Traci Bourque Johannson, CEO & Founder of 3 Sons Foods, is an accidental entrepreneur. Her son Luke, who always loved rhinos, asked her to turn his childhood birthday celebrations into fundraising parties when he was five years old. Rather than bring gifts, friends donated to the International Rhino Foundation to fight illegal poaching.

Five years later, Johannson decided to sell her creamy cilantro salsa, a home-made version of a recipe from their favorite restaurant, in a fundraiser for the foundation. “I would make it at home for teachers and neighbors as Christmas gifts, and everybody loved it, so I knew we could sell it,” she says. They passed around flyers in their neighborhood and started taking orders.

When sales took off, Johannson wondered if she had found a new way to make a living. In the midst of a divorce, she was transitioning from being an at-home mom to supporting a family. She had previously worked in real estate, but she was looking for a career that would allow her to work with her three sons, so they had more time together.

“I knew I’d be working a lot, and I do work a lot, but through the process we’ve been a team, and we’ve gotten to know each other on a deeper level than just parent and child,” she says.

She formed 3 Sons Foods in 2017, specializing in salsa products that are all natural and free of preservatives, gluten, soy, eggs and nuts. Today, the family business, based outside of Austin, Texas, sells its Diablo Verde and other salsas in the local area through HEB, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Amigos, Quality Food Center, and Brookshire, also offering them on Amazon and TikTok Shop. The business brings in about $500,000 a year in annual revenue, with a portion of the profits going to animal conservation charities, which also include Endangered Rhino Conservation and Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary, according to Johannson.

Johannson’s sons are now grown, and Luke, 21, works full time in the business; George, 19, works part-time and Ayden, 23, now a microbiologist, helps part time with marketing.

3 Sons Foods is among a number of small businesses that are growing, despite constraints such as inflation, lower consumer retail spending, and rising fuel prices. Xero Accounting, the provider of her accounting software, found in its first-quarter Small Business Insights that sales grew progressively each month for its small business customers, with March seeing 3.6% growth not attributed to inflation. “Most of what we see here is real growth,” noted Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, in an interview following the release of the March data. In the U.S., small business sales increased 4% year over year for the three months ending in June, according to Xero’s U.S. Small Business Insights .

Nonetheless, Xero’s analysts noted that sales growth is below the 5.4% year over year long-term average, and that the rise in gasoline prices affected many businesses. If you’re among the many owners looking for ways to grow your business while navigating current challenges, here are some strategies to apply immediately.

Keep overhead low. Johannson saved money from the outset by running day-to-day operations from her home. “I designed that way because none of the kids drove when I started the business,” she says. Rather than build her own commercial kitchen, she has relied on a rental kitchen. She uses low-cost tools such as Canva for her marketing and Shopify for her e-commerce website.

Outsource strategically. This can allow you to stretch your budget before you are ready to invest in. your own infrastructure. Although 3 Sons Foods still makes its Diablo Rojo sauce in a rented kitchen, it relies on a co-manufacturer and co-packer in Houston, Texas, for its top-selling line, Diablo Verde. The company rents warehouse space from All Points Warehouse in Austin.

Roll out new offerings gradually. Salsa is a crowded niche. Before 3 Sons Foods invests heavily in new products, the business tests the “medium” version of each salsa first to get customer feedback. After introducing Diablo Rojo medium to the. marketplace, Johannson has the confidence to proceed. “Now we need to make a mild and hot to complete the lineup,” she says.

Find new efficiencies. Initially, 3 Sons Foods sold its salsa as a refrigerated product. “I quickly understood that wasn’t sustainable for my life, being a single mom and all that, so we went to shelf-stable,” says Johansson. “Then I had to revamp the recipe again by adding more fresh ingredients, so it always tasted fresh — more cilantro, more garlic, the things you taste when you taste the sauce.”

Keep your eye on the numbers. As excited as you are about what you sell, remember that it’s a business, not only a passion project. As you grow ask yourself, “Why are we in business?” said Kathy Goughenhour, founder of Expert VA Training , which trains virtual assistants, at a recent webinar I moderated for the New York Public Library. Her own answer was “To make money and help people.” If making money isn’t top of mind, your business won’t be sustainable.

Johansson made sure she considered profit from the early days of selling her salsa. During the initial fundraiser, she recalls, “I took our cost of goods, added a dollar for the rhinos, and added $0.50 for each boy, so whenever they sold a jar, they made $0.50.” She keeps a close eye on how her newest products are doing by studying the data she gets from her accounting software and bookkeeper.

Stay on top of invoicing. The sooner you send your invoices out, the more quickly the payment cycle will begin. That’s especially important if you serve big organizations with slow payment cycles. U.S. Small businesses had to wait for an average of 29.3 days for invoices to be paid in the quarter ending in June, up from 28.6 days in the quarter ending in March, according to Xero’s data.

“The issue of late payments is an ongoing issue for small businesses,” said Singh Cassidy. “The companies that are waiting to pay them are often bigger than themselves.”

Cultivate resilience. It took 10 months for 3 Sons Foods to get onto TikTok Shop, in part because having a co-manufacturer complicated the application process. “That was a hurdle we had to really be very creative about, and persistent,” Johansson says. “You just keep on and keep on and keep on.”