ElevateME Protein Bars – Update

August 4, 2009 by · 1 Comment 

It’s been awhile, so busy my apologies. Let’s see, we hired a great new Marketing Manager, Coreylee has joined the team and we’re thrilled and excited to welcome her to the team. She has a pretty big job ahead, helping us grow our Elevate Me! bars to feed more hungry athletes, students, employees, employers, kids, teens and well you get the idea. We’re going to be launching some swag so I’ve had a few emails for stuff like t-shirts but keep ‘em coming and if we do it you get the first one produced.

We just signed on with Canadian Sports Centre Pacific so we will be working closely with hundreds of professional and Olympic caliber athletes to fuel their incredibly arduous training, with the Olympics here in a few months the timing is perfect. We’ve already sold tons of bars to the snowboarders, speedskaters, lugers, ski jumpers etc., Now we just need to share our bars with all the pro sports teams out there, once they try them they’re hooked, so that helps.

We’re offering some guerrilla freebies away so let’s start now: the first 3 people to email me at info@prosnack.com and mention the codephrase “Flumoxed by Calamity” will get a free mix box sent in the mail, no strings…offer good now until Aug 7th 2009….keep on enjoying the ridiculous summer heat.

in GOOD health,
Earl Ellingson
Chief ELEVATE ME! Officer

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ElevateME Energy Bars – Economics

June 17, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

Summer’s about here now and the protein bar industry keeps keeping on. This recession hasn’t affected our energy bar per se, foods are pretty protected from the dips and valleys of economics I guess.

We’ve heard that organics are hurt somewhat as the price is higher and I can believe that. Our unique flavors like the goji berry, acai, matcha and blueberry keep our awesome clients interested. I think its because we’re gluten free and the only simple whey protein bar in the whole wide world too that helps.

In fact, we’re trying to hire our first real bona fide “white collar” employee to push our marketing and sales growth. So if you know anyone with, say, great contacts at Whole Foods USA then send them to me. Of course they should have an MBA and years of experience in the health food industry too. And they have to be super fit and filled with pure energy! And of course we want them to live in Vancouver or move up here too. We’re upgrading our offices and production area to make the bars as we’re bursting at the seams where we are. Calling all experts with nutrition, breakfast and granola bars. We want to hear from you. Once we solidify that stuff and our bigger plant then its time for new flavors and products that will be excellent in quality and nutrition and real whole fruits and nuts and seeds and protein of course.

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Elevate Me Energy Bars – Growth

June 2, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

Wow 5 months of the year are done, when you do this for awhile everything is measured in yearly quarters and we’re almost done the second one.

Right now we’re balancing our growing family with growing the company. Our staff has been fantastic, especially Kurt, as we have adapted to balancing family and business.

So now we are planning to get back into the business mind-set with some big adventures: new staff to promote our beloved bar, new products that will be creative and excellent, and a new facility, because we’re busting at the seams in our current 2 properties. We need one big one!

Stay tuned for the next Elevate Me! Energy Bars whatever, its going to be good.

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Bars are Food Review: Elevate Me! Espresso Cocoa Crunch

May 10, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

We sent our bars in to barsarefood.com for a review and of the seven flavors they chose our “Espresso Cocoa Crunch”. Seems they liked the flavor overall but not the packaging so much, should we tell them that we designed it ourselves in photoshop?

Review:

Billed as “The world’s simplest protein & fruit energy bar”, the flavor of this bar certainly lives up to this intention. Blending whey protein isolate, dates, organic raisins, apples, almonds, cranberries, cocoa, and coffee beans, the product has a very “raw” and homemade flavor to it. It has a dry but chewy consistency, with pleasant notes of dried fruit and nuts, followed by decent note of cocoa and a hint of coffee to the finish. All in all, it’s a very pleasant and satisfying bar to eat. Nutritionally, this bar has 230 calories, 6g of fiber, and 16g of protein, which is certainly enough substance for us. That leaves us with the packaging, which is the largest area for improvement. Specifically, there’s something that’s unappealing about the design, especially compared to the better designs of other players in the category. We’d probably say the same for the name, which sounds like something that’s more appropriate for a supplement product. Overall, very enjoyable flavor and nutrition, but needs work on the packaging.

Link: http://www.barsarefood.com/reviews/2009/elevate-me-espresso-cocoa-crunch/

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ElevateMe! Natural Protein Bars – The Story Continued

May 1, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

So we got out the food processor and started working off mom’s recipe of whey protein isolate mixed with almonds and various whole dried fruits. We found an old guy with a packaging machine who worked on a per bar basis and we used an inkjet printer to make labels.

We didn’t want to be just another bar so we chopped each one into 3 bite size chunks. We’d make a batch, drive them in our 1979 Toyota Corona to the wrong side of town to package, then cold-call the stores.

After a few months we had like 20 stores and we were ready to rock so we got a business plan together, borrowed some cash from the bank and once that check cleared we promptly quit our corporate jobs to focus on the biz.

So we basically had enough money to last 6 months. That’s pressure but it worked and we had almost 100 stores by mid 2003 and it slowly grew and evolved from there: Apartment to nightly rental of catering kitchen to tiny garage factory to 1 employee to 2 employees to 5 employees to second leased space to 10 employees and now we make about a million Elevate Me’s a year in 7 flavors.

Are we rich? No.

Do we work our own hours? No. We work whenever the company needs us to get something done. Such as now, it’s 9pm on a Thursday and I’m sitting on the patio typing under the moon.

Is it worth it? Hell yes, so far so good.

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Welcome to ElevateMe! Blog

May 1, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

Welcome to the Elevate Me! blog.

I’m Earl the co-owner and co-founder with my wife Trish who wants nothing to do with writing about herself, so you’re stuck with me.

Since this is blog 1 I guess I’ll talk about the genesis of our little protein/energy bar project. We started this little company as all good little companies start, either in someone’s parent’s garage, basement or studio apartment. Since we moved around back in the early 2000’s all of those apply. As college students we were living off student loans and my mom would occasionally fire us some of her little creations, called Power Balls (disclaimer: nothing to do with Powerbar). They were ugly little things wrapped in saran wrap but did they ever fill the gut in a hurry and keep the flow going for dubious studying, so we inhaled them.

Fast forward to 2002 through school, a couple corporate gigs in the real 9-5 world and we sit down for a heart to heart about what the hell we’re really going to do to make a living. Our memories tweak back to those powerballs and we start thinking of health foods as a career: They are nutritious, portable and travel well, how can it lose?

And wouldn’t it be fun to own our own company, be our own bosses and work only when we feel like it? Yeah!

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