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Small Business Success Story -- Tiff's Treats
Tiff's Treats, a cookie delivery service, has been operating in Austin for over 8 years. Tiffany Taylor and Leon Chin, partners in the business, came up with the idea in 1999 while still in college and have successfully led the business to its thriving state today. Rocky Brown of Hoover's, recently sat down with the creative pair.
RB: What inspired you two to make the entrepreneurial jump into the world of tasty treats? And was there any particular event that kind of pushed you in that direction?
TT: Yeah, I think a couple of things did. One…well, first of all we were in college, so you have to keep that in mind. We were kind of avoiding getting real part-time jobs so it was sort of a way to skirt that. And I think Leon had a job in Dallas where he drove in traffic a lot.
LC: Yeah, it was a summer internship basically, driving an hour to and from work and I was like, "Man, I don't want to do this." I just didn't want to do it. The pay was pretty decent but when this idea came along I was thinking, "This may be a little different and will change up the pace a little bit."
TT: So we though maybe we could make (business) hours around traffic.
LC: Yeah. (laughing)
TT: So way it actually started was that I baked cookies for him (Leon) as an apology for something I had done and it was actually his idea from there. He was like, "Oh these are great! You know what would be even better…", and again, we were in college, but he said, "it would be even better if we could deliver these like you deliver a pizza." I was a little resistant at first, but then though about it and said, "Yeah, that sounds like fun.
RB: Could be a viable business venture….(chuckle)
LC: Well, we always thought we would do it and the way I sold her on it, which turned out to be totally incorrect, was that we could study while we wait for orders and it will only be four hours a night. We used to be open from 8pm to midnight only. I turned out to be completely wrong, we ended up not ever studying while we were open and we ended up working before 8pm all the time getting everything ready, but that's how I convinced her at least, that it would be part-time.
RB: Good. On to the next question. Funding for the business. If I may ask, did you get it from friends and family, did you go to a bank, did you use your own money?
TT: We started really (emphasized) small. I mean, the way we started it we didn't need any money because it was just a side thing. So we just put in a couple of bucks of our own and bought a cell phone, which people didn't regularly have back then.
RB: And what year was this again?
TT & LC: 1999.
TT: They were just starting to get popular and we bought the cell phone so we could have a direct line to the business. That was probably our most major purchase.
LC: We started about as small-time as you can get. And it's funny because we were looking for part-time jobs, and needed money, but ended up not taking any money out of the business for three years. Luckily for us, our parents were helping out with college and living, so every penny we made….
RB: Went right back into the business?
TT: Yes
LC: Right back into the business. So we were lucky enough to be able to fund the business with its own earnings.
RB: Did you have an initial business plan beforehand, or was this something you jumped right into? A lot of the time, at least I've heard this from several different success stories, people are told to forget about the business plan and worry about getting the business up and running, then go back and revisit it later.
LC: I see what they're saying. We planned for a couple of weeks.
TT: We had two weeks worth of planning. You know, we didn't sit down and write a business plan right off the bat. We eventually did that down the road, but I think we were always on the same page in terms of what we wanted out of it and what we though it should be.
LC: And actually, what they're saying is that if you work too much on the plan beforehand, all of it is going to change.
RB: Constantly.
LC: Yeah, they're constantly evolving, so whatever you come up with, even if you worked a long time to come up with the plan before you open, it's going to be totally different within 6 months, within a year, within two years, etc. We changed our plan as we've grown and we're in our 8th year now and the plan still changes all the time.
RB: So what kind of challenges do you two face on a daily basis? And what challenges do you see when looking forward to the future?
TT: I think the challenges change when you move to different business positions. Right now, probably our biggest challenge is keeping our staff well trained because the business has to run the right way and you have to trust that other people can handle that. It's really up to you to train them to do that. We face different challenges, for instance, in the beginning it was getting our name out there. We're in that stage with the Dallas location now.
LC: A couple of years ago the challenge was getting managers that would replace Tiff and I.
RB: So you could focus on higher level business functions?
LC: Right, and that was a challenge for quite a while, as well as getting the systems in place to help them run it without us there. Now we have a really good, core management team in place that can run it without us, but they need good staff underneath them.
TT: We're working on systems to make it easy for them to get their jobs done.
RB: So going back to what you said about the challenges of getting the word out, how have you primarily gotten the word out about the business? I heard about you guys from work when these magical cookie boxes started showing up. When I asked what they were, people were like, "You've never had Tiff's Treats?"
LC: We're very fortunate with the word of mouth. Obviously that's the number one thing that has really sustained us and helped us grow.
TT: When we started, we were college based and now we're more focused on college and business. (6:38). But when we started we were flyer-ing the dorms, putting flyers under the doors. That's how we initially got the word out. We also started giving out samples, going floor to floor.
LC: Yeah, real grassroots stuff.
RB: Very cool. So when you think about competition, knowing your goals are to keep expanding, who would you consider at this point as your "healthy competition"?
LC: Anything food related that can be used as a gift is a segment of our competition.
RB: So places like FTD.com or cookiedelivery.com, etc.?
LC: Yes, flowers are competition even though it's not food related….
RB: Well, FTD sells food, including cookies, as well as flowers.
LC: So then they are competition.
TT: And we also consider any kind of quick serve snack item, like pizza delivery to be somewhat of a competitors, a loose competitor.
LC: We think we were the first ones in 1999 to come up the concept and really run with it successfully. As we grow, I've noticed there have been quite a few other start-ups popping up that are very similar to what we do, trying to mimic our model. Some have been a lot more successful than others, so in the future we expect to face direct competition from these businesses. We're just trying to focus on ourselves first, and grow the best way we can and build the best company to get ready for increased competition.
RB: Have you stuck any kind of strategic partnerships with other local business that would help give you a competitive advantage?
TT: We did do something like that for a little while with campusfood.com, but it wasn't really a good fit for us for various reasons.
LC: We're actually very, very particular about the kind of partnerships we strike in that it has to work for us because I feel like as far as getting our brand out there, you are the company you keep, so the kind of partnerships we do a lot of are marketing partnerships, we have one going with Austin Monthly right now where if you sign up online for a subscription you get at $15 gift card from us. We try to stick to partnerships that make sense for us, and we do a lot of corporate stuff.
RB: Do you have plans for expansion outside of Austin and Dallas. Is your plan to expand into college markets, which seems to be the niche you're going after.
LC: You know, things can change, that's probably, we're probably operating more in the corporate realm that we are the college realm right now. We don't have any place targeted next. We really need to maximize and grow Dallas and Austin properly and get our systems in place, but yes, we would love to expand more, but we don't have any specific plans as of this moment.
RB: Ok, on to some fun questions…..who gets to come up with new cookie ideas?
TT: Anyone!
LC: Everyone! If you have one right now, we'll take it!
TT: In fact, our second most popular cookie is snickerdoodle and that was a customer suggestion.
RB: That's my favorite cookie.
TT: I didn't even know what a snickerdoodle was, but everyone was asking if we had them, so I finally just googled it and came up with one.
RB: Who gets to test, ie. Eat, the creations you come up with in the test kitchen?
LC: All the employees. We've even had an employee contest once for cookie flavors.
RB: I'm sure you both make the final decisions, but is there a vote? Is it somewhat democratic when a new cookie is up for addition to the menu?
LC: The one time we did the competition we did a vote.
TT: An employee vote, but I get the final say as far as how operationally viable the choice is. We can't be slicing up bananas and all kinds of things back there. I get the final say of "No, that's not going to work.", but other than that, we're kinda democratic in that way.
RB: Is there a form on your website that allows for cookie idea submissions?
TT: Yes, on the comments page. People are free to submit the ideas.
RB: And do they?
LC: Oh yeah, yeah, all the time. Ranges of comments. Some are doable, some are really not, but we really do appreciate all of the feedback we get.
RB: What's the craziest creation that's come out of the kitchen?
LC: One of the things the employees like to do is make cookie bites, which of course are tiny versions of our cookies. And someone made a giant snickerdoodle pie once. It was pretty good, but that's about the craziest thing that's ever come out of the kitchen.
RB: Sounds like you should think about adding it to the menu. The snickerdoodle loaf.
(laughter)RB: Last two questions, if you could go back and redo one thing from the time you started 8 years ago, what would it be? You know, something that you think in hindsight could have made the experience easier.
LC: I know what we'd say, probably because it is so much easier in hindsight…just not stress about every little thing along the way. Obviously things have worked out pretty well up until now now, but while you're in the middle of doing it, you can't see that and definitely for the sake of quality of life, I would have been a little more chilled out about scenario and the little problems that came our way. I wish I would have handled it better mentally.
RB (to TT): And you agree with that?
TT: Oh yeah, we made so many mistakes, but I can't even say that I would go back and do those things differently because out of every mistake we make something better out of it. You know, we turn it into, "Ok, so here's what we have to do so this will never happen again.", So if you never make that mistake, you're never going to make that policy, and the mistake could end up happening again.
LC: We've made thousands, and I mean thousands of mistakes that have cost us tens of thousands of dollars, if not more. And I don't really want to think about it because I'll probably get upset, but I don't regret any one of those mistakes because, and not to overuse a cliché, but we've really learned from them.
TT: As long as you learn something, you can't really regret the mistakes.
LC: Basically, how I reacted, how we reacted as far as being worried about the next step, that is what I would have like to have done differently.
RB: What advice do you have for other small business or those that may be thinking about taking the entrepreneurial leap?
TT: The first thing I would suggest is to make sure you're able to make it your number one priority. If it isn't, it's rather difficult to get it off the ground.
LC: The kind of thing I always tell our management team is that there are people out there who are so much smarter than us, that have way better connections, they have way more money than we do, and the only thing that separates us from them, if they're trying to do the same thing we are, is how hard we work…..what we put into it.
TT: Right, it's not going to be successful right off the bat, and it's not going to easy, ever, but just stick with it, and if you believe in it, you have a chance.
LC: Persistence. A lot of people probably quit when something bad happens, but right after something good can happen. We see that from time to time.
RB: Well I sure do appreciate you both taking the time to meet with me today, and providing your story and advice to other small businesses out there. Interesting stuff and we hope to hear more about you in the future.
TT: No problem. Thank you.
LC: Yes thanks, it was fun.
