The ‘Glamorous’ Life: Heather Stouffer, Founder & President, Mom Made Foods LLC

This interview in The ‘Glamorous’ Life series is with my dear friend, Heather Stouffer, Founder & President at Mom Made Foods. Heather and I were destined to be friends – Sarah Masterson at DC-Baby wrote a post mentioning both of our companies. Immediately after reading the post, I wrote Sarah and asked for Heather’s contact details. Sarah writes back: “Heather already emailed and asked for yours too.” Great minds think alike

Having your own business can be a lonely endeavor. Sometimes friends and family can’t relate (or get tired of hearing about “the business”!). Finding someone who understands the dilemmas, the stress, and can even celebrate the little triumphs is priceless. Heather’s friendship, support and advice has made my entrepreneurial life a little easier.

Over the last few years, I have watched Heather grow Mom Made Foods. I have also been lucky to have my kids be product testers for the growing line of Mom Made products! I think you will enjoy learning about Heather and how she took her passion for delicious, healthy food and turned it into a smart business. [If you have read my Tirade about school lunches - you know I share a passion for healthy foods for our kids!].

Tell me about your business
Mom Made® Foods makes healthy and convenient age-appropriate meals for kids 6 months to school age using USDA-certified organic ingredients grown in the USA. I founded the company with the mission to help children begin and sustain a lifetime of healthy eating. Our foods are available nationally at Amazon.com and in the freezer aisle of SuperTarget, as well as at select Whole Foods, Wegmans, Ukrops and other retailers. Mom Made is known for the great taste of our foods. We believe it’s a combination of our carefully developed recipes, fresh organic ingredients, frozen/fresh process, and a big dash of love that make Mom Made’s foods so delicious!

Did you always want to have your own business? What made you take the leap to start your business?
My parents divorced when I was 9 years old and my brother was 11 years old. My mom went from being a stay-at-home mom to a full-time working mom. She had no choice but to rely heavily on me and my brother to help with the chores. On a normal weekday afternoon, she would call from work after we arrived home from school. She’d tell us what we were having for dinner and assign each of us things to prep for dinner before she came home at 6pm when she’d finish the cooking. I took it for granted that my brother and I quickly learned how to make everything from hollandaise to fajita marinades at such young ages.

The little inspiration for Mom Made, Heather's son, Emory.

Fast forward to my adult life … My husband and I agreed well before we married that we shared a common passion for food. It was our goal to have children who were great eaters who ate a variety of healthy foods. We both enjoy healthy, fresh foods and especially ethnic foods. In 2005, around the time my son was 6-months old and starting solid foods, I embarked on a journey to raise him eating a variety of healthy, organic foods. With a love for cooking and a passion to make sure my son ate only the best, I found myself in my kitchen on Sunday afternoons pureeing and freezing organic fruits and vegetables. When I was in a pinch for a convenient option I found there were no organic food options available that didn’t involve a jar. I believe that good food does not have to be complicated and should be easy. I didn’t eat jarred food so why would I feed it to my son as some of his first foods! I knew fresh fruits and veggies were best, and frozen a close second. I soon realized that there was a need for healthy, convenient, organic foods for older children, as well as for babies. When my friends began asking for my foods for their babies, I knew I was on to something. With the help of my brother, a professional chef, and a passion for organic foods and children’s nutrition, I launched Mom Made® Foods in 2006 at our local farmers market in Alexandria, Virginia. The Mom Made journey began!

What’s the most glamorous thing you’ve ever had to do for your business?
I find that people think that being an entrepreneur in the organic food business is glamorous. When I meet new people at a party, for example, and they ask me what I do, I tell them about Mom Made. It usually goes like this…their jaws drop then they inevitably ask if I’ve seen the movie “Baby Boom” with Diane Keaton from the 80’s (If only I had a dollar for every person who had asked me that question since I started this business…). Then they start asking a gazillion questions, such as how wonderful is it to own your own business, etc. It’s hard for me to answer their questions because while this business is absolutely a dream come true for me, we have an amazing team who I love to work with and I could not be more passionate about our mission, 99.9% of my work days are far from glamorous.

Little do they know that the FOOD BUSINESS IS NOT GLAMOROUS, especially not the FROZEN FOOD BUSINESS. It is not glamorous to put on gloves, a fleece, a hairnet, ear muffs and the warmest jacket you own in the middle of June to head into the freezer to move product or do inventory. It is not glamorous to track shipments to make sure they arrive to our distributors on time. Nor is it glamorous to loose sleep because you’re consumed by all that needs to be done to grow the business.

Mom Made found at SuperTargets!

What is the most bizarre thing you were doing while on a business call that you wouldn’t want the person on the other end to know?
I am always multi-tasking but most bizarre would probably be when I was on a media interview while at the wheel of a refrigerated truck on my way to make a delivery. The journalist knew that I was on the road but I did not tell them that I was driving a truck!

What do you wish someone had told you before you started your business or what advice did someone give you that you wish you had listened to?
I had an advisor early in my business planning from SCORE (www.score.org) who was 80+ years old. She had managed a family business of 20 grocery stores while raising her kids. I told her that my greatest concern was how I’d juggle managing my own business and maintain the relationships most important to me – being a great wife, mother, friend, daughter, and sister and also add in life as an entrepreneur. Her response was so poignant in the beginning when I made the leap to start the business…”Heather, you’ll adapt and make time for what is most important to you as you launch this business.”

What she didn’t say was that the “adapting” would never stop…each stage of the business brings new challenges to the balance in my personal life. I have to regularly tell myself her advice to force myself to adjust and adapt with the momentum of life and juggling growth obstacles with Mom Made.

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve found about running your own company?
There’s nothing more gratifying professionally than having a customer call or email saying that their child (especially the very picky eaters) love Mom Made or that our baby food was a child’s VERY first food they ever ate. It is such an honor to be a part of the change in making our children healthier.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned along the way?
Listen to my husband, the greatest sounding board, when he has advice about the business. While he works full-time as a sports reporter, he knows so much about Mom Made, our market, etc and he’s able to take the emotion out of the big decisions for me.

Looking back, is there anything you wish you could have done differently?
While some of the lessons learned have been hard and stressful, I don’t regret any of them as they have been a part of our journey to get us to where we are today. The journey continues…