Amtrak's Acela Express, with service between Washington, DC,
and New York. A Lamborghini Diablo. Misspent youth.
Some things go fast. And some things grow fast. Weeds. Amy's
Kitchen. Or the caterpillar, the world's fastest-growing
animal; some types can eat their full body weight in a day. Wait,
wait. Back up. Amy's Kitchen?
Are you craving vegetable pot pie? Or a can of soup with
organically grown ingredients? Perhaps some nonprocessed pasta
sauce? Amy's Kitchen will deliver. Figuratively speaking. This
is not Domino's; rather, it's a brand of frozen food
product you can find in plenty of grocery stores nationwide.
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Named after their baby daughter, it's the brainchild of
Rachel and Andy Berliner, who set out to start a small
business-"I thought it might bring us $3 million a year,"
says Andy-and somehow proved you can stay true to yourself and
become filthy rich in the process. Last year, their company made
$90 million in retail sales; this year, it should exceed $100
million. They have 650 employees, and their products can be found
across the United States and around the globe.
There are no rules to starting a business, of course. But if you
want your business to grow quickly, here are some helpful
suggestions, courtesy of Rachel and Andy Berliner.
Brainstorm
It was 1987. Rachel, then 33, and Andy, then 40, were expecting
their first child. They wanted some stability for their daughter
and independence for themselves. So they decided to start their own
business. But what kind? Like many novice entrepreneurs, they had
desire, but no idea.
The idea came when Rachel started worrying about how she was
going to be able to cook nutritious meals for herself and her
equally health-conscious and vegetarian husband once their twosome
turned into a threesome. There seemed to be no satisfying
microwavable convenience-food items aimed at vegetarians. And so an
idea was born.
So was a baby. Amy arrived several months before they
incorporated in 1988, and Rachel and Andy finally decided what to
make. "One of our ideas was a pot pie, because we had-well, at
least I had-grown up on Swanson's and Banquet pot pies, and a
vegetarian could no longer experience that," says Andy.
"And I thought, there have to be other vegetarians who feel
that way. I mean, it's comfort food. It's a memory from
childhood. So that was our first product, an organic vegetable pot
pie."
The company name, too, came from brainstorming. "We thought
of Natural This and Natural That," says Andy, "but they
all sounded like every other health-food product. Finally,
Rachel's mom said, 'What about Amy's
Kitchen?'"
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