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Recipe for success … Fledgling small business finds market outside Magic Valley, ID

It’s not often you see a Twin Falls resident hawking products on cable shopping network QVC. But that’s exactly where Courtney Campbell was last week, selling Celtic-themed dip mixes and hand-thrown pottery dipping bowls to an audience of millions.

So what’s the secret to convincing home shoppers to buy your product?

By Megan Hinds
Times-News writer

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=5738

"You’ve got to act pretty cheesy," Campbell said Monday afternoon.

Campbell, owner of Twin Falls-based PM Companies, sells her dip mixes and bowls under the brand name Pete McCleary’s.

The company, which passed the year mark in April, is continuing to grow by the day, Campbell said. The 1,000 units Campbell sold on QVC in just eight minutes — despite her near-midnight time slot — were "a big help," she said.

Luck of the Irish

Campbell’s Irish heritage sparked the idea for the company. The company’s namesake is an ancestor of the Campbell family, and the company’s dipping bowls are designed after the earthenware bowls Campbell’s grandmother used to keep foods warm or cold, Campbell said.

The Pete McCleary’s bowls feature a two-part design: a bottom bowl that holds ice water or boiling water, and a second bowl that holds the dip. The water helps to keep the dip at an even temperature, Campbell said.

Customers can choose between hand-thrown pottery bowls, made in Seattle, and factory-made bowls the company imports from China. The China-made bowls offer a more affordable choice, Campbell said.

The hand-thrown bowls retail for $40, while the imported bowls sell for about $10 less. Both come in a variety of colors.

Each packet of the company’s powdered dip mix holds a mix of spices and herbs which can be mixed with sour cream and mayonnaise and served in the bowls. The 14 mixes range from "Haypenny Artichoke" to "Luck O’ the Irish Jalapeno."

"They’re fat-free and carb-free," Campbell said.

Working for free

Pete McCleary’s started as a hobby and quickly grew into a full-time enterprise, Campbell said.

With an initial investment of about $25,000, Campbell and several family members began selling the dip mixes and bowls at local county fairs and home shows. The idea caught on quickly, and the company turned a profit just three weeks after its inception, said company bookkeeper Suzan Campbell, who is Courtney Campbell’s mother.

Now the company’s revenues per month are more than $50,000, Courtney Campbell said. But most of the profits go right back into the business, paying for travel expenses and importing costs.

PM Companies has seven employees, including Courtney Campbell and her parents, a distributor in Boise and another in Phoenix and a truck driver. Matt Sorensen of Boise is the company’s marketing and promotions specialist.

Sorensen and the distributors are paid by the volume of product they sell. But Courtney Campbell and her parents "are yet to be paid," she said.

"They do it out of the love of their hearts," Courtney Campbell said Monday. "Isn’t that right, Mom?"

"You betcha," Suzan Campbell replied.

The family knows it’s playing a dangerous game — so many small businesses lead painfully short lives. But these entrepreneurs are determined.

"They’ll have to kill us to get rid of us," Courtney Campbell said.

On the road again

Courtney Campbell and Sorensen are constantly on the road, promoting Pete McCleary’s products at gourmet food trade shows, home shows and the like. The pair will visit a San Francisco gourmet food conference this week — where they anticipate $30,000 in sales — and plan to take their products to Philadelphia and Cleveland this fall for a trade show hosted by the Food Network.

"We’ve hit 35 states in three months," Courtney Campbell said.

But the company’s swift growth has made it nearly impossible to market its products to area businesses, she said. While the company is based in Twin Falls, shoppers won’t find Pete McCleary’s dips and bowls in any local stores.

"Our focus has been on wholesalers, and then the QVC thing happened," Campbell said. "Now our focus is to go to small businesses."

But local foodies can track down Pete McCleary’s products on the company’s Web site, http://www.petemcclearys.com. In her garage, Campbell stores more than 2,000 bowls and "tons" of packets of dip mix that will be sold online.

Kent Teichert of a Bosch Kitchen Center in Sandy, Utah, saw the Pete McCleary’s products at a recent California trade show and thought they would fit in well with the store’s existing inventory. The store sells high-end Bosch mixers and various kitchen appliances and utensils.

The store bought about 30 bowls and more than 300 packets of dip at the show, Teichert said. The products have sold well so far, but Teichert expects sales to do especially well during the winter holiday season.

"The thing about (Pete McCleary’s) products is that you can’t get them anywhere else," Teichert said.

Times-News business writer Megan Hinds can be reached at 735-3238 or [email protected].

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