By Cathy Spaulding
Phoenix Staff Writer
—
Tahlequah entrepreneur Danielle Coursey learned a few things as she grew her business from a few gift baskets to a food manufacturer with customers across the United States.
Coursey, a 1986 graduate of Northeastern State University who now operates Backwoods Food Manufacturing, shared some of those things Wednesday morning as a featured speaker with NSU’s Battenfield-Carletti Distinguished Entrepreneur Lectureship Series.
“Be willing to work harder than you did in your entire life — physically and mentally,” she told students, faculty members and others who packed the Webb Center Auditorium. “And be willing to do so with no immediate financial reward.”
Coursey attributed her business success to being adaptable.
“Fifteen years ago, if you’d have mentioned to me we’d be manufacturing food products for a living, I’d have argued with you,” she said. “It’s been a huge learning curve for us.”
She said her business began as a part-time venture, filling gift baskets with her own food products. She said she soon learned she had to use a licensed kitchen if she was to sell food products.
“We found a licensed kitchen in a community building and rented it for $15 a night. We’d put everything in the back seat, haul it in and haul it out,” she said. “We decided we had something here.”
Coursey recounted the various risks she took and opportunities she seized.
For example, at a trade show, she ran into a salsa manufacturer who came to her about making his product.
“I wasn’t sure I really wanted to do it,” she said. “Do we really want to help a competitor?”
However, she recalled deciding, “If we can make a dime out of every case they sell, it would help us.”
“That’s what got us into contract packaging,” she said.
The company was incorporated in 1999 as Backwoods Foods Manufacturing, as an FDA-licensed and regulated plant.
“We got our building finished in January 2003,” Coursey said. “Despite my experience, I felt we were going to be slammed. Several times, I thought we were going to go under.”
But they kept going.
“We started looking for customers. We had no budget for payroll, but we had some friends who were dependable who wanted to help,” she said. “For every ‘no,’ I got a ‘maybe’ or a ‘yes.’”
As a result, she said the business grew from five contract customers to 42 from as far away as New York and Florida.
Coursey earned a Master of Business Administration from NSU in 1998 and was a past director of the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center at NSU.
Dr. Jeff Lowenthal, NSU assistant professor of management, said Coursey was “one of the top two presenters we had in the six years I’ve been here.”
“It was the ease of her presentation. It complemented what we teach our students,” he said.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.
