Week 3: A Plethora of Pizza Possibilities
Overview
Compared to last week, this week went swimmingly. I didn’t fight with any infinite redirect loops, broken account pages, or really any technical issues to speak of at all. I used this week to start learning a new software by applying it to the work I was doing, even if it felt a little bit like overkill at times. Lastly, probably the most exciting part of it for me was discovering just how much my town, county, and state as a whole has to offer! Now let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of what this week looked like.
What I Actually Produced
The idea behind this week’s mini-project was to compile a list of venues, concerts, festivals, and other public events in the summer that would be appropriate for a mobile wood-fired pizza vendor. [Edit: Looking back, I now know these are known as leads and this whole process is called prospecting. #themoreyouknow]
Best case scenario would be to make actual bookings for some of these events in order to start getting a schedule set in stone for this upcoming summer. Even if that didn’t happen, though, the main point was to get all of this information organized, consolidated, and streamlined so that The Bosses (my parents) could make informed, timely decisions.
I did not end up finalizing any bookings because the process for each one was much more involved than I anticipated, and I didn’t have a lot of the necessary paperwork readily available. (I could have gone through the motions of finding everything and finalizing one or two, but I thought it would be a better use of my time to gain and consolidate as much information as I could so that The Bosses would have a larger selection of options to review.)
In the end, I produced a spreadsheet of events that met our requirements which was broken down by county/general area of the state, and listed any available information such as date, time of day, general size of event, cost to be a vendor, and contact information and/or a link to apply.
Furthermore, I have more detailed records of individual conversations with people in my HubSpot account that I logged in order to keep all of that information in one place. I did that in order to keep the spreadsheet a little bit cleaner and easier to digest for The Bosses, while still maintaining written record of the extra information that may come in handy in the future.
Bringing HubSpot into all of this felt a little overkill at times because we’re such a little operation, but I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to start familiarizing myself with a popular CRM (and it’s free, so it was a little bit of a no-brainer). I also think that down the road, having something like this in place will help eliminate a lot of stress and heartache before it even comes up.
How I Got There
If my final result was a nicely-organized, easily-digestible spreadsheet, my main course of action was hours and hours and hours of research. Specifically, research on what the fine state of Minnesota has to offer in terms of outdoor events suitable for setting up a mobile wood-fired pizza stand.
I started off by going to the Kandiyohi County Chamber of Commerce website, and opening up pretty much every other listing in the event tab. From March to September there were over 300 events just in our county—which is much more than one event per day. (Don’t tell me there’s nothing happening in rural Minnesota!) Granted, a lot of them were repeating events (baseball games, theatre productions, ski shows, and the like), but there were still many that I was able to bring into the initial round of critiquing.
The next step involved sorting out the events that didn’t meet our criteria. We don’t have that many, but there are a few that are deal-breakers (no Saturdays, nothing before it’s unfrozen outside in the spring, and nothing after it’s frozen outside in the fall). That ended up sifting out quite a few, but left many multi-day events in question.
The multi-day events I left on the list with a note to reach out to the contact person to discern whether or not they would permit a partial commitment. Any person that I reached out to, I either emailed using my account linked to HubSpot or logged a brief summary of the call into the system to keep all of the correspondence data in one place. Anything I felt was pertinent to the decision-making process without being overwhelming I included in the spreadsheet.
I then started searching outside our county and found (as one would expect) a vast array of options. Some I was aware of (I mean, who wasn’t heard of the Minnesota State Fair), but others I was quite unaware of and caused me to truly feel like a more complete person now that I know they exist. A Wizard of Oz Festival to honor the birthplace and life of Judy Garland, the original Dorothy? Potato Days, for those who’re bored of mud wrestling and want to try mashed potato wrestling on for size? Or The Shark Watching Society of Duluth, who spend their Wednesdays in May dutifully ensuring (by sitting around bonfires on the beach all night) that the shores of Lake Superior are kept. . . shark free?
Anyway, I digress (a little). Though this research was a truly transformational experience for myself personally, I quickly realized that the majority of the larger-scale events I was finding weren’t going to be appropriate for what we’re wanting to do for this summer. These various events will be useful in the future, however, so I saved a lot of the information to look back on when our pizza operation is a little bit more confident in itself.
Overall I spent countless hours reading through these various event listings, articles, and even Facebook events. It’s a task that’s absolutely necessary to securing bookings this summer, but such a time-consuming undertaking that neither of my parents would be able to do it. Although I would’ve liked to go all the way to actually booking some of them, I understand that it’s not always feasible (especially because it’s yet early in the season).
What I've Learned
I’ve learned a lot about Minnesota history and culture, for one! That was a super added bonus, but I’ve really enjoyed that extra dimension to the project. (For example, did you know that Chris Pratt was born in Minnesota?! Virginia, Minnesota. I was there this weekend snowboarding. The world is a small place, honestly.)
I’ve learned what’s essential information to include in a spreadsheet of this type in order to maintain the essence of an event while not overwhelming the reader. I’ve also discovered how much behind-the-scenes paperwork goes into setting up each individual event for a mobile food unit, even if you have a state food license.
The biggest learning curve was simply going through the process of opening up a HubSpot account and getting everything properly configured. They have a really excellent onboarding experience that literally walks you through every step, and a multitude of further learning materials on not just their software, but also marketing in general, social media, blogging, and so many more topics! I’m excited to continue experimenting with this in order to expand my understanding of it.
Along those lines, though, I’m also learning that I’m definitely a hands-on kind of learner. Although the initial walk-through was helpful, I really didn’t fully understand it until I started entering various contact information doing a couple test runs with different functionalities. So not only am I learning a software, but I’m also learning about myself, and producing a real result for a real business.
What's Up Next?
Next week, my final week, I will focus on the improved website for The Back 40. Part of the hold up on both of the previous weeks’ mini-projects has been that I have a little bit of a hesitation to direct people to our current website. Even though I figured out a temporary solution to the account problem, there are still a few underlying issues that I really want to resolve before directing mass amounts of people to it.
As always, I highly value feedback! Let me know your favorite weird festival, or food truck booking tips, or HubSpot hacks—I love to know what the world has to offer.
Thanks again for checking in on this week’s project update! Tune in next week for The Grand Finale!