Spencer Tirey for The New York Times Fran Gunsaulis responded to reader commments.
Thanks to all who shared their knowledge with in-depth assessments of the issues presented in She Owns It’s case study, “Getting Started: The Chicken-and-Egg Question.” Commenters explored numerous angles in their advice for Fran Gunsaulis, the owner of Oh Baby Foods. Some popular suggestions: find an investor, stay independent, ramp up e-commerce, raise prices and drop the delivery service — or at least forget about franchising for now.
A couple of you had doubts about Oh Baby’s viability, and expressed them with candor. “Unless you can find an investor . . . to make the bump to better production facilities, I’d consider throwing in the towel,” wrote SirWired. Ms. Gunsaulis, who also joined the online conversation — and has no plans call it quits — agreed that “the inefficiency in handcrafting large volumes of baby food outweighs the tiny profit.” As for investors, Ms. Gunsaulis says she has a “wild idea” for securing some using a “grass-roots model” that she plans to discuss with her advisory board.
Some of you felt strongly that a mega-chain like Whole Foods would be the wrong home for Oh Baby. Frank thought Ms. Gunsaulis should continue to build the company organically and “stick with the independents.” He warned that Oh Baby risked getting lost in the shuffle with a national retailer, and would also stand to lose most, if not all, of the independent shops that carry the product.
Frequent commenter Dominick Celentano agreed that independents and small retail chains made more sense for Oh Baby at this point. And, he stated, “Retailers in the grocery business don’t issue contracts for branded products. They do so for Private Label.” He urged Ms. Gunsaulis to brush up on the retail business.
“Why have you not considered adding an e-commerce option?” asked M.B. Oh Baby does have an online store, Ms. Gunsaulis replied, but costs for shipping frozen products make it far from profitable. “I only offer cases for sale online, since the cost to pack and ship anything that size (or smaller) is the same price as the case itself!” wrote Ms. Gunsaulis.
Several of you commented that Ms. Gunsaulis could — and should — raise her prices. “She should be putting her product in the superpremium category, or inventing it if it doesn’t yet exist,” wrote John Dini. “You don’t chase economies of scale in production for something that is exclusive and of limited availability.”
Finally, readers primarily saw Oh Baby’s delivery service as a distraction for the company’s founder. M.B. noted that when the going got tough, many entrepreneurs sought busy work: “They mistakenly equate activity with progress.” Ms. Gunsaulis responded: “Are you reading my mind?” She noted that her advisory board, too, wanted her to focus on her core business. In fact, wrote Ms. Gunsaulis, “If I dropped the [delivery] service, I could almost break even right now.”
We’ll let you know which steps Ms. Gunsaulis eventually chooses and how it works out.
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