Looking back, I like to say that while I had a simple need, God had a big vision. God used that simple need to move me out of my comfort zone and onto a path that led to the fulfillment that vision.
And in His perfect wisdom, God started me down this path with a simple idea to make food and sell it, as I shared with customers how to use the recipes to get dinner on the table fast and easy (and within budget!). I had no vision at all of starting a company that would become a nationally known brand with a mission to Bring Families Back to the Dinner Table. I didn't...but God did. But He knew I needed to take babysteps out of my comfort zone to fill the steps He had in mind for me.
The first year of the business I found myself around the
I started selling my homemade mixes at craft shows in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. I remember telling my husband, as I left with a car filled with bean soup mixes, bread mixes and assorted other products that if this was a success, we'd be going to the grocery store next week, but if it wasn't...I hoped he liked bean soup!
By the grace of God, it was a tremendous success. It was truly by His hand that Homemade Gourmet was and is successful. I cannot boast of a business or marketing degree or experience, because I came to the table with none of this. I came empty handed but with a heart full of hope and faith. Faith that I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
For the next year, we continued to make our mixes by hand around our family dinner table. We pressed through the second Christmas season with much success AND challenges. Our home was being over run by 7 foot stacks of 50# bags of flour and sugar, not to mention the boxes of spices, bags and labels. (Oh ya..and it had come to my attention that I needed to be making these products in a licensed kitchen...of which my kitchen table was not!) Again, God provided an opportunity to open our first store/manufacturing location in downtown Frisco, Texas.
At this point, a few other customers had joined me in this business venture and were now buying from me at wholesale prices to sell to their friends and family at retail prices. This was the beginning of the business model we now have. Within a few years, the direct selling home based business model took off and by July of 2000 we had signed our 200th Homemade Gourmet consultant! Three years later, we broke the $20 million retail mark for sales in one year. It as then that we began to outgrow the square footage we had pieced together all over Frisco to accomodate our growing needs and began to look for our new 'home'. In 2003 we began the process of moving our company to its current home in Canton, Texas.
Today, I am still amazed at what God can do and has done. Those humble beginnings are sweet memories now. I remember that my youngest, at age 2, had the job of scooping dried beans into bags with his plastic blue cup that held just the right amount of beans. At 4, child #3 was learning how to count and add (and multiply!) by counting out 10 bags at a time for his younger brother to fill and knowing they were done when they had 10 rows of 10 bags to make 100 mixes. The older 2 could scoop, measure and seal with the best of the adults that joined us around that table.
It warms my heart that still to this day, this business is all about what happens around that table.
This is why I have called my blog Around the Table with Tami. Great things happen when we gather around the table together. From family meals being shared over a home cooked meal, to business meetings where spouses share dreams and set goals, and hands clasp in a circle to lift up dreams and desires in prayer to God.
Homemade Gourmet is
what happens around the table.
My children range between the ages of 14 and 22 now, and I looks back with my husband, Darius, in amazement at what God can do. It is with the same awe and wonder that I look forward to see what God is going to do next!
God Bless and Keep You,
Tami
