To be filed

Being My Boss- Sharelle Klaus

The food blogsosphere has been buzzing lately about DRY Soda. I’ve picked up random posts about this ‘great new drink in original flavors’ thats only ‘50 to 70 calories.’ Intrigued, I googled the company and browsed through their site. With any new business, two things excite me the most. 1) The idea - is it new? has it been done before? what’s so hot about it? and 2) The execution - even a boilerplate idea, if executed well can mint in the millions. With DRY Soda, everything just seemed so..right and well-done. I immediately got in touch with Sharelle to hear her story and let’s just say, Being My Boss has not featured a business with such a quick turn-around before. I only wish Sharelle included her story on their company website.

A few things that I’d like to highlight about DRY Soda:

1. When a high-end culinary soda started gaining traction in the night-club scene, DRY Soda the embraced change, even when it wasn’t a part of the plan. It’s important to allow your business to morph into what it’s customers want it to be. You can have a certain image and a vision for your business but your customers can create a completely different one. Do you embrace it or resist it? In this case, emrbacing it AND assisting it was a wise decision.
2. Sharelle shares a very useful tip towards the end of the interview- — You don’t just get one chance. I haven’t featured someone who’s failed once before and then started a new business and this is a much needed perspective. A dot.com failure didn’t stop Sharelle from plunging into entrepreneurship the second time around.
3. I cannot stress more the importance of networking and building relationships. Every entrepreneur’s story has showcased the importance of maintaing contacts and meeting people. In this case, when Sharelle didn’t know anyone in teh food industry, she hired a PR firm that had great connections in the industry. IE -  When she didn’t have the connections, she found a way to create them.

So let’s get started with the idea? How and when did it come to you?

I’m just one of million people that loves pairing wine with food. I think Food and Wine magazine is probably my favorite magazine. Anyways, I have four children. They are now 2, 4, 8 and 9 so yes, I’ve been pregnant a lot and I was never able to drink wine. So we’d go to these fancy restaurants and my husband would have fifty thousand wines to pick from and my drink otpions were next to none. By my fourth pregnancy, I thought this was crazy. I figured there had to be a solution or some sort of drink for non-wine drinkers or even pregnant women. Thats when I realized there is a gaping hole in the beverage market for this kind of market. There should be something for everyone… So I came up with this idea of a non-alcoholic beverage that could be paired with foods. I looked around, read up everything I could about the beverage industry and once I was clear that the niche was unfulfilled, I decided to take the plunge.

My husband had, at one point, worked for a food company. He put me in touch with the company’s food scientist who taught me the basics of the industry and gave me a one hour primer course on making soda. Through him, I went through all levels of the company to learn about the industry. From the sales point of view to the scientists. He then put me in touch with flavor houses in the area and I created the first flavors. It took us about a thousand taste tests to get the flavors right…I had the vision and I knew exactly what it would be like but getting there was challenging. I wanted the flavors to sort of replace wine and champagne for non-drinkers so I had to think about what kind of foods would go with the flavors.

That, in a nutshell was the begining.

How did you get the initial money to fund your business? Creating a consumer product is a huge undertaking…

Hah- Yes. We took out a home equity loan and I managed to get a small $50K loan from the local Small Business Association chapter. I have a business and high-tech background. I worked for PWC for a number of years.. and also served as the President of Forum in Women Entrepreneurs. I met a lot of investors through my connections there. You know, all my life I knew I would be an entrepreneyr. I even had my own internet business in the dot.com days before the bust. It was called planetsquid.com, a website for 10-13 year olds. Ofcourse, after the dot.com bust, the business failed but I knew at some point I’d go back to doing my own thing. And in hindsight, I realize now that I wasn’t so passionate about the dot.com nor am I passionate about 10-13 year olds!! My favorite thing to do is go out to dinner and so this business jsut made sense. I’d go back to it in a hearbeat, even if it went bust but internet, I wouldn’t return to it.

So in a way, every step I took was leading me to this. The woman who had hired me as the President of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs was incredible. She put me in touch with vineyards owners and winery owners who were interested in investing in my business. And once we hired our PR firm and had secured ourselves in a few high-end grocery stories and restaurants, it became easier to find funding. All in all, we recieved 1.5 million in funding. And we are looking to go on a second round of funding sooon.

What were the next steps?

Next step was to hire a design firm. I wanted to have a modern, unique bottle that looked great with a champagne flute on white-tablecloth. I hired a fantastic design firm and they designed the bottle, the logo– everything. Infact, we’ve won several awards for the design of the bottle.

It’s funny, but even before the produt was ready I went to a local PR firm that had great connections in the restaurant industry and sold my idea to them. So I had been thinking along the lines of building a brand from the very begining. We launched in August 2005…

Within a year? That’s quick and in most cases impossible.

Yes. I tend to work quickly… I know it sounds crazy. It was. I was at home taking care of the kids, that was my full time job! But my husband works as a consultant so his flexibility afforded me to move along quicky. .

You mentioned earlier that you hired a PR firm and a design firm. How were you able to afford these costs?

Yes. I had hired the PR firm even before the soda was developed. I sat with him and talked with him about my strategy. Every CEO has what they are good at and taht’s important to them. My passion in this company is this brand and building it right. Everything I do is about this brand and that’s where the press and marketing comes it. It was integral for me to meet my vision for this company. And when it is a consumer product, brand is number one. That’s why I spent so much time, energy and money on it. I foccused on every detail of the brand. I started this company with very little money. But I knew what I needed for this company to succeed. When you don’t have the resources, you have to get creative. So I found creative ways to pay my design firm and my PR firm. With my design firm, I paid them a small fee and said that I woul pay them over the next 2 years as the cases sold. It was a risky proposition, but it paid off.

With the PR firm, I found Richmond PR because they handled PR for this chef in the town who always managed to get an insane amount of press. I knew for my business to succeed, I’d haev to hire his publicist. I’m a huge proponent of educating yourself and I read books on PR and tried to do it myself but I realized that one thing I lacked and a PR firm had was connections. Esp. in the food and restaurant industry. That was one thing I learnt - Utilize other’s connections when you can. Connections are the number one thing you can get from anyone. I had to also find a creative way of paying them. If you get somebody to believe in you, they see the future. And they see that you will be a very good client to them in the future. Every place I went into, I wanted them to trust me. So I sat down with my PR firm and negotiated a good deal with them. And now to tell you the truth, I couldn’t have done it without them. They got me initial meetings at every white-tablecloth restaurant in the city. Within weeks, I had confirmations from high-end restaurants that would carry my product.

So what have you learnt about owning a little-over-a-year old business? How are you managing the growth?

Our growth strategy has been to keep strong focus on our target market, that is high-end grocery stores and white-tablecloth restaurants. But we’ve noticed an interesting phenomena that we didn’t quite expect when we launched DRY Soda. It’s becoming pretty big in nightclubs and bars and is becoming very popular as a mixer. It’s a cool looking bottle, and the flavors are also intersting without being overly sweet, so I guess it hit a chord with there. We didn’t try for this to happen nor was it a part of oru plan. Infact, 70% of our restaurants are also using it as a mixer in drinks. So it was interesting and although we were not prepared for this interpretation of our product, we haev embraced it. Now we work with mixologists and bar-tenders and come up with special cocktail recipies that use DRY Soda. Other non-traditional markets we are exploring are spas and maternity places.

We are a very nimble company, we can change swiftly and can be very laser-foccused at the same time. There isn’t any other culinary soda as such but after we launched we noticed another brand trying to go after the market we were targetting. But because we are small, we can quickly adopt to the situation.

So are you still doing this alone?

No! I’ve learnt to delgate, it was the hardest thing to do. But I hired a bunch of extremely smart women. I have about 11 employees now and it’s an all-women team. My COO, CMO and CFO bring the skills that I lack. I was doing it all by myself and it was very challenging. Operations are not my strong suit, I’d rather concentrate on the larger goal and the brand and moving things along. And I’m very fortunate to have found these people. You need a whole array of skills to be a successful entrepreneur and if you don’t have them all, you hire someone to fill in the gaps. I’m more confident with this team as we go for our second round of funding…

What’s the feedback you’ve recieved for DRY Soda?

Jinal, it’s just amazing to create something and then have people tell you that they love it. It wasn’t our plan to enter retail but we recieved so many emails from people who wanted to buy DRY Soda for events that we had to get into retail. We can now process orders on teh phone and online. When your customers want something, you’ve gotta give it to them!

I’ve got emails from about 60 countries that want DRY Soda in their stores and restaurants. That’s gratifying. So many readers write in to say thanks! In my company, whenever I hire a new employee, I have them do live demos and attend events. It’s a very positive experience to hear live feedback from your customers. Ofcourse, there are people that don’t like it, but 99 times out of 100, you will get people telling you how much they love it.

How do you balance work and family?

I have to leave in 45 minutes to watch my son’s Christmas play at his school. It is very hard. I travel a lot for work but I’m learning to delgate and travel less. But sometimes, people just want to meet the CEO.. .My husband is very supportive, he stays with the kids when I’m not around. I spent every spare moment with them but sometimes it’s hard. Just this morning, my son wanted me to snuggle with him in bed a little longer and I couldn’t. It gets very exhausting. Every minute counts. I don’t have a single minute I can waste. My two girls are home-schooled so I get to see them often. I’ll take them with me to the office and they help out around the office. It’s a very child-friendly office. For our holidays package, all the kids came in and helped us stuff the boxes and gift bags. It’s all about finding unique ways.. not always easy but not impossible.

I know. A lot of women entrepreneurs I’ve interviewed echo that sentiment.

What are your top 3 pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

• Encourage relationships and connections. Value them and nurture them. You will never know when you’ll need them.
• Find people smarter than you and get them on your side.
• For businesses that need funding, I highly recommend finding angel investors that are well connected in your industry. I cannot tell you how valuable they are. My investor helped me get almost every employee and distributor. They are also an incredible source of wisdom and experience.
• Also, don’t be afraid of failing. I failed in my first endeavor - and I learnt so much that I wouldnt’ change that experience for anything. You can try again and again - you don’t just get one chance. Really, don’t be afraid of failure.

And finally, what’s the best thing about being your own boss?

Umm. I guess the best part for me is that I’m learning so much from people on my team. It just so cool that they believe so deeply and care so much for this business.

Plans for the future?

Haha- plenty. For now, we expect our revenues to reach 1.5 million by end of 2007. That’s a good plan for now!