Guest Blog: Lil Orchard Baby Foods

Hey, Local Laundry fam! Today we have a very special guest blog from our friends at Lil Orchard Baby Foods. Recently our team and Kristi, Lil Orchard Baby Food's owner and founder, got together for a little collaboration. We found out that Kristi is a huge supporter and donator to the Children's Cottage Society.

After getting into a little trouble together we decided that the month of April 10% of our online profits will go straight to the Children's Cottage Society! Keep reading to find out more about Lil Orchard Baby Foods, Kristi's story about starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur and how you can save on your next order of Lil Orchard Baby Foods! Read, scroll and enjoy!

Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would end up running a baby food company, but here I am…. Proud owner of Lil’ Orchard Baby Foods, here in Calgary. I am pretty sure that I shocked family and friends when I announced I was starting this endeavour and would not be returning to my career in emergency response planning once my Maternity Leave ended.

When it came time to transition my daughter to solid foods, I didn’t know where to begin. I didn’t understand the room temperature baby food on the store shelves, so after doing a little research, I learned that homemade was best and started making her food myself. I saw an opportunity to help other busy families so, with my wonderful husband’s support, and the perfect little taste tester/model, I jumped in with both feet and launched Lil’ Orchard in March of 2017.

I like to think I have a pretty typical business start-up story; I started making flash frozen purees and naively thought that parents would come running. I envisioned the empty freezer shelves and trying to keep up with demand. Instead, I filled a huge freezer in Chongo’s Produce Market, launched my website, posted announcements on my brand-new Facebook and Instagram pages but no one came. Ok, a couple friends may have shown up to make sympathy purchases, but let’s just say that parents weren’t fighting over the last bag in the freezer.

I quickly realised that I had a lot to learn and needed a plan. I had to figure out how to get people to know that I exist. I started teaching myself about social media, reading business books from the library, listening to audio books about marketing, taking online courses, watching YouTube tutorials, and THANKFULLY started meeting other business owners (mainly in the baby industry). I have honestly met some wonderful people that have been supportive and all around amazing. Friends and family may get bored hearing you talk about your business constantly, but other small business owners seem to ‘get it’. We have many of the same challenges, so there is a lot to talk about and can result in some instant connections, which has been amazing and something I did not expect.

Now back to the issue of a freezer filled with baby food. I needed to figure out what to do with it before it expired. Luckily, a friend told me about the crisis nursery. The Children’s Cottage Society Crisis Nursery temporarily takes in babies/kids facing a crisis (newborn to age 8). I reached out to them and shortly afterwards I was at the nursery meeting with their incredible team. I knew right away that this was something that I wanted to be a part of. I wasn’t even deterred when our meeting was interrupted due to a distracted driver smashing into my car parked out front but that’s another story…

Slowly (painfully at times) business began to increase. I believe that a lot of my growth is due to collaborating with other local businesses and individuals. It can be scary to reach out to a stranger, but you might be pleasantly surprised at who is willing to respond! I am so grateful to have found people willing to take the time to offer me some much-appreciated business advice and put me in contact with the right people. Local Laundry is a great example of this.

Local Laundry is an incredible company with a brand that is all about building community. I was thrilled when I recently discovered that they have a kids clothing line. I love being able to wear a shirt that says I am proud of where I live and now my daughter can too! I reached out to Local Laundry to see if they might be interested in a collaboration to raise awareness for the crisis nursery and here we are! For the month of April, we are both donating 10% of our profits to the Children's Cottage Society. To see how you can get involved and to find out more about this amazing charity, please go to www.childrenscottage.ab.ca

When shopping at www.lilorchard.ca, enter promocode: LOCAL15 for 15% off your order!

Tune in next week to see what we have on the blog! If you or someone you know would like to be a guest blogger on our blog drop us a line! Chat at chaaa next week Canada - stay local!