For nearly four years, I’ve profiled several south suburban small-business owners in this column. With the COVID-19 pandemic still claiming lives and damaging the economy, here is a look at how one of those businesses has been affected in the fifth of an intermittent column series.

Bridgeview resident and entrepreneur Pamela Jones, whose CharBoy’s healthier sauce options are sold in more than 450 grocery and retail specialty stores in the Midwest, was focused on expansion and diversifying into the wholesale arena last year.

But then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, jeopardizing retail sales, hindering her wholesale plans and forcing her to shift gears.

Jones, president and CEO of International House of Sauces & Seasonings Inc., which does business as CharBoy’s, had grown her business predominantly by building brand awareness through in-store food demonstrations.

“When the pandemic hit, we had to cease all of that,” she said.

CharBoy’s sauces include Bourbon, Hot & Sweet Asian, BBQ and Hot & Spicy Ketchups. They are lower in sodium, sugar, carbohydrates and calories compared with some competing national brands, and among stores selling them are Jewel-Osco, Pete’s Fresh Market, Mariano’s, Roundy’s and Whole Foods.

In early March last year, Jones’ company landed its first wholesale purchase order to supply her sauces at a Chicago-area casino. But the pandemic forced casinos to temporarily close, limiting sales there.

The pandemic also forced her to reduce staffing to three people since the company could no longer do demos. Before the pandemic, she typically employed six to eight people, five of whom

were part time, she said.

At the start of the pandemic and the subsequent shut down, Jones worried about revenue. She said she received COVID-19 relief assistance to waive the monthly payment on her Small Business Administration loan for eight months, in effect writing off that portion.

“I was concerned about the loss of sales, the inability to continue with brand awareness,” she said. “That was going to be slowed down. We are in the Midwest, but our goal is to get across all of the U.S. How were we going to continue to do all of that?”

The company landed shelf space in its first chain store, Pete’s Fresh Market, in 2010, and has been successful in pitching the benefits of its healthier sauce options. The sodium content in Jones’ CharBoy’s BBQ sauce is more than three times less than that of some competing brands, and the sugar content is a third of what is found in some other sauces. CharBoy’s Hot & Spicy Ketchup has half the sodium and sugar content of some competitors.

Jones did not want to lose traction.

“We had to quickly pivot to the online way of doing business through social media channels,” she said.

The company reposted its existing cooking videos, developed new tutorial cooking videos and posted photos to social media to help maintain and continue building brand awareness, she said.

“We built a relationship with Amazon,” Jones said. “They provided a senior accountant for one year to help with promotion and advertising and funds to do some marketing. We have an Amazon store to help increase sales.”

CharBoy’s is working on building a YouTube channel to expand its marketing and sales efforts.

The pivot to social media has been fruitful. CharBoy’s sales last year were up about 15% from 2019, Jones said.

“People started cooking more I guess,” she said. “We had an increase of online sales like crazy, and our retail sales remained pretty consistent. Sales at Whole Foods were up.”

Before the pandemic, the company hadn’t focused on social media or online sales. In 2019, online sales accounted for just 5% of sales, but last year they accounted for about 25%, Jones said.

Social media marketing will remain a priority going forward, she said.

This year, CharBoy’s also plans to expand its product offerings by adding a line of healthier seasoning blends. She has leased a site in Geneva to produce the products and plans to launch six healthier seasoning packets in May with longer-term plans to offer 50 healthier seasoning blends on Amazon.

“We will set up shipping and receiving out of the Geneva facility along with manufacturing,” she said.

The Geneva site will employ three to four people, she said.

She expects revenues to grow this year to between $300,000 and $400,000, she said.

The CharBoy’s sauces originated from a former downtown Chicago restaurant she co-owned, called Chickadilly’s Charhouse. The restaurant specialized in flame-grilled food served with a variety of international sauces, among them her dad’s more than 74-year-old barbecue sauce, which he made for the restaurant. Jones revamped the barbecue sauce recipe to make it healthier and spent two years in research and development and working with focus groups to develop her full line of healthier sauce options.

“I built this company because of the fact that many of my family and other families suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes,” she said. “I wanted people to have healthier condiments … to enjoy great flavor without jeopardizing their health.”

She initially pitched her sauces to independent grocers before expanding to chain grocery stores.

Jones said she remains committed to expanding to retailers across the country. She also is committed to building her wholesale business and has secured sales from two Chicago metropolitan area casinos, she said.

“We are still working with the casinos. We are just doing a smaller version of what we were planning to do until they fully open,” she said.

What has been the biggest entrepreneurial lesson she has learned from the pandemic?

“It’s the importance of being in control of your distribution by having your own fulfillment center,” she said. “I’ve learned you need to have that part of your business structured.”

Jones is focusing this year on expanding her entrepreneurial knowledge. She is one of 15 entrepreneurs across the country selected to participate in Babson College’s C200’s Champion Program, designed to help women-owned businesses with at least $250,000 in sales to grow to $1 million in sales. It provides participants with mentors, a peer network, entrepreneurial education and $25,000 in funding.

She said her business also recently received technical assistance from students at DePaul University, who took her business on as a class project.

Looking beyond the pandemic, she said her long-term goal is to become a $5 million company in the next five to 10 years.

“I believe we’ll probably get to $1 million within three years,” she said.

Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.

fknowles.writer@gmail.com