Do you know the story of how Oh Katie! Cookies came about? Well, grab yourself a glass of milk and let me tell you about it and I might just share my cookies with you.
Exactly one year ago my husband was laid off from his graphic design job via an email. Classy, eh? I was enrolled in a local college taking classes to pursue a nursing career. I had to get employable and nursing was a direction I thought I should go. We have three very small children and to say we were panicking when that email arrived is a massive understatement.
I heard a voice, or was pulled to reach out towards a specific friend. I contacted Kristi and said we need your help. She came up from Phoenix and spent the night. Kristi is a specific type of person that I had never met in my life. She's an entrepreneur. It never occurs to Kristi, or people like her, to "go get a job." They find out what people need and create a service towards that need. They work for themselves. My husband and I had never heard of such a thing. Our upbringing taught us, you need money? Go get a job. Any job. It doesn't matter if you are happy or fulfilled. You need to pay the bills.
The intent of Kristi's visit was to help us get my husband going on his own in the design field. Or so I thought. At one point, my husband brought up these cookies that I was making and selling online a couple of years previous. Kristi perked up. "Tell me about these cookies." I gave her the condensed version of the cookies I had come to love that I called, "Amarette-oh's."
A mini chocolate chip sandwich cookie with chocolate and Amaretto filling.
Hold everything!
Kristi demanded to know the entire history of these cookies and why I was no longer selling them.
History:
I came across a recipe some time ago. I made them and they were incredible. I thought maybe other people would want them as well. I was involved deeply with an online forum board called A Moms Hideout. And I began using that outlet as a "test kitchen." I was experimenting with different ways of baking the cookies, changing the formula of the filling, and testing different methods of shipping and packaging.
I got a great deal of invaluable feedback.
The biggest mistake and the most valuable lesson I have now learned from all of that is: I attached my self worth to whether or not people bought my cookies and so I never worked the numbers.
When Kristi pressed on about the cookies and demanded we work the numbers I can't tell you how many times I brushed her off telling her it was absurd for me to consider starting a business. I was still breastfeeding our baby AND was in school! (Back off crazy lady!)
Kristi wouldn't let up. So we did the numbers. She was able to break everything down into tiny bits and show me that if I just baked one day, 8 hours a day, I could create so many cookies and that was all I would have to do. Easy, right?
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| This is Kristi helping me in the early days. |
So I came up with a cost: $1 a cookie. I was still terrified out of my head that no one would pay that amount for the cookies. But once I separated my self worth from whether or not people bought them, it became easier for me to tell people the price when they asked.
In the last year, so many things have changed, numerous lessons have come to me, and thousands of Oh Katie! Cookies have traveled the world. I have been in the local papers and have made several local deliveries. Oh Katie! Cookies has been featured in online magazines. I was also a recurring guest on Our Milk Money weekly radio show.
Back when I started I was using pre-made cookie dough. I then came across the most incredible chocolate chip cookie dough recipe that works perfectly for my cookies. I have several different flavors of fillings available and have to often hold myself back from trying so many different flavors. So I came up with a way to still have fun with flavors: Flavor of the Month!
I tried many different ways to get the cookies the perfect size: rolling the dough into balls, using a small scoop, various cutters... The most perfect cookie "cutter" I found was....
a salt shaker top. This little gadget is perfect in size and for not hurting my fingers when I press it into the dough. And yes, I cut every single cookie by hand to this day. One day that might change, but for now that's how it is. And that is why when you get a package of cookies, they are not all uniform in shape and size. There are tiny variations because, hey, it's all done by hand.
Because I was afraid I would never be able to replace the salt shaker top if I lost it, I have since found an actual cutter that is close in size but a tad larger.
I am very fortunate to have a designer as a husband. He has designed my business cards, the stickers, the website. I can't imagine the thousands of dollars he has saved me in design costs. I honestly don't know what I would have done. When he designed my website it was his idea to use Rosie the Riveter.
Knowing how much I love her and all that she represents, it was a perfect fit. When he first unveiled the website to me I was thrilled and then panicked. I thought for sure she was copyrighted and we wouldn't be able to use her. Turns out, she's not!
In the past year I have used three different kitchens. It is the biggest inconvenience I have at this time. My goal is to build a commercial kitchen right in my back yard. The kitchens I've used are always far, inconvenient, and when I get there and forget one item, the entire day is a bust. Don't get me wrong, I've been grateful beyond measure for the use of these kitchens, but it's a pain and I want my own.
In the past year I've learned of more things that don't work than things that do. I've had many people approach me and ask to donate my cookies to their events with the promise of "exposure" and endless future sales. I've donated hundreds and hundreds of cookies - paying for shipping myself - and never heard so much as a peep after.
I've done a few different venues where "tons of traffic" was supposed to be, paid crazy fees to stand behind a table where dozens of women are racing past me to get to their next workshop, with no time to stop and try a sample or ask questions.
I've learned Facebook and Twitter do work. Keeping in touch with my fan-base works. Sharing my own trials and tribulations of baking works. Respecting myself and honoring the price of the cookies works. I give "deals" to a certain extent, but overall, I don't. The value of these cookies doesn't go down because I have known you for longer than my newest customer. I have never paid myself for any of my time. One day I hope I will but for now, for these first few years, the business is most important: lots and lots of supplies and packaging materials.
In the past year I have come up with the name Oh Katie! Cookies (My husband didn't like it at first), acquired a business banking account, PO box, business license, and finally Quickbooks! Oh, and the greatest news of all: I bought my own KitchenAid Mixer!!! I was borrowing Kristi's. And before that, I was mixing the cookie dough by hand. I was even adding the filling by using a small butter knife. Can you imagine?! Then I discovered pastry bags. Brilliant!
Oh Katie! Cookies was also a unique Thank You favor at a wedding last month. It was so much fun to come up with the matching color scheme and a personalized sticker to add a special touch to a wonderful day. I was honored!
I was in talks with a restaurant down in Scottsdale. I blew their socks off, I did. But it never worked out. Neither side pursued the other and it fizzled. They wanted a volume and a discount that I was not ready to produce. Maybe some day. I know I have a great product though.
I even made a commercial!
I've mailed out hundreds of Oh Katie! Cookies to as far away as Afghanistan. Shipping is the most expensive aspect of this business. It troubles me a lot but there is nothing I can do. Using United States Priority Mail is the cheapest and fastest way for me to get my cookies to you. I don't charge a single penny over what the actual cost is. I know it's a lot and I imagine it's deterred a lot of sales, but it's worth it, I promise!
In the year to come I hope to have my own commercial kitchen, have Oh Katie! Cookies in at least five different gift stores, have Oh Katie! Cookies as wedding favors in at least three weddings, become a greater presence in the field of corporate Thank-You gifts, have a more unique packaging concept, keep my current loyal customers happy, add 200 new loyal customers, start a recurring order program for the Flavor of the month, and grow my mail order service.
Sounds simple, right?
As a great big Thank You to all my loyal and new customers, I am offering the original flavor that started it all, Amaretto, at the discounted price of only $10/dozen. Shipping is the exact cost.
I would never have made it this far without the help of so many amazing friends and loyal customers. Thank you to every one who has ordered these as gifts and thank you's. It always makes me so happy to know these are going to randomly show up at someone's doorstep.
Oh, and my husband's graphic design business, per se, never really got off the ground. But he did get a job at Costco where he is thrilled. Design work still comes in to him on a weekly basis, but it isn't what pays the bills. We've also learned that not everyone is an entrepreneur. He's perfectly happy working for a large corporation and doing his design work on the side. And I know for me, I can not imagine working for someone else. Takes all kinds, I guess.
I finished out that semester of school but I did not continue. I need to ride this cookie wave as far as it will take me. School will always be there.
Thank you and get baking! You'll like it.
