1. Maria Cortez MY BUSINESS STORY All-Natural Doggie Treats

2.  Have been working in the pet industry for many years  I love dogs  Bowzer & Milky (allergies!)  Started making my own treats  Sold to friends and family About All-Natural Doggie Treats

3.  Wanted to start selling All-Natural Doggie Treats to retail stores and on-line (website)  After doing more research…  Decided to focus on selling to pet stores first, and build my brand locally.  Needed to change my initial sales forecast so that I could add new stores earlier My business has changed through the process…

4.  This is a very competitive industry  New competitors entering all the time & larger companies are coming out with new “healthy” lines  Need to keep a close eye on forecasts to actual  Need to be able to stay ahead of trends  Need to get new products to market quickly  Need to keep costs under control The biggest lessons I’ve learned so far

5.  Pricing strategy is working  Website is main tool  Social media drives traffic to the site  Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter  People love to talk about and post pictures of their pets!  “Gnome” type promotion Sales & Marketing

6.  May need bakers soon  Need new contract – to protect recipes  Will be introducing new flavours this year (Filet Mignon, Turkey Jerky)  Now the official dog treat of the Manitoba Dog Sitters Assn. (Thanks to Brian!) Product/Service

7.  I’ve shifted all my bookkeeping tasks to bookkeeper  Tracking my forecasts to actual sales  My six month projections look good  Variable costs have been higher than expected Finance & administration

8.  How much time I have to spend on non- production related activities  How scary the future (and present) can be sometimes  How much time I spent by myself  How much discipline is needed to monitor financial statements!  SO proud that All-Natural is mine and making a difference for dogs! Biggest surprises