All Star Fundraising

The following post is a short descprition of how All Star Fundraising got started and what we do.

Seven years ago Austin and I opened a pizza restaurant in Lewisville Arkansas with my sister and her husband, Tim and Amanda Harper. Austin was in his second year of college and I had one class (a correspondence class) left. Tim was pastoring a church, teaching, and coaching in Lewisville. The restaurant was slow during the summer months so we decided to start selling our pizza's as a fundraising product. We bought a shrink wrap machine and printed our own fliers. We had a few groups run with our pizza's.



We then decided that we would look for other products to supplement the pizza. Tim had sold Butter Braid in the past with his football players so they got online and inquired about becoming a dealer of the product. We met with a representative for the company and signed on to become a Butter Braid dealer. We also made our own cookie dough in the pizza restaurant and packed it in 5 lb tubs (lots of work).



After about six months of preaching, coaching, and a new position of Regional Fellowship of Christian Athletes director, Tim decided that he had too much going on to pursue the fundraising business. Austin was going to school full time and also playing college football at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. Shortly after the business began he realized that he couldn't grow the business and continue to play football. He quit football and changed his major to business. After one more year of school Austin decided to pursue the business full time. We talked with other dealers and saw the great potential Butter Braid had to offer. Over the past six years we have grown our business at a rate of at least 50% per year. We have grown to be one of the top dealers in the country.



Now we only carry Butter Braid brand products with the Butter Braid pastry as our main product. It accounts for about 95% of our sales. Within the last few years we have hired a few employees, all of which happen to be family at the moment. Our marketing area consist of NE Texas, North Louisiana, Arkansas, and the Memphis metro area. The first few years we only had the Texas and Louisiana areas. About three years ago we picked up Arkansas. Austin's mom Sheila began working with us to cover the Arkansas area. Two and half years ago we decided to move to Southaven, Mississippi (a suburb of Memphis). We had been looking to hire an employee to cover the Texas and Louisiana area for us. My brother Adam and his wife Amber became available and were willing to move to Shreveport. We have been soooo blessed to have our family work with us. They have been awesome. The first year that we had all three employees our sales doubled.



What our company does is help fundraising groups plan and run their fundraiser using our products. Austin's office is in our home. I bake samples of the product and he will take them out and "sample" potential groups. If a group decides to run with our product we help them plan their sale dates and send them a start up packet. At the end of the sale they call us with their order. We then deliver their product the following week. That's the basic day to day operation of the business. It is a seasonal business that runs along with the school year so we have a lot of vacation time. If anyone would like more information on the product or the business you can go to the website at http://www.butterbraid.com/ .



So much for the short explanation of the business. Sorry it's so long.