We’ve learned a million and one things since starting a Social Enterprise/Franchise 8 years ago.
One of the pieces that we’re recently learning is the importance of R&D…research and development. We have recently integrated an R&D line item in our yearly budget and it’s not a moment too soon.
When we started 8 years ago, things were all new! We started with 4 new recipes, then 5, then 6 and now 7 regular flavours of soup. We had new staff, we built websites, started a brand, learned how to market our wares and SO MUCH MORE.
To be honest, by about Year 3, we were really TIRED of innovating!
Don’t get me wrong, we loved it all (ok…most of it!), but it was such a steep learning curve.
In Year 4 & 5 we started to get into the groove, and we worked on perfecting the model…looking back on our learnings and fine tuning. It felt good to have some stability.
When we had our 5th year anniversary, it felt like such a huge win. We had MADE IT past the dreaded 3-year mark for small businesses (you probably already know that 80% of small businesses fail within the first 3 years).
I’m not going to go so far as to say that we’ve been sailing over the last 2-3 years (nothing could be further from the truth!), but there have been pieces that have been easier. Lots of things that weren’t new anymore and that we could, sort of, relax into. Ya know? It felt great to let up and have a little break in some areas of our social enterprise model.
We’ve been feeling the nudge to innovate again over the last 2 years. I don’t think it’s Covid-related…I think it’s because we knew that things would get stale quickly. We realized that people would become bored with the same soups and would want new flavours; maybe even new products! We have been dabbling in this for a little while – the Soup-of-the-Month Club being one of our big initiatives and our Christmas Gift Boxes this past Christmas. We’ve put 1 foot in the water, and we are hoping to dive all the way in.
We love what we have and what we’re doing (gourmet soups), but maybe we can expand, change, GROW!
We don’t want to lose what’s great, but we want to explore a bit. That’s why we’re hiring someone to work on Research and Development and incorporated it right into our budget line for 2022. It’s not a dabble, it’s an intention that we think we need to continue over the long term.
We’re excited to see where it will lead us. Rest assured that in the next while, you’ll be seeing new things from us. Exciting thing! Things that will lead to more hours for staff and more jobs for people living with disAbilities in our community. Dignity for people who WANT to and CAN work, when given the opportunity.
We are SO GRATEFUL to you for sticking with us! We hope you’ll be patient and give us lots of feedback as we tackle new things. AND….we hope you’ll enjoy trying some new, tasty (!), products from us soon!
(If you want a laugh, here is me, trying some new soup stocks!)
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