Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Aaron Harris, CEO, and Founder of SeauxS, located in Abbeville, Mississippi, US.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a hot sauce company out of Oxford, MS, that focuses on additive-free, clean label products that embody regional tastes but are made better using only the finest ingredients available.
Tell us about yourself
As a lover of hot sauce since I was a freshman in college at the University of Mississippi, when a dorm-mate told me about a hot sauce he had to sign a waiver for to purchase, I began a nasty search for the hottest sauce I could buy. Years later, I grew to respect those pioneers in this industry since all they really had to use were habaneros. Today, hot sauce is a culinary plethora, using more ingredients than most chefs have ever imagined, such as black garlic, turbinado sugar, and all the way to roasted crickets. I've been captivated by the creativity of fellow creators ever since this new craze began. But truly, what inspires me to keep going is my two daughters. Whether they decide to continue this craze or not, I'd like them to learn business ideals in practice.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Our biggest accomplishment has definitely been to separate our own finances from the business itself. Starting out, you invest money almost constantly. There's always an "if we threw just a little more money into this, it'd grow." But it's that point where you cut yourself off and force your company to pay its own bills, and it sticks! That's when you know your business is truly a success.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
By far, the hardest thing a business owner can do is pay themselves. Once you've let your business becomes its own entity and survive on its own, begin deciding how much of the profit you should pay yourself instead of reinvesting to grow is the most difficult part of being a business owner. We're still not there, and thus my family hasn't seen a single dollar since we started four years ago. At some point, though, you've really got to start paying yourself.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Before you start a business, the first thing anyone should do is ask themselves if what they're trying to do makes them happy. Does it excite you and make you want to work even when you're tired. The answer to that is almost always universally yes. But if you're simply aimed at potential profits, failure is lurking.
The second thing I would stress is capital money time. If you have all three, the answer is easy. Proceed to step three. If not, you can still do it. But expect to fight hard times with a stronger passion. And step three would be to do things by the books, legally. We saved up to take expensive courses and get certain licenses and insurance before we were legal to sell food products.
Meanwhile, you run across other people making hand over fist because they ignored all the legal steps. Ignore it and move on doing everything the legal way. No matter how much they followed the first two steps, they will meet a costly doom. Build your business to last. It's too much work to get it going to cut corners.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://seauxs.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seauxsoxford
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seauxs/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/seauxsoxford
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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