Page 44 - BusinessWest July 11, 2022

Ekus
Continued from page 14
Stirring Things Up
While the Ekus Group remains grounded in the principles and services on which it was founded, it has certainly evolved over the years and changed as the times have.
The biggest change has simply been the emer- gence of food and cooking, said Lisa, noting that, 40 years ago, there were very few celebrity chefs, no tele- vision networks devoted to the subject, exponentially fewer cookbooks being written annually, few who knew what veganism was, and far fewer people who would say they are really into the culinary arts.
Starting in the early 90s, things started to change, she recalled, and today the landscape is much different.
“We’re willing to, and want to, explore food ori- gins,” Lisa explained. “We want to say, ‘I’m going to cook an entire Korean meal this weekend, and I’m going to buy authentic ingredients and I’m going to make it from scratch. People have taken up cooking and food as a major hobby, and it’s a huge sector eco- nomically in the country.”
Elaborating, she said the food business has trans- formed itself into the food businesses — hundreds of different types, from importers to retailers to specialty food purveyors.
The Ekus Group has positioned itself to thrive in this environment, said the two partners, through the cookbook, but also a hard focus on serving those who want to be players in this movement, if it can still be called that, be they book writers, bloggers, podcast hosts, or simply those who want to take their culinary skills to another plane.
Elaborating, Sally said the company is working with several hundred clients a year and perhaps a few dozen at any given time on specific book proj- ects. Overall, the work involves building their brand, she said, and taking them beyond their first book, although they certainly help many get started.
“Oftentimes, it’s not just one book or the first book, although we love that it starts there,” she explained. “It’s the second, the third, fourth, fifth, and beyond; we help them build their brand through their publishing career.”
Lisa agreed, and said the company helps those
Kusek
Continued from page 22
Kusek, adding that they may choose to wage a more difficult campaign to locate in a community where there are few such businesses, or choose to join the growing number of players in communities like Northampton.
“Do you try your luck with the city of Springfield and burn through all of your money on rent, or do you go to Northampton, where you can get a host- community agreement and hopefully get through the state process much quicker, and at least get your doors open?” Kusek asked rhetorically. “You may not make a dollar, but you might make 50 cents.”
Another interesting dynamic was the state’s will- ingness to grant licenses to dispensaries, but not to the cultivators that would provide product to those facilities, said Kusek, adding that over the past few years, it has essentially caught up, meaning that there is now both more competition and more product.
“In the fall and winter of 2021, I had more than
a half-dozen phone calls from people asking me if I knew where they could buy flower — if I knew any- one who had cannabis flower to sell wholesale,” he explained. “I don’t grow cannabis, I don’t sell canna- bis, I write about cannabis. But the marketplace was so tight, and people were having such a hard time
at various stages of the book-writing process, from developing a concept, to finding a publisher, to shooting a photo for the cover.
The broad goal is to ‘position’ the book, she went on, adding the Ekus Group specializes in this value- added service.
“It’s not ‘here’s a book — let’s sell it,’” she told BusinessWest. “We want to identify the unique selling points and where in the marketplace this might fit; how can we help an author and a publisher articulate what the primary focus and goal of this particular book is. That’s what we do.”
“I realized that we were getting the same questions about publishing, and cookbook publishing in particular, over and over again, whether they’re from our clients, the consults that we do, or just general curiosity in this industry.
Moving forward, the company is always looking for different ways to share its expertise in this large and growing market, she went on, adding that this mindset has led to new and different initiatives, such as the online How to Write a Cookbook course.
There are many such courses on the Internet, said Sally, but few if any that bring the Ekus Group’s level of expertise and understanding of what makes a book successful at a time when shelves are crammed with new titles, and more are written every week.
“I realized that we were getting the same questions about publishing, and cookbook publishing in par- ticular, over and over again, whether they’re from our clients, the consults that we do, or just general curi- osity in this industry,” she explained. “So a few years ago, I thought ‘how can we extend a core value of ours, which is to be a resource in this industry?’ And I put together this course, which is an extension of our expertise.”
Elaborating, she said it helps answer questions about self-publishing versus traditional publishing,
finding product, they were calling people like me looking for product. That has stopped happening.”
And that is just one of the many developments contributing to the growth and evolution of the industry, adding that as the sector emerges here, takes root in other states, and becomes more national in scope and reach, there will be many fronts to watch.
These include the ongoing debate about whether to make cannabis legal on a federal basis, what Kusek calls “the next big shoe to drop,” because of the huge implications of such a development — on everything from inter-state commerce to use of the banking sys- tem and all those ramifications — should it come to pass and how it might come to pass.
“There are lots of competing and complementary interests helping to develop legislation, and there are advocates for smaller businesses who don’t want this legislation to be dominated by MSOs or Big Tobacco, or InBev, or whoever else wants to get into the can- nabis industry when it becomes federally legal,” he explained, adding that it will be a very complicated process to take the regulations put in place by the three dozen or so states that have legalized medical or adult-use cannabis, and overlay that with federal policy. “They don’t want the federal regulations to
how to stand out, the role of agents, and much more. Thus far, the course, which features more than 20
“exclusive, insider tips” from Sally Ekus, has drawn considerable interest, said the partners, adding that it complements other services, such as training
in culinary media, which ranges from cooking on TV or before a live audience, to conducting a radio interview. Cooking is one skill, said Sally, but media appearances are another ... kettle of fish.
“There are a lot of people who say ‘I’m a food expert,’ or ‘I want to be famous and cook and talk on television,’” she said. “But there’s a very specific skill and personality that needs to be cultivated and trained, so we developed this program, which is the first of its type in this space.”
Over the past 40 years or so, hundreds, including celebrities like Lagasse, known for his mastery of Cre- ole and Cajun cuisine, have had such training in that kitchen in the Ekus home.
As noted, countless cooking celebrities have come to Hatfield over the years, and now more are making the trek with the new Airbnb, which, as its name indi- cates, has a culinary focus.
“People can visit us, whether they’re a client or not, and be inspired, write, cook, visit the library, and more,” said Sally, adding that as more people become more comfortable with travelling, she expects that the space will become popular with those looking for a quiet spot to create — whether it’s with a laptap or on a stove.
Food for Thought
Summing up 40 years in business and the mindset that drives the Ekus Group, Lisa said, “some people eat to live; we live to eat and to celebrate the writers, the authors, the cooks who are doing it so brilliantly.”
And by celebrating them, it is helping them navi- gate the path to becoming celebrities — on one level or another.
This business is, like those books on the reference library shelves, unique. And as the business marks 40 years, those rooms in the Ekus home show just how far it has come and where it can still go. u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
squash small business, and they don’t want federal regulations to squash social-equity provisions at the state level.”
Overall, he said this White House has not made legalizing cannabis a priority, and he does not expect that to change anytime soon, although he certainly leaves the door open to that eventuality.
Joint Ventures
In the meantime, the local landscape continues
to change, with new businesses, new business types, such as delivery and social-consumption sites (which Kusek predicts will be the next ‘big thing’), brands developing their identities, businesses identifying customers, and much more.
Kusek said these are all contributing to growing pains, which, overall, are a good thing to have. They convey that a sector is expanding and evolving, so much so that the growth and evolution are creating issues, and, in his case, things to write about it.
There will be no shortage of such things for the foreseeable future, which is good for Kusek, and very good for an industry that is, in most all ways, very much in its infancy. u
”
44 JULY 11, 2022
CONTINUED
BusinessWest