The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Valerie Allensworth of Sitka, AK sells donuts and other baked goods with her cottage food business, The Donut Lady.

Valerie used to work at her mom’s commercial food business, but when she had her son a few years ago, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

However, after a few months she started feeling the itch to bake more, so she started a cottage food bakery, which got her back in the baking game, but still allowed her to stay at home with her son.

As you’ll see, Valerie’s entry point into the cottage food world was quite different from most entrepreneurs, and living on an island in Alaska has presented its own set of distinct challenges, which makes for a fascinating and unique cottage food success story.

• The importance of maintaining consistency in your products to keep customers coming back
• The pros and cons of running a cottage food business on a remote island
• How to get customers to adapt when you switch from one business model to another
• The viability of using direct delivery to fulfill orders
• Whether it’s better to bring fewer products to a market and sell out, or bring enough products for everyone but risk having leftovers
• The differences between marketing to tourists versus locals
• How to balance business growth with your personal life and family responsibilities
• How to use social media to boost sales
• Ideas for sourcing ingredients in a remote location

The Donut Lady (Facebook | Instagram)

Alaska Cottage Food Law

Are you building an email list for your business yet? If not, you really should be collecting customers’ email addresses and emailing them on a regular basis. Even these days, email continues to be better than social media for generating consistent sales, and the best part is that you own it. Once you build an email list, nobody can take it away from you.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through the essentials of using ConvertKit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/119

Marci Larson lives in Sioux Falls, SD and sells baked goods, canned goods, and other items with her cottage food business, Kahler’s Cakes.

For many years, Marci thought about selling her baked goods, and she finally took the leap in 2019 and started selling to family and friends.

But things really took off when she sold out at her first event a couple years later, and she hasn’t looked back since. Over the past few years, she’s sold at dozens of different events year round, and now sells wholesale as well.

Marci’s only regret? Not starting her business sooner. So if you’ve been on the fence about getting your cottage food business off the ground, hopefully this episode will inspire you to start selling sooner than later.

• The importance of starting your business sooner rather than later
• How a strong social media presence can significantly boost your cottage food business
• The benefits of joining local farmers’ markets and events to sell your products
• The value of building relationships with customers face-to-face
• The impact of using family recipes to differentiate your products
• How trial and error helps refine your product offerings over time
• The role of straightforward packaging in appealing to customers
• How to juggle multiple roles while running a home-based business
• The significance of feedback in improving your business operations
• That offering a variety of products can attract a wider customer base
• How consistent posting on social media keeps your audience engaged
• The benefits and challenges of participating in both summer markets and winter craft shows
• That balancing a day job and a growing business is challenging but achievable
• The advantages of selling wholesale to maintain consistent sales
• That there are multiple paths to success in the cottage food industry

Kahler’s Cakes Facebook Page

South Dakota Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/118

Jenifer & Tristan Hoke of Tecumseh, OK sell baked goods, smoked spices, and other items with their cottage food business, The Drunken Chef.

In their first year of business, they struggled to find consistent sales, despite trying many marketing avenues, including starting their own farmers market.

But finally, they found a sales venue that turned everything around, and now they are building an expanded kitchen on their property to try to keep up with the demand.

Jenifer and Tristan’s story is one of persistence and determination, and of celebrating every single win, big and small.

• The value of starting small and testing the market before fully committing to a business idea
• How diversifying your product offerings can attract a wider customer base
• Why you must persist to overcome initial business challenges
• The power of building a community and networking with other small business owners
• Why you should always listen to customers, even though the customer is not always right
• The importance of celebrating every win, even a small one
• Ideas for finding a viable way to ship products
• How to embrace the unexpected, and be always open for the right opportunity
• Why cottage food entrepreneurs tend to be more community-oriented

The Drunken Chef Facebook page

Pirate Ship (business shipping rates)

Oklahoma Cottage Food Law

Are you building an email list for your business yet? If not, you really should be collecting customers’ email addresses and emailing them on a regular basis. Even these days, email continues to be better than social media for generating consistent sales, and the best part is that you own it. Once you build an email list, nobody can take it away from you.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through the essentials of using ConvertKit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/117

Rob Sanz lives in Rockville, MD, and sells sourdough bread with his cottage food business, Rise Artisan Sourdough.

Although Rob is a longtime fan of the podcast, he doesn’t always resonate with guests because many of them have gone full-time with their businesses, whereas Rob prefers to keep his bakery intentionally small.

In this episode, Rob shares how he has become a very successful cottage food entrepreneur by finding the right balance between his family, his career, and his growing cottage food business.

• How to balance a full-time career with a passion project
• How to set healthy boundaries for your business
• The benefits of engaging directly with your local community
• Why you should make incremental investments in equipment to boost productivity
• How to grow a business that aligns with your life without adding more pressure or stress
• Why a cottage food bakery can be the perfect counterbalance if you have a stressful career
• Why staying small can make you more successful
• How to leverage Reddit to market a cottage food business
• How to generate consistent sales by building an email list
• Which email marketing metrics to focus on

Rise Artisan Sourdough website (Facebook | Instagram)

Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

Intro to Email Marketing (with ConvertKit)

Free Cottage Food Mini Course

Proof Bread

Maryland Cottage Food Law

Simply Bread mixes technology and community to power the next generation of bakers. 

Baking is not just a hobby or a business; it’s one of the simplest things that brings us together as family and friends, cultures and communities, all around the globe.

The Simply Bread oven marries traditional baking techniques with cutting-edge technology.

Simply Bread aims to make the world’s highest-quality baking products accessible to everyone, and the oven’s versatility allows it to bake bread, desserts, and more.

You can bake up to 15 loaves in 40 minutes, use its programmable steam generation and manual steam release feature, control each of its three deck’s temperature individually, and connect it to WiFi to access data about your bakes. They have also designed a line of baking accessories, the perfect addition to anyone’s bakery.

If you’re looking to upgrade your baking game from beginner to professional, they simply have the right products for you. Simply Bread is a baker’s best friend.

To check them out, go to forrager.com/simplybread

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/116

Elisa Marie Lords lives in Placentia, CA and sells southern-inspired baked goods with her cottage food business, Elisa Marie Baking.

Elisa spent many years as a professional pastry chef, and when the pandemic hit in 2020, she finally took the leap into starting her own bakery from home.

Although her sales were slow at first, she didn’t give up and now sells hundreds of products per week via local markets and wholesale locations.

In this episode, she shares how she built up a community of customers and business partners that have helped sustain her growing home bakery.

• How to deal with early business challenges and slow starts
• The importance of self-education when starting your own bakery
• How to foster a strong community and network that helps support your business
• The significance of perseverance and passion in turning a hobby into a profitable business
• Which social media techniques will build your brand identity and expand your reach
• Why participating in fair competitions can help validate your product quality and boost confidence
• The benefits of embracing your role as the face of your brand
• How a multi-channel sales strategy will make your business more sustainable
• The value of preparation and organization in managing a high-volume product output from home
• How to overcome personal obstacles, like imposter syndrome, when growing your business
• The importance of having a clear vision for your business and making decisions that align with it
• How strategic pricing can attract customers without compromising the quality or profitability of your product
• How to increase the chances of lucky breaks in business

Elisa Marie Baking website (Instagram | Youtube | Facebook | TikTok)

The Business of Baking by Michelle Green

California Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/115

This is Part 2 of the interview with Tiffany Hill. You can listen to Episode 113 to listen to Part 1.

In the last episode, Tiffany shared how she started and grew her cottage food business, The Pink Crumbb.

In this episode, she shares how she built off of that success by starting an online course business, called Think Pink Bakers, as well as a packaging business, called Pink Design Co.

Tiffany has experienced phenomenal growth in all of her businesses. She built her IG following to over 300,00 followers within 2 years, reached over 10,000 online course sales within the first year, and is already building a warehouse to manage her packaging business!

• Why you must have the courage to step out of your comfort zone and take calculated risks
• When to know it’s time to make significant changes to your business
• The importance of taking action versus trying to plan everything
• How to build trust and consistently engage with your audience
• Why you must persevere and adapt when facing business challenges and failures
• The importance of building a strong brand identity and customer experience
• The key formula to unlocking massive growth on Instagram
• How to improve your content with genuine and transparent storytelling
• Ways to improve your productivity by staying focused on what’s most important
• How strategic pricing increases your product’s reach and impact
• Why work-life balance is crucial for preventing burnout and maintaining productivity
• The essentials for maintaining a hands-on understanding of core business operations
• How Tiffany grew her business substantially without hiring a large team

Think Pink Bakers

Pink Design Co.

The Pink Crumbb website (Facebook | Instagram)

California Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/114

Tiffany Hill of Apple Valley, CA runs three businesses: her cottage food business called The Pink Crumbb, a paid membership community called Think Pink Bakers, and a bakery packaging business called Pink Design Co.

Tiffany’s growth trajectory as a cottage food entrepreneur is simply remarkable! With 300,000+ Instagram followers, it’s hard to believe that just 2 years ago, she nearly gave up on her fledgling cottage food business when she struggled to make sales and had minimal profits.

But just a few months later, she was consistently making thousands of dollars per month, and today she primarily focuses her efforts on teaching other bakers how to do the same. Even though she started Think Pink Bakers just last year, she’s already had over 10,000 students join her membership!

Tiffany shared too much valuable advice to fit it into only one episode. In this first episode, she shares how she started and grew her cottage food business, and in the next episode, she shares how she built off of that success by starting her online course business as well as her packaging business.

Both of these episodes are chock full of lessons learned and great business advice!

• How to transition from a job into entrepreneurship
• How to nurture buyers and build a loyal customer base
• How to shift your mindset about money in order to market more effectively
• Why you should constantly experiment with your business and reinvent yourself
• Why you should follow your successes and make little changes to optimize your business
• How to truly understand your audience to create an effective marketing strategy
• What to do when you’re confronted with failure in your business
• How to cultivate a strong online presence by sharing your journey
• Why you need to view your business through the lens of what a customer needs
• The importance of doing things that you’re not passionate about in the short-term to create long-term success
• How to make sales more consistent by diversifying your product line
• What you should think about when creating signage for markets
• How to become the CEO of your business
• Which components of entrepreneurship truly matter, and which ones don’t
• How to know when it’s time to take big risks to uplevel your business and achieve work-life balance

The Pink Crumbb website (Facebook | Instagram)

Think Pink Bakers

California Cottage Food Law

Are you building an email list for your business yet? If not, you really should be collecting customers’ email addresses and emailing them on a regular basis. Even these days, email continues to be better than social media for generating consistent sales, and the best part is that you own it. Once you build an email list, nobody can take it away from you.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through the essentials of using ConvertKit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/113

Mark Elvidge and his wife Gail started their business, Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, back in 1998. At the time, they were the very first U.S. chocolate company to be completely nut-free. They also chose to focus solely on e-commerce at a time when selling food online was very uncommon.

Back then, Vermont was one of the only states that had a cottage food law, and they ran their small business from home for the first year and a half. They quickly grew and moved into a commercial facility, and they’ve expanded into larger facilities 4 times since then!

Vermont Nut Free Chocolates are sold in over 1,000 stores and shipped worldwide. Their current factory and storefront is in Colchester, VT, and they have over 3 dozen employees.

In this episode, Mark shares their unique journey of growing a small cottage food business into an international brand.

• How their son’s allergy led them to starting a hugely successful business
• The importance of perseverance in turning a small idea into a global brand
• The value of hyper-focusing on a target market, which can drive organic traffic and sustain business growth
• How to overcome a geographically dispersed audience by using online marketing strategies
• The importance of product quality and customer trust in building and maintaining a loyal customer base
• The value of direct consumer interaction to understand and cater to their needs
• That continuous learning and adaptability are key to managing and growing a business
• When to start focusing on Google Ads and Amazon
• Pricing considerations at any stage of business
• How to balance automation and handcrafting as you scale up
• How to stay relevant to customers and consistently grow every year
• The importance of having a “why” in your business
• What it’s like to run a food business that reaches a large scale
• That positive media exposure can play a significant role in business growth, even years after the fact

Vermont Nut Free Chocolates website (Facebook | Instagram)

Mark’s LinkedIn profile

Vermont Nut Free Chocolates on Amazon

New York Times Wirecutter Article

Vermont Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/112

Monique Germaine of Nashville, TN sells par-baked pizza doughs, cinnamon rolls, shortbreads, and other baked and confectionary goods with her cottage food business, Kneading To Bake.

Monique is unique in that she has run her cottage food business in 3 different states so far: Colorado, Georgia, & Tennessee. Plus, before starting Kneading To Bake, she started a commercial cookie business in Wyoming and got her products onto the shelves of big retail stores.

In this episode, she shares what she’s learned from having to start her business over multiple times, plus she shares the crazy story of starting her cookie business.

• Monique’s crazy startup story, which left her scrambling when her distributor shutdown
• How to turn obstacles into opportunities by adapting your business when faced with unforeseen circumstances
• How customer service directly impacts the success of your business
• The difference that packaging and branding can make for business success
• How to build a strong connection with your customers by sharing your story and background
• The differences between states’ regulatory environments and how they affect cottage food businesses
• Why Monique is more driven by customer connection than profit
• Why you need to truly believe in every product you sell
• The benefits to having a wide array of products at a market
• How Monique trademarked her brand without hiring a lawyer

Kneading to Bake website (Facebook | Instagram)

99designs (logo design)

Ankarsrum mixers

Monique’s petition for food freedom in Georgia

Tennessee Food Freedom Law

Colorado Cottage Food Law

Georgia Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/111

Michelle Dukes lives in Penfield, NY, and sells jumbo muffins and cookies with her cottage food business, The Cookie Cutters.

Although Michelle has thousands of Facebook followers and has sold many thousands of baked goods over the past 13 years, she doesn’t run her business to make a large profit or to become a brick-and-mortar someday.

Rather, her business is primarily a social and creative outlet for her, and most importantly, she focuses on having fun with it.

In this episode, you will hear how her business has changed significantly over time and what she’s learned along the way.

• How to turn your hobby into a successful business
• That having a clear focus on fun rather than profit can still lead to success
• The value of community and support in overcoming business challenges
• That adapting to change is key to longevity in business
• Why you should refine your menu instead of trying to please everybody
• The significance of personal branding and being authentic on social media platforms
• How Michelle converts almost every market booth visitor into a customer
• The importance of a personal support system for growing a business
• How experimenting with products can help you find your niche in the market
• Potential challenges when transitioning to wholesale
• Why the journey of entrepreneurship is about more than just financial success

The Cookie Cutters Facebook page

New York Cottage Food Law

A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website, and that is simply not true anymore.

I created this free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website on Square Online in less than an hour!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/110