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 her husband, Sam, have always been entrepreneurial in their professional lives. They juggle a successful social media company as well as a variety of home-based products and services. The Beilers have roasted coffee, and Loretta has baked bread to sell locally long before so many of us started trying to make these and other delicacies at home. Loretta’s early motivation was to make a healthier bread for her family with wild yeast and less processed ingredients. She was frustrated by some failed attempts along the way until she perfected her craft and started making a limited number of loaves available locally each week. With huge opportunities for growth, it was important to Loretta to keep this business a reasonable size so she could continue to prioritize her family and friends. She has created what seems to be a clear mindset and healthy balance in her life.

It was then during a surprise trip to Italy four years ago that Loretta had a life-changing Airbnb cooking experience. It was an incredible way to learn about a new culture, share a meal with new friends, and take some new memories and skills home with her. In thinking about recreating that experience for others, she recalled her personal trials in perfecting sourdough, how she could have benefited from hands-on experience, and she decided to organize her own Airbnb experience around baking bread. The result has been a nice combination of complementary bread classes and sales. And while she has the potential to grow these business streams greatly, she is content in keeping her activities relatively small and local for the moment.

You can learn more about Loretta’s coffee, bread, classes at https://www.instagram.com/retbeiler/, https://www.facebook.com/loretta.beiler, and https://courses.retbakes.com/.

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates. 

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 architecture in college. Her career veered in a different direction, but she has come back to painting time and again over the past 20 years. It was during the federal government shutdown, in December 2018, that she recommitted to art as a serious focus, promising herself that she would sketch or paint every day. Then, in the fall of 2019, a friend asked Wendy to teach an art class for a Junior League event. Wendy describes the event as a “hot mess” but also a great way to bring disparate people together for a fun activity. The wheels started turning to start a new art instruction business.

With infinite energy and creativity, Wendy only needed the business skills to get her new business off the ground. She started a master’s program in business, joined a Facebook group to help new art instructors market their paint parties, and launched Blue Cat Studio. With hard work and savvy advice, 

Wendy was able to create a solid business in just a few months. A crucial part of this success—and the part in which home-based production comes in—was the creation of art kits that Wendy made and sold to her customers.

Find out in this episode why Wendy decided to make these art kits in the first place and how the combination of instruction and production has been so vital to her students’ enjoyment and her early business success.

You can learn more about Blue Cat Studio, check out Wendy’s online classes, and purchase art kits at https://www.facebook.com/bluecatstudioart/, https://www.instagram.com/bluecatstudioart/, https://www.facebook.com/groups/letspaintwithbluecat/.

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates. 

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 and season one of the podcast. We examine themes from our 14 guest interviews to see if there are any universals for new home-based producers to consider as they start their own businesses.

Of course, the answer is “no.” Everyone is different, and all entrepreneurs must approach their businesses with their own special circumstances in mind. Nevertheless, I did find a variety of common themes across interviews and discuss the top seven briefly. We call these the seven secrets for Small-Scale Business Success.

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/, and subscribe to our email list (https://cotcup.com/lp) and receive our living document, the Eightfold Path Plus One Guide to Success for Home-based Producers, and future updates.