Taking a Risk to Pivot
COVID-19 has been really tough for many of us, especially small businesses. For me at Queer Chocolatier, it has been nothing but extreme highs and extreme lows. My mental health has been taxed and one of the more effective ways to wrestle with that is to reflect and look back to the early stages of the business and track how things have changed over the years.
I’ve long wanted to get Queer Chocolatier into the craft chocolate making arena and I’ve tested and experimented, but the time was never quite right. But that phrase itself indicates a mindset for me that I have long struggled with: I am in a prolonged reaction mode rather than a goal pursuit mode.
I’m ready to shift my mindset and make the pivot to committing more time, energy, and resources to the goal of creating my own chocolate, bean to bar to truffle.
Baby’s First Sack of Beans!
But this comes at a risk and one I am very scared to take, especially in light of my COVID-19 related business slowdown.
Queer Chocolatier will be ceasing baking operations
I love to bake.
But I do love chocolate more and Queer Chocolatier was never designed, and it sure was never equipped, to be a bakery.
I began preparing baked goods once we opened the Chocolate House as an additional set of offerings for when people sit to sip their coffee or drinking chocolate. At first, I was baking out of the original rental kitchen from when I started the business as a vendor at markets and events selling my truffles. Having our own brick & mortar location for people to sit and gather safely, it made sense to expand into these offerings.
Adding the baked goods was fun and exciting and allowed me to show that I have a breadth of culinary talent and I draw great pride from this. Cooking and baking for others, and the joy I get from sharing food with people, is wholly the reason I wanted to start a business.
As I consolidated all my operations under one roof, it became clear I couldn't offer baked goods, until I was gifted a mighty toaster oven! The appliance has absolutely punched above its weight by allowing me to create items ranging from macarons to pain au chocolat and the occasional bagel and scone.
This little toaster oven that could was so brilliant that I purchased an identical one so that I could double my productivity!
Mind you, “double” my productivity meant going from baking six croissants to twelve, which is less than half of what I could produce at the rental kitchen.
When the pandemic arrived at our doorstep, we were quick to close operations and attempt to make adjustments for the unknowable future. It was beyond painful, and not only in a financial sense but in a true community sense as I felt crushed by irrational guilt of not being able to provide that safe space as we had been able to before. Nevertheless, our community helped me understand that Queer Chocolatier was more than just a space to them and they cared for me by raising enough funds through a GoFundMe to allow us to financially survive the summer! Since then, I've implemented a rickety and fragile delivery system for those who live locally in Muncie and just this week resumed shipping truffles again throughout the nation.
In the midst of this turbulence, I purchased a couple pieces of key chocolate making equipment and decided on our bar molds for our brand. Studio 165+ has started on their wonderfully creative journey to design the bar wrappers for my upcoming bars. I am increasingly excited that I'm on the path of creating bean-to-bar chocolate, despite knowing I have created my own roadblocks via baking.
Queer Chocolatier: We aren’t straight and neither are our bars!
Ultimately, this all comes down to one thing: my kitchen. If my kitchen would have been outfitted with and permitted to have the oven and hood system that I long ago purchased, I would be able to streamline baking with chocolate making. I’d even be able to bring back one of my employees to do that work exclusively. Perhaps one day down the road, we will find a new location that is properly outfitted and ready to go for opening a proper bakery! (Keep an eye out for me, y’all.) But so long as Queer Chocolatier is located where it is and how it is, I'm at a crossroads of choosing between creating baked goods so that I can get some sales for now or foregoing baked goods in order to hone my chocolate making craft to make bars that will carry my business into the future.
One choice is comfortable, one is risky.
I’m taking the risk.
And I hope you’ll support my choice and continue to support Queer Chocolatier.
Baked goods last call
I’ll accept orders for baked goods for the next two weeks so that people who might be interested can place their orders before I wind down my baking operations. Place an order by Monday 10/5 for delivery on Wednesday 10/7, or for the following week by Monday 10/12 for delivery on Wednesday 10/14.
There is the possibility that I will consider holiday baked goods for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I am floating this as a possibility not as a promise. I hope to be selling lots of chocolate during the holidays, hopefully including bars, so the baked goods might be too much to add on.
But, that's basically years away at this rate so we will just continue on one day at a time and keep working to build a stronger business that doesn’t just hope to survive the pandemic but that grows into a competitive craft chocolate brand that is proudly rooted in Muncie!
Remember to take care of yourselves, others, and to drink plenty of water! Your Queer Chocolatier loves you!