You may be wondering how in the world did this 23 year old guy started making Japanese Pink Sauce straight out of college. Well, I would love to tell you the story.
I graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC in 2007 with a degree in Finance. I was in a small business management class in my final semester and I was just trying to do as little work as I could get away with until graduation. All of the seniors were in the midst of trying to figure out what they were “going to do with the rest of their lives.” I am sure you remember that time in your life or you may know someone going through the same thing. I was going on interviews and getting job offers, but nothing seemed very exciting to me. During this time, we had to do a project in the class I mentioned where we had to write a business plan. A few nights later, I am eating at this hibachi restaurant with a friend and we started talking to the owner. She has this really good sauce and mentioned that she wanted to get it out there in stores. In our next class I shared this experience with my group. We went back to her and told her that we want to help her as our project.
We worked with her for two months, learning the business a little and doing some market research. We also helped her redesign a label for her sauce bottle. It turned out that I had a good friend whose uncle had his own sauce in stores, so I got in touch with him as well and learned as much as I could. After the project was over, I began to get the idea that bottling and selling this sauce could really be something special. I talked to the owner of the hibachi restaurant about working with her after graduation. That fell through, so I made the decision…I was going to attempt to build a “burgeoning sauce empire” (or that’s what one of my friends called it at least).
Can you imagine a parents’ reaction whose son comes home and says, “I am going to start a business and sell Japanese Pink Sauce”? My mother wasn’t thrilled. My father thought I should go work at a bank. Nevertheless, Small Dog, LLC was born in May 2007.
After graduation, I spent the next 6 months perfecting the sauce recipe. Then the next 2 months were spent finding the right people to produce it. I feel like if you are going to do something, you should do it right. My original plan was to have the sauce ready by the end of the summer of 2007. I only missed that mark by around 4 months. No big deal.
Once I got my first shipment, I approached a few local stores. Most said “corporate” before I could even describe what I had. However, I was able to get in one store. They ended up going through 3 cases (36 bottles) in the first 3 days. I have always been a dreamer and, I must admit, my own expectations were being blown away.
I could be naïve, but I love waking up in the morning knowing that something special could happen today. I tell people that the feeling I will hopefully get from seeing my sauce on store shelves wherever I go would be like a musician hearing his song on the radio - all of the hard work would have paid off. Whether I get that feeling or not, the future will tell. Either way, I hope you will look for Native Tongue Sauces in your local grocery store. If they are not available at the store, I encourage you to tell the store manager about the sauce.
Enjoy the sauce!
Jason McElveen
Founder of Small Dog, LLC