Safe Food Solutions, LLC
In the late 90's, three people - Eric Webster, Lee Biars and Leslie Bucher accidentally met to later form what is now called Foodservicesingles.com website community for foodservice and hospitality industry workers. It all started as a food safety education project aimed at the provision of online training for administrators, waiters and bartenders. Safe Food Solutions, LLC is currently a leading provider of online food safety education for core foodservice employees in the United States.
Leslie comments, "We originally met in the late 90's, as we were all involved in different facets of the restaurant business. This led to our recognition that online training was a missing component of the industry."
Working in the industry for over ten years, and having a hard time dating outside of the 9 to 5 o'clock schedule hinted at an idea to create a dating website for food service workers. Eric and Leslie actually were able to meet each other and become engaged because of a shared working schedule and experience.
"Eric and I are engaged and originally met while working in the foodservice industry", adds Leslie.
She continues, "One day after a strategic planning meeting, Eric, Lee and I began to discuss how many of our restaurant industry friends were romantically linked either to co-workers at the restaurants where they worked or industry peers who shared similar hours."
After in-depth study of the issue and realizing the high potential for an online dating service for restaurant industry peers, the team initiated a website - Foodservicesingles.com - devoted to help servers, bartenders, cooks and restaurant managers to facilitate romantic relationships.
"We moved forward with Foodservicesingles.com at that time with the purpose of offering a site that connected foodservice and hospitality employees who were seeking romantic relationships and also provided a destination where members could share ideas, ask questions, comment on experiences and discuss their work lives," says Leslie.
Dolphin
Building a dating website is a challenge. Not only because there are many of them out there and a good idea is a rare thing to find, but also due to a lack of professional dating software that could meet all the needs of site owners.
"When starting out on this endeavor, we investigated several dating software programs. We chose Dolphin because it was economically priced, it offered multiple levels of functionality and various add-ons (Ray, Orca). The online community of existing users seemed helpful and extremely active in the area of customization, and we liked that there was a dedicated support community, which offered both a place to post questions and the opportunity to sort through existing answers. The Expert and Contributor groups allowed for us to immediately have our site installed and initially customized without becoming experts on Dolphin ourselves," explains Leslie.
The Team did not change much in the default version of Dolphin. Using Dolphin 6.1.4, they have customized only the look and feel of the site.
"We use Orca for forums/groups and Shoutbox and IM/Chat feature from the Ray suite," Leslie adds.
Currently, the site hosts over 800 members and looks forward to substantially building a members base via a national advertising campaign. The Foodservicesingles.com team hopes to reach 5% to 10% of the 20 million US foodservice workers as members.
Interview
Tell us more about yourself and your team. History of the team. Introductory information. How the idea was formed.
The Foodservice Singles Team is Leslie Bucher, Lee Biars and Eric Webster. Our efforts for the foodservice and hospitality industry began when we started our first technology-based firm, Safe Food Solutions, LLC. We are a leading provider of online food safety education for core foodservice employees in the United States, having trained over 200,000 foodservice workers since we launched in 1999. In 2006, the team started Vino 101, LLC, which provides wine training and beer & spirits training specifically for foodservice employees. Vino 101 has now educated over 100,000 foodservice employees with our online training courses.
How did the idea come to mind?
I first had the idea for this site about fifteen years ago after a bad business deal where I was taken advantage of. I have had many similar experiences as time went on as I am sure many readers of your articles have. I have also seen my share of cheaters through friends and family. This only strengthened my resolve to launch the site, it took many years working on the plan and thinking of the perfect name. I finally thought of the name in 2006 and was very happy the domain was available. It took another 2 years to plan how to monetize the site and get the legal work in place.
We originally met in the late 90's, as we were all involved in different facets of the restaurant business. This led to our recognition that online training was a missing component of the industry. Our development of Foodservicesingles.com was similarly formed. One day, after a strategic planning meeting, Eric, Lee and I began to discuss how many of our restaurant industry friends were romantically linked either to co-workers at the restaurants where they worked or industry peers who shared similar hours. It may also be appropriate to note that Eric and I are engaged and originally met while working in the foodservice industry.
This led to our in-depth investigation of this niche dating opportunity. After further study, we found a limited number of web sites specifically devoted to servers, bartenders, cooks, restaurant managers, etc. and none whose purpose was to facilitate romantic relationships. This workforce is often constrained by schedules that run opposite to the typical 9-5, with unusual work experiences and demanding hours, so an online dating community seemed the perfect way to connect a group separated by job position, location and scheduling. We moved forward with Foodservicesingles.com at that time with the purpose of offering a site that connected foodservice and hospitality employees who were seeking romantic relationships and also provided a destination where members could share ideas, ask questions, comment on experiences and discuss their work lives.
There are 2 types of members at FoodserviceSingles.com. Full Access membership is $19.95 USD for 1 year. Full access members can use all of the site's features and functionality. Basic membership is free and allows the member to access all site features except emailing and chatting with other members. Basic members can upgrade at any time if they wish to contact and communicate with another member.
Current status of your project
FoodserviceSingles.com is growing organically, through word of mouth and web recommendations. Our Members represent all roles within the foodservice and hospitality industry. While we have not invested in traditional advertising and marketing, the site has nearly a thousand members.
From the beginning, we wanted to limit the commerciality of the site and have to date, not accepted or posted any advertising. We do, however, recognize the importance of directly targeting this workforce of simultaneous consumers and salespeople, and are currently interviewing companies who desire to be marketing partners of FoodserviceSingles.com. Our marketing partner(s) will be exclusively featured within the site and will have a unique opportunity to openly access an important workforce group. This opportunity is ideal for beer, spirit and wine companies/distributors, as a majority of our members actively sell these products to their customers each day.
Why Dolphin?
When starting out on this endeavor, we investigated several dating software programs. We chose Dolphin because:
- It was economically priced.
- . It offered multiple levels of functionality and various add-ons (Ray, Orca).
- The online community of existing users seemed helpful and extremely active in the area of customization.
- We liked that there was a dedicated support community, which offered both a place to post questions and the opportunity to sort through existing answers.
- The Expert and Contributor groups allowed for us to immediately have our site installed and initially customized, without becoming experts on Dolphin ourselves. We have learned the software over time, but that has not been a limiting factor in growing our site community.
(We recently updated the site for Vino101.com and integrated Dolphin there as well. The site now serves as a support mechanism for our training programs and a destination where foodservice and hospitality employees can share comments and questions about wine, beer and spirits. We were able to install and customize this site on our own after working with Dolphin over the last several months.)
What did you change in the default version?
Not a lot. We have altered code and customized the look and feel of the site, but have not changed the core functionality. We use Orca for forums/groups and from the Ray suite, we use the Shoutbox and IM/Chat feature. Currently, we're using Dolphin 6.1.4.
Expectations for the future?
After completing the process of interviewing and choosing our marketing partner(s), we look to substantially build membership through a national marketing campaign. Over the next three years, our goal is to have 5-10% of the 20 million US foodservice workers as members.
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