab . Okay , so that's all I was able to do it because my husband and myself .

Gloria Badilla 15:05

We were working at that time , so we were trying to Like another child , to get him off the road with the tools that you needed for Chilttepica . Because I said to my husband , if a business calls , I want to make sure my product has a barcode because it's going to be easier .

Gloria Badilla 15:28

I was thinking on the end of the customers that I was looking for the stores it's going to be easier for them to have a barcode , to have a label , to have a ratio value , to have a full finished product . I could go and have a little bit of an edge on another product .

Christin Marvin 15:49

Yeah . So you were setting yourself up for that long-term vision of being able to be in those retailers and making that initial investment to say you know what ? This is going to give me an edge when I go in and meet with these people , instead of them having to say you've got to do all these things . You're like I'm here , I'm ready to go to market , let's go .

Gloria Badilla 16:04

Yes .

Christin Marvin 16:05

Love that .

Gloria Badilla 16:05

But I can share with you that the farmers markets are wonderful . You never know who you're going to meet there .

Christin Marvin 16:12

Yeah .

Gloria Badilla 16:14

And at the farmers market one farmer's market that I met I met a guy that he was an executive for Costco , which I didn't know . He made my day because he said he made my day in the way that he goes . I said , just take this outside . And he was looking for cheap the penis . He goes no , no , no , no , no , I buy cheap the penis . And I said , well , I didn't have the cheap the penis jar and I already it was just the sunset that we were making at that time and um , and I said , but just take my salsa . And the guy didn't want to take the salsa . I said , just take my salsa , I'll give it to you . And then , and he goes , well , I'm executive for one of our local Costco's . Da-da-da , make a lot of it .

Christin Marvin 17:04

And you're like , please now really take the salsa .

Gloria Badilla 17:07

Yeah , because I'm emailing over there . I said you need to taste my salsa . But the guy the guy took my salsa , gave it to him and I said I'll sell you an email . Come back next week and I'll have to take my card for you . Well , the following week , I mean , he could have told me that he was whoever . He didn't give me a business card or nothing , but he made my day saying that he was who he was . And sure enough , he was an executive for Costco , because the following week I had this card , of course , and he came and gave me his business card . Nice , I don't know if it was my 20,000 emails that I sent to corporate and San Diego , or he probably called them and said this salsa is good , give it a try for this woman that is bugging me .

Christin Marvin 17:57

So I , but it was . Yeah , I'm meant to be right , meant to be . I love that . Yeah , you never know who you're going to meet at those at those markets for sure .

Christin Marvin 18:10

Hey there , listeners , before we dive back into today's episode , I want to take a moment to address something many of us can relate to burnout . We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it feels like we're constantly running on empty . If you're not in your head right now , feeling the weight of burnout on your shoulders , I want you to know that you're not alone . Recognizing the need for change is the first step towards a healthier , more balanced life . So , if you're ready to make a change , head over to my website at christenmarvincom , slash contact and schedule a 15 minute discovery call .

Christin Marvin 18:46

This call is an opportunity for us to connect , chat about your unique situation and see if there's any way that I can support you on your journey to a more balanced and energized life . Let's work together to design a lifestyle that brings you joy , purpose and renewed energy . Don't let burnout hold you back . Empower yourself to thrive .

Success in a Small Farming Community

Christin Marvin 19:07

Now let's get back to the show . Thanks for being here and I look forward to connecting with you soon . Will you talk a little bit about your team and how large the team is now and what they're doing on a day to day basis . And again you talked about retention and told a really cool story about some of the opportunities that you've been able to provide for the team , and would love for you to share that story with the listeners .

Gloria Badilla 19:34

Yes , our team . We've been working with the same farmer for the past 10 , 11 years . I think it was the first or second year that we ended up meeting this gentleman and he puts his heart and soul , him and his wife on the farm . We've been working together with him and actually it was his wife's idea . She was a teacher . She retired from a teacher job already , but it was her idea just employ where the farm is .

Christin Marvin 20:08

It's right by the river Sonora River .

Gloria Badilla 20:11

And there's a lot of stay-home moms that probably had never hold a job in their life and her name is Santa , the wife of the farm , and Santa was saying let's give this women a try . And the team right now it's between 10 and 15 women that are chief of team and it goes down when we start , usually we start going up like 10 , 12 , up to 15 . And then when it starts just not producing as much supply , we just kind of go down . So sometimes it's really really how can I say it's bad at the time that they push themselves a little bit more because they don't want to be the ones to leave first , because not that they depend on their check , but it's a really pride that they take on that themselves , because most of these women had never actually that I know personally three of them had never never hold a check on their hands that had their name on it .

Christin Marvin 21:28

That's so cool . I think that's something that we take for granted , and when you said that , that hit me in the heart with a dagger . I was like I , I it just seemed to be a way of life for me . As soon as I could start working , I started working and I remember what it was like to get that first paycheck , and I love that that . You're giving opportunities to people like that . That's incredible .

Gloria Badilla 21:51

Yes , and it's a bunch of stories that you come across with this women they have . We gave them the opportunity to go a full day or chop it in half , depending on their needs , that they have to pick up kids from school or whatever . It's a small town , so not a lot of them drive , so they walk , and it's probably less than a mile that they have to walk and stuff like that . So we gave them the opportunity to work half a day or break the day in two or something , and they decided not to . They decided to come early . They sent the kids to school and come to work and they were doing .

Gloria Badilla 22:31

They would get together and figure it out who's going to bring what for lunch . They would make like a brunch , like a potluck kind of thing for lunch . You bring the tortillas , I'll bring this , and stuff like that . So it was their social hour . It was a time just for them as women . So it was pretty cool and it's been an amazing journey to see them grow and to be happy . We tried to do like in Christmas and it was really hard for us to decide for something myself to decide how do we give them an incentive , not making the other ones feel because they all work really hard , so you cannot say you work harder than the other . It's just like , and we try to raffle things out and because it's hard , you cannot say you work harder than her or you did more than her . They're all a team and they really really put it a team effort .

Christin Marvin 23:37

Yeah , I mean it sounds like there's just there's been this you've created an incredible community for your team . Has that happened organically with amongst themselves , or is there something that you've done to kind of kickstart that ?

Gloria Badilla 23:54

No , actually I think they did it themselves . I can take credit for that , other than trying to give them the opportunity , because you went really fast . After we got the first few , they contacted their comadre , their neighbor , and they went like that . It went pretty fast and , like I said , when it's growing it's wonderful , but when it's time that the plant is not producing as much peppers and you have to scale back , it's like who's going to go first and it just breaks my heart who's going to go first ?

Christin Marvin 24:30

Yeah , I mean , that's a very real thing in any seasonal business , right ? Whether you're a restaurant or a product owner . How do you have those conversations with the team , knowing that it's going to happen every single year , over and over and over again ?

Gloria Badilla 24:42

We try to do on seniority and seniority and also like if someone has seniority and it's going to stay behind , but she decides I'm going to go on vacation this month or I need the time for my family or something , and she can trade with someone that's going to leave first or something like that .

Christin Marvin 25:05

So you're empowering them to work together , cover the shifts and own that communication .

Gloria Badilla 25:11

Yes , it's hard to stay here next .

Christin Marvin 25:15

Yeah , absolutely , absolutely . Well , tell us what is next for Chilttepica .

Gloria Badilla 25:22

Well , chiltepeca , in my journey right through the pandemic we kind of our world kind of rock a little bit like everybody else's , and Costco put us on hold . So I had to kind of reinvent myself and a couple of items and right now I'm making ourselves a mix . And actually you gave me the idea , and right now was it you or someone in the room that we were the other day in December Someone mentioned because a lot of people are asking for the salsa and Costco .

Gloria Badilla 26:02

I have no idea when they're going to call you back or nothing . I'm still either info , I'm still certified and everything . But they determined when they're going to call you . It's the buyers say so and we go from there and if they feel to give another product an opportunity , I can be on hold . Got only knows to win . So what I'm doing right now and I'm making the actual spice mix that you can do , and it's one serving . One serving . It would be about four cups of salsa , like one portion for you to have at home with your friends or something .

Gloria Badilla 26:45

I want to say it's like three or four cups one portion . So I'm making the little like a spice bag . But I don't want it just to be a spice bag . It's going to have color and it's going to have all that stuff . My photo shoot tomorrow and have it available for you to take home , to buy it , take home and just put it in your blender for your tomatoes and you'll be all set .

Christin Marvin 27:12

I love that . That's a great idea , good when you're traveling , good for shipping , for gifts , whatever . That sounds awesome . I can't wait to try that .

Gloria Badilla 27:20

That is coming , the one that is coming sooner than that , since we're developing right now the actual pouch . It's Chilttepica Limón . Chilttepica Limón , it would be . I don't even want to say their name , but I have to because people are familiar with the Tajin and the Tajin . This is a very clean product because it has a limón and it has the citric , which is citric acid , of course , because it's powder and Chiltepin and a sea salt . Basically , this one will be out I want to say no more than a month . I need to just figure out pricing . I got the product already on hand and make my little numbers match .

Christin Marvin 28:11

Are you envisioning this spice around the rim of beverages on fruit ? What do you want to do with this ?

Gloria Badilla 28:18

Actually the Chilttepica Limón . I use it myself on everything . I've been doing it for a couple of years for myself and for my friends . We decided to venture into it , since I was reading the tajin and the chilitos that they sell . They have a whole paragraph of items that they shouldn't be there .

Christin Marvin 28:40

The ingredients .

Gloria Badilla 28:41

Yeah , the ingredients I said . Well , move forward on this . Like I said , it's going to be called Architepica also , but it's going to be called , let me see , architepica , Limón , limón , perfect , that looks great . In all of our products I'm trying to To keep our same label . You know just , I'm trying to make a night a brand , so when people say cheap , they know who we are . Trying to keep it as level as I can . Our other products will be the same label and it will say what it is at the bottom . This is our ground . Cheap the beam . That's one of my ideas because , like I said , I don't have a background on marketing or anything . I have been learning as I go .

Christin Marvin 29:34

Yeah .

Gloria Badilla 29:35

And cheap . The peak of the month should be out within a month . I want to say no more than that .

Christin Marvin 29:41

Awesome . Will you share with listeners where you can find your product in Tucson and then shipping options as well ?

Gloria Badilla 29:49

Yes , you can find our cheap the peak of products and about a few stores in town . La Estrella Bakery has three locations . Food Co-op on 4th Avenue . Tucson Botanical Gardens our products do really good in gift shops , so Tahono Chul , Tucson Botanical Garden and Native Seeds . The Westward Look gift shop also carries our products and also in our website . You can order on our website . We ship all over the US and it's cheap the peak of products , c-h-i-l-t-t-e-p-i-c-a . com , and I do special orders sometimes if they want me to do like a foreign event that you need . You don't want to as a gift , you don't want to do the whole jar and I can make smaller pouches for you . I do all kinds of . Since I get to do it myself , I can vary , make variations of our products .

Christin Marvin 30:59

I love it . Well , gloria , thank you so much . Everybody listening . If you get a chance , please support local . Go find some Chilttepica online or in stores . If you're vacationing in Tucson , too , and you want to take something local back with you or as a gift , please support Gloria and her team . They are just incredible . So , gloria , we really appreciate you being here and sharing all your little nuggets of wisdom with the audience . Really appreciate that and can't wait for your next couple of products to come out . So thank you so much for being here again .

Gloria Badilla 31:31

Thank you . Thank you for having us , thank you to all your listeners for taking the time to listen to our project .

Christin Marvin 31:39

Absolutely All right , everybody . Thank you so much for listening this week . For more leadership tips , be sure to visit christenmarvincom and be sure to download my free step-by-step guide on how to retain your employees . We will talk to you next week .