Monday was a fun day - we are CLOSED - however I do often spend time at the store taking care of the many business things that need attending to - including hosting visitors, like John Mahoney for a photo spread in At the Lake Magazine last March.

This past Monday, Sarah Kowal, a novice cheesemonger from River Falls, WI; stopped by to visit and share her story. She was visiting southeast Wisconsin cheese stores, and since we are one of the few  left in this corner of the state, she stopped in.

The name of her enterprise is Weathervane Creamery, (you can read of her experience as a budding entrepreneur on her blog) and while not actually in a physical location just yet, plans are in the works to be located in River Falls, WI.  It isn't often that I now get to go that far from the store, so it was very pleasant to have Sarah visit us in the store and here of her current experiences. She has the benefit of youth on her side, (something I envy at this point - the life of the cheesemonger is a bit more physically challenging than I realized), and it will undoubtedly help her in her business development. Sarah has a really good handle on the tools of today's entrepreneur - financing through local and investment groups, marketing through blog and social media.

I do believe the small business owner of today must adapt to the electronic tools at their disposal - their customers are and will continue to be finding them with all manner of smart devices. We are moving more and more rapidly into the age of smaller and smaller smart devices - I, personally, wonder whether we won't soon cease to use the desktop, but our laptop and tablets to access the larger monitor of our sophisticated HD televisions in our homes. All that said, word of mouth is the one most important tool -but again, reaching the customer will mean developing increased efficiency at managing the technologies the modern customer uses,  multiple types of smart devices to find us means it is critical in the current age of competition and 'noise' to learn how to use them for the maximum impact.

I was impressed with Sarah's knowledge of and use to reach out and find supporters who want to help her financially. Since we started our store 5 years ago, many of the tools like 'crowd funding' were just an idea still being hatched. I envy Sarah's determination and spirit in the face of continued obstacles and think she just might have the tenacity it takes to do this kind of work. Our talk centered on cheeses as well, but I am afraid I am not as aware of some of Wisconsin's northwest cheese plants. Will definitely have to find time to go that direction and visit Sarah in the near future for a taste of dairy in the part of the state.