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Sweet success
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July 28, 2000: 4:39 p.m. ET
Steve's Authentic Keylime Pies is poised for growth, but it's expensive
By Staff Writer Hope Hamashige
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Ever think that owning your own successful business would be one of the hardest things you have ever had to manage? Ask Steve Tarpin that question and he'll tell you that in his case it just might be true.
"This really is the challenge," said Tarpin, who owns Steve's Authentic Keylime Pies. "I could go from being this kitschy guy who sells pies in Brooklyn and Manhattan to something a lot bigger. I'm just not sure exactly how to do it."
Managing the growth of their small business is a problem confronting many entrepreneurs, says Dan Broughton, a partner in the consulting practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. A whole host of problems can arise, said Broughton, if the entrepreneur doesn't learn to manage all aspects of the business including administrative functions and human resources.
"It's pretty common to find entrepreneurs who are completely focused on the next sale," said Broughton. "They need to keep adding sales, but they need to pay attention to all the other aspects of their business as well, including back office functions and human resources."
New Yorkers welcome tangy Florida dessert
Tarpin makes pies. His repertoire consists of only one variety, key lime, a  specialty he learned growing up in south Florida. About five years ago he discovered that New Yorkers, too, appreciated the sweet, tangy dessert when he brought one of his homemade pies to a gathering of the Red Meat Club.
Tarpin described the group as "a bunch of serious foodies" who got together for monthly dinners in Brooklyn. One of the attendees, who at the time owned a restaurant in Manhattan, asked Tarpin if he would sell him a few pies every week. He agreed.
He had no idea what he was in for.
To say that New Yorkers welcomed the Florida import is a tempered statement. Steve's pies are served at some of New York's more high brow restaurants and hotels, including the St. Regis Hotel, Peter Luger, Café Des Artistes and a host of other establishments.
On weekends, when he occasionally drives to Manhattan to sell pies out of the back of a truck emblazoned with the company logo, the merchandise moves in a matter of minutes.
To meet local demand, he now makes up to 200 pies a day in half of a 700-square foot bakery he shares with a woman who creates lavishly decorated cakes in a remote commercial strip in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.
Lately, Tarpin has been turning customers away because he simply can't fill any more orders. It's not that he couldn't make more pies, but his capacity is limited because of a shortage of storage space at the bakery. To increase capacity, he needs a much larger space and some additional equipment like an automatic dispenser that would make filling the crusts a lot faster. Now, that is done by hand.
Tarpin has picked out a much larger commercial space for his growing  business -- 6,000 square feet in a cavernous red brick industrial space also in Red Hook. To make the move, however, is going to cost a lot of money. A lot more money than Tarpin ever guessed.
The former warehouse on the waterfront needs improvements. Add to that the equipment he needs -- an oven, a walk-in refrigerator, a walk-in freezer, work tables -- and you come up with a substantial sum.
"I could do it for $50,000, but I'd be a lot more comfortable if I had $150,000," he said.
How much does he have now? "Uh, nothing," he said, laughing.
Success was unexpected, unplanned
Steve's Authentic Keylime Pies grew, from that chance meeting at an outdoor barbecue in Brooklyn, through word of mouth and through Tarpin's own efforts to drum up clients.
The sales pitch he's employed over the years is decidedly low key. Looking like he just got off the plane from Miami, Tarpin strolled into a restaurants clad in shorts, flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt and deposited pies for the chefs to sample. He never called the restaurants to follow up. He waited, instead, for them to call him.
The business has been profitable since day one, according to Tarpin. But every dollar he has made from the beginning -- aside from what he needs to take care of himself, his daughter and his dog -- has been sunk back into the pie-making operation.
He took the plunge about 18 months ago and moved into his first commercial space. Aside from rent, which he had never paid before on his business, the move cost him almost nothing. Prior to that he baked at home and depended on some friendly neighbors, including the deli downstairs, to store the pies in their commercial freezers and refrigerators.
The cake-maker with whom he shares space owns most of the equipment, including the oven and one of the commercial freezers, and has allowed Tarpin to use them for a fee.
Over time he purchased some of his own equipment that made his operation more streamlined and productive. He bought a commercial juicer that reduced the time he spent juicing 40 pounds of limes from two hours to about 20 minutes. A shrink-wrap machine helped to keep the pies fresh. Three huge refrigerators meant he could store more pies.
Even with the addition of modern equipment, making pies is tedious, time-consuming work that starts as early as 5 a.m.
The crusts for most of the pies are shaped by hand before they are cooked in the one commercial oven in the space. The key lime mixture, too, is made on the premises with fresh key limes that arrive in large shipments. Tarpin is something of a purist when it comes to the recipe. He refuses to use bottled lime juice, which would be faster, because it has "no place in a pie."
Once the pies are made and set in a refrigerator, they are packed individually in boxes, sent through a shrink-wrap sealer and set in the van for deliveries to shops and restaurants around town.
Everyone benefits from a plan
Many small businesses grow and prosper as small companies because there  are good ideas behind them, said Broughton. Few make it to the next level, however, because more often than not the owners are overwhelmed with work.
How does a business owner know when the growth of his small business is spinning out of control? Broughton said the early warning signs are when one part of the business suffers because the owner is not paying attention to it. One common sign, he said, is when owners strain their relationship with their vendors because they aren't paying bills on time. Another red flag to look out for is staff overtime. If the staff is spending too much time at work, a high turnover situation may be just around the corner.
Any business owner, even those running the smallest businesses, said Broughton, will benefit from a business plan. Drawing up a business plan will help the owner create logical path for their business. He also suggests that business owners hire staff to help them. If, for example, the owner tends to neglect back office functions, he should consider getting some administrative help. Most also benefit from seeking a business advisor, someone who can help them navigate their way through difficult times.
You have any pies in that truck?
As important as the other investments were, the key one came a little over a year ago when he bought a second delivery van. He wanted something  different, something that people would remember. He chose a 1953 Ford, painted it the color of a key lime and painted "Steve's Authentic Keylime Pies," along with the company's phone number, on both sides and across the back doors.
The advertisement on wheels kicked the business into high gear. Everywhere he goes now, people approach him, either because they want to admire the truck or because they want to buy a pie.
"Everywhere I go now, I'm the pie guy. Sometimes I just don't want to be the pie guy," Tarpin said.
The truck is such a familiar sight in parts of South Brooklyn that a local Brooklyn band, called the blennies, wrote a song, an ode to Steve's pies and Steve's truck.
Local notoriety has been good to him. His business, which has been growing all along, jumped at least 40 percent last year, according to Tarpin. But it has also increased the pressure on Tarpin to move into that larger bakery that will allow him to fulfill a lot more orders and to possibly take on some mail order business.
Even with a successful and growing business, Tarpin is learning that growth doesn't come cheaply and money isn't all that easy to find. Banks, he said, are "not exactly going out of their way" to advance him a loan.
He has plans to meet with a local small business development council to get some help. He's a little worried that, even if he does end up getting the money, it won't materialize in a timely manner.
In the meantime, he said he is doing everything he can think of to make the cost of moving more manageable. Already, he has a line on a used walk-in freezer that would cut the cost of that particular item by more than half.
"At this point, I really don't know how I'm going to pull this off," he said. "I just know I will." 
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