It will soon be our 5th anniversary as a consistently open and operating small business, and I still pinch myself when a new customer finds us and is astonished that Delavan has a great little cheese shop that also serves really good food! Really... that is us? Your kidding...You're not? WOW!

It's been a great ride to this point, and now the effort is moving from mere survival to increasing revenues to cover the new employee and increased payroll taxes that entails. (We are not there yet -

People make many assumptions of your business when you are able to stick around long enough for them to come back season after season.  Assumptions which include you must be making scads of cash if you can afford to keep the doors open. (Believe me, whenever we have a rockin' day or weekend - I am looking at catching up on equipment purchases, small equipment to make our lives easier - or perhaps a unique item in inventory.) My friend, Ari Weinzweig, at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, says in his two recent books on entrepreneurship that being successful just means you get better problems. And, as I have come to find out - better does not necessarily mean prettier, or easier. Some are very messy, brain tangling, and definitely harder.

Like getting a new oven with one more shelf where we can grill more sandwiches at one time will mean completely reconfiguring the sandwich prep area we currently use. Hmmm - nope - not really looking forward to that task, as it most likely also means getting a new metro shelving unit to accomodate.

Or, better yet - which money tree can I shake to get the cash for that little project. Stay tuned to "As the cheese turns..." : )
Laura

Special customers tasting once in a life time cheese at Brick Street Market!

Last Saturday was one of those mornings you just know as soon as you open, like the song goes "Tonight's gonna be a good night" - only it was Saturday morning - and the energy was flowing and you just have to hold on tight!

First thing, one of our favorite customers - Scott Keehn - was in from the Dakotas with a present for us to taste - a cheese from the folks at Cowgirl Creamery in Tomales Bay. This was a unique little cheese that was only offered in a very short window of time from the website and Scott just happened to be on the web site at the time. He purchased cheese for himself and brought some for us to sample. His generosity was not lost on us - and we chose to cut and sample to everyone in the store. Sam, our baker at Simple in Lake Geneva, had just come off his early shift at the bakery (bringing us some exquisite Saturday morning treats like the cinnamon roll pictured at the link above),
and customer and friend Meredith, and Dan and Kelly were also in and sampled.

I cannot tell you how really wonderful I feel when I get to taste a brand new cheese in my store. Every time we open a cheese, I am reminded that we are the first to taste that creation of milk and craftsmanship. This little cheese did not disappoint. Somewhere between butter and cream cheese with a portabella mushrooms infusion stood this little surprise gift. Scott shares our love of the sublime - and it's always a gift to us when he brings his family. And, thank you to the folks at Cowgirl Creamery for continuing to set the bar high! Loved that cheese!

The day continued a gift, as customers streamed through the store all day - bringing energy and friendship. As 4:30 finally arrived, after 42 lunches and who knows how many pounds of cheese went out the door later), we had time to finally take a breather before getting control of all the dishes and shutting everything down for the weekend. I had a great time - thanks to my great team - Jennell, Veronica, Anthony for performing admirably under pressure, and appreciate the great friends all of our customers have become! Keep on cheese-n!

Small Business Musings - Development stages

Here's the thing: we are still in development - and sometimes development takes forever. (Thank you Oprah Winfrey and Soul Sunday.) We started the fall out thinking we could get a new computer and Point of Sale system and get it up and running in a week. It's a very small business, only 3 employees, shouldn't be an issue, right? HA! It is now March of the new year, and maybe, just maybe, this thing will work for us. at least I've finally figured out how to access my store computer from my laptop at home. Small steps!

I've been hearing the Universe laughing in my ear for the past three months. We did not do this like the big-time businesses do things ... memos to all employees reading something like this -
Okay on such and such a date - Accounts Payable goes live.
On such and such a date - Accounts Receivable goes live.

And, let's not mention falling off the "Social Media platform" while you are trying to convert everything to electronic! Sorry FB Fans and fellow 'Tweeters'.

Maybe Tuesday.
Well, I'm going for a lunch break.

Tasting/Sampling Events

Sampling or tasting events are a necessary evil of many small 'foodie' retail shop owners. If you live in a community, have a store that features someone else's 'wonderful' food item, it is highly likely you will be invited to attend a fundraising event for some non-profit organization. The price of your ticket is your donation to said event of your sampling of foods for the entertainment of said non-profit's guests.

Of course, many times these opportunities are brought to your attention by your own customers, and many times they are good customers who support you as well. Sometimes this is not the case, and you get to judge how much you want to be 'seen' throughout your community as a benefactor by selecting or turning down these events.

I attended just such an event last evening and was once again reminded how really pointless these events can be for a small retailer such as myself. This is a well-attended event, with long lines at the food vendors' tables, so when people arrive at your table, it's a given that they will pile their plate with selections with very little regard for any behind them in line.

At my particular table, on a single toothpick, you'd see a pepper jack cheese skewered to a salsa and cilantro cheese, followed by a piece of salami wrapped blue cheese. You have to try to get a small explanation of each piece going on the toothpick in random fashion as these individuals are moving through your line. And yet, really, there is little hope that any individual flavor will stay with the taster as they cram a piece of bread, cracker or any other little nosh from someone else's table into their mouth.

I have had very little return on the investment of my 'donation' or my time at these events, but I continue to do them - WHY? As a small payback for the loyalty of my customers to my establishment, I suppose. These are their pet projects, and they do serve a purpose in the greater community in which we live through their service of housing for cats & dogs, or historical education for the community, or even music programs at local schools.

So, I will continue to agree to participate, or not; I will continue to spread the word - and I will continue to marvel at some of my fellow human beings 'table manners'!

Curating!

Curating! That is an old word the modern world is now seeing a whole lot!  Museums have curators. Libraries have curators. Now even we - the public, and ever more to the point - the Social Media using public are encouraged to become curators. Curators of content, thoughtful, interactive, full of depth. Never in our history have we had the ability to comment or introduce others to so much that engages us. The separation of 4 degrees that FB now puts us at, means the beautiful moon and March night sky picture taken just a short time ago that I 'liked' on FB from our local WISN-TV station is so swiftly shared  all around the globe. I will now consider myself a modern version of Jules Vern, 'ballooning' around the Social media world collecting cheese info to share with you in my 'mini-museum' of oddities!

Finding those special 'moments' of meaning to share with 'fans' can be rather daunting for small business fan page owners, and once you get pulled in, the task becomes finding the energy each day to consistently monitor and input. I myself am struggling with a marketing calendar that combines all social media marketing into one place. But, I keep forgetting to look at the calendar! I'm making a renewed effort this week to get on board and get going. So for today, my task is FB OC email. As for tomorrow - I think I'll take the Scarlet O'Hare approach and let tomorrow worry for itself. : )

And the award goes to...

As a reminder to us all, cheese competitions can be a bit like hosting the Academy Awards. There are lots of opinions on what is the best cheese on any given day (or hour). It can be a great boon to the manufacturer (I have always hated this word as it regards cheesemaking - at least the cheesemaking I've come to know-it's such a 'chemical' kind of word, without the least reference to craftsmanship, but I digress). The boon comes in the form of a phone at the plant now ringing off the hook and a nice bump in sales as the word gets out.

The current World Cheese Championship BIS (Best in Show), Vermeer is garnering some criticism (http://www.cheesechap.com/2011/12/do-washed-rind-cheeses-get-enough.html), and there's a really nice selection of Dutch-style and true Dutch gouda cheeses to choose from if this one isn't to your liking. We in the cheese world tend to be a little dismissive of requests for 'low-fat, low-cholesterol' cheese products, our customer's health predilections not withstanding. I myself confess to being a bit non-plussed by these requests, but then have to acquit myself for the 'Walmarting' of America, where every current trend manifests itself in any random pedestrian looking for cheese.

We 'cheese' retailers have found it necessary to become virtual 'Curd' libraries, researching facts on the milk as opposed to that milk, butterfat and protein content, lactose chains -- sometimes it makes my brain hurt. But I always remind myself of the modicum - In all things moderation! Perhaps if we Americans would learn to refrain from eating the 'whole darn thing' in one sitting, our lab tests wouldn't look like a heart attack on the verge.

So for lunch today, I'll stick with 2 2 oz. slices of Pleasant Ridge Reserve, and a couple slices of green apple on a bed of (still winter) greens. And then later this afternoon, I'll take a nice long walk around downtown Delavan.

Cheese Roll!

These people really love cheese!



I don't have the heart to tell them that they could've just stopped in our store.