“I make a full-time income selling my homemade salsa!”
Do others rave about your recipes? You too can rake in the cash! Here’s how
As
a single mother of seven, I was looking for ways to feed my family. I’d left Mexico as a teen, didn’t speak English and never finished high school. With so many kids to support, things seemed hopeless. But I started dreaming about combining my love of cooking with my Mexican heritage to make money, and everyone loved my homemade, heart-healthy salsa, so I decided to try selling it.
“With the help of my kids— who literally chopped tomatoes in our home kitchen—my
current husband, Jim, and I applied stickers of the logo to plastic containers bought through a restaurant supply store, filled and sealed them, and Salsa Queen salsa was born.
“I started by selling through Facebook, piling the kids in the car to deliver orders around the neighborhood. Soon, I decided to try selling at farmers markets. My first day out confirmed that my salsa had potential because I sold all 100 jars that I’d brought with me, earning $500 in just 2 hours.
“That summer was truly pivotal, a family affair, with the kids pitching in every weekend at farmers markets. Jim, who today is the business’ managing director, kept pushing me, urging me to try selling in stores, something I thought was crazy and way out of reach. But today, six and a half years later, Salsa Queen is in more than 230 stores across 14 states. And as a reflection of how invested I am in my brand and the new life it’s brought me, I legally changed my name to Salsa Queen!”