How many ways can you have a cookie business? Let us count them! Here's the third installment of
Cookiepreneur Interviews. Let's hear about Amanda's cookie business!
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How long have you been in
business? Is it part-time or full-time?
Unofficially started in 2013 and
finally got all my paperwork in order to be 'legit' in 2014. Technically,
I'm part-time but it really depends on the week/season. :) I
suppose the best answer to this is that I try to be part-time.
Tell us about the Health Department
laws in your area? Do you have to use a commercial kitchen or is there a
Cottage Food law?
For sugar cookies, a state inspected
kitchen is required or you can operate under the Cottage Food laws (with
restrictions). That is my understanding anyway! I use my home
kitchen which is state inspected.
If you use your home kitchen, please
tell us about that. What did you need to do to get it approved? How
do you manage your kitchen when it involves both business and family?
I use my home kitchen and getting it approved involved
getting a zoning permit from my county then getting an inspection from the VA
Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
How I manage our kitchen for both
the business and family....hmm, is that a trick question? ;)
Honestly, there's no good answer to this. Just really late nights
and lots of coffee.
Do you ship cookies? If so,
please tell us about that.
Yes! I started selling on
Etsy, so I started out shipping most of my orders. Only once I started
getting more local orders did I realize how much more work shipping entails
(because decorated cookies aren't labor intensive enough....ha)! We've
tried different ways of shipping and found that using copious amounts of bubble
wrap and shipping them upright (not flat) works best. I don't always do
that though as I've found that it sometimes depends on the cookie shape and
amount I'm shipping.
Does your business include anything
else other than taking custom decorated cookie orders?
Just decorated cookies for us, for
now.
What is your most enjoyable business
task?
Decorating!
Does anyone help you with your
cookie business or are you a one-woman-show?
I definitely have help, I couldn't
possibly do it myself. My husband does deliveries and helps make the
dough and baking and my oldest son helps with packaging.
If you could delegate one task, what
would it be?
Clean up! I didn't even have
to think about that one... :)
Best tip for those starting their
cookie business?
Make sure your business works for
you and not against you. If you do quality work, you will get busy fast
so don't be afraid to invest in whatever will make the business more efficient.
How did you get the word out about
your business in the beginning? How do you do it now?
Honestly, I've never done much with
marketing. Starting on Etsy helped me get initial orders in but after
about a year I took my listings down as now most of my orders are local through
my website, referrals, and repeat customers.
Have you raised your prices since
beginning?
Yes. And this is an area that
I'm still adjusting to see what works best.
Any tips for efficiency – in making
dough, decorating, shipping, invoicing….anything!
I don't, actually. I wish I
did, I could use it! My best tip for efficiency is to keep your inner
perfectionist to a bare minimum. Remember that most (not all!) customers
aren't going to scrutinize and judge the cookies the way you do.
Do you have minimums on number of
cookies per order, number of designs, number of icing colors?
Yes, sort of, and yes! 12
cookies is my minimum, I don't mind different designs so long as they use the
same colors, and I try to keep it at 2 colors (plus white) per dozen. If
I get an inquiry for something that I know will be a lot of colors, I'll either
up the minimum cookie order or charge extra.
What are your cookie dreams?
If you could, would you hire employees, buy a larger mixer, move into a larger
space, etc?
My cookie dream is to decorate
cookies in a super cute, sunny kitchen with cookies already baked, icing
bagged/bottled in perfect consistencies (and they never separate!!), they
magically bag and ship themselves, and my kids clean up the mess. It's
nice to cookie dream. :)
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Thanks so much for sharing Amanda! I hope this post has encouraged you or given you some new things to think about regarding your business or soon-to-be-business!
Read more.......
Posts on "
Cookiepreneur Interviews"
Posts on "
Cookies as Business".
Posts on "
Poking Around the Kitchen".
Posts on "
Commercial Kitchen"
