Make It and Sell It

In this episode, Loretta Beiler recounts her history of home-based bread and roasted coffee business, how a surprise trip to Italy inspired her to create sourdough bread classes in her home, and how these and her family’s coffee business complement each other in bringing healthy, clean products and services to the Lancaster, PA community. She also discusses how she organizes her business to ensure she can be at her best not only for her business but also for her family life. Loretta and ...

In this episode, Wendy Klinke reflects on her start-up art instruction and art kit business this past year called Blue Cat Studio. Wendy’s love of art and teaching led her in a roundabout way to home-based production, as she created and sold canvas, paint, brush, and instruction kits to her students. Classes, both in-person and online, have created a growing residual business for new kits and supplies. With a lifelong passion for painting and crafts, Wendy studied fine art and architectu...

In this episode, the last of the season, we discuss seven of the most important lessons from the first season of this podcast about starting and growing a home-based production business. Despite our best efforts, it was not possible to book guests for these last few weeks of the calendar year. It shouldn’t have been surprising, as December is the busiest for home-based production businesses. But we are still learning ourselves! Instead, we are using this opportunity to close out the year...

In this episode, Torchbearer Sauces founders Vid Lynch and Ben Smith discuss how they turned seven years of weekly parties into a thriving 15-year-old sauce business. As early innovators in the flavor-based hot sauce movement, they credit their success to decisions about reclaiming the production process and putting in the time to really get to know their products and customers. As their seven-year run of weekly dinner parties of 15-30 guests each started to wind down, Vid, Ben, and Tim ...

This episode is the last of three episodes that attempts to answer the question, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” It describes branding, product development, and the creation of an Ecommerce website, as well as reveal the first of three home-based products that podcast host, Cory Heyman, has just finalized. As fun as it may be to complete paperwork and prepare your workspace, the best part of a new home-based production business is the a...

This episode is a further deep dive into one of the most frequent questions we hear about home-based production, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” The second of three episodes, this segment discusses the nuts and bolts of the start-up process. It includes preparing the space as well as sourcing equipment, supplies, and ingredients. There are two ways to start a new venture. One is to jump right in—building the proverbial plane while...

This episode is a deep dive into one of the most frequent questions we hear about home-based production, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” We answer this question with personal reflections in starting up our own business earlier this year, focusing this discussion (the first of three episodes) on government permissions and requirements. The first step is often the most precarious in any new venture. Some people feel so intimidated by it t...

In this episode, Tony Morrell discusses one of his obsessions, home beer brewing, how his process has changed over the past eight to nine years to assure regular brewing awards, and how he is thinking about turning his past time into a commercial venture. Tony Morrell received his first home-brewing beer kit eight to nine years ago. Excited to try it out, the results were pretty terrible. It could take a few weeks to taste one of his concoctions, and the results were often close to what ...

In this episode, Armando Lacayo explains how he transitioned from financial management to baking and the role of home-based production in opening what Bon Appetit magazine anointed the best new bakery in the country in 2016. Three decades ago, Armando Lacayo moved to the U.S. from France to study math at American University. After starting on Wall Street and then earning an MBA, he worked for years in finance in Silicon Valley. In his spare time, Armando also dabbled in the kitchen. He h...

In this episode, food entrepreneurs Bev Martin and Nancy Martin, talk about their ghee production business, including expanding into a commercial facility and marketing a lesser known product. Bev Martin and Nancy Rohrer had worked together for years in marketing when they discovered ghee, what they describe as “a better butter.” Ghee appealed to each of them for different reasons, but they both became increasingly excited about sharing this remarkable product with the world. The marketi...