I'm Christy White, founder of Whirlybird Granola.
I started Whirlybird Granola in 2011 here in Cincinnati, out of my kitchen, Really out of a passion for health.
Granola was a really big piece of that for me. I just couldn't find any granolas in the stores that didn't have artificial sweeteners and fillers and too much sugars and still tasted good.
We just gave it to friends and family, and they loved it. And then when a friend of mine did start this market, it just kept selling out. And that's kind of when we realized there is a need for this, people want the same thing I want. They want a healthy product that doesn't have all the artificial sweeteners and fillers and at a good price.
When we first started, I made it out of my kitchen, and as we began to grow, as more retailers would approach us, and as we would approach more retailers, we started using rental kitchen spaces. So my whole family would, after hours, drive two hours to a rental kitchen space, and we would make granola for about five hours. For about two years. we did that.
In 2014, we were approached by a large retailer to start producing their private label granola, and we found a commercial kitchen space that's actually in Madison, Wisconsin that we use.
And about two years after we started making private label for this large retailer, we got into another really large retailer. And then today we ship about 500,000 bags of granola every week, all across the United States.
I think, as we all know, you kind of need money to make money, specifically in an industry where inventory is such a big piece of that. So to fund our inventory, we had to have and we opted for a line of credit as kind of what we did at that point. And that was so critical for the growth of our business, because we have to be able to have the inventory sitting when our customer purchases the product. So that really is what has allowed us to grow.
There's a few things I would say: know specifically what the capital is for and how that's going to help you grow.
Know your ability and timeline to be able to pay that back and make sure that you have the right partner in growth. I think that is the biggest key.
I'm Christy White. My business is Whirlybird Granola, and I'm sharing these tips with you because money is every woman's business.
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