Ignorance Is Bliss: The Entrepreneur's Best Friend?
Allison Allen
June 18, 2008
Ignorance is bliss.
It´s a handy strategy for those with kids away at college. For those with parents who are still sexually active. And for entrepreneurs, it´s especially useful, if not absolutely indispensable. If would be entrepreneurs really understood the odds, they would most likely show up very early to their job the next morning with a box of doughnuts, a smile on their face, and a song in their heart.
Paula Angerstein illustrates the principle perfectly.
A few years ago, Paula decided to indulge her love of food and drink--especially Italian food and drink—by concocting her own version of the well-loved Italian liqueur, limoncello. A little sugar here, some lemon zest there, mix with a little vodka, bottle as a gift for friends, yum.
If you had asked her then, Paula would have been the last person to tell you that in a few years she´d be commercially distilling her version of limoncello, Paula´s Texas Lemon…and then, its sister drink, Paula´s Texas Orange. That would have required mastering the Byzantine labyrinth that is the Texas liquor industry to acquire only the second distiller´s license issued in the state. And, being the only woman in Texas with a distiller´s license to boot!
Nope, no reason to think that would happen.
Fast forward to 2008 and Paula is in fact, producing two of Texas´ favorite locally produced spirits. The path from making Christmas gifts for friends to producing and marketing spirits makes for a very cool mid-life woman´s story.
Several years ago, Paula retired early after a successful career in high tech. She benefited not only from her timing of being a woman in technology during the 80s and 90s, but also her astuteness in focusing her efforts in rather underserved fields where she could get more exposure. Her wisdom paid off handsomely by giving her a solid financial foundation for which she is grateful. But it also came with a darker side.
Paula acknowledges that the financial security of having ´absolute freedom to do what you want is great´. But the other side of the coin, she says, is, ´it also gives you a stomachache from time to time ´cause you´re sitting there thinking, "What am I going to do now?" You seriously start to crave something useful in your life."
Paula and her husband, Paul, enjoyed traveling to Italy. They are natural ´foodies´ who frequented food and wine festivals to find ideas they could try at home. The original idea for making limoncello on a bigger scale sprang from their sunny, innocent notion that it would be a fun hobby to have a little Farmer´s market stand, sell a little limoncello, and have a blast rubbing elbows with top chefs and other foodophiles.
That should be easy enough, right?
Paula has to be one of only a few people on the planet who looks back to her younger days and laments that she was never a waitress. She shakes her head and grins as she says, "Every waiter, waitress, bartender, restaurant manager, there´s hundreds of thousands of people affected by this stuff who would have known more about it than I did." She´s referring to the notorious tangle of state regulatory trip wires and pitfalls, good ole boy network, and sheer competitiveness that makes up the alcoholic beverage industry in Texas.
Farmer´s market stand? No way.
But, ignorance is bliss, remember?
Being the high tech person she is, Paula developed a business plan, then began slogging her way through the maze of city permitting. Although completely befuddled at times by the logic of that process, nevertheless Paula successfully negotiated it and even found it somewhat enjoyable.
About the same time, a friend who owned a liquor store encouraged her to focus on her orange liqueur as an alternative to the much higher priced Cointreau and Grand Marnier. Texas IS margarita country after all. He felt there was a real mid-price gap Paula could exploit with a good product. Think: top-shelf margaritas.
Paula remembers hearing over and over, "you know this business is all about relationships, don´t you?" Today, she would characterize them as ´warnings worth heeding´ but at the time she just thought "yeah, yeah, relationships, of course". Now, she sees just how profound those warnings were.
A micro lesson from Paula on the wine and spirit industry…"a small number of families, a small number of people have been in positions in this industry for a long time and exert lots of influence in certain ways. And most alcohol is marketed by multi-billion dollar companies, in fact, 95% of alcohol is marketed by gigantic corporations. Distributors and their big customers have big relationships. I didn't have those kinds of relationships." Translation: for outsiders, getting market share can be a very tough battle.
As a distiller, she is forbidden to ´sell´, she can only market her products. Getting a distributor to pick your product up is one thing, she found. Getting them to actually sell it is another story altogether. Paula has many an example of the roadblocks, the polite lip service followed by non-action, the ´now little lady-s", and other trials she´s learned to navigate with the various players in this business.
For all that, Paula has persisted and steadily grown her ´cellos into one of the most well-known locally produced spirits in Texas. Recently, in a poll taken by Austin American Statesman readers, Paula´s Texas Orange got 41% of the vote for Best Locally Produced Wine, Beer or Spirit out of a number of distillers who have since sprung up.
Paula attributes her success to playing up the local angle, getting out there to make as many friends as possible, and trusting that the grassroots would do what relying on the ´system´ would not. She and her husband have achieved their goal by becoming staples in the regional food and wine business. But, she knows there is a lot more marketing to be done and many more niches to target.
Thoughtfully, Paula acknowledges that her reticence to be confrontational has been a hindrance. It´s critical, she thinks, to learn that skill or at least have someone around who is willing to stand the heat. She and I ponder why women seem to have a harder time doing that than men. The contributing factors are too numerous to go into.
Although she doesn´t consider herself particularly persistent, her success would tell another story. Flexibility is important too. "You can make a plan then one day you see a flaw in it. You have to think how to fix that without blowing everything else out of the water."
And ignorance? Paula laughs as she says, "Self-delusion is real handy. If you knew all the facts, you´d probably never jump in."
It´s a handy strategy for those with kids away at college. For those with parents who are still sexually active. And for entrepreneurs, it´s especially useful, if not absolutely indispensable. If would be entrepreneurs really understood the odds, they would most likely show up very early to their job the next morning with a box of doughnuts, a smile on their face, and a song in their heart.
Paula Angerstein illustrates the principle perfectly.
A few years ago, Paula decided to indulge her love of food and drink--especially Italian food and drink—by concocting her own version of the well-loved Italian liqueur, limoncello. A little sugar here, some lemon zest there, mix with a little vodka, bottle as a gift for friends, yum.
If you had asked her then, Paula would have been the last person to tell you that in a few years she´d be commercially distilling her version of limoncello, Paula´s Texas Lemon…and then, its sister drink, Paula´s Texas Orange. That would have required mastering the Byzantine labyrinth that is the Texas liquor industry to acquire only the second distiller´s license issued in the state. And, being the only woman in Texas with a distiller´s license to boot!
Nope, no reason to think that would happen.
Fast forward to 2008 and Paula is in fact, producing two of Texas´ favorite locally produced spirits. The path from making Christmas gifts for friends to producing and marketing spirits makes for a very cool mid-life woman´s story.
Several years ago, Paula retired early after a successful career in high tech. She benefited not only from her timing of being a woman in technology during the 80s and 90s, but also her astuteness in focusing her efforts in rather underserved fields where she could get more exposure. Her wisdom paid off handsomely by giving her a solid financial foundation for which she is grateful. But it also came with a darker side.
Paula acknowledges that the financial security of having ´absolute freedom to do what you want is great´. But the other side of the coin, she says, is, ´it also gives you a stomachache from time to time ´cause you´re sitting there thinking, "What am I going to do now?" You seriously start to crave something useful in your life."
Paula and her husband, Paul, enjoyed traveling to Italy. They are natural ´foodies´ who frequented food and wine festivals to find ideas they could try at home. The original idea for making limoncello on a bigger scale sprang from their sunny, innocent notion that it would be a fun hobby to have a little Farmer´s market stand, sell a little limoncello, and have a blast rubbing elbows with top chefs and other foodophiles.
That should be easy enough, right?
Paula has to be one of only a few people on the planet who looks back to her younger days and laments that she was never a waitress. She shakes her head and grins as she says, "Every waiter, waitress, bartender, restaurant manager, there´s hundreds of thousands of people affected by this stuff who would have known more about it than I did." She´s referring to the notorious tangle of state regulatory trip wires and pitfalls, good ole boy network, and sheer competitiveness that makes up the alcoholic beverage industry in Texas.
Farmer´s market stand? No way.
But, ignorance is bliss, remember?
Being the high tech person she is, Paula developed a business plan, then began slogging her way through the maze of city permitting. Although completely befuddled at times by the logic of that process, nevertheless Paula successfully negotiated it and even found it somewhat enjoyable.
About the same time, a friend who owned a liquor store encouraged her to focus on her orange liqueur as an alternative to the much higher priced Cointreau and Grand Marnier. Texas IS margarita country after all. He felt there was a real mid-price gap Paula could exploit with a good product. Think: top-shelf margaritas.
Paula remembers hearing over and over, "you know this business is all about relationships, don´t you?" Today, she would characterize them as ´warnings worth heeding´ but at the time she just thought "yeah, yeah, relationships, of course". Now, she sees just how profound those warnings were.
A micro lesson from Paula on the wine and spirit industry…"a small number of families, a small number of people have been in positions in this industry for a long time and exert lots of influence in certain ways. And most alcohol is marketed by multi-billion dollar companies, in fact, 95% of alcohol is marketed by gigantic corporations. Distributors and their big customers have big relationships. I didn't have those kinds of relationships." Translation: for outsiders, getting market share can be a very tough battle.
As a distiller, she is forbidden to ´sell´, she can only market her products. Getting a distributor to pick your product up is one thing, she found. Getting them to actually sell it is another story altogether. Paula has many an example of the roadblocks, the polite lip service followed by non-action, the ´now little lady-s", and other trials she´s learned to navigate with the various players in this business.
For all that, Paula has persisted and steadily grown her ´cellos into one of the most well-known locally produced spirits in Texas. Recently, in a poll taken by Austin American Statesman readers, Paula´s Texas Orange got 41% of the vote for Best Locally Produced Wine, Beer or Spirit out of a number of distillers who have since sprung up.
Paula attributes her success to playing up the local angle, getting out there to make as many friends as possible, and trusting that the grassroots would do what relying on the ´system´ would not. She and her husband have achieved their goal by becoming staples in the regional food and wine business. But, she knows there is a lot more marketing to be done and many more niches to target.
Thoughtfully, Paula acknowledges that her reticence to be confrontational has been a hindrance. It´s critical, she thinks, to learn that skill or at least have someone around who is willing to stand the heat. She and I ponder why women seem to have a harder time doing that than men. The contributing factors are too numerous to go into.
Although she doesn´t consider herself particularly persistent, her success would tell another story. Flexibility is important too. "You can make a plan then one day you see a flaw in it. You have to think how to fix that without blowing everything else out of the water."
And ignorance? Paula laughs as she says, "Self-delusion is real handy. If you knew all the facts, you´d probably never jump in."
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