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canceled 95% of her bookings in the first year. “We were mourning our business and mourning our freedom,” she said of that first shocking week of U.S. lockdowns in March 2020. Still, after sharing some prayers and tears, Zabriskie alongside wife, co-owner/COO and sous chef Jacqueline “Jay” White realized they needed to make some drastic steps to save their business. Zabriskie credits late Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken owner Tom Ferguson (who died unexpectedly in February), with throwing her a lifeline piece of advice: “Do whatever you can to save the business.” The Indulge owners trimmed costs and started an aggressive at-home delivery plan. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘How do we reimagine the business,’” Zabriskie said. The company started packaging “Indulgent Celebration” boxes – a threecourse meal dropped at the front door. They added a family option with pans of food to feed four to six people. As events start heating up, the delivery
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side of the business reduced to a simmer, but demand for athome services are still stronger than they were pre-pandemic. “This is a new norm,” Zabriskie said.
AN UNLIKELY BUSINESS EDUCATION Delivered family dinner offerings gave Sage & Swift Gourmet Catering a business and marketing boost. Owner Amy Tornquist’s “Meals-To-Go” menu proved popular and led to more catering opportunities. “We started in January, just before the pandemic, as a way to broaden our business,” she said. “We didn’t do as much personal catering at that point, but we saw it as a good way to make new friends. Doing it during the pandemic helped me keep 90% of our staff.” While Sage & Swift returned to mainly event catering, Tornquist and her staff of nine full-time employees have held on to the smaller personal delivery side of the business. Tornquist said there are times when it’s not possible to handle
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Redstart Foods offers a large menu that changes weekly. “We’ve built a solid back-end logistical system to keep up with production and delivery,” Northup said. personal orders along with a large event. “Sometimes we can’t do our dinners to go,” she said, adding that she expects to continue offering the service even with the pandemic winding down. “There’s really not a bad thing about it – it’s always good to meet people. We build more customers who might need us for larger events. It’s a win-win.” Indulge’s Zabriskie said the pandemic served as a reset – pausing what was a hectic catering schedule and forcing the company to examine every aspect of the business. That meant not only bolstering athome options, but also exploring a product line that included spices and sauces with Indulge’s branding. “We were able to sit down and concentrate on recipes and sauces,” she said, “and now we have a full-fledged line of products.” For Redstart, the business shift was dramatic and lasting. “We have to think
of ourselves as more of an e-commerce company now,” Northrup said. “And we have to have a shipping and logistics end of the business we didn’t have before.” All businesses are also dealing with the macroeconomic realities that have caused massive inflation spikes across the board. “It’s not like things are slowing down,” Northrup said. “But everything is more expensive … like, a lot of things are 80% more expensive. That’s the new dynamic, and it means we have to do more volume.” Zabriskie is also wrestling with inflation as her business changes. “This new normal is still scary because we still face sourcing issues, and everyone is dealing with rising costs,” she said. “But now we can sit back and do projections – that’s something we didn’t do before the pandemic. This has forced me to become a better businesswoman.”