The second person needed was an experienced Sales Manager. This would have to be someone who had several years experience in working with food service distributors. The person must support the same beliefs in quality food and service as Mr. Woodall and Mr. Krezanosky.

Next, Ron's Home Style Foods needed a production supervisor who would also be a jack-of all-trades. This person would work in production, sanitation, janitorial and make deliveries. The job would require long, hard hours of work and a very good attitude.

The next and last person needed to launch Ron's Home Style Foods was an accountant.This person would have to be an experienced accountant, have a good personality and be strong enough to handle slow paying accounts. The accountant would double as a receptionist, order taker, and secretary.

With the management team in place, Ron's Home Style Foods had to develop a marketing strategy.

1. We must produce salads that look and taste homemade.
2. Our salads would be produced fresh daily, using only high-quality ingredients.
3. Making salads in our Houston plant would enable most distributors to receive more than one order per week, if they choose. This way the distributors customers could be served fresher salads.
4. We had the right recipes and new look in packaging. Now all that is needed is distribution. With samples of our three initial products (potato salads, cole slaw, and BBQ beans) and plenty of enthusiasm, we began knocking on distributors' doors.

However, we soon discovered that the doors would not open. The major distributors were carrying at least two different salad lines. These salad lines offered at least 30 to 40 different salads. The last thing the distributors needed was a small, new company with only three salads to muddy up the water. But we felt we had all the answers:

1. We made the products the way people in our part of the country are used to eating.
2. Our packs were small for better turns of product.
3. Expiration dates were easy to read.
4. Because we produce our salads daily in Houston, we have the advantage of offering the freshest product available.