265 – How to Make Your Business Essential with Kim Terrill of Kim’s Cottage Confections

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 265 cakes and chocolates

were something that I enjoyed doing,

but then I saw that there was a market for it.

Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue.

I'm so happy that you're joining me here today because I

have something super special in store for you for the next

four weeks.

I'm talking with various women who have,

dare I say,

embraced the challenges of covert 19 and are now not just

surviving in their businesses but thriving.

I'm hearing people talk about this being the new awakening maybe,

but no matter what you believe,

I'm seeing positive changes come out of this need to step

back and analyze not just ourselves but our businesses.

It's exciting to hear that some of these creative ideas initially

implemented just to get through,

have added so much value that they'll continue long after our

new normal becomes routine.

My goal over these next four episodes is to prompt you

to relook at your ways too.

There may be a new idea that you can take on

or one sentence that may spark a brand new action that

could make your business soar.

The common thread through all of these businesses is that the

owners were willing to think differently and test their ideas.

I want you to do the same.

So today,

let's envision something.

Imagine that this past January,

so just a few short months ago,

you moved into a brand new retail location.

The excitement of planning the colors and designing the space,

the anticipation of showing it to new and current customers,

the freshness and possibility of it all,

and then word of this mysterious virus appears and spreads and

things get more and more serious.

This is real life to Kim,

our guests today.

You'll hear how she looked at the situation,

took an inventory of what she had available to her and

decided that she would make her business essential.

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Kim Terrell

of Kim's cottage confections.

Kim started her baking and chocolate making business in the late

1990s while working full time as a technical writer for a

woman's retail corporation.

She began out of her home,

production location has grown into a full retail specialty bake shop

and confection shop serving greater Connecticut.

They are the preferred cake vendor at several wedding and special

event venues and caterers.

Kim says there's rarely been a weekend without a wedding cake

order in over 15 years.

Wow, Kim,

that's crazy.

Welcome to the gift biz on rep podcast.

Thank you so much.

So I'm so happy to be here.

I'm thrilled that you're here.

Seriously. 15 years.

Yes. People get married every weekend of the year.

We have weddings traditionally on new year's weekend,

the weekend before Christmas,

that weekend after Christmas,

the first weekend in January.

It's amazing that people get married 52 weekends of the year.

Wow. Well I guess if you really think about it,

it's true,

right? But then the really cool thing is that you are

helping serve and provide the cakes for all those weddings.

And certainly it didn't start out that way.

So I'm excited to hear the story,

but let's just first do what I like to do on

the show and that is a little bit of a traditional

thing. And I know,

you know,

cause we've talked about the fact that you listened to the

show. So first off,

thank you for that.

You're welcome.

But now I'm excited to hear you describe yourself through your

own motivational candle.

So if you were to tell me the color and the

quote that's a candle that really resonates with you,

Kim, share what it would be with all of our listeners.

So the candle color would just be the most beautiful summer

day blue sky.

Because even though we're busy and baking and in our kitchen

all during the day,

my favorite part of the day is just to walk out

in the afternoon and look up and see the sky.

So beautiful blue on a gorgeous summer day,

especially if it's a perfect day for a wedding.

It's just there's something so special about a crystal clear blue

day. Yeah,

I can close my eyes right now and imagine that pure,

beautiful blue,

like you say Yes.

And on this gloomy April day,

we're grateful for those blue sky days so loosely.

And the quote that's on the candle is you can't go

back and change the beginning,

but you can start where you are and change the ending.

Oh, so you'll always look forward.

Don't look Always look forward because if the day didn't start

out sunny and bright,

but that blue sky,

there's always the opportunity that it's going to change to that.

And there's always tomorrow.

There you go.

And it's something that's controllable.

Absolutely. You can't go back.

You know,

so many people will dwell on the past.

I wish I would have done this.

I wish I would've done that.

Why not take the energy and say,

okay, yeah,

I might've wished I would have done that,

but now what can I do?

How can I affect that going forward?

Exactly. Yeah.

Love it.

Okay, so now that we just said we don't go back,

let's do go back just real quick.

Yeah. Quick visit.

I like that.

And share with us a little bit about how your business

got established and I'm really curious,

you mentioned you were a technical writer with women's retail.

What does that mean?

So I was the systems and procedures manager for Ann Taylor

back in the day when Ann Taylor was in its hay

day and we had stores opening all over the country and

I wrote the manuals that got the stores open.

So I traveled all over the country to all the new

store openings and train the managers on how to use the

systems and procedures.

And it was very,

very exciting in the late eighties early nineties when that was

my career.

I worked part of the week in Manhattan on 57th street

and I would always bring treats in to the office when

I went into New York and my boss used to say,

you're a great writer,

but you're an even better Baker.

Interesting. Yes.

And I always had it as something that I did as

a hobby,

but in the retail world,

things change and I started baking more and more and decided

to give it a go to make it into a business.

So were you thinking about it mostly because of the feedback

that you were getting then from them?

From the outside in or like what was the exact moment

or were you thinking about it over time and then all

of a sudden you decided to flip the switch?

Well, retail is so volatile and things were changing and Taylor

had been bought out by a major corporation,

so my position was significantly altered and at the same time

I was just thinking and doing more and more cakes and

more and more chocolates and more and more special orders.

And it came to the point where I was very busy

trying to establish the business and I was young,

newly married,

no children.

And I look back at it now and can't believe I

did it,

but I actually left my job to start a business,

which now I think,

wow, Really?

What were you thinking?

But I did and put a commercial kitchen right in our

home and started the business right that way.

Wow. Okay.

So I think people are more accustomed to someone making a

jump like that now because let's face it,

entrepreneurism and having your own business now is looked upon.

I'm going to say still.

Some people think we're crazy,

like we'll just agree with that.

Right, but I think back then they really thought we were

crazy if you were doing it cause it wasn't as talked

about yet.

Right. I look back now and I think,

how did I even market my business?

There was no Facebook,

there was no Instagram.

You really did rely on someone opening the newspaper and seeing

the ad that you placed and the yellow pages were a

thing. Yeah,

they were.

Remember big books.

You'd come home and you'd see one at your front door.

That's right.

I want to stick with the development of your business just

for a minute because I also feel right during this time,

there are people who are thinking about,

okay, I'm furloughed right now or I'm staying at home for

a little bit.

Maybe I should be starting something on the side just so

I've got another stream of income coming in besides my job.

But they're fully intending to coming back.

But I think it's on a lot of people's minds right

now. And if I understood your story correctly,

that is really what you did while you were working at

Ann Taylor and thank you for that by the way,

cause I was one of your customers.

Very good.

I'm sure you still have beautiful clothes from Ann Taylor too.

They are timeless.

They're timeless and they're well-made.

So they last and the styles come back again.

Right? Sure.

I'd have to rethink about the size anymore.

That's a whole nother story.

Podcasts, different podcasts.

But it did sound like you were testing the concept,

whether you realize that that was really what you were doing

or not on the side while you had your job.

Yeah. So I think it's nice for people to know that

that is possible.

You can be doing two things at once so you don't

have to jump in two feet in the water.

Maybe you'll swim,

maybe you won't do,

you know,

you can start building something up gradually on the side.

Right. And a business is very different when it's your income

versus your hobby.

And I think that starting it slowly and maybe doing it

on the side gives you the chance to know if this

is something that you want to do.

24 seven.

Good point.

So as you were developing,

you were saying you were getting requests already.

Were you just baking and testing out your skills and as

you're saying,

testing how you felt about it with the idea of it

being a business or,

well, talk to me a little bit about that.

So I was testing the waters and I really enjoyed what

I was doing and I was taking classes.

I literally went to a cake decorating a local cake decorating

school in the next town was offering classes.

I took every class that possible and I really,

I did enjoy it and I had always baked,

it was always something that was part of my past cookies

and cakes and chocolates were something that I enjoyed doing.

But then I saw that there was a market for it

and that people were interested in ordering cakes that were more

than just grocery store cakes.

So I explored all the different options for how cakes could

be decorated and different formulas and different recipes.

And honestly they're the recipes I still use to this day.

Well, why not if they work.

Absolutely. And actually I think that when people know a flavor

that they're envisioning,

when they have the cake,

they're going to want the same thing from you.

Right? Yeah.

So there's nothing wrong with that.

So you landed it almost in the beginning,

so that's very cool.

Okay. And so talk us through and then we'll leave the

past, then we're going to go out into the future.

Okay. But talk me through how you decided and Taylor kind

of gave you a little bit of a nudge because they

were changing.

Right. And it came down to,

I had just been shuffled out of one department to another

department. I was working for kind of the accounting department.

And there was just,

you know,

the position that I had had evolved or devolved really into

more of an administrative position and I just,

as I said,

it was the right time just to say,

okay, I'm going to give this a shot and see if

I can turn this into a business.

Okay, so really critical time and this again is going to

be good for people who are listening.

So I'm excited to hear what you're going to say about

this. So you already have experience,

you've taken classes,

you've tested your product.

Were you selling some of your product already?

At that point I was renting a kitchen at the Y,

WCA. I started out with course experimentation,

but I quickly moved into a kitchen at the local Y

WCA where I rented a kitchen and did a lot of

the product development out of that kitchen.

Okay. And so now you no longer have your day job

correct. You're going to do this full time.

Take me to that place of,

was it one day you left,

you closed the door on Ann Taylor and then that next

Monday or whatever it was,

did you just fully ramp up or how did the transition

look? Yeah,

so we had to build a kitchen Because you were anticipating

a lot of business.

Yes, I was going to make this my business.

This was my focus and my goal.

We put a kitchen in the basement of our home.

I had a beautiful walkout basement that we put the kitchen

in, inspected by the health department and started making cakes but

also confections that I took to craft fairs,

which is why I'm so attracted to this podcast and everyone

in here in the gift biz group because I really loaded

my car every Saturday and went to every craft fair home

show, anything that I could use to market my business.

Okay. So when you talk about getting your name out,

that was what you were doing besides a newspaper cause print

was still,

okay. So we're talking 15 years,

so we're still talking early to mid nineties Yeah,

like really the mid nineties Okay.

So midnight.

So print still was a thing Viable.

Absolutely. Yellow pages were starting to Peter out.

I'd say about that time There was more online listings.

The internet was coming into becoming more prevalent and you could

list your business online,

but there was still no marketing online.

Right. And a lot of people didn't even have access yet

to computers.

Right. I mean we were just starting to get them.

Boy it seems so long ago to remember those.

I know,

I know.

But I love what you're saying about craft.

So let's talk about this some more.

Cause I think people forget that this is a good evolution

first starting with people,

you know,

testing things out,

getting acceptance or feedback in any way,

right? Developing your product and starting to grow it and then

face to face I think is so important.

So I would move it up every,

as I said,

every Saturday and I brought chocolate.

So we made every,

I had every chocolate mold,

I made,

filled chocolates,

truffles, dipped chocolates,

dipped pretzels.

We dip everything in chocolate.

And I also brought just a photo album of my cakes

and I would show people who were interested,

photos of cakes that we had done and we booked birthday

cakes and confirmation and graduation cakes and then it evolved into

showers and weddings From the craft table.

These tables at the craft shows and let's all remember that

your product is very temperamental,

like with the weather and all that.

Absolutely. I did mostly indoor because I really was concerned about

being outdoors in the weather,

so I focus mostly on indoor,

but I would make connections and network at all of these

craft fairs just to keep my client list growing.

Right. Okay,

so break that down a little bit for us.

What do you mean by growing your connections and networking with

people? What specifically were you doing?

I would talk to other crafters and I would just say

what other craft shows are you doing?

Where are you finding the biggest traffic for the craft fairs?

Exhibitors who do the best job marketing,

their craft fairs and just really try to make sure that

where I was spending my time was the biggest bang for

my buck honestly.

And are you still doing shows?

Not today,

today, but right now.

Like is that part of your plan?

I wish I could do craft fairs.

It's very challenging to have a retail location and take your

business on the road because no matter what,

you always feel like you're packing up and leaving something behind.

Okay. Very good point.

And we've not ever talked about this before,

but at some point as your business evolves,

it makes sense that you would be focused really on one

or the other.

Yes, I do bridal shows.

I do showcase still at wedding shows,

so where we do bring our product to a venue or

a exhibition hall where perspective brides and grooms come in and

see all different aspects of the wedding industry.

So that is still a very big piece of my marketing,

but not as much craft fairs.

Well. And that makes sense because that audience is completely condensed

to your customer.

You know,

they're looking for all their services for the wedding.

So that makes total sense.

And that also I think explains why you have had 15

years for weekly wedding cakes.

Right? Right.

We are out for sure.

It seems so obvious,

but I think we forget that that's something that you want.

You've got to go where people are.

Oh you do?

Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean we always say,

you know,

depending on your business,

while I want more customers,

I want more customers.

But you got very specific with weddings and went right where

they were and really marketed to them for the result that

you have today.

Exactly. So share with us if you would,

some learnings that you had from craft shows because again,

I definitely teach specially when you're starting out that the very

best thing you can do is face to face,

get interaction understanding with people who are looking at your products,

understand what they're attracted to and why they do buy,

but also why they don't.

What is it?

Is your product too big?

Is it too colorful?

It's just not their style,

which is fine by the way.

You need to know all those things,

the good and the bad.

True. So like I always am talking craft shows specially when

people are starting out cause that's the way you can be

right next to somebody and and have an interaction,

a conversation.

What from your professional experience have been some of the good

things and the bad things about craft shows like warnings for

people who are starting to do shows?

Well I think you have to go into every craft fair

expecting the best,

but prepared,

really prepared for minimal sales because you're reliant on the mood

of the customer of that day and not every craft fair,

even year to year is going to have the same result

that it did the year before.

So I think you have to go in and just be

upbeat and positive about what you're bringing to the craft fair

and not compare yourself to everyone else at the craft fair

or how busy someone looks or,

but someone else has set up is better than yours.

You just have to be in that moment proud of what

you brought that day and just treat every day as a

learning experience because not every shopper is there for your product

that day,

but maybe they're going to recognize a genuine attitude and that

you brought a beautiful product they didn't need right then,

but they're going to keep you in mind for the next

event that they have,

that they need that.

Right. Well,

and Kim,

you're so personable.

I mean,

we've started to get to know each other a little bit

more over the past,

I don't know,

month or so.

You're so personable and friendly and just really comfortable to talk

with, and I think that probably carries over to the shows

too, even though you're not doing them now,

I think you're probably leave the same person back a few

years ago,

and that plays to the point of you need to interact

with people at the shows because they get a real sense

of who you are.

I remember one show that I was at,

it was a really down show and it,

you know,

I brought great product.

It was probably right around Easter and I thought,

Oh it's spring.

I brought Easter,

I brought some things for dance recitals,

ballet shoes,

things like this.

And I had not had great sales that day and you

know it can be a downer cause you're there for a

long time.

You spent a long time producing and getting ready and a

woman stopped at my table and started asking me a lot

of questions.

Just really,

I felt like wow,

she's grilling me.

What is all this sport?

And she turned out to be the owner of a small

specialty chocolate store in one of our high end towns,

very close to where we are.

And she became my greatest customer.

She bought all of her product from me.

We did her molded chocolates,

we did her filled chocolates.

It just taught me that you never know what the possibility

is. Talk to everyone even though it seemed,

I thought she's a competitor.

She's asking me what kind of product I use cause she's

trying to gain some sort of information and she ended up

just wanting to be my customer.

That's a good lesson though.

You make sure to treat all customers.

I don't know that you say equally.

Maybe you do,

but the other thing is that I always think of is

when you're at a craft show people are coming really dressed

casual, right?

So you have no idea if that person who is wearing

a baseball cap and in shorts and a tee shirt is

somebody like you're describing,

you know who owned some big shop.

And I think back to that day and how thank goodness

I was personable and the way it started out and the

way it ended,

we're just again change.

You can't go back and change at the beginning,

but definitely you could change the ending.

Absolutely. Well and it also speaks to the point that a

show of any sort,

whether it's a local craft show,

even a trade show where you're looking to get wholesale customers

also, which is really what this ended up being.

Right? Right.

Absolutely. You only need one great new contact to make the

show. Totally worthwhile.

Absolutely. Final question for you on craft shows cause I have

a lot of other things I want to do about how

did you deal with continuity?

Like people were at a craft show and came up to

your table.

How did you ensure that they knew how to get in

touch with you when they were ready to buy a product?

How did you stay in touch with them or,

So I had,

you know,

of course business cards and menus that we would provide for

every show and then much better than today.

I did reach out to people via email and I did

email marketing,

which you and I have spoken recently about.

I have fallen off email marketing,

but I did send a newsletter or at the very least

a price list or reminder that new products were coming out

or that I'd be at a new show.

Here's a list of the show is I'll be at,

and actually they were postcards.

I used to actually mail postcards.

Now that I think I remember making postcards on the computer

and hand addressing them and putting them in the mailbox.

There you go.

Well, those were the marketing tools of the day.

Right? Right.

And email,

like everyone was talking about it.

That was the new thing until social media came around.

Right. So I think a lot of people have let email

slip they cause they're thinking social media replaces it where really

you can use the two in tandem.

Absolutely. And direct marketing you are speaking my game because that's

what we did,

you know,

specialty, highly targeted at direct marketing and that was a big

deal and did serve people well for a long time.

Super expensive now.

Right? I always put like a 10% coupon or mention this

card and get a free cookie,

whatever it was.

But I do remember the actual physical mailing of postcards.

Wonderful. Good learning.

Because what you're showing us is the craft show is not

for the point in time when you're at the show.

You can take information if you've planned,

so you have the materials at the table or collecting email

addresses now or telling people to follow you on social,

you know,

whatever the method is.

But you want to have some type of a method.

So that then when people leave,

they're going to remember you.

There's access back,

right? Yeah.

Cause we can't expect them to remember us.

We have to remind them there's just too much going on.

Right. And there could be 60 other people at that show

that they're going to remember.

So you want to make sure that you can find a

way to contact them at a later date.

Agreed. I would also say,

I'm just thinking about this now,

having your picture as the owner of the business and the

one who's at the craft show on literature,

I also think could be a good reminder of,

Oh, I remember talking with her like it's a trigger instead

of just having the company name.

Yes. I'm just thinking of that now.

That's a very good idea.

Just came to mind.

Face recognition.

Yeah, because then and especially because you're so friendly and comfortable

to talk to,

I think that plays in your advantage.

So that's another way to trigger the memories.

Which exact booth it was or table it was,

et cetera.

All right,

so you're in the production,

is this true or not?

I'm trying to go back.

You're still in your basement based on our story,

right? Yes.

Okay. And at what point then did you move to your

brick and mortar and turn it into production and a shop

or retail shop?

This is interesting.

We had moved out of our home in one town to

two children now and we wanted to move them to a

small town.

So we moved to a much smaller town with a lot

of requirements for health licensing.

We had a septic system and not public water and there

were a lot of requirements around having a commercial kitchen in

your home that the timeline with buying a home and finding

the right home to put a kitchen,

it just wasn't all melding.

So I actually for a time gave up the business to

go back to writing.

I was a local newspaper reporter and I did some online

writing and wasn't doing any baking.

And then I noticed one day taking my daughter to preschool,

that there was a little,

so she was in a Plaza in the back.

So picture like driving down two Hills of a driveway and

around the back is her preschool and next to the preschool

is an empty storefront.

No, I could only say what I knew now.

If I knew then what I know now,

but I actually said,

Oh, I could just put my ovens in there and I

could just go back to baking wholesale.

And I did.

I actually,

that's when we moved our kids.

We moved to this new town and I put my commercial

kitchen in the back of a Plaza down two Hills around

the back with absolutely no street front signage.

But that's okay because you didn't want people to be walking

in. You were doing wholesale,

right, right.

I didn't.

And so it worked out.

It actually was good.

So my daughter went to the preschool next door and when

she was done with preschool,

she would come and hang out in the bakery until it

was time to pick my son up from school.

And it really was just a wholesale bakery.

I did cakes for restaurants,

I did orders.

Customers were still ordering from me.

So I was filling orders and what was,

Oh and I started,

I also was doing kids birthday parties.

That was how I was going to pay my rent.

Well and that makes sense.

You've got people who are,

cause you clearly had a sign,

like people had to know that something was baking there plus

it probably smelled great.

It smelled amazing when the kids would go by,

they're like,

it smells like cookies.

And I first say I wish I was your daughter.

That sounds amazing.

So you had a little bit of visibility there that probably

didn't pass you up that there were people who were going

to know about you and they have children who need cupcakes

for birthdays and all that.

I mean that's kind of indirect,

but I'm sure you got business Correct.

I had a captive audience,

Absolutely. But I also kind of invented this birthday party model

where we would have kids come in and have their birthday

party at my shop and it was a two hour party.

And we would do crafts and then cupcakes or cookie decorating.

And of course this was at a time when people were

moving their birthday parties out of their homes and thinking this

is great.

Someone else has the kids in.

They make the mess there,

they do everything there and then we go home.

And that model worked extremely well until my wedding business and

specialty business really picked up and it was hard to have

a display room with beautiful cakes and also be offering birthday

parties and have the birthday kids feel like they had the

run of the space.

Right, that makes sense.

Yeah. I started to feel that I was doing a disservice

to the birthdays because they would have to be after the

shop closed and I really started having beautiful things displays that

I didn't want to be interfered with by the kids coming

to the birthday parties.

So let go of that part of it and let the

business grow in a different direction.

And are you still in that same location now?

No, I have moved to the location that I'm at now.

I moved.

I opened January 8th what like two months before the world

fell apart Like January 8th this year.

Okay. Was going to be my year.

It is still.

This is what I wanted to talk to you about,

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So I have to share with our listeners here,

Kim, if you're over in my private Facebook group,

gift biz breeze right now,

three times a week,

I'm going on really supporting the community.

By the way,

all of you have probably heard the promo,

you'll hear it again at the end of this show about

how you can join.

But it's a place where anyone who's a maker,

whether you're thinking already established or totally successful like him,

is we all come and support each other because everyone brings

a lot of great information.

And another thing we do is on Thursday nights,

right now,

this isn't going to last forever.

I can tell you that.

But on Thursday night we're doing zoom calls that anyone can

come in and that's less businessy but more just chatting,

talking, supporting each other.

And of course we all know now on zoom how easy

it is to communicate back and forth.

And so Kim's jumped on now and has always been participating

over in gift biz breeze.

Anyway, but we started talking about how you've taken and adjusted

your business based on the current situation.

Because at the time of this recording,

we are still for the most part at home,

except now we're starting to see a couple of States starting

to open up.

So this is,

that's when we're recording here.

But some of the things that Kim has done to just

manage through the situation are so great that I'm like,

okay stop talking Kim.

I said that to you.

I'm like we can't talk about this anymore cause I want

to hear about it on the podcast.

Will you come on the show?

And so that's how this whole thing started.

So now that we're getting to this point in time and

you've referenced it,

I want to dive into that.

year, you have a brand new brick and mortar shop.

So all the excitement,

fear, anxiety,

nerves, all of it.

Like there's so much I'm sure that goes together.

Absolutely right.

So before the virus started hitting,

like maybe the two weeks you had before we started hearing

about it,

how was the transition and people coming in like tell us

where you were before everything happened.

So we spent from October,

I would say mid-October to really January,

getting this new shop ready.

So my mom,

my sister,

my sister's partner really were instrumental in helping me get the

shop ready.

We painted,

we picked paint,

colors, the curtains.

We just,

everything centered around this new location.

My kids were involved.

We were so excited.

December 28th I closed my former location and moved all the

equipment, everything to the new location.

It's a little town next door to the town I was

in and Oh,

we were so excited.

Just we couldn't wait to open.

So I had a soft opening and that I have a

great friend who's a photographer.

She came in and she did this big Facebook spread and

the next day it just blew up.

People were coming in for coffee and muffins.

All the things that we had added to our menu in

addition to,

we were planning this amazing year of specialty cakes,

wedding showers.

We had baby showers,

just everything.

I couldn't wait to showcase everything in this new location.

We were meeting with brides Saturdays from nine to four we

meet with brides who come in and pick their wedding cake

and do their tastings and I was so proud to show

this new space off and we were just getting in a

groove. I have a great team and we were just so

excited And I'm going to say that you're just putting a

little pause on right,

like it's just a little pause temporarily.

I said,

this is a pause.

This is a post on March 13th 14th I was starting

to hear about,

you know,

the virus and that things were going to start and my

events were starting to get postponed.

Like we're not going to do it in March.

We're thinking we might do it in April.

Okay, we'll do it in April.

And then on Monday,

March 16th our governor in Connecticut said,

all restaurants,

all venues,

all catering,

all non-essential businesses are closing at eight o'clock Monday night And

even though you were food,

which is essential because You were specialty cakes,

did you not fit into a central at that time?

Then I didn't feel essential.

I said,

am I essential?

I remember my son said to me,

are you essential?

And I said,

yes, I am and I'm going to make myself essential.

And I said,

I serve coffee,

I serve breakfast.

I'm going to fill a void in the community.

People have to go somewhere and Dunkin donuts can be essential.

I'm going to be essential.

I love the power behind what you just said.

I don't know if I'm essential,

but I'm going to make myself essential.

I did.

I said,

that is my option is I am going to be essential

until someone tells me I'm not.

And I will say so it's very hard right now because

I believe every business is essential.

Every business is essential to someone.

Every friend that I have that has a small business,

everyone that I know is hurting so much because how can

you tell a business they're not essential.

They're essential to someone.

It's so frustrating and it's very challenging to have someone say

you have to close your business now,

figure out a way to stay viable and stay relevant when

we've told you you're not essential and you have to close

your doors.

So it's hard.

I went through a lot of guilt in the beginning,

just feeling like,

how can I say I'm essential,

but the truth is I needed to survive and this was

really my only opportunity to support myself.

So how did you switch from being the specialty cakes?

How did you enhance your business so that you were essential?

What did you do?

I just expanded my menu to everything that I could think

of that people would come in and purchase with their coffee

to bring it.

They were still working to bring a box of muffins into

the office too.

I really didn't want to be like a breakfast coffee shop,

but I just made sure that I had enough of a

variety every day that when people came in to get their

coffee, they have to drive by me every day and I

wanted to make sure that when they came in they felt

like they stopped and it was worth their stop.

I got to say like around me,

a lot of the drive throughs are open but like Starbucks

walk in isn't available right now.

Well we put gloves outside our door.

We have the demarcations for the six feet apart.

We are wearing face masks now.

That is the mandate.

Now we are wearing face masks.

We're in a temperate climate.

It's probably like fifties during the day.

So I do leave my door open so that no one

even has to touch the handle.

We have a front door and a rear door so you

could essentially make the circle through so you don't have to

go back to people waiting in line.

If you come in kind of the parking lot is the

back and you can go out the front door and walk

back around to the parking lot.

Got it.

Okay. So you really,

you made your environment accommodating to what the rules need to

be, kind of like how grocery stores are doing and then

you adjusted your menu to fit what people would be buying

right now.

Yes. So pastries,

muffins Do about six kinds of muffins every day.

We do scones,

we do filled croissants,

we do turnovers,

great cookies,

we always have cupcakes and we've really expanded desserts to go

crumb cake.

Things that people can pick up and take home and have.

I find that people are buying like a dozen things to

last them a few days rather than a coffee and a

muffin to drive on their way to work.

Right. I agree with that.

And so now what's happened on the cake side?

Well cakes,

people are still celebrating and they've just gotten much smaller.

We used to do a cake maybe for 20 people would

be our average sized cake and now it's down to a

cake for six people.

But they still want beautiful cakes and beautifully decorated cakes.

So we're offering the cakes that we would typically do for

a larger party just on a much smaller scale.

Got it.

I love how much you've pivoted,

but you've stayed in your lane.

Well that was important to me.

That was the question I asked you first.

When I first came on Facebook live,

I didn't want to lose my client base that was used

to following my Instagram for all of these beautiful desserts.

And now I'm posting like a muffin menu and I didn't

want my clients to think,

Oh, she's abandoned her beautiful cake business for muffins.

But I needed to be able to market to both.

Well, you're conforming to the situation too,

you know,

and I think a lot of it is in the messaging.

This is what you're doing temporarily to help serve your customer

and you'll be back.

Like it's not going away.

You still have all the skills and the talent and the

knowledge and the clientele.

It will be back.

But meanwhile,

what else can you do?

So I'm curious.

The people who are walking in right now.

Are you seeing a lot of new People?

A lot of new people?

Yes. A lot of new people who are out for a

ride and we're on a main road.

So out for a ride have never been here before.

This is a great spot.

Very positive feedback from people who are coming in that are

new customers.

That's exciting for you for the future.

For sure.

So and now I want to get into what is an

equally exciting thing.

And this is what I don't know as much cause this

is when I said stop talking,

right? But you are also helping other small businesses in your

area right now.

So this isn't all just about you and I love the

strategy that you've employed.

So share with us what else you're doing.

So in the beginning,

when I moved here in January,

the biggest question that I got every day was,

Oh are you going to sell bread?

Are you going to make bread?

Do you have bread?

Oh are you going to sell bread?

I every day said,

I am not a bread Baker.

I don't make bread,

but I sensed this urgency for,

especially as things got closer to where we are right now,

just that people really wanted bread.

So I reached out to a woman right in my town

who has a business in her home who makes the most

amazing bread.

She also makes scones and muffins and cookies and things like

that. So she is a true competitor,

but her bread is phenomenal.

And I reached out to her and said,

Kathy, her name is Kathy Duffy from sweet Sage bakery.

And I said,

Kathy, I'd love to sell your bread.

There's a need here and people are really clamoring for bread.

And I told her,

you know,

I could watch YouTube all weekend and learn to bake bread,

but you already bake bread and I'd much rather bring you

in and have your bread here.

People know her and she's,

she's phenomenal.

And this bread is a sourdough bread that the starter,

she's used for 25 years,

but it originated at a French monastery and its origin is

over 400 years old.

And I thought,

this has a history.

It's an interesting story.

I'm going to bring her bread in.

So we now have her three days a week and we

sell out all the time.

Does she actually come into the store then and do her

own transactions?

No, she delivers Tuesday,

Thursday and Saturday.

Got it.

So that's merged.

So it's kind of like a wholesale arrangement right now.

Yeah, I just have her bread there.

I sell it for her.

Some people only buy bread,

they only come in and buy her bread.

But for the most part,

people come in,

they buy a loaf of bread,

they got a cup of coffee,

they got a couple of cupcakes.

So it's been a great business partnership.

Absolutely. And again,

you're exposing each other's businesses because she now can promote to

her customers that,

yeah, I can't,

you know how whatever her normal channels are,

but they could get it at your shop,

which is nice and convenient,

which means people are coming in and then there's being exposed

to all of what you're offering as well.

Right. Well,

what was heartbreaking for her is that her main channel of

sales during this time is a prominent university.

Right. The next town and when the university closed,

she lost her whole connection to selling her bread.

So it really was a huge upheaval for her.

But now we offered her a channel.

So it's,

it's been a great partnership.

I love that.

I mean just,

you know,

helping you virtually have helped her save her business right now.

Yeah. And I hope expand it because we're introducing it to

so many more people than may have had in the past.

Yeah, for sure.

And the other thing is,

I mean,

you could have so easily said,

I'm not doing that because then the other people are going

to see the other products that she has that are similar.

No, when I didn't put my name on it,

she brings it in.

It's got her name,

her everything.

There's no mixed advertising at all.

Just my heart to hear that you did that for her

and I know both of you are going to be rewarded

going into the future.

So absolutely love that.

Do you have plans on carrying that out with other people?

I have another great business relationship and actually a friendship with

a young girl who started her own business,

hand painting,

wine glasses,

and she started the business,

a glass full of hope to raise money.

She has the biggest heart,

but to raise money for a family to build a home

in the Dominican Republic.

And she was in high school.

She worked for me a few years when she was in

high school and she said,

Oh, I'm thinking about painting these glasses and I'd like to

raise money for this family and Dominican Republic to help them

build a home because they're very poor.

And she started this business in her home.

It's been,

I think she just turned 25 so it's probably been 10

years and she's really expanded the line.

So we're bringing that in.

She just delivered an order to me over the weekend and

we're setting up a space in the shop for her to

showcase her glasses because right now mother's day is coming and

graduation will happen in some form.

And she has a real talent for putting people's,

you know,

Alma mater or their school on these glasses.

She hand paints them and I think that they would just

be a really nice addition to what we're showcasing.

Yeah, and it blends with your current product.

It's not something that's so far off that it's like,

well, why is that in here?

Like hair bows or something.

Right. We'll intermingle it with some of the graduation products that

we're showcasing.

I get a sense from customer shopping right now that they're

looking to do a lot of shopping in one place because

there's such an angst going into a big box store,

the face mask and the gloves and the six feet apart.

That if I can help them find maybe a little more

of what they're looking for,

where I'm located,

that will just make their experience that much better.

Absolutely. I'm kind of picturing displays with wine glasses with chocolate

inside. Yes.

Maybe you could wrap them like as a gift something And

we have wine filled chocolate,

so, Oh,

Oh. It goes right with it.

It does.

It does.

I'm going to have to road trip.

I think at some point I'm going to have to stop

in. Oh,

I'd love that.

None of us know exactly when things will start getting back

to normal,

but I know you're a planner because I'm seeing how strategic

you are and you're just taking what comes and and managing

through what are you thinking as we move out of this

and we're all able to get back out and over time

restrictions will change.

What are your thoughts for your business in the future?

Well, I'm embracing what I'm finding right now and I'm really

enjoying the one on one customer interaction as opposed to delivering

a cake for 200 people and I only know three of

them that I met when we did our initial consultation,

so I'm embracing getting to know a lot of new clients

and having more one on one interaction.

I sadly think it's going to be some time before we're

back to gathering together with 200 of our closest friends.

I just see weddings really changing and I've been on a

lot of webinars and listening to a lot of ways that

things are going to be changing,

so I'm prepared for my business.

Definitely going in a little bit of a different direction.

I think for the next a year at least.

Well, you're lucky again because of what you've done.

You can kind of up a lever in one way in

one place and lower it and another like you still got

your wedding cake services.

So there'll be some of that.

But then you also have the walk in which it sounds

like you're enjoying equally as much and maybe even more.

Right? Well it's,

it's definitely challenging every day I'm there at five wondering what

am I going to make today?

What's going to appeal to customers today?

I'm going to start doing more cakes for when people walk

in to just grab a cake to go so that it's

a special celebration,

um, spur of the moment and you can have a beautiful

cake. So that's one of my goals,

especially with mother's day coming and being prepared for small graduation

parties and small intimate weddings that might be happening with 10

or 15 people as opposed to something that's on a larger

scale. Do you ever do matching cakes that go like let's

say two people can't be together,

let's say a mother and father and then a daughter,

husband, and they've just had a new baby,

let's say.

Do you ever do like two cakes where they would both

get the same cake and they could go on zoom and

experience the same cake but in two separate places?

That's fantastic.

No, but I can see that happening and seeing people enjoying

that. Yes.

Yeah, Because if you're in the same community,

I mean I think it's heartbreaking.

Some of the relationships that can't get together.

I mean there's so much love and so much to celebrate

and zoom is a good thing.

But adding to the experiences Our town has in Connecticut,

we have the largest agricultural fair in Connecticut.

I'm part of the Durham fair and one of the things

that I've been a part of to spread some joy to

people that are celebrating but that are quarantined at home is

our mascot Marigold.

The cow is going out and delivering cow grams,

which are happy birthday greetings or get well greetings and they're

bringing along one of our cupcakes.

Oh. As part of their,

it's really exciting,

so we have done a lot of that and we're getting

a nice following from that as well.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Is that on Facebook anywhere to see?

It Is,

yeah. It's on the Durham fair page and it's hashtag cow

gram. Okay.

I'm writing that down because I want to put that in

Cal Graham.

Love that.

Yeah. The Invention of our marketing director,

and it's her son who's a junior in high school who

is playing the mascot.

We've done over a hundred visits.

Wow. It gives him something to do,

right? Yeah.

He's going to use it for his senior essay getting ready

for college.

Yeah. Oh,

that's great.

You know,

as I continue to hear stories from you,

it just reinforces to me that there are so many opportunities.

You just have to put your creative hat on and think

in a little bit of a different way.

Not trying to do more of what we were doing because

right now that's,

we have some limitations on it,

but how can you still stay in your lane,

stay known as the confections sweets person,

the go to person in your case,

but twisted a little bit just for the time being.

Yes. I'm very optimistic.

I'm excited for you Kim.

Thank you.

So thank you very much.

I so appreciate you coming on sharing your story,

sharing some of the twists that you did cause that might

spark an idea for someone who's listening.

Do you have any final words for people who are just

starting out or people who are struggling in this time?

Just some words of motivation and inspiration.

I think just every day try to do something in your

business, something,

just try something new,

talk to someone about your business,

share something.

Just really be consistently sharing and talking about your business.

I think consistency goes a long way in having people remember

who you are and what you're doing and every day a

different person might see your business or might see what your

offerings are and trigger something for that person or someone who

knows someone.

You just never know who's listening,

so don't give up.

Just be consistent and share your message every day.

Beautiful. I love it and that's exactly what you've done here.

Shared the message and shared some great ideas and what I

love about your industry overall is it brings smiles and celebration

and happiness to things that are going on in life and

we're still all here and celebrating and you're helping us do

that. Thank you so much once again,

I so appreciate having you on the show.

Thank you.

This was a great conversation and I appreciate you having me

on. Kim is saving her business and along with it,

helping others save their businesses too.

I get goosebumps thinking about it.

I was saying to a friend just the other day that

the key to not becoming an emotional victim right now is

action and that's exactly what Kim is demonstrating.

If I had to pick a part of the conversation that

was my favorite,

it was about all businesses being essential because they are to

someone and how she took action and decided that cottage confections

was essential.

She made sure of it.

Next week we'll be talking with another small business owner and

hear how she pivoted to respond to today's world.

You don't want to miss it and if you're not part

of the breeze yet,

you definitely want to join us there.

You'll hear more about it right now.

Take care,

be safe and well and I look forward to us being

together again next week.

Bye for now.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing,

to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week,

to get reaction from other people and just for fun because

we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in

the community is making.

My favorite post every single week without doubt,

wait, what aren't you part of the group already?

If not,

make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the

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Don't delay.