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© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com) 1

Jill Blashack Strahan
Tastefully Simple
Alexandria, Minn

A passion for gifts to build a $140 million-plus easy-to-
prepare food business

This profile is excerpted from Bootstrap to Billions: Proven
Rules from Entrepreneurs who Built Great Companies from Scratch
by Dr. Dileep Rao. Copying or reproduction in any format or medium
without the prior express, written consent of the author is strictly
prohibited. For additional profiles or information: InterFinance Corp.
Phone: 763-588-6067; www.uEntrepreneurs.com; www.infinancing.
com

Summary: Jill Blashack Strahan dropped out of college because she wanted to “connect the dots”
of what she was learning. She worked at a department store and a gift store, and then co-owned and
managed her father’s restaurant before starting her own gift basket business. Though these efforts were
not huge financial successes, they were very rewarding in providing some of life’s greatest lessons.

When her son, Zach, was born, Blashack Strahan realized that the scarcest ingredient in life is time.
To make every hour count, she closed her gift basket business, which required long hours but resulted
in earnings less than $6,000 per year. And then another door opened. She was invited to sell foods from
her gift basket line on the Holiday Crafter’s tour in Alexandria. She decided to offer taste-testing, and
to her surprise, her easy-to-prepare foods sold out. But there was no big “aha.” A year went by and the
search for her mission continued. She repeated the tour the next year, and again sold out. One week later,
after reading an article about the success of home parties, Blashack Strahan says something suddenly
went, “Ding-ding!” She got the inspiration to sell exceptional convenient foods through home parties. She
shared the idea with Joani Nielson, who loved the idea and offered to invest as soon as she heard it.

With humble beginnings and big dreams, Blashack Strahan bootstrapped the business with a total
of $36,000 – personal savings, an investment from founding partner Joani Nielson and a $20,000 Small
Business Administration loan. She discovered that people were interested in hosting parties, buying and
selling delicious products, and she was off to the races. She had a clear vision, set goals, did taste-testing
parties, and one by one recruited a sales team. But it was a slow start, causing Blashack Strahan to lose
confidence and get frustrated. Realizing that she had begun to lose faith and that she needed to believe
before others would, she renewed her determination and expanded beyond her wildest dreams. When
she finished her five-year business plan Blashack Strahan was not sure she could ever run a company
with sales exceeding $11 million. In 2008, Tastefully Simple’s sales were in excess of $140 million, the
company was debt-free, and Blashack Strahan continued to hold 70 percent of the company. Until 1998,
Blashack Strahan had never earned more than $14,000 in any year. Dreams don’t just come true. You make
them happen. This is how she did it.

Before the Startup

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com)2

1. Find meaning. After finishing high school in a small farming town, Jill Blashack Strahan decided
to major in English at the University of Minnesota (Morris), where her stay was short. She soon bade
farewell to the U because she did not find any inspiration there, and the learning was not “hands on.” She
started attending the local technical college because her brother Mike had attended the same college.
Her advisers suggested Fashion Merchandising as a major, but because she wanted a broader base of
study, Blashack Strahan decided to enter the Sales Associate Program and then the Marketing and Sales
program. While there she created a business plan as a class assignment. She decided to write a business
plan on a gift shop called Rainbow’s End (where you can find your pot of gold). Blashack Strahan dedicated
herself to this project and was pleasantly astonished when she won second prize at a state business-
plan competition and became a finalist at the national competition. This success boosted her confidence
and became one of the key steppingstones in her life. The first lessons she learned were the importance
of branding a business, as well as the numbers in a business plan. But perhaps most importantly, she
realized that she did well when she dedicated herself, invested the effort, and was passionate about what
she was doing. To Blashack Strahan, this meant 100 percent passionate, not 15 percent. She decided that
she was not going to do anything that did not fulfill her purpose.

Lesson: Jill Blashack Strahan learned that meaning and purpose, as evidenced by passion, were her
key motivators – not money or security. Unlike many entrepreneurs who try to avoid the numbers,
Blashack Strahan learned why entrepreneurs need to make the numbers work. This knowledge can
save you a lot of grief, and later on it helped Blashack Strahan structure Tastefully Simple and make
sure that it was profitable.

2. The first job(s). After graduating from college, Blashack Strahan got a job doing advertising
and displays at the local JCPenney store. After one year she quit and accepted a job at a local gift shop
for less money and no benefits. Her grandmother wanted to know why she was quitting her job at
JCPenney, especially since it had pension benefits. Well, Blashack Strahan wanted to learn more about
the gift business, apply her business plan and expand her skills rather than just dust displays. To her
immense surprise, the manager at JCPenney encouraged her to pursue the opportunity, even though
a new employee would have to be trained. The manager knew that the new job would give Blashack
Strahan a broader set of skills and experiences and help her growth.

Lesson: The experience at JCPenney taught Blashack Strahan that “if we believe there’s more than
enough to go around, there will be,” which she has termed the Law of “Abundancy,” and is one of her
fundamental principles. Develop arrangements where everyone can maximize their gifts to increase
the size of the pie and share in the growth. Some call it “win-win.”

3. Get real. Be humble. About this time, Blashack Strahan’s dad bought a café in her hometown
near Alexandria and asked her if she would manage it if he matched her salary at the gift shop. Blashack
Strahan was 21 years old and clueless about the restaurant industry. But she accepted the offer and
learned a number of details about the restaurant industry and about herself.

• When she was placing her first order for hamburger patties, her food vendor asked her whether
she wanted 4:1, 6:1 or 8:1. Blashack Strahan was confused since she thought she was being asked about
the odds on hamburger gambling! Actually she was being asked how many beef patties she wanted in a
pound. She knew that most of the people with whom she worked knew much more about the restaurant
industry and that she needed to be humble and accept the limits of her knowledge (rather than bluffing)
and ask questions. Acting as if she knew everything could lead to disastrous consequences, rather than
just saying “I don’t know.”

• On her first day as the café’s manager, she found delinquent bills galore – sales taxes, unemployment
taxes and workers compensation withholdings. She wondered how she was going to “eat this elephant.”
The answer was one bite at a time. She eventually paid all the back taxes and brought the café to a
sustainable position. This taught her the importance of organization and structure.

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com) 3

• She had an employee who decided to leave Jill’s Grill in order to take a job across the street that
offered higher pay. Blashack Strahan objected to the employee getting unemployment benefits, and the
employee was enraged. Blashack Strahan learned to handle conflict, be calm and simply accept that
sometimes one is not liked by everybody.

• Blashack Strahan also learned the power of the right mentor to handle tough situations. A local
businessman, who owned an implement dealership and was a regular customer at her restaurant, gave
her encouragement and guidance when she needed it most. This helped teach Blashack Strahan how to
encourage others to reach their own full potential.

Overall, Blashack Strahan managed the restaurant for three years. What she learned there was that
good teammates help, especially when you are a leader who is out of your depth. And she also learned
that sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone if you want to grow.

Lesson: Step out of your comfort zone. But be humble, know what you don’t know and admit it. Acting
as if you know it all could be hazardous to your business. It also helps others who work with you to
ask for assistance when they need it. And surround yourself with good mentors and become a good
mentor to others.

4. New start in Alexandria. Blashack Strahan then moved 20 miles away to the slightly larger town
of Alexandria. When she moved, Blashack Strahan had less than $200 and no job. She tried to borrow
money from the local bank, but it denied her the loan. One day she got a call from Jan Strauss, her high
school teacher and adviser, who was opening a tanning salon. Strauss’s father had been Blashack Strahan’s
mentor in her restaurant. Strauss offered her a job, and after thinking it over, Blashack Strahan accepted.
Now she had the job of managing the salon, which they opened in two months. Part of their marketing
strategy was to rely on a grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing campaign to build the salon’s sales. This
meant that Blashack Strahan had to make sure that all the customers had a great experience at the salon
and would spread the word. To encourage it, they developed a referral program and offered customers a
free tan if they brought a friend. There was another tanning studio in Alexandria, and Strauss’s strategy
was to offer a newer facility with better equipment, an excellent brand and higher standards of customer
service, and charge a higher price – $6 vs. $5 per tan. This was new to Blashack Strahan, who was used to
seeing businesses compete with lower prices. Strauss installed timers so that the tanning session would
end at a pre-arranged time rather than relying on someone pounding on the wall. They offered fresh
towels, headsets, bigger tanning beds and cooler rooms in a new building. They became so popular that
they had more than 100 clients in a day and started to show a profit in less than one year. Blashack
Strahan learned about excellence and the value of a great partnership from Strauss. Even though Blashack
Strahan was not a financial partner in the business, she was the operations manager, and she and Strauss
ran the business as a partnership. They made a good team and offset each other emotionally. When one
was down, the other was up. Blashack Strahan left Sun Studio when she was offered a sales position at
First American Bank to cross-sell services. After that, she and her husband went to live in Sweden for one
year.

Lesson: Do not settle for lower standards and do not necessarily compete on price. There is nearly
always someone bigger and cheaper than you. You may get sales but not profits, and you may end
up in a price war where the strongest win. Learn how to compete with higher standards of quality
and service, and you are more likely to succeed. And never underestimate the importance of a good
partner.

From Startup to Profits

5. Back to gifts. When Blashack Strahan returned from Sweden, a friend suggested they get into
the gift-basket business. Blashack Strahan took a class at the technical college on business plans (many
entrepreneurs proudly point out that they started their businesses without a business plan, but it is noteworthy

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com)4

that Blashack Strahan insisted on doing one for every business before she started and now encourages her
sales consultants to create a “dream map”). When she finished the class, Blashack Strahan decided to get
into the business on a full-time basis. Her friend, who wanted the business as a part-time hobby, started
another business. At first Blashack Strahan sold baskets out of her home. Then she rented a kiosk at the
local mall during the holidays. As her business grew and she could afford it, she graduated to a storefront
and lived in the back of the store with her husband. There were other gift-basket businesses in the state,
so she examined what they did and learned from them. Blashack Strahan not only experimented with the
contents of the basket, but also with gift occasions and themes. She found that creativity in names, themes
and designs had a strong influence on sales, and she added unique gourmet foods. Because Alexandria
is part of the lake country of Minnesota, she started a fisherman’s bait cooler called “Bait & Bobber.” It
included pretzels, nuts, snacks, chocolate fish and other candies, a fish-shaped pencil and soda pop. It was
practical and innovative. To save labor and money, Blashack Strahan planned to build just one basket of
each kind and try to sell via special order. But her first employee, a woman named Glenda, convinced her
that “You can’t sell out of an empty basket!” She needed to have multiple baskets of each style to fill the
store. People like to see, touch, feel and pick up the products they are buying, and want the “experience.”
Blashack Strahan found that Glenda was right. Sales increased, and she built the business to more than
3,000 clients.

Lesson: Creativity is a huge part of standing apart from the crowd. Blashack Strahan learned that
when she had little money, she had to get the maximum bang for each buck. To get that, she had to
develop products for occasions that no one had thought of, and do it with flair and creativity. And she
needed a plan. A plan tells you whether you are going in the right direction to reach your goals. Think
before you act.

6. Know the time value of money and the money value of time. Although the gift-basket business
grew, it did not reach Blashack Strahan’s expectations. She was netting about $6,000 per year and “putting
in unreal hours.” Her son, Zach, was born and now she wanted to spend time with him. She realized the
importance of being effective and efficient and wanted each business hour to show a reasonable return.
She had never earned more than $14,000 per year, and she had to open her mind to greater potential and
higher value. So she closed the store.

Lesson: Learn the scarcity of time. Blashack Strahan learned that it sometimes takes a child to help
set priorities and goals. All of us have a limited amount of time. Those who accomplish much know
the value and scarcity of it.

7. New direction in gifts. After she closed her store, Blashack Strahan was invited to join the local
Holiday Crafter’s tour. She accepted. This was an annual event in Alexandria where shoppers would go
on a tour of various houses, and five or six artisans would sell their products in each home. The event was
held during hunting season, when Blashack Strahan often said “the men kill animals and the women spend
money.” She offered six gift basket themes and also decided to sell seven of her best, easy-to-prepare food
products from her gift basket business. The second year she included her very popular Reindeer Chips
(flat pretzel chips dipped in almond bark with colored swirls) and offered those in the Holiday Crafter’s
tour along with samples. When she began selling specialty foods at Care with Flair Gifts & Gift Baskets,
she had been skeptical whether people in a small town like Alexandria would buy them. But she had
found that they sold very well when combined with food tasting “experiences.” As Blashack Strahan puts
it, “There are no new ideas, just tweaks on old ideas.” The results? She nearly sold out her inventory. But
the idea for Tastefully Simple did not strike Blashack Strahan just yet. She repeated the Holiday Crafter’s
Tour for a second year and sold out again. And she was still trying to find her mission.

She attended a personal-development retreat for four days in September, and at the retreat she
participated in an activity to build a prayer arrow – a stick wrapped with various bright colored yarns

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com) 5

and adorned with leaves, feathers, and other objects she found while walking in the woods. As she created
her prayer arrow, she repeated this affirmation over and over: “I’ll know what I want by November 15.”
The final step: Blashack Strahan planted her prayer arrow in the ground at Brophy Park.

She had the big “aha” for Tastefully Simple at 3 a.m. November 14 following her second year at the
Holiday Crafter’s Tour.

Based on the two Holiday Crafter’s tours, she knew what she wanted to sell. But she did not know
how to sell these products and build a great business―until she saw her solution in a magazine article
about a company that had become very successful selling household décor items through home parties.
She connected the dots between the products, the sales strategy, her skills, and her passion. She knew
that everything about the concept fit.

• She believed that if her affordable indulgences sold in Alexandria, they would sell anywhere.
Her products had sold out at the Holiday Crafter’s Tour and everyone was raving about them. Most
importantly, the feedback was real. Customers had proved it by buying them.

• People loved to taste new foods and got hooked when something connected. And they loved to
chat with friends, old and new. The home parties were ideal venues for tasting, sharing and having fun.
They were fun experiences for everyone.

• She knew that more and more women were working outside the home and did not have time to
make elaborate meals, but they wanted to pamper themselves and their families with foods that were
simple and affordable. So she developed the concept of “small indulgences for busy lives.” This has since
evolved into “The food you love, the time you deserve.”

• The idea appealed to her because she could sell directly to consumers and it did not require marketing
money she did not have, or distribution channels she could not access. The home party was the ideal fit. It
was scalable and she had read of others who had built very successful companies using home parties. She
had attended a few home parties and people (particularly women) seemed to enjoy them. They bought
products and some even chose to start their own business to sell Tastefully Simple products.

• Blashack Strahan knew she was the right person for the task. She had hit on a trend that wasn’t
going away — busy people and great food.

Blashack Strahan knew her direction. She committed to it with her prayer arrow, and planted the
seed to build a mighty oak.

Lesson: To grow, you need to seek the “abundancy” of potential. In other words, think big. Expand the
pie so others can share, and together you can achieve great goals. To build a great business, you need
high-potential business opportunities – the right products, right customer segments, and the right
strategy that grows on the wave of underlying trends. Most importantly, it needs the special gifts
and passion that you bring, and the meaning you give to those who join you. When you do find your
mission, make a commitment and go into it with full passion. Few entrepreneurs succeed at this level
with half a heart. But test, test, test. Make sure that the market is right for your products, and ready
for you. Success requires one foot in your vision and the other in reality.

8. Find the right partner. Blashack Strahan got the initial inspiration for Tastefully Simple on
November 14. The next morning she shared the idea with an acquaintance and local hair-salon owner
named Joani Nielson, who immediately agreed to invest in the plan. Blashack Strahan respected Nielson’s
vision and smarts, and this was the validation that she was hoping for, which gave her the confidence to
move forward.

Blashack Strahan and Nielson were aligned in their vision to grow Tastefully Simple into a large
company. After running her initial projections, Blashack Strahan was fearful that she would not be
capable of running an $11 million company. She called Nielson, whose response was, “If you can grow an

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com)6

$11 million company, you can run an $11 million company.” This was comforting to Blashack Strahan.

But she was not totally sold on the concept of having a partner. Over the years she’d heard horror story
after horror story about the disadvantages of having partners. So Blashack Strahan spent hours talking to
various businesspeople about the pros and cons of partnerships. Every person but one suggested she do
it on her own and without a partner. But Blashack Strahan’s intuition told her something different. Good
partners who have complementary skills and temperaments can help to build a bigger business than one
person alone. Blashack Strahan respected Nielson and knew she was an astute, savvy businesswoman.
She offered Nielson 30 percent of the company. Blashack Strahan retained 70 percent.

9. Why 70-30? It took Blashack Strahan about three months to make this decision. She wanted to
make the number meaningful for Nielson since she had agreed to invest $10,000 – a significant chunk
of the investment in the business vs. $6,000 from Blashack Strahan. But because Nielson would not be
working as an employee in the company and would not have any sweat equity in building the business,
they agreed to an unequal split. Clearly this partnership has been rewarding for both of them as well as
for the company. Blashack Strahan is the leader and the outside spark of Tastefully Simple. And in 2000
Nielson came on board as COO, managing operations and ensuring the company delivered.

Lesson: As Blashack Strahan puts it, “Surround yourself with motors, not anchors.” The right
partnership can lead you to greater heights. Look at Jobs and Wozniak (Apple), Gates and Allen
(Microsoft) and Brin and Page (Google). Get a partner who is emotionally and psychologically
balanced with you, and get feedback from others.

10. Understand the impact of the numbers. When Blashack Strahan decided to start Tastefully
Simple, one of the first things she did was to develop a business plan and run the numbers to see what she
could pay her sales consultants. She concluded they would receive up to 36 percent commission on the
sale of the products, and they would also be paid as they sponsored other people into the business. She
originally planned to pay out 6/4/2, which meant that when the sales consultant sponsored someone and
trained them, they would receive 6 percent of first-line sales, 4 percent on second-line sales and 2 percent
on third-line sales. When she did her projections with these commissions, Blashack Strahan found out
that she would be out of business within four years. So she changed the compensation plan to a 5/3/1
payout.

Lesson: Become a “numbers person.” Everything about your business (including your enthusiasm)
is ultimately reflected in the numbers. Don’t let accountants and others intimidate you about how
complicated the numbers are. Calculating taxes may be complex due to the never-ending changes and
deductions in the tax laws, so make sure you hire an expert. But the rest is quite straightforward, so
understand it. Otherwise, you are driving without clear vision, and sooner or later, you may crash.

11. Goals and assumptions. When Blashack Strahan was developing her business plan, she knew
the importance of establishing good goals – goals that were simultaneously realistic, achievable and
challenging. So she needed to know what to expect from herself and her team.

Initially she started by speaking with salespeople from other companies in the home-party industry,
such as Creative Memories, Discovery Toys, Longaberger Baskets and Pampered Chef, to see what they
were able to achieve. This gave her the range of possibilities and allowed her to benchmark her goals
against the reality of the industry. Then she made educated guesses, writing down her goals, such as the
number of parties per month, the amount of sales from the party and the number of people who would
become consultants each year. And she monitored against her projections.

Lesson: Goal-setting is one of the most important attributes of a leader. Goals need to be in writing
so you commit to them. They need to be realistic and achievable so you and your team don’t get

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com) 7

disheartened. And they need to be challenging so you don’t get sandbagged, and your team knows
that exceptional rewards are truly reserved for outstanding performance. Blashack Strahan has been
a fanatic about quantifiable goals – for herself and for her team. She publicizes the goals and shares
their actual performance in comparison. There is no hiding. The goals are the first thing you see
when you enter Tastefully Simple’s headquarters. She challenges everyone, including herself, which
is perhaps the key reason why she is able to inspire thousands and thousands of Tastefully Simple
sales consultants across the nation.

12. Bootstrap and avoid investors. Blashack Strahan started her business with no fixed costs,
no rent, no salary, and no overhead, and all her expenses were variable. Nielson offered the free use
of a shed on her property for Tastefully Simple’s first headquarters – the building had a concrete floor
and no running water. Blashack Strahan was able to spend money on inventory and minimal marketing
materials, such as catalogs, brochures and order forms, to generate home parties and sales. Her husband
had an income, so Blashack Strahan did not take a salary. Blashack Strahan was the only employee for
several months, and at the end of three years had fewer than 10 team members. Blashack Strahan did
not draw a salary for the first three years of the business. She had taste-testing parties at night and on
the weekends, and ran the company during the day. She lost $6,000 in the first year. In addition to the
$10,000 investment from Nielson and her own $6,000, Blashack Strahan had also secured a bank loan
with an SBA guarantee in the amount of $20,000. In the second year, she obtained a $15,000 loan from her
mother as insurance. By the end of the second year, Tastefully Simple was profitable. By bootstrapping,
Blashack Strahan has essentially built a $140 million-plus business with $16,000 of equity and $20,000
of bank debt.

Lesson: Bootstrapping is a great way to minimize your financial needs and avoid having to raise
equity from investors. Know when to bootstrap (when you have not created value in your venture,
when it is tough to obtain external financing or when the cost is high) and when you need to seek
financing (for competitive reasons, if you can build exceptional value, or the money is available at
reasonable cost).

13. Initial sales. Tastefully Simple’s initial product line included 22 products, with an average price
of $5.95, in a simple, well-designed brochure with line illustrations of the products. All of the products
were specially chosen to fit Blashack Strahan’s goal of being either “open and enjoy” or not requiring
more than two ingredients to prepare. Several products were privately labeled for Tastefully Simple, but
due to minimum quantity restrictions, she was forced to offer some products that were not branded with
Tastefully Simple labels.

Once her inventory was in hand, she was ready to have her first home taste-testing party. Her original
goal was to have 12 people at each party and sell $300 worth of products, for an average sale of $25. She
was also expecting one or two people at each party to offer to host additional parties. She also planned to
have five sales people by the end of the first year. At her first party, she sold about $200 worth of products
to five people (for an average of $40). The attendance was smaller, but the average sale was higher. Most
importantly, four wanted to host parties. From this start, Tastefully Simple has grown to 28,000 sales
consultants nationwide.

How did she get hosts to hold parties? Blashack Strahan started out with people she knew in the
community as well as her friends who would have fun socializing and eating. They invited their friends,
and her business snowballed. As new sales consultants joined her, she offered basic training, which
mainly consisted of shadowing her at her parties. All of the marketing was based on word of mouth at the
grassroots level. She packed all the orders on a pool table. Nielson installed software and entered orders
at night after working all day in her hair salon. Eventually they graduated to Quickbooks, the accounting

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com)8

software package. All sales were for cash up front, and she had to pay for her inventory in 30-45 days, so
if she watched her inventory and overhead, she could have a positive cash flow relatively quickly, even
with a low sales level. Her business started to generate positive cash flow.

Lesson: Sales usually are slow in the beginning because potential customers may not have heard
of you and may not want to buy from a new company. That is why in high-growth companies, sales
grow in the shape of a hockey stick – slow at the start and rapidly after you understand how to sell
and after the market has accepted your product. This is what happened at Tastefully Simple. But the
smart move was to keep costs low and inventory under control so the company would have a positive
cash flow even with low levels of sales. Don’t spend what you don’t make. And make sure you have a
positive cash flow to pay your bills. Otherwise, your vendors will cut you off.

From Profits to the Moon

14. Faith and enthusiasm. Blashack Strahan’s goal for 1995 was to have between six and 18 parties
each month and recruit five sales consultants by the end of the year. She ended the year with seven
sales consultants. She wanted to end 1996 with 30 sales people. She had 33. For 1997, her goal was 100 –
about eight new consultants per month. By August, the number of sales consultants was at 31. Tastefully
Simple’s growth had started to sputter and Blashack Strahan was becoming increasingly frustrated and
desperate. What brought her back to reality was a radio story about Patty Wetterling’s continuing quest
to find her son, who had been missing for a number of years. Blashack Strahan realized that her problems
were only related to business and that setbacks do happen. She decided to accept the problem rather
than hide her head in the sand, changed her business plan to reflect the new reality, redefined her goals
and renewed her efforts. She then went as a corporate guest to Creative Memories national conference,
a nearby direct sales company that was a pioneer in scrapbooking and growing at an astounding pace.
Blashack Strahan listened to the spark plugs at Creative Memories and started to get infused with a
new sense of optimism. She learned new skills as well as the value of having faith in her journey and the
importance of setting goals. When she returned, she was rejuvenated and set a goal of signing eight new
consultants in the next four months. She signed them up in six weeks, and by the end of the year had a
total of 55 consultants.

She knew that the company had great products and they only sold it to people who eat. As Tanya
Roufs, her second consultant, said, “It isn’t like we have a trunk full of toothbrushes. It’s food!” And there
happened to be plenty of people who liked to eat and liked to eat her products. All she needed was faith
and enthusiasm.

Lesson: Entrepreneurs need faith. Faith is about how you can shape the future. To succeed, you
need challenging goals based on faith, and faith based on the reality of the market’s potential
and your competitive edge. The reality was that Tastefully Simple had barely scratched the surface
of the market’s potential, and could continue growing for many years. But to do so, Blashack Strahan
had to believe in her company and the mission, and then act with that belief.

15. Hang on to the right partner. Within three and a half years Tastefully Simple grew to $1.4 million
in sales. During this time, Nielson offered to sell her shares back to Blashack Strahan. She felt guilty
because she didn’t have the time to devote to the company due to her own thriving business. Blashack
Strahan pointed out to her that 30 percent of $0 was still $0, and even if Nielson wanted to sell back her
shares, Blashack Strahan would insist she keep 5-10 percent because she had believed in the possibilities.
Nielson stayed with her investment, and today that investment is worth millions. She is currently the
Founding Partner & Chief Operations Officer of Tastefully Simple.

Lesson: Nearly all companies struggle in the early years. Sometimes the confidence is justified.
Sometimes it is not. So why stay in? Because it is your passion and you alone know whether continued

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com) 9

passion is justified.

16. Stop chasing three rabbits. As she was building the business, Blashack Strahan was doing three
jobs. She was organizing parties and selling products. She was managing her team of sales consultants
and helping them to sell more. And she was leading the business. As she notes, “You can’t chase two
rabbits and catch them both.” In this case, Blashack Strahan was chasing three. Blashack Strahan
realized that she needed to focus her efforts on growing the business by recruiting and training more
consultants, and help them sell more products so that everyone could prosper. They needed to know
how to manage and grow their own businesses, including setting and achieving goals, having parties,
recruiting sales consultants and selling products. If they were facing problems, they needed to know that
others, including Blashack Strahan, had faced similar hurdles and overcome them. If they were doing
well, they needed to be congratulated and given the tools and encouragement to do even better, if that is
what they wanted. And that is what they wanted. They had the advantage of knowing the history of sales
results at Tastefully Simple, and the range of results from other consultants. They could benchmark their
own performance. They could set goals in a supportive group setting and help each other grow. Since
Tastefully Simple pays its sales consultants on commission, it’s important for their work to be exciting,
entertaining, fun, and financially rewarding. This is not always easy. That is why it takes leaders who are
focused and committed to one task―helping their sales force. Blashack Strahan stopped chasing three
rabbits and propelled the exponential growth of Tastefully Simple.

Lesson: If you are a team leader, lead. It is often difficult to be a team member and a team leader
unless the business is very small and simple, such as a two-person carpentry operation (and even
this can be complex). Leaders need to help team members define and achieve their own goals. Their
success is your success. Their struggles become your struggles. Help them and help yourself.

17. Growth phase. Blashack Strahan found that there was plenty of growth left in the company,
and her faith in its mission and belief in its products brought enthusiastic new people to the company
who could feed further growth. Now that the growth had come back, she had to manage the company
prudently. Growth brought its own needs. She started developing regular goals in all areas of the company
along with her team, promoting them and monitoring them. She built the infrastructure needed by
the company and asked Nielson to join to manage the operations as the COO (while Blashack Strahan
handled the sales and marketing). Today the product line includes more than 50 stock-keeping units and
Nielson has expanded the warehouse several times to better serve their clients. Rather than just hiring
for present needs, the company had to start hiring for future needs and move employees to the jobs that
were best suited to them.

In 2000 Blashack Strahan joined a group of CEO peers to learn how others worked through the
challenges of growing a business. She also decided to hire an executive coach to help her better define
her role in the ever-changing company — because her role had changed. Previously, the “hands on” value
that Blashack Strahan brought to the company was clear. Now most of the victories were those of the
team. This is an issue she continues to face as the company reaches over $140 million-plus in sales with
more than 28,000 sales consultants across the United States.

Lesson: Uncontrolled growth can be dangerous. So build the infrastructure to control it. And expand
your skills so you grow as the company grows. Otherwise, you could be headed for problems.

18. The match made in heaven. It seems as if Blashack Strahan and Tastefully Simple are a match
made in heaven – and everyone can learn from her skills. Her values and motivations match the needs of
an organization that relies on thousands of part-time commission-based consultants around the country
for its sales. She leads them by motivating and encouraging them, and helping them through periods of
doubt that she knows they face since she has overcome them herself. She creates a positive atmosphere

© Copyright Dileep Rao 2010 (for additional profiles: www.uEntrepreneurs.com)10

and celebrates successes led by “motors, and not anchors.” She realizes that to be a leader, she has to
know herself, which means being candid and humble about admitting what she does not know. She needs
to have the vision to shape what she wants to create, develop the plan with goals and timelines to make
the vision real and measure progress, and have the toughness to accept the challenge to improve the
business. As Blashack Strahan puts it, leaders need the “skin of a rhino, the heart of a lion and the soul of
an angel” (from the Priorities for Life: Leadership video).

Lesson: We all have unique skills and passions. The first rule of success is to “know thyself.” The
second rule is to design your company to follow the first rule.

Rules for Entrepreneurs from Jill Blashack Strahan of Tastefully Simple

• Dream it. Believe it. Work it. Everything and anything starts with a dream. What transforms
dreaming and believing into success is the willingness to make it happen through action.

• Set goals. Create a plan, build your business with intent, and write down goals that will stretch
you a little further every time. It will keep you moving in the direction of your focus, and it works – the
mind is a magnet.

• Define your principles – and your expectations. Decide what you do – or don’t – want to
be known for as a company. That clarity is foundational, so as your company grows, there will be no
confusion about your expectations. Remember, great things happen through teams, not individuals. We
don’t do it alone.

• Reserve the right to get smarter. When you’re willing to admit your mistakes and embrace
change, it frees you from trying to be perfect. And it helps you discover that there’s often more than one
right answer.

• Be willing to build from least to most. “Least-to-most” means you can start small and grow
incrementally. A company needs to grow at the right pace based on market needs and company resources.
You don’t have to do it all at once, so try to find that sweet spot.

• Know where you’re going. Be clear about your products and your brand. The important thing is
to stay true to the heart of your concept, whatever it might be.

• Enjoy the journey. Be patient with yourself. There’s no pixie dust or magic bullet for success.
We build a business one by one by one. One decision at a time, one sale at a time, one relationship at a time.
So start where you are, don’t stop and the rest will follow.