Yesterday was our first official day in business. That is if the first day of production, packaging, delivery, and accounts payable makes it official.
Remember our new venture into the desserts market? Nine willing guinea pigs/friends/neighbors graciously signed up and were eagerly waiting the first delivery this week. Not sure how smart it was to bake goodies the day after a holiday but our initial feedback has been superb, with some of our customers consuming the product within minutes of delivery.
The day started with devotions with Papa as usual and then on to math before getting our hands dirty in the kitchen. Between batches and icing we did spelling, handwriting, and book reports. The kids were all hands in when grating and measuring and mixing were involved. They almost went on strike when they realized they would also be responsible for the clean-up, right down to mopping the sugar and batter covered floors. Next week we'll be visiting our neighborhood pizza parlour so they can hear first hand from a business owner all that is involved in running a food establishment. Their mama harldy counts as an expert on such matters.
Lessons learned from day #1:
- 3 lbs. of carrots grated with a cheese grater would have taken 3 months. A food processor got the job done in 3 minutes.
- Carrots contain beta-carotene which your body converts to Vitamin A, which helps your vision. Ingested or applied directly to your eyes seems to vary little when determining effectiveness.
- Hats come in handy when you lack the proper hygenic head gear necessary for baking.
- Crafty packaging makes for a fun art project. The jury's still out on who enjoyed it more, mama or her wee CEOs.
- Icing sugar goes airborne at the slighest breath. However, the mess is easily licked up by eager tounges. (To our valued customers, no baking/prep was done on said counters the rest of the day.;)
- Adding up $25.25 of expenses (cupcake boxes are expensive, even after I used Micheal's 50% off coupon three times in one afternoon) and giving 20% to charity, we were still left with a profit once all was deducted from $45 of the montly dues.
- Best feedback from the business owners: "best part of the day was working with my mama and loving my sister." I'll take that over Employee of the Month anyday!
For crafty folks, our packaging was made with corkboard shapes found at the dollar store and paper from Micheal's with hello fall tags downloaded and printed from here.
