Megan Weston from Felicity Loft Testimonial about the Alaska MEP
Testimonial
Megan Weston, the founder of Felicity Loft, discusses how a partnership with the Alaska MEP saved her money on an equipment purchase.
Transcript
Megan Weston 00:00
This was like a huge, huge shift in my business is that we started in January of last year working or this this year. So 2023 working with me up on a very specific project. And that was to find a piece of machinery that would. So I did loose leaf for the first few years of my business. And it became very apparent very quickly that customers especially people are traveling. So a lot of people in Alaska, were looking for a sachet, so not just a loose leaf, but a sachet. And to do that you can outsource it, but I wanted to do it myself, I wanted to be manufacturing this product in Alaska as much as humanly possible. And so we I partnered with MEP told them what I was looking for, they reached out to their massive network of people, and worked with New Jersey MEP and who had a guy that they knew who does specific food and beverage, machinery research. And so me up was able to get the funding to hire a researcher to find the exact machine that I should buy. And I had a machine that I was about to purchase. It was $90,000. And I was just in the process of getting the funding sorted out and all of that. And then when the report came back, he had found a machine. That was by the time it's all said and done with shipping and yada yada to get it to my door was $32,000. So sorry, almost.
Curt Anderson 01:41
I'm sorry, Megan would say that number again.
Megan Weston 01:45
$32,000. So MEP saved me $58,000. Because I had found a machine that worked, it was completely usable. It was great. In fact it was the thing is is it was about four times the machine I needed for what I was up to. And by taking the time to allow me to do they're getting their network and asking for help. We were able to find a machine that is great for me, it still has plenty of room for my business to grow with it, but saved me an incredible amount of money and I was able to pay for it out of pocket as opposed to going to have to get financing which you know then allows my my business to stay debt free, which has been a goal for a long time. And yeah, so it was a really a really big deal. And so now, as of like three weeks ago, I am manufacturing. So I was already blending the tea and all of that but now we have these little sachets I'll open one for you. And on the inside is the little tea sachet with even mine's got my tag on it says Felicity laughs and everything. So I make these in here and Soldotna now that is the thing I wish you could smell this.
Curt Anderson 03:04
You know what it's just like a wonderful like a nice warm cup of tea on a chilly day and we want to just sit there and savor that wonderful cup of tea. We're going to savor Let's recap that Megan $60,000 that the Alaska MEP saved you. And you know the great thing about the Mep, they have a guy right? Hey, we have a guy who's in New Jersey.
Megan Weston 03:30
We literally we really had a guy in New Jersey like literally
Curt Anderson 03:35
saves you 60,000 Dime Ron I'm rounding up. Yeah, so CME Joe into the team at the Alaska MEP. God bless you guys what I'm just getting chills this even think about that. But look at what that did for you. And I heard the word, two words debt free and allows you to get your business off the ground and just in. Boy, what a great, wonderful story. Kudos to you for having the humility to reach out and raise your hand and say, Hey, I need some help here. Do your due diligence, do your research and my goodness, that save you. That's a home run. That is just an absolute home run. So what a great win, win win all the way around. And we'll give a round of applause to the guy in New Jersey. Right? So. So for those of you that have so anyway, so guys, when you're out there it is just boy reach out to the Alaskan VP just never know what what is around the corner, what guy they're going to have. Right?
Megan Weston 04:29
I never imagined there was a guy out there whose whole job was just to like, do research and give recommendations on equipment. Now that I'm like in the world, I get it. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad we had a guy. But at the time I wasn't in the manufacturing world. You know, I was in the food service world. And so, you know, it wasn't a resource that I knew that I needed. And by just calling him up having a conversation. Like I just was like, Alyssa this is what I'm trying to do. This is what I need to do. I run the numbers. This is what I I think it's going to cost like, I think that if I spend this $90,000 Like, I'll be able to make it back in three years and it'll be worth it and yada yada. And instead she was like, what if we just like what if we found? What if we just did a little more research to make sure this is like the exact machine that you need? And then it turned out that yeah, it was. Yeah, it was crazy. It was great.