Becoming a seasoned businesswoman

WOBURN -- For entrepreneur Victoria Taylor, the first signs of success came seasoned with a little wit.

Perched on the loading dock of her spice business, Victoria Gourmet Inc., the Winchester resident was picking flecks of herbs, sea salt, dust, and dirt from the filter of the shop vacuum cleaner. The rubber-gloved task was among Taylor's cost-saving strategies for launching a profitable business.

"Then this guy walks by and looks at me and says, 'You must be the president,' " Taylor recalled from her sun-splashed office on Woburn's Gill Street last week.

This encounter a few years back remains one of Taylor's favorite business stories since opting out of a lucrative corporate career at Welch's in 1999 to focus on her creative flair and culinary passion.

The second sign came as a phone call from her father's ex- wife, who entered a Colorado specialty shop and saw the colorful canisters Taylor designed for her spices, brines, and blends. "Well, take a picture," Taylor told her. Today, she proudly flips through the off-center 35-mm prints.

But true signs of success are in the numbers. When Taylor and her husband and business partner, James McIntosh, closed the books on Victoria Gourmet Inc.'s first year, they recorded $51,000 in revenue. Transpose the first two numbers and move over the decimal point a couple places, and that number turns into $1.5 million for 2006. She has her sights set on $1.8 million for 2007.

Despite obstacles, such as those she encountered tapping into the markets of Southern California and her native New England, Taylor says her decision to create, market, and package her own brand has been rewarding.

Last month, the 46-year-old Harvard-educated physicist moved her business and 11 employees from its 4,000- square-foot beginnings just around the corner to a 14,000-square-foot location that encompasses everything from retail sales to a warehouse.

"I didn't find it scary to go into my own business," Taylor said last week, a day after having had encouraging encounters with brokers, vendors, chefs, and other food industry representatives she met at a Chicago trade show. A marketing background prepared her for creating a business plan and seeking investors. "But I did find it scary to commit to a $10,000 a month five-year lease."

Taylor has always been interested in food and began blending her own spices and sea salts because she was dissatisfied with the quality and makeup of the products from established industry giants. Many of those products, Taylor said, are mixed with black pepper, sugars, and salts, and are so pulverized that the volatile oils, which store the flavors, are seriously compromised.

"These products also claim to be good on everything, beef, chicken," Taylor said. "Being a culinary person, I know it just doesn't work that way. I knew there was room for me because these products weren't very good."

So, when Taylor first dabbled with her Tuscan Seasoning, she created several blends of garlic chunks, lemon peel, red and green bell peppers, sea salts, scallions, toasted sesame seeds, and oil until discovering the one that best perked up poultry, pork, and pasta.

She recommends her Moroccan blend -- cumin, caraway, garlic, and aromatic turmeric -- to bring out the flavors of hummus, lamb stews, and roasted lamb chops, dishes associated with Moroccan culture.

Besides being shipping manager, McIntosh assists with the research and development, much of which takes place in their Winchester kitchen.

"I must have thrown 25 pounds of meatloaf down the disposal," said Taylor. "When I finally had a meatloaf that rocked, I knew the blend was ready." She shares her successes in her 2002 cookbook, "Because Flavor Is Everything."

Taking advantage of her knack for design, Taylor fashioned her trademark square jars, metallic canisters, and vibrantly colorful labels. In her catalog and on store shelves, her products resemble jars of craft paint. Her seasonings have received favorable press from several publications including The Washington Post, Coastal Living, and Better Homes and Gardens.

Her approximately 100 products have found niche markets in specialty stores throughout much of the country. Prices range from $4.50 for a 2.1-ounce tin of seasonings, to $6.50 for a 10-ounce jar of Trapani sea salt at Whole Foods Market, to $8.99 for a jar of peppercorns. Prices are slightly higher at the Woburn site, Taylor said, because she doesn't want to undercut her retailers. Tuscan Seasoning and Herbes de Provence, an earth-toned potpourri of seven green herbs native to Provence, lavender, garlic, and lemon oil are her top sellers.

But there is still work to do. Taylor would like to see the flavors of her labors dominate the mainstream grocer's seasoning shelf, especially on shelves closer to home. Until this fall, when Whole Foods New England picked her up, Taylor's sea salts, brines, and seasonings could be purchased locally only at Lowell Provisions, The Spirited Gourmet in Winchester, HomeGoods, and her Woburn site.

"We're still small," she said. "In order for me to grow this company, I need to grow my own distribution."

To that end, she is preparing for a trade show in California next week, as well as one in April, and another in July. It was through shows last year that she secured prime space at H.E. Butt Grocery Co.'s 300-store chain. Another brought Taylor a successful meeting with a chef from the Darden Restaurants Inc., whose chains include Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants. She is in the process of hiring a broker for Southern California.

Building up a business makes for a long workday, one that begins in the office around 9:30 each morning and ends 10 hours later in the laundry room surrounded by mounds of towels, used to sterilize jars shipped in from China. But the hours are often interspersed with a gourmet meal Taylor prepares for her husband.

"I cook for him four to five times a week," she said. "I've created this line. If I can't create a simple seasoned chicken pasta dish, I may as well just shoot myself."