Rachel Laukala lives in Ravensdale, WA and sells cake pops with her bakery, Cakepops by Rachel.

Rachel started her cake pop business back in 2011, and although it was steadily growing, she stopped it to focus more on work and family.

But when she had her third son, she realized she wanted to spend more time at home, and her business was reborn.

The rest is history. Within the next few years, she quit her teaching job, started hiring help, moved into a commercial kitchen, and now sells well over 1,000 cake pops per week!

She now has over 116,000 followers on Instagram and runs an online school for cake pop artists, called School of Cakepop.

• How the cake pop industry has changed over time
• What to do if you don’t feel skilled enough to sell artistic baked goods
• A new and easier way to make cake pops that will make your business more profitable
• What to do if you face burnout in business
• How to set appropriate prices for your products
• When to invest in hiring help
• Whether it’s okay to use boxed cake mixes for a cottage food business
• Why launching too quickly into wholesale can cause problems
• How to grow an audience on social media the right way
• The advantages of partnering with local businesses to help with product pickup
• Why you should consider offering digital products to complement your physical goods  

Cakepops by Rachel website (Instagram | Facebook)

School of Cakepop

What’s Popping Con (save $25 on registration with code FORRAGER)

Amanda’s Digital Product Community

Episode 80 with Chef Amanda Schonberg

Bakerella

Washington Cottage Food Law

Rachel Laukala is one of the top cake pop experts in the country, and this year, you have the chance to meet her in person! She will be the keynote speaker for a brand new conference this year for cake pop makers, called What’s Popping Con.

This conference will be the ultimate celebration of creativity, community, and cake pops!

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this conference is designed to inspire, educate, and connect cake pop enthusiasts from all over.

With playful sessions, expert-led workshops, exciting shopping opportunities, and plenty of chances to meet fellow decorators, What’s Popping Con is the perfect place to elevate your skills, spark new ideas, and have a blast doing it!

This conference will be held on May 4-6 in Kent, Ohio, and you can get $25 off registration by using the coupon code FORRAGER.

To learn more and register, go to whatspoppingcon.com

Chef Amanda Schonberg’s course will help you make extra money by adding digital products to your business, just like Rachel has done.

More and more bakers are finding ways to earn additional revenue outside of the kitchen, so what’s stopping you?

Let this be the year that you start to earn extra income and have success the digital way.

To learn more about Amanda’s course, go to forrager.com/digital

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/135

Meggen Wilson lives in Whitefish, MT and sells vanilla products and apple cider vinegar with her food business, Pine & Palm Kitchen.

Meggen only started her cottage food business a year and a half ago, but it has already taken many turns and is growing rapidly.

She initially sold at local markets using both Montana’s food freedom law and cottage food law, but last year, she transitioned into a commercial kitchen to sell online and ship nationwide.

In this episode, she covers tons of business topics, including branding, packaging, licensing, trademarking, organic labeling, sourcing, copacking, ecommerce, SEO, email marketing, and more!

• What you should NOT do at farmers markets and local events
• About free resources in your local community that you should be taking advantage of
• Why it was important for Meggen to invest in a strong brand from the start
• Whether you should consider trademarking your brand assets
• The legalities for moving to a commercial manufacturing license
• Tips for finding a commercial kitchen to rent
• How to create a HACCP plan, and when it’s necessary
• The issues involved with selling extracts and whether you need a liquor license
• How to research your products in advance to prove market demand
• SEO strategies for getting your website to appear in search results
• The logistical challenges involved with products that require a long processing time
• The challenges with co-packing and how to know if it would work well for your products
• What data you should be collecting from customers at markets, and what to do with it
• How to use an email newsletter to engage with your customers
• How to use a food blog to support your cottage food business
• Tips on getting social media ads to work for your business

Pine & Palm Kitchen website (Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | Bluesky)

How to Launch a Craft Food Business From Scratch

KeySearch (SEO tool)

Episode 98 with Stephanie Wiley

Montana 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 Kit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/134

Matt Rosen lives in Eden Prairie, MN and sells gourmet shortbread cookies with his cottage food business, Sergeant Shortbread.

Matt has a fascinating story that started completely randomly while he was on vacation. It inspired him to start making shortbread cookies, despite having zero prior baking experience.

Before long, he started receiving requests for his cookies from friends and coworkers, and his business was born.

Over the past 6+ years, his business has taken a number of turns, including finding commercial kitchens to take on larger events and wholesale orders, doing a full rebrand and business name change midway through, and finding a focus in business-to-business orders.

• How a random vacation inspired Matt to start his shortbread cookie business  
• The benefits of joining your local Chamber of Commerce
• Why you should consider rebranding to focus on your USP (unique selling proposition) 
• The mindset you need to have to be successful in business
• The downsides to focusing on wholesale
• Why you should leverage your personal story and background
• How to boost B2B sales by white labeling your products
• How Matt found a kitchen that allows him to make 500 cookies at once
• The importance of connecting with other cottage food entrepreneurs and advocating for cottage food laws
• Why Matt started a directory for cottage food businesses

Sergeant Shortbread website (Facebook | Instagram)

The Cottage Foodie website (Facebook | Instagram)

Minnesota Cottage Food Producer’s Association

Episode 45 with Shelley Erickson

Minnesota 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 Kit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/133

Delaney Peters lives in Wasilla, AK and sells sourdough baked goods with her cottage food bakery, Delaney’s Sourdough.

Delaney has only been in business for just one year, but her sourdough bakery has already grown immensely. At her weekly farmers market, she usually sells over $2k worth of bread in just a few hours!

And yet, she says that she started the business by accident, and had no expectations of it becoming a big thing.

• How a serious eating disorder led Delaney to artisan sourdough bread
• How Delaney “accidentally” started her cottage food business and experienced unexpected growth
• The “best decision” Delaney made when starting her business, and how it can boost your sales
• How to manage and optimize your production schedule for maximum efficiency
• Why you must choose the right markets for your business
• When to upgrade to a commercial bread oven
• How Delaney rapidly grew her Facebook & Instagram accounts without focusing on the algorithm
• The importance of limiting your menu options
• How to find balance when building a business while raising an infant

Delaney’s Sourdough website (Instagram | HotPlate | Facebook |TikTok)

HotPlate (ordering platform)

Alaska 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/132

Maci Reed lives in Dover, NH and sells cupcakes, cookies, custom cakes, and other baked goods with her cottage food business, Bake-a-Reed.

Maci never thought she would leave the corporate world and eventually start her own business, but life had other plans for her.

Shortly after becoming a new mom, she started offering baked goods to her local community, and her business has grown rapidly ever since.

She’s had custom orders booked almost every weekend since she started the bakery a year and a half ago, and most recently, she sold well over 1,000 baked goods in a single day!

In this episode, she shares how she’s built her business while being a full-time stay-at-home mom of a toddler, and how a near-death experience when she was younger helped make her the entrepreneur that she is today.

• The importance of fostering personal connections and community in growing a home-based business
• How Maci used social media to jumpstart her business
• Why you should tackle large events, even when you don’t think you’re ready
• How a house fire in Maci’s childhood changed her outlook on life
• How to capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing by cultivating loyal customers
• Valuable time management skills when balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship
• How long it takes to start seeing a profit when running a cottage food business
• The importance of being flexible and listening to customers when starting your business
• The benefit of joining a mastermind group to level up your business
• How shifting your perspective to a positive mindset can make all the difference

Bake-a-Reed website (Facebook | Instagram | TikTok)

Maci’s Facebook Groups:

• Bake and Roll With Us
• TikTok Bakers Club

CakeCost

New Hampshire 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 Kit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/131

Denise Golia lives in North Providence, RI and sells gluten-free and vegan cupcakes with her cottage food business, Dee’s Little Sweets.

When Denise started her business back in 2020, Rhode Island still didn’t have a cottage food law that she could use, so she baked from a shared commercial kitchen instead.

However, when Rhode Island passed a decent cottage food law in 2022, she immediately switched over to it, and that’s allowed her business to be far more successful.

In this episode, she shares how a physical injury led her to start her own food business, what it’s been like to transition from commercial to cottage food, and the unique challenges and opportunities she’s faced from niching way down.

• The difference between using a shared commercial kitchen versus a home kitchen
• How Denise’s physical challenge shaped her cottage food bakery
• The importance of sharing your business story with customers at markets
• How the gluten-free landscape has shifted over the past few years
• Why you must find the right markets that fit well with your business
• The pros and cons of large events versus smaller, community markets
• How Denise converted her leftovers into something she can sell
• Why you should find ways to repurpose your products
• How to keep prices reasonable despite fluctuations in the economy
• Time saving hacks that will make your life easier
• Why you should continuously find ways to differentiate your business from others

Dee’s Little Sweets website (Instagram | Facebook)

Rhode Island 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/130

Jondell Lafont-Garcia of Pflugerville, TX sells marshmallows with her cottage food business, Fluff Marshmallow Co.

Homemade marshmallows are trending right now, but Jondell has been making them for 11 years!

After many years of making them for just friends and family, she joined a marshmallow Facebook group and got lots of encouragement to start selling them.

A couple of months later, she started her cottage food business and found immediate success whenever and wherever she sold.

She is now considered one of the foremost experts in this burgeoning niche, and has been very involved in a new national conference for marshmallow makers.

In this episode, Jondell shares why homemade marshmallows are much different than store-bought, whether marshmallows are the next big trend, and how she’s built her business despite facing a major personal challenge.

• How to leverage your personal social media presence to give your business a head start
• The importance of finding a community to give you valuable feedback and support
• How Jondell balances her niche business with a full-time job and a major health challenge
• Some of the sugar science that goes into making perfect homemade marshmallows
• The difference between homemade and store-bought marshmallows
• How to educate customers that are unfamiliar with homemade marshmallows
• What factors to consider when pricing products
• How Jondell became involved in helping run a new national conference

Fluff Marshmallow Co. website (Facebook | Instagram | TikTok)

Marshmallow Making Madness Facebook Group

MallowCon (national marshmallow conference)

Episode 128 with Wynter Hosier

Texas 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/129

Wynter Hosier of Greentown, IN sells macarons and other baked sweets with her food business, Etta’s Gooey Goodies.

Wynter started her business from home back in 2016, and it has been quite the crazy ride since then!

From navigating Indiana’s very strict cottage food laws, to buying a storefront that she couldn’t even use for 3 whole years, to starting a Facebook group that grew to over 35,000 members, Wynter’s journey has taken many unexpected turns.

But ultimately, through lots of perseverance and a strong focus on fostering community, she now runs an increasingly successful storefront and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

• Why understanding your laws could dramatically impact the success of your business
• The importance of building a strong network in your community
• Why you should NOT have the same profit margin on all of your products
• How to use pricing to avoid becoming overwhelmed
• What it’s like to do $55,000+ in revenue from a cottage food business
• Why Wynter’s brick-and-mortar storefront became a major challenge, and what she learned from it
• The importance of being quick to hire and willing to fire
• How Wynter build a Facebook group with 35,000+ members
• The challenges of working with local government agencies, and how to deal with them
• How to balance home life and business when operating a cottage food setup
• Why you must differentiate yourself and stand out in the market
• How creative marketing strategies, like themed discount days, can drive sales

Etta’s Gooey Goodies website (Facebook | Instagram)

Marshmallow Making Madness Facebook Group

MallowCon

Friends of Fred (Facebook)

Hear Liz Marek on Episodes 31 & 32

Indiana 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 Kit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/128

Joan Eppehimer lives in Jamestown, NY and sells flavored popcorn with her cottage food business, Aunt Joan’s Pearl City Popcorn.

Joan started her business in 2015 as a way to raise money for many different causes, and she has now donated thousands of dollars to charity!

Even though her popcorn has always been extremely popular, in 2021, Joan decided to reboot her business with a new business name and brand, and with the help of her nephew Jason, has taken it to new heights.

• The importance of proper licensing and regulations for running a cottage food business
• How the government’s red tape ironically enabled Joan’s business to flourish
• The rare disease that Joan’s husband has, which inspired her to expand her business
• How to effectively brand your products to make them stand out in a competitive market  
• The value of maintaining strong community ties and supporting local enterprises 
• The challenges and rewards of charitable work in a business context  
• How to manage time effectively, especially when balancing multiple personal and professional commitments  
• When to seek help and delegate tasks for improved productivity
• Why you should continually strive to keep learning and improving your business operations

Aunt Joan’s Pearl City Popcorn (Facebook | Instagram)

National MPS Society

Food Business Success (hear Sari Kimbell on Episodes 59 & 60)

Kidology (non-profit ministry)

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/127

Kristi Otto lives in Fort Myers, FL and sells organic desserts with her cottage food business, One More Bite Organic Desserts.

Kristi has 3 decades worth of experience in the food industry, and she built two unrelated businesses before starting her bakery.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that her cottage food business has been quite successful, but that doesn’t mean that it’s been an easy road.

Kristi started this business shortly after moving from Minnesota to Florida, and she found that her products did not resonate with her new community like she expected them to.

As a result, her business looks much different than she initially envisioned, but she’s managed to adapt and find products that both she and her community are passionate about.

• The importance of adapting your business model to meet the needs of your market
• How personal passion can transform a business into a fulfilling venture
• Techniques that commercial food establishments use to run more smoothly
• The effects that an HOA can have on business decisions
• How to price fairly without overthinking it
• Why you must try different types of sales venues to find the best fit for your business
• Why you should invest time and effort into local search engine optimization (SEO)
• The pros and cons of offering free shipping on your website
• How to use artificial intelligence (AI) to boost your productivity

One More Bite Organic Desserts website (Facebook | Instagram)

BakeDiary (pricing & order management software)

ChatGPT (AI Chatbot)

How to Make Sourdough Bread by Roselle Blore (Instagram)

Blondery by Auzerais Bellamy

Mentioned Podcast Episodes:

• #112: Mark Elvidge with Vermont Nut Free Chocolates
• #113: Tiffany Hill with The Pink Crumbb
• #114: Tiffany Hill with Think Pink Bakers

Florida 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 Kit to build an email list and get more followers!

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/126