Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbie Hahn.
Hi Barbie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Thank you for inviting me to share my story. It begins in much the same way as many others who have gone before me. I began making a unique jam, Pineapple Habanero, and took it to parties and gave it out as gifts to clients, family, and friends. They would say “Damn Barbie, that jam is good! You should sell it!” A dear friend of mine, Casey, just would not relent, she kept telling me, Barbie this is your calling, you need to build a business around your jam. I kept pushing back, unsure of how to take the first step.
I approached a local woman-owned butcher shop called Lehr’s Prime Market and met with the owner (Allison)and asked if she would consider selling my cottage-produced jam in her store. After she tasted it, she said “I will take all that you have and you better start making more, it is going to be a hit!” And it was! Lehrs’ and my local Milford, Ohio community supported me from day one, buying jam and sharing it with friends, and selling it out every week. I quickly realized that making a jam in my own kitchen was not sustainable. I found a woman-owned Micro on demand co-packer-Patter Fam Sauces and worked with Joyce to take my jam from my kitchen to commercial production.
All of this happened within 6 months of making the decision to take a run at selling consumer packaged goods. The key to the beginning of this story is that women across all spectrums, helped, encouraged, and pushed me to take the scary steps of building my own company and brand.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been three areas that have been challenging.
1). Learning to scale my business. Not knowing how to plan for the ebb and flow of the volume of jam to produce. It can be 4-5 weeks from the time I request an order for it to be fulfilled. During COVID I had to stop selling for several months due to supply chain issues, but this happened to many brands, I am not alone.
2). Trying to determine what is the ‘right size’ for my company. There is a lot of external pressure to go on Shark Tank and become a nationwide brand, but that is not my goal.
3). learning how to get access to capital. I am at a point where it is time to take the next step in my growth plan, and there is so much noise in the market about grants, WEB funding, and loans, it is hard to know what is a viable path.
I am working with a friend who is a finance specialist, April who is helping me determine how to proceed with the proper types of loans or grants. Another woman helped me on this journey.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have always worked in Financial Services, I have been in the corporate world working in sales, relationship building, and marketing. I have sold intangibles. It is particularly exciting to me to be creating and selling my own brand and product, one that you can hold in your hand, taste, enjoy, and share with others. Connecting with people over That Dam Jam is a natural extension of all of the relationship-building and selling I have done for 30 years, it just feels more natural, more me. As Casey said, I am called to do this. I know I am not saving the world, it is jam after all.
What I will say is that people have a real desire to make connections, I think more than ever in a post-COVID world.
I can see the joy on their faces when they take that taste of jam and the corners of their mouth start to turn up. The conversations we have over food, cooking, and family come from making this simple act of sharing mine. product and myself with others.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I have not taken big career risks, it has been important to me to provide financial stability for myself and my family.
That Dam Jam was a calculated risk, I have worked hard my entire career and saved money and I put a dollar amount on what it would cost to take a run at building the company, I asked my husband if he would bet that amount on me. He said “all day long babe”.
I think my confidence has grown as I have matured, and also if everyone around you is telling you that you can do it, at some point you have to believe it. It has not been easy and we are not profitable, but I am learning a completely new business and that has been invigorating.
Pricing:
- Create your own 3-pack $24.00
- Create your own 6 pack $48.00
- Marketing made easy $120.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thatdamjam.com
- Instagram: @thatdamjamlady
- Facebook: @thatdamjam
