Let your heart be your compass. Your mind your map. Your soul your guide and you will never get lost!
Wow what a successful crazy year we have had. For me personally, 2021 was an amazingly beautiful year in which I got to learn a lot and the year my company SMOKED by Liz was transformed from idea to reality. It is good to pause and reflect on the past year. What went well, what are you happy about, what are you proud of and grateful for and also what could be better. I take you on a journey through the year 2021 by Liz & SMOKED by Liz.
Let me start by saying that I am very proud of my husband and very happy with his support. Because of his support, drive and because he often takes over caring for our family, SMOKED by Liz is able to grow and I am able to be entrepreneurial. I am immensely grateful for the successful first year of SMOKED by Liz. . It has been wonderful to hang out with my mother a lot again and I am grateful to her for all the help with my business and for all the help while packing all the boxes in the last busy quarter.
In January 2021, initial discussions were held to start shaping the idea SMOKED by Liz. I went through the design process of SMOKED by Liz with Emma Ward Design. From the very first brainstorm, there was a very pleasant collaboration with Emma. She managed to transform my idea and story into an exceptionally strong logo. Emma has created the face of SMOKED by Liz. So I am extremely grateful to her for her commitment, her effort and her professionalism. In the same month, I had the first meeting with the smokehouse. From the first minute to the last day of the year 2021, they have been present in building SMOKED by Liz. Alex has emerged as a very fine mentor on the entrepreneurial front. Honest feedback, right pricing, being able and willing to smoke according to Liz's family recipe, advice on packaging and thinking along in the overall look and feel of SMOKED by Liz. Never before have I felt so gigantically at home in a collaboration and I am therefore enormously grateful and very happy with the choice to collaborate with this wonderful progressive sustainable company.
In early March, we took photos at the most beautiful spots in Spakenburg and in the smokehouse. This was the start of all the content for SMOKED by Liz. This allowed Ewolve to get to work, to build our eye-catching yet glittering website. The first steps to give the company a face and go live were taken. In the meantime, I am apprenticing monthly with the family's master smoker to learn how to smoke myself. Practise what you preach they say!
On 13 April 2021 the moment arrived, SMOKED by Liz was registered at the Chamber of Commerce. Now we have two more months to get the company ready to go live. 30 June 2021 is finally here, at 20.30 SMOKED by Liz's website will go live! What a mega special milestone and how insanely proud I am of this! The result is impressive and I am tremendously grateful with the collaborations of our suppliers, thank you very much. They have given me the foundation to build from.
SMOKED by Liz stands as a company and is growing with an upward trend. The company is developing as well as myself as a person. My creativity has found a path that I can use positively in my business. This has resulted in us having publications in renowned Brabant Media in the second half of the year. I am super proud of the publication in Women in Business, Eindhoven Business, where I got to be part of entrepreneurial power women. SMOKED by Liz has chosen to collaborate with Squisito, the importer of Italian delicacies. A delicious addition to the range. In the December month, SMOKED by Liz was also published in the Frits party guide and our bestseller box was published on the gastronomy page of the December edition of the Frits. The last quarter of 2021 was booming business. Sales skyrocketed, giving us new operational challenges.
Not everything goes as you expect beforehand. Like, for example, realising the number of followers for Smoked by Liz on Instagram did not turn out as I had in mind. That needs attention and patience. In contrast, the reach in the business market via LinkedIn has turned out to be exponential.
The box processing process needed to be more efficient. The pressure was now increased thanks to the large number of orders and the fact that we still had to cut all the meats and cheeses manually. A nice operational challenge that, together with the supplier, we will fine-tune further in 2022.
We have made great strides this year. Together with a team of specialists, the idea of SMOKED by Liz has been developed and brought to life. The foundations are in place and now we continue to build and grow into the most well-known and best-selling brand across Europe. The dream is world domination with SMOKED by Liz, our dreams are big. Everyone is entitled to delicious delicacies and it is our mission to make as many people as possible happy with our unique, luxurious and culinary surprises.
The world needs true delicacy!
