When you get married and have a family, most of the time the expectations do not always fit the box we call life. This, at times, means going outside the box, and as difficult as it might be, it is necessary. When starting a business, you have big dreams, goals, and expectations, but in the real world, there is a thing called Reality and Murphy's Law.
This being said is our story of starting our business. With that, there are big dreams, goals, and expectations, but in the real world, you have what you call reality and, of course, Maloney's Finest Mushrooms.
Right as the pandemic started to rear its ugly head, my husband and I were about to have our first child. We are what you would call older parents. I was 36 years of age when I had my first baby, and thoughts of his future weighed on our minds (my husband and my own). I knew what it was like to file bankruptcy and, of course, lose everything I had been working so hard for since my late twenties. My husband also understood the meaning of poverty right after he exited the Army. It is another pandemic, but it's not the one that started as a virus. It is called being smart with money and working to be financially stable. Most people, especially young adults, have bad credit and live paycheck to paycheck, and some never get out of that situation. I didn't want our son just to have a savings account. Instead, I wanted him to start out with knowledge and maturity of the understanding of how to be smart with money. Because I love mushrooms, my husband bought me a mushroom kit, and then that began our road to starting a business. We thought we had done the right thing by doing the research on how to invest our money so that we wouldn't fail. Our goal was that one day our son would take over the business and be self-sufficient and self-sustaining without having to get into money woes. My husband and I wanted to pay for our son to go through Trade School and learn a skill while working with the family business from the ground up. And if he wanted to go to college he would be able to pay his own way without relying on grants and/or student loans. Yes, I know our son was just an infant. However, being an older new mom, I saw my own failures and didn't want that for him. So, we started out ordering everything we believed we needed and started to divide our work so that our son's future could be put into action. I mean, we dove in believing we had done our due diligence, and within the first year, we had lost more than gain. It was a struggle but we didn't want to give up believing we had something worth fighting for. The following year, we took a different avenue by partnering with someone who was established in the mushroom business and farming, but later in the year, we learned his true color. In the third year, I wanted to give up and throw in the towel, but I started reading and studying the mushroom market. My husband, during the second and third years, had to take time off work for sickness and injury, so it was a struggle, but again, this was something new and different for our area. In Tennessee, we are known for music, Bar-B-Que, Catfish, and, yes, small-town living. Navigating through our mistakes and learning where we went wrong our third we started testing new products. This is now our fourth year in business, and yes, it has been a whole other struggle. However, we changed our tactics, so instead of trying to sell kits or simply trying to grow our own, we branched out to what else could be done with mushrooms other than just growing and eating. We also had to be smarter with our money and time. So thus began stepping out of the box. We began making our own soaps, lotions, and other products that mushrooms could benefit others. We also wanted our products to save people money and not sacrifice quality. A lot of businesses lose money in waste, and we needed to nip that in the bud. So, between making body care products for men, women, children, and, of course, fur babies. We also stepped into making desserts and treats but not like others. Which is why we were upfront on our labels. Our desserts and treats are not to be eaten all at once, instead meant once or twice a week. Our products, we wanted to save people money as I have already stated. There are so many products, and people spend a lot of money trying to find those products for their family's needs but also for themselves. How many bottles are thrown out, and how many people spend on something that only works for one or two people in the family when others can use whatever? And, of course, don't forget Fido the puppy dog or Muffin the kitty cat, and either one or both of them have special needs. Which requires specialized products that can cost as much as car insurance or the electric bill. So our soaps, shampoo, body wash, balms, etc., can be used on the whole family and still be more personalized for a person's individual needs. At the same time, Fiddo and Muffin can benefit from our products too. How much money can you save if one product could be used for the entire family and have extra room on the shelves without sacrificing quality and cutting waste for our business? We believe that recycling our bottles and containers by having our customers send back the empty containers and then refilling them saves us and our customers money. We no longer sell kits and give an account to others about our mistakes at the beginning of this industry and the journey of this venture. By doing this, they now have a clear understanding of the pitfalls that we had to learn the hard way. We want our business to be set apart and profitable without sacrificing quality for quantity and to be real with our customers. That's what people want; they want something real without the excuse and empty promises. Our son, being now four, won't know or understand our sacrifices, but one day, he will. We might not be rolling in money, but I can say our son's future is getting brighter each day. Our feet firmly planted on our faith and knowing what we have is worth the fight, I know we have found our niche.
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