Fast Track

NAME AND AGE: Patricia Green, 37

COMPANY NAME AND DESCRIPTION: Ginger Kids Inc., in Williamsville, New York, manufactures and wholesales children's international baking and cooking kits and conducts baking and cooking classes for individuals and schools.

STARTING POINT: 1994 with $30,000

1999 SALES PROJECTIONS: $600,000

COMBO PLATE: When Green left California to take care of her ailing father in upstate New York, she ran into a bit of a problem--she couldn't find a job. Doing what enterprising unemployed folk have done for decades, the international marketing expert took her vocation, combined it with an avocation, mixed in a chunk of start-up capital from mom and seasoned it with a dollop of educational flavoring to create a line of children's cooking kits which she distributes to upscale department stores and gourmet food outlets.

TOO MANY COOKS: After making sure her company's infrastructure could handle large-scale production, Green took Ginger Kids to the International Fancy Food and Confection Show in New York City. The result: orders totaling six figures. "I got calls from people wanting to license the name, schools wanting me to develop curricula and companies wanting me to private-label," she says. "I was trying to be everything to everybody and began to lose focus." Slipping sales jerked Green back on track.

NEW ON THE MENU: Last May, Green created a Ginger Kids school, which she is now working on franchising. How does the school fit into Green's master plan? "If we're able to franchise," she says, "we'll have a retail area where we can sell the kits while maintaining control of our mission to teach children about other cultures."

This article was originally published in the January 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Fast Track.