Dale Morris Case Study Essay

Dale Morris was salesmen by trade and culinary hobbyist by night. Morris experimented with traditional home cooking and more exotic gourmet cooking; he was health conscience and read a lot about the health hazards of the American diet. Through his hobby he acquired an appreciation for herbs and spices. Morris created a low-salt seasoning mix, based on a nutritive yeast extract, which could be used to replace salt in most cases. Morris debuted his seasoning salt mix at Thanksgiving dinner in 1993, and it was a hit! From there while continuing and excelling at his day job, he perfected his seasoning salt mix over the next couple years. Morris test marketed his product through a church group while searching for ways to expand and commercialize

his at home operation. In 1995 he incorporated his company as “Nature Bros. Ltd”, and named his product “Nature Bros. Old Fashioned Seasoning.”
Morris worked on his product from home and was able to raise $65,000 to lease manufacturing equipment and lease building space, by selling stock to his mother and two co-workers; they all became 15 percent owner in the company.

With that investment he was able to get the product into the retail market by August 2002. In a short amount of time Morris was able to contract with food brokerage firms to place his product in a 10 state region. By 2004 his goal was to expand into additional markets and finish and market two new products.

Morris visibly has an understanding of how he wants to progress Nature Bros. Ltd., he has solid financial projections, which have been well thought out. However, I believe he needs to create a business plan in order to find the capital for the further development he is looking for. The business has been fairly successful and Morris fully understands the market shares and what percentage he will be focusing on. By creating a through business plan, prospective investors will have a clear understanding of where the company has been, how it has reached its current status and where Morris would like to take it.

I found this case study particularly interesting; in retrospect this class would have been extremely helpful prior to starting my husband’s business. I now see the importance of having a clear financial plan and projection, along with a strong command of your market share. My husband and I have been able to muddle through the areas were did not know or understand in running a business, but prior knowledge would have been a valuable

tool.