Connecting the meal assembly dots
May 5th, 2008 | 
Author: Since Sean wrote his post about Make and Take Gourmet and Meal Prep Marketing being the same company it renewed my interest in the relationship between those who sell meal assembly franchises (or promote them) and those who own software/advertising/marketing/PR firms. It’s rather interesting to see how these companies relate to each other. In many cases the companies who try to sell you on a meal assembly store are the very people who are going to try and sell you on their marketing firm to help promote it as well as the software to run it all under different company names mind you.
Let’s start off with looking at:
mealassemblyfranchisereview.com/ which is a site that asks “Why is this Food Category on FIRE?” Clearly they haven’t updated their site in awhile. 
When you look a little closer you find this site is owned by Natalie Nutter who owns a whole slew of marketing and franchise companies. Of course, she’s never actually owned a meal assembly store. But if you feel like selling stuff for cats and dog this might be the place.
Some of her sites include:
Epiphany Franchise Group (epiphanyfranchise.com/)
natalienutter.com/Links.html
whitecollarfranchises.com/
juiceandsmoothieguys.com/ – co-owner, but not meal assembly
top-ranked-franchises.com/
mercuryroad.com/
adultdaycarefranchise.com/
bestpetfranchises.com/ – Pets and food, they’re the same right?
Now let’s look at someone who actually does own a meal assembly store; a franchise in fact (or at least she did). Marcia Hales (founder of My Girlfriend’s Kitchen) also owns FranSupply. And what do they do? We take all the work out of looking for suppliers so you can “Focus on what you do best”. A question of debate on whether Marcia did her best to keep her meal assembly company making money.
Her sites include:
mgfk.com
fransupply.com
Another name you see quite frequently in the meal assembly world is “What’s Cooking Software”. They are a vendor listed on the Easy Meal Prep site (and several others) and they provide menu ordering software to franchises and independents. It also appears that they too own a meal assembly store. It’s possible they design the software for their own use and sell it as a separate product. Or they have you pay for the changes and then fold those features in for their own use. Further, they are one of the main sources behind this kitchen coalition idea. Once you break away from your franchise or band together as independents you can then buy their software for your new business venture. Nice way to make money all around.
Some of their sites include:
Whatscookingsoftware.Com – software
Mealsmadeeasy.Net – meal assembly store
Kitchencoalition.Com – proposed new customer base
Not to be outdone let’s now look at Easy Meal Prep, the site which is the main source of all the statistics we keep hearing on how great meal assembly is, how much money there is to be made and how easy it is to enter the market. No wait, that was 3 months ago, now they talk about how things are taking a slight pause while the industry has a bit of a shakeout because so many people jumped on the meal assembly bandwagon because it was such a great idea, there was so much money to be made and it was easy to enter the market.
Bert, the head man behind Easy Meal Prep, owns Corp21 which is his main marketing site for listing services for Entrepreneurs which includes:
· Marketing and sales; probably in conjunction with Snapmonkey
· Patents, trademarks, and licensing;
· Financing of emerging busineses; [sic]
· International strategies; and
· Software and Web Applications. Probably in conjunction with What’s Cooking Software.
Of course all of these wonderful services are available through his meal assembly website Easy Meal Prep. You can buy recipes, equipment, marketing material, meal prep software and a whole slew of other things to get your store off the ground. Of course if things go wrong you can always sell the equipment or the store itself right on his site too.
Not to be content with just one site, Bert also had a hand in making the IAMPB (International Association Meal Prep Businesses). Further he is now a driving force behind the struggling kitchen coalition idea which as I mentioned is part his idea and is sponsored by What’s Cooking.
At a quick glance Bert is the creator of or a driving force behind:
Corp21 .Com
EasyMealPrep .com
IAMPB .org
Kitchen Coalition .com
He’s pretty much able to get them coming and going. And by the way, he’s never owned a meal assembly kitchen either. He can tell you how to run one, but he’s never actually done it himself.
Next on the list is another meal assembly site with a dash of marketing on the side known as Simply Dinners. You can order meals and buy some marketing material to go.
simplydinners.com/
simplydinners.com/BusinessOps.aspx
I’m sure by now many people have heard of SnapMonkey which offers Internet SEO, website creation, Internet Marketing and online application development. They are also featured on Easy Meal Prep as a vendor. Of course, like so many others they have a site dedicated to opening your own meal assembly store at MealPrepInfo.com. Of course MealPrepInfo points to EasyMealPrep, What’s Cooking Software and last but not least, Snapmonkey itself. Yes, these sites keep sending you back and forth in the hopes you will buy from one of them.
Sites owned:
Mealprepinfo.com
Snapmonkey.com
Giftbasketmentor.com
And finally we have the creators of Make and Take Gourmet where you can buy your meals for the month, purchase a franchise or even attend one of their Franchise Seminars. If you take a quick peek at the bottom of the page you will see their strategic marketing and website design is by Designworks Advertising. Hold that thought…
If you look up Meal Prep Marketing you will notice it is a division of Designworks and is indeed owned by Make and Take Gourmet. The marketing site is: “dedicated to providing you with the marketing materials you need to build and maintain a successful meal prep business.” So another trinity of sites where you can buy a franchise, buy your site design and marketing strategy all from the same store.
Sites in the pyramid:
Mealprepmarketing.com
Designworkadv.com
Makeandtakegourmet.com
Now, opinions may vary on the idea of owning a meal assembly franchise while at the same time owning and promoting a marketing and design firm which caters to other meal assembly owners or the idea of creating a site about what it takes to start your own meal assembly store and then pointing it to the products and services you own or to sites you have a partnership with. Some may say that’s just business and generating exposure for yourself.
Perhaps, but that aside, my issue is the fact that these sites and companies present themselves as separate and autonomous. And these “generic” sites give the impression they are run by someone who just wants you to know about the industry. They don’t mention they are part of a larger network of companies trying to get you to buy their wares.
My point is, not everything is what it appears to be and when dealing with a marketing firm you might need to dig a little deeper to make sure you understand who you’re dealing with.
Other Articles of Interest:
- Connecting the meal assembly dots (Reprise)
- What’s Cooking Software – Where are they now?
- Meal Prep Blunders of 2009
- Mr. Food no-fuss Meals
- Meal Assembly Buyout Strategy
- Meal assembly industry preps for changes
- Why aren’t there more lawsuits?
- Meal Prep Kitchens – A Ho-Hum Recipe Club
- Meal Prep Dominos
- Desperate times call for lies and deceit
Posted in Commentary
Who would you think that the owners of the Make and Take Gourmet franchise had as a guest speaker for their November retreat??? Bert.. I’m sure because the anxiety level among franchisees was mounting and they needed someone to ease people’s fears by presenting an “objective” opinion about the state of the industry… So much for that..
Thank you for finally cracking that mystery. It was becoming untolerable on the forum. There’s something to be said for vertical marketing, having a core business and other businesses that logically support it. I think it would have been ok for EMP if they had not provided substandard information and products at outrageous prices. I bought their store opening package and I never used it – it was so poor quality.
Thank you Tuckerbox for doing all that legwork and connecting those pesky little for us! I know how long it takes and how hard it is(at least for me!)
I KNEW something didn’t smell right and when I found out that Supper Thymes owner went to his first meeting for the EMP sellvention this recently….well let’s just say my spidey senses were tingling, as they were when I found out that the Jim & Bert show were part of the Kitchen coalition. By the way, I heard through the grapevine that we are all doing such a great job that Zors are getting nervous…. I’m not sure what’s coming down the pike (except unfortunately more store closures and the obligatory hair-brained marketing ideas from every ZOR in operation), but would look for Bert to have an announcment about how he plans to save the World-he reminds me of Brain on Pinky and the Brain…
One thing you missed is Marica Hales job as a franchise coach with a company called http://www.franchisecoach.net
The other thing I found out was that Jim owns a data company that actually mines for data/information for clients from the -wonder what they do with that????
Last thing….Keep up the great work you’re doing, the poo has not hit the fan yet, but it is getting close..
Is there some way we can work together to form a site that is based on this information that could be a one-stop shop for folks doing due diligence into this industry- Kind of like an MAK lighthouse warning folks away? I will give you whatever help I can, if you so wish. Give me a purpose and a job and I’ll do it.
K
Yes thank you for all the investigation you do. I am continually amazed at how complicated the web is. I guess you could say these are resourceful people…get you any way they can. My story about about Bert is that I spoke to him at some length when we were posting our store for sale on his site. I must confess he seemed knowledgabe and I gave what he said credence at the time. He was of course willing to provide more consultation on how to turn our business around!
His background is actually impressive (except for no MAK experience) but I was so naive about his motives and ethics.
In my wildest dreams I would not have thought this is the way the industry would end up (or should I say started up?). I can’t help but wonder if the MAK industry is unique in the franchise world or if you researched other industries one would find the same warped intricacies.
Again thank you Tuckerbox for this site and your work. I am trying to move on and yet I come back here regularly to get comfort that the effort to educate the public on the MAK scam is alive and well.
I continue to think this summer could be the wind that makes the house of cards finally fall.
Bert is not a driving force or even a part of the Kitchen Coalition, the only people who can be members or officers of KC are owners or former owners. We had hoped to join forces with all parties involved in furthering the meal prep industry, and one way to do that was to combine our annual meetings with the EMPA annual meeting since it was already established and something in which IAMPB also had an interest. That idea has since gone by the wayside since Bert has decided to remain independent in that regard, his prerogative, and not a issue for us, either. We continue to refine our agenda and have had interest from similar coalitions in HMR industries–the ability to build a buying coalition and yes, work with What’s Cooking to develop state-of-the-art software is exciting, not nefarious. It really is a small world and only some connections are created with malicious intent. If you really want to uncover a scandal in food, start looking at ethanol and all the state legislators that are getting rich off our higher food prices! Bert is not and never was “part of” the Kitchen Coalition–the KC was started by owners, for owners and to the extent that we can draw in others who care about the industry, the better, no conspiracies, really, Lisa
While we’re chatting about this, I found a link on one of the above mentioned websites and found a database of recipes for sale. She wants $5K for the database. In this economy $50 each or $5K just seems like an incredible investment. Anyone have any suggestions on where to get reasonably priced recipes? Or a site that swaps recipes and nutrition information?
There are numerous cookbooks that have prepare-ahead recipes. I recently bought “Don’t Worry, Dinner’s in the Freezer.” Check out Amazon (type in “freezer meals” in the search).
I don’t know if there is any limitation on commercial use but I believe you could use the basics to inspire your own recipes.
Good luck!
Newly Independent, I have that book and it is pretty much worthless. There are several recipes that say, “You can’t freeze this, but we had to include it in the book because it is SO GOOD”. Hello?? The book is titled, “Don’t Panic. Dinner is in the FREEZER”. I have some better ones for you to look at:
The best Make Ahead Recipes from Cook’s Illustrated
The Big Book of Soups and Stews
The Big Book of Casseroles
You’ve Got it Made by Diane Phillips
See if any of those have anything you can use.
Hi,
If you’re bored, you might find this info on the About Us page of IAMPB of some interest:
http://www.iampb.org/aboutus.html
It’s pretty detailed and we made an attempt to be rather transparent. While we appreciate sponsorship and vendor money (unfortunately only received in small amounts) you’d simply have to take my word that the actions of the board haven’t been swayed by any of those special interests. In fact, we’ve probably screwed ourselves by being so vigilent.
Not to take up for anyone, but to respond on a couple fronts:
To give him credit, Bert has continued to remain fairly independent of IAMPB since he resigned from the board.
As for Make and Take, I witnessed firsthand at a national meeting after they opened their first store (and it opened rather successfully as did so many others) the owner and her staff being deluged with requests for marketing details and info. As I can tell, very few people went into the business with any understanding of marketing concepts and most people were shelling out cash to people to design the same set of materials as their neigboring stores. The upside is that their materials were essentially ready to go, off the shelf. Frankly, people were probably going to copy it anyway, so why not make an effort to at least reap some benefit. While I found the materials to be professionally designed and the offerings robust, it was still pretty far out of my price point. I ended up finding a designer online (in Italy as it turns out) and paid $200 for the design of all my materials and didn’t find them to be too shoddy. Then again, I also got ripped off the first time out hiring a web designer over the internet who turned out to be a manic-depressive psychopath that stoled my money. At the last, at that meeting, Michelle was very open about her background and intent to sell/market.
I think the reality is that people get/got into this business and realized quickly that there wasn’t a ton of money to be easily made off the core concept, but they were receiving requests for info and help, so why not capitalize on that. I’ve been asked several times by folks who were interested in my store design/concept inquiring as to whether I would be interested in franchising. (That’s not horn tooting on my part.) I’ve always responded with a heck no, there are already DOZENS of stores offering franchises out there, I’m not consistently in the black and I don’t have any secret formula.
Newly Independent-
Re: your recipe question…
I’d almost be willing to pay $50 a recipe IF it included good step by step instructions in a format and language that I didn’t have to edit, accurate nutrition info AND it came with customer rating info. That’s a big bill to fill. We’ve come up with great recipes that were non-starters from the sales standpoint and recipes that sold well but customers ended up not rating as outstanding when we asked them to rate them. Having created a lot of our own recipes I can say that if you find a vendor that offers you even formatting that works for you and you generally like the taste of what they have to offer it can be a pretty good deal if you don’t or can’t invest the time and energy. Given the time it takes me to search for recipes, draft and edit instructions and then we make at least two full size test entrees…I purchased a few from a couple different sources- mostly to help us get started and get a feel for the process.
I’m guessing by your post you’ve already looked at the recipe purchasing options available on the easymealprep website (I think I just heard tuckerbox shudder), some other options:
1. I of course have to take this opportunity to promote an offering by IAMPB…members can purchase 20 recipes offered by a company called Recipe Growers (new on the recipe scene) for $100. If you aren’t a member, you’d have to pay $100 for membership and then $100 for the recipes. Still a pretty reasonable price at $10 each even if you just signed up for the recipe discount. I purchased the recipe package, but haven’t gone through them or tested them yet. At first glance they look to be in good working order and the recipes sound good- not just a bunch of cast offs. Recipe Growers donated the recipes to help IAMPB raise some money, so all the funds go to IAMPB. After the initial purchase, there is a discount for IAMPB members, but the price starts to creep back up to close to market prices.
2. There are quite a few of us who hooked up through IAMPB that have swapped recipes in batches of 10. If and who you swap with is up to you. There is a posting in the members forum of IAMPB of who originally started the swapping process. Not too many folks use that board I’m afraid, so your best bet is to contact people directly. I’m not sure if all those original folks are still around and/or are still interested in trading. My first few trades netted about 100 recipes all told. It takes quite a bit of work to get them in good shape to even swap. I use publisher so have to convert everything to word.
I use MasterCook for my nutritionals (for all its supposed flaws). If you haven’t used the website recipezaar.com it’s a great one. Though I almost always need to tweak recipes once we test or freeze/thaw and you still have to do station instructions and cooking labels, but it’s a darn good start on a lot of recipes and I love the ratings and comment feature as much as the recipes themselves.
p.s. I bought about half a dozen freeze-ahead/ make-ahead cookbooks early on and generally found them to be a waste of money unless you can get them on the super cheap. I saw the same stuff over and over and over and alot of the recipes require the meal be cooked first, etc.
Recipezaar has a OAMC category where you can view recipes, but even a lot of those fall into the same category as the books I’ve purchased.
p.p.s Tuckerbox, I didn’t mean to be dismissive of your original post or sidetrack or change the discussion. Having participated in so many in person meetings from early on, I was able to connect a lot of those dots from the get-go, so mostly what you “hear” is my lack of surprise or head nodding.
I forget that there are so many folks out there who didn’t have that opportunity or exposure. That said, I don’t feel any wiser, smarter or richer than anyone else at this point.
Tuckerbox:
I posted these thoughts over at franchisepick.com, and thought it made sense to post here as well. Although this thread is slightly different than over there, it seemed to be the most appropriate place.
I run a software company that sells meal prep software, and although I’m a fan of full disclosure, I am going to remain anonymous to avoid the appearance of soliciting business. I’m not going to comment on Make and Take or any of the other business “networks”, but I also want to make sure that people don’t lump all vendors/suppliers to the meal prep industry in one boat. I realize that neither you nor anyone else has specifically stated that, but there are enough of these types of business deals floating around that I want to make sure people don’t get the impression that we are all like that.
First I want to point out is that not all vendors who are listed on the easymealprep (aka Bert) website and newsletter are connected with his businesses. Even though we are listed on his site, he doesn’t direct business to us nor does he get any sort of finders fee – it’s just a straightforward set price advertising purchase. I can’t speak for the other vendors listed, but that’s our deal. It makes sense to us from a business perspective since he has a large audience in this business.
Second, I just want to point out that not all vendors supplying services to this business are also promoters. Our philosophy is to make and sell software that serves the needs of our customer base, whatever that may be. Obviously trying to lure more people into the business would benefit us, but frankly we have better things to do with our time. Even if we did sell things like recipes or “how to” guides, I doubt we would try to hide it under a different company. If you have a respected brand name, then why wouldn’t you want to use it on everything you do?
That’s it, thanks for listening.
Wow, this forum is really depressing; if you let it be. Now look, MAKs have a product that is proven to work, fills a need, and is a niche market. If you have repeat customers, you can get more. If one person buys, others will to. That’s the challenge. I am an independent and we offer top quality ingredients and original recipes. We take care of our customers and tweek our recipes when asked. The quality of your product will determine your success. ie: the auto industry from the 70s to now. Toyota was junk, now they are the top quality and #1 in the world because of it.
The bottom line is, this concept works. Every new concept / industry starts somewhere and we all get better with time. But you may need to adjust your business model to survive. We wrote our business plan 2 years ago. We opened in Feb 08 and the economy has flipped up-side-down since 06. It’s an election year, we’re at war. It’s tough. But, gas is high, travel is expensive, push your marketing because your customers are staying home. Know your customers and be involved in the community. Sponsor one of your customers teams: bowling, baseball, soccer, track, etc. Partner with a local gym or trainer(s) and create a menu based on their nutritional requirements. They will send you all of their customers.
This concept works, it’s smart, it’s convenient, and it saves time and money. What could be better in today’s economy? I know, it’s tough to get people to understand meal assembly. I’m done. Have to get a new soapbox.
You opened Feb 08? Was that a typo or have you been open for only 3 months?
Chris, I am sure I speak for many here. Do you really think that we all haven’t done every thing you just suggested? Do you really think that we all have terrible food and don’t have loyal customers who have supported us? Do you really think that having a quality product is the only thing that determines success or failure? Do you really think that being open for 3 whole months qualifies you to tell us “the right way to do it”? Do you really think that the absolute tanking of this industry is because we were all terrible business people without a clue?
Get a clue.
Chris, no disrespect, and I hope you stick around with us for awhile, but what you are saying now is what 95% of us said almost two to three years ago, almost word for word. We all agree it fills a niche, starts off slow, needs to adapt and that the quality of the food determines success. Those are all valid and worthy ideas, but if you read the hundreds of comments here and the forum you will see that getting traction on those ideas is a different matter entirely. It has been an uphill battle for the last year for sure and that was before the economy went down and food and gas prices went up.
If you have some new ideas, please toss them out there, but please keep in mind what you have said so far, while good ideas, have been tried… again and again… and again… and again…
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