Story Profiles featured in HOMEMADE FOR SALE
Homemade for Sale features ten inspiring “story profiles” of cottage food start-ups and the people behind them. The people profiled address real-life challenges while sharing practical advice and opportunities about starting the business. Every major direct sales channel and cottage food category is represented. In many cases, the profiles reveal specific financial, legal and operational issues often absent in other start-up books. Below is a sneak preview.
Felicia Hill
FH Cakes, Vancouver, Washington
Products: designer cakes
Sales Venues: direct and custom orders
Annual Sales: Nearing $15,000 gross sales cap
Unable to find a peanut-free cake due to her son’s allergies, Felicia Hill found inspiration to launch FH Cakes specializing in cakes that work for different dietary needs.
Erin Schneider and Rob McClure
Hilltop Community Farm, LaValle, Wisconsin
Products: sweet pickle relish, salsa and jam made with farm-grown produce
Sales venues: winter holiday market, community supported agriculture (CSA) shares, member sales
Annual sales: $2,000
The husband-and-wife team of Erin Schneider and Rob McClure use the excess summer harvest on their farm to make various high-acid pickles and preserves, which they sell at winter holiday markets.
Isa Lunsford
Sweet Pick me Ups Bakery, Lake Worth, Florida
Products: specialty custom-order cakes, cupcakes and cookies
Sales Venue: direct orders from customers
Annual Sales: $15,000
Isa Lunsford traded a career in corporate accounting for entrepreneurial fun in her home kitchen, baking up uniquely formed and decorated, custom-ordered cakes through Sweet Pick Me Ups Bakery.
Jennifer Evans
Cookies Plz, Fort Worth, Texas
Products: decorated sugar cookies
Sales Venue: direct delivery of special order via telephone, text and e-mail; custom orders
Annual Sales: $5,100
A self-motivated cottage food entrepreneur who launched Cookies Plz, Jennifer Evans used the Internet to teach herself how to decorate custom ordered sugar cookies.
Suzy Zimmermann
Queen of Cake and Events, San Antonio, Texas
Products: specialty decorated cakes; wedding cakes
Sales Venue: individual custom order
Annual Sales: nearing $50,000 gross sales cap
Suzy Zimmermann of Queen of Cake and Events makes all of her intricate cakes by hand, working closely with her wedding clients to craft the perfect custom cake for their special day.
Rhonda L. Jones
Chez Moi Bakery, Durham, North Carolina
Products: spirit and plain cakes, ice cream sandwiches and panna cotta with homemade dessert sauces
Sales Venue: direct, mail order, special events, food truck
Annual Sales: $30,000
Rhonda Jones of Chez Moi Bakery creates unique spirit cakes in various flavors, which she also transforms into “cakewiches,” adding a layer of ice cream in between two slices. She sells out of her food truck.
Barbara Preston
Hana Lulu’s Candy, San Diego, California
Products: coconut candy
Sales Venue: special order direct to customer; community events, snack stands
Annual Sales: $3,000
Barbara Preston developed her own recipe for coconut candy which she sells as Hana Lulu’s Candy while also helping homeless women get back on their feet by teaching them how to make the candy and sell it.
Regina Dlugokencky
Seedsower Farm, Centerport, New York
Products: sourdough bread, jam, sourdough popovers, focaccia
Sales Venue: farmers' market
Annual Sales: $3,000
Regina Dlugokencky of Seedsower Farm rises early in the morning to bake her loaves of bread for sale at the winter market. The fresh-baked breads are sold alongside her collection of jams.
Dorothy Stainbrook
HeathGlen Farm and Kitchen, Forest Lake, Minnesota
Products: preserves, syrups, shrubs
Sales Venue: farmers’ market
Annual Sales: $25,000+
Dorothy Stainbrook started her fruit jams and jellies under cottage food law as a way to diversify her farm income. Her products become so popular and sales jumped so high that she eventually needed to build an on-farm commercial kitchen.
Liz James
The Happy Tomato, Charlottesville, Virginia
Products: tomato marinara and pizza sauce
Sales Venue: wholesale to local retailers
Sales: $50,000+
Liz James of Happy Tomatoes taps into her collaborative community in Charlottesville to help promote and support her tomato marinara and pizza sauces, sold wholesale to such retailers as Whole Foods Market.