{"id":63393,"date":"2017-12-11T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.com\/?p=63393"},"modified":"2017-12-31T21:31:08","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T02:31:08","slug":"womenmadela-guest-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/2017\/womenmadela-guest-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Makers Joining Forces:
A Brief History of WomenMadeLA"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From left to right, Debbie, Sashee, and Lori<\/p><\/div>\n

Three women, three companies, and three uncommon goods that represent the food we grew up loving, by Debbie Mullin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years ago, in the infancy of our businesses, the three of us\u2014Sashee Chandran<\/a>, Lori Sandoval<\/a>, and me, Debbie Mullin<\/a>\u2014kept running into each other. We were handing out samples at the same market, renting time at the same commercial kitchen, and neighbors at the same gigantic trade shows. When the three of us finally sat down to chat about our LA-based companies, we realized they all faced the same exciting but daunting challenges with growth\u2014expensive LA real estate, setting up distribution, finding good employees, etc.\u2014all on top of being women and minority-owned businesses. Each of our companies needed so much to keep growing, but we didn\u2019t know how to afford it all at once.<\/p>\n

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Enter: WomenMadeLA<\/a>.\u00a0The three of us joined together a year ago to form our collective and formally support one another through shared resources for our quickly growing small businesses. Since then, WomenMadeLA<\/a> has moved to a large downtown office to accommodate growth, and has even added new companies. The collective now employs three full-time staff for all our photography\/video, graphic design, and social media needs and to keep all WomenMadeLA<\/a> products looking as good to their customers as they taste at home.<\/p>\n

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Being able to employ full-time employees across all three companies helps us find, support, and maintain really great talent. With a product-focused start-up, you can\u2019t afford to waste any money. With WomenMadeLA<\/a>, we all find ways to help each other maximize our efforts, and I\u2019ve found savings through everything from repurposing another company\u2019s boxes to sharing an effective social media strategy. The gains this past year of working together have been critical to my growth\u2014I now work with over 1000 retailers!\u2014and to the success of my Vietnamese Coffee Portable Pour-Overs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Brunch-in\u2019 with Chilaquiles. Light and delicious \ud83d\ude0b<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by SALSAOLOGY Cooking Sauces (@salsaology) on