Indio Woman’s Homemade Salsa Makes It To Store Shelves

Two years ago, Cindy Holleman needed to supplement her income.

She didn’t have to look far for her second job. She began marketing her prize-winning salsa to local shops.

Jensen’s Foods wanted it.

“Shocked! I was not prepared,” said the Indio resident. “I was not prepared with pricing or anything or stickers or nothing!”

Her product is called Stick Figure Salsa, which comes in three flavors: mild, medium and spicy.

She explained how she came up with the name. “We play Pictionary. It’s stick figure horses or whatever. We were trying to figure out a name, and we’re doing the same thing we always do. I’m like, ‘It’s right there [on the paper]! It’s Stick Figure Salsa. It has to be!'”

Holleman didn’t get this far by herself. She received business counseling from a national, non-profit group called SCORE. Its counseling sessions are free.

Nick Kraushaar was Cindy’s counselor. “We gave her the kind of support we can at SCORE,” he said. “But, it was up to her, and she did it all.”

Kraushaar said there are three ingredients to a successful idea: hard work, attention to details and a niche for your product.

Holleman said her counselor initially thought she was crazy. “Because we were selling salsa in a primary Hispanic community,” she explained. “Everybody’s grandma is making it, and here we were trying to sell it.”

Holleman invested about $10,000 into her salsa, and she’s inching closer to making a profit. Her ultimate goal was to sell her salsa nationally. She hoped one day her stick figures turned into six figures.