Today we’d like to introduce you to Clark Davis.
Clark, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started making beef jerky as a kid back in 2000 and quickly got in trouble with my school for selling it to my fellow students. I kept making it throughout the years, trying out different recipes or tweaking ones I had. It wasn’t until April of 2021 that I got the idea to start selling again as a source of extra income.
I first tried a few test recipes with some of my coworkers and felt out the waters so to speak on what would be fair pricing. Once I did my first sale with Shady Market Houston at Shady Acres Saloon, it really got underway to where I was doing multiple pop up market sales a month, deliveries, and mail in orders. Even though, I’m trying to expand into almost all online sales for mail in orders, I still like to make as many pop-up market or bar sale as I can a month.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As the patriarch of a growing family, I know all roads lead to Rome, even the bumpy ones. Balancing quality time with my family, appropriate attention to my career as well as my passions; it’s been a continuing education.
When I started, I had two flavors on one cut style of beef. Initially one of the obstacles I dealt with, funny enough, was veganism. In addition to losing potential customers due to dietary restrictions, what would have been my second pop-up market sale, I was denied entry because I did not have vegan options. So as a gag, I started a variety of different flavors of apple chips which to my surprise, performed very well and now I have six different vegan options that I keep in stock.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a one man-operation, doing my best to provide high quality beef jerky and vegan snacks to my customers through table sales, deliveries, and online ordering.
I offer beef jerky in seven different flavors, available on four different cuts of beef in addition to six different vegan snacks like seasoned butternut squash chips.
I’m best known for offering fajita style beef jerky with a pot roast chewiness and lots of fat on it similiar in taste and texture to how our Old West predecessors preserved beef on the trail.
I am most proud of my refusal to lower quality to reduce costs on my end. Sure I could send my recipes off to a commercial packer or sell them to larger brand but the end product would never have the heart and soul I put into hand-making every single batch.
When I can, I still attend pop up markets or bar sales like at 1810 Ojeman and if I’m unavailable for deliveries within Beltway 8, I ship orders Priority so they arrive within two to three days.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My return customers, my wife and kids, my parents, my coworkers, and my friends have all played a role in helping me build my brand or inspire me to try new routes for further sales.
A dear friend of mine was the inspiration to start all this: he told me once when I was complaining about our job and our boss that I had gotten complacent in life and that if I ever wanted something more for myself than being a goon for someone else, I had to hustle like a madman. Sell something, even if it sounded silly or if people told me it would never get off the ground.
My family has continued to be my prime taste testers.
Several of my return customers have become good friends and helped me expand by word of mouth and made inroads to new markets or events that I could sell at.
I wouldn’t have started making a lean cut jerky had it not been for a buddy of mine asking for some as a custom order for his hiking retreats.
My soft to chew jerky was inspired by my Grandfather who wears dentures but loves beef jerky and told me he would love to try my bbq-cajun flavor but his dental work wouldn’t allow it. Once he tried my soft to chew jerky, he consider it the best he ever had and encouraged me to produce more for older folks like him.
Pricing:
- 3oz bags are $7
- 9oz bundles are $20
- 1lb orders are $32
- Vegan options are 2oz for $5
- Mailed orders are $9 for up to 1.5lbs, $16 for over 1.5lbs.
Contact Info:
- Email: davis6909@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarks_jerky/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067793670330
