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This podcast is about how to start a small-scale production business—a low-risk career option with low upfront costs but huge potential benefits—that can be done from home. Whether you are home because of the Coronavirus or family care responsibilities, limited mobility or transportation, or are just more of a homebody, you can still earn a living on your own time and at your own pace. And best of all, you can MAKE something to share with others. Whether you are a baker, a maker, a crafter, an artist, or even a mad scientist, you can turn your hobby into a living. This series will explore all aspects of this kind of business, sometimes called a “cottage industry,” from brainstorming new product ideas to perhaps one day making enough income to quit your day jobs. Episodes will include interviews with home-based entrepreneurs at different stages of their business development and from a broad diversity of fields. Who are they? Why do they do what they do? What have been the major challenges as well as the secrets of their success? What would they recommend to others?For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098
20 Episodes
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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 ...
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 architectu...
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...
In this episode, Torchbearer Sauces founders Vid Lynch and Ben Smith discuss how they turned seven years of weekly parties into a thriving 15-year-old sauce business. As early innovators in the flavor-based hot sauce movement, they credit their success to decisions about reclaiming the production process and putting in the time to really get to know their products and customers. As their seven-year run of weekly dinner parties of 15-30 guests each started to wind down, Vid, Ben, and Tim ...
This episode is the last of three episodes that attempts to answer the question, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” It describes branding, product development, and the creation of an Ecommerce website, as well as reveal the first of three home-based products that podcast host, Cory Heyman, has just finalized. As fun as it may be to complete paperwork and prepare your workspace, the best part of a new home-based production business is the a...
This episode is a further deep dive into one of the most frequent questions we hear about home-based production, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” The second of three episodes, this segment discusses the nuts and bolts of the start-up process. It includes preparing the space as well as sourcing equipment, supplies, and ingredients. There are two ways to start a new venture. One is to jump right in—building the proverbial plane while...
This episode is a deep dive into one of the most frequent questions we hear about home-based production, “How can I get over the initial hump of starting a home-based production business?” We answer this question with personal reflections in starting up our own business earlier this year, focusing this discussion (the first of three episodes) on government permissions and requirements. The first step is often the most precarious in any new venture. Some people feel so intimidated by it t...
In this episode, Tony Morrell discusses one of his obsessions, home beer brewing, how his process has changed over the past eight to nine years to assure regular brewing awards, and how he is thinking about turning his past time into a commercial venture. Tony Morrell received his first home-brewing beer kit eight to nine years ago. Excited to try it out, the results were pretty terrible. It could take a few weeks to taste one of his concoctions, and the results were often close to what ...
In this episode, Armando Lacayo explains how he transitioned from financial management to baking and the role of home-based production in opening what Bon Appetit magazine anointed the best new bakery in the country in 2016. Three decades ago, Armando Lacayo moved to the U.S. from France to study math at American University. After starting on Wall Street and then earning an MBA, he worked for years in finance in Silicon Valley. In his spare time, Armando also dabbled in the kitchen. He h...
In this episode, food entrepreneurs Bev Martin and Nancy Martin, talk about their ghee production business, including expanding into a commercial facility and marketing a lesser known product. Bev Martin and Nancy Rohrer had worked together for years in marketing when they discovered ghee, what they describe as “a better butter.” Ghee appealed to each of them for different reasons, but they both became increasingly excited about sharing this remarkable product with the world. The marketi...
In this episode, Jill Donaldson, a formally trained baker and entrepreneur, describes her evolution from a home-based baker to a home-based creator of commercial baking packages. This change dramatically altered her business, daily routine, sales model, and success. In growing up, Jill’s favorite memories were of baking with her Lebanese Sito (Grandmother) Lilly. She knew at an early age that she would own a food business and worked diligently toward it. She studied entrepreneurship in c...
In this last of four consecutive episodes about personal care products, Lygeia Ricciardi explains how home-based entrepreneurs can inspire friends and family to become their best advocates. Lygeia Ricciardi and Tania Teschke (our guest from the last episode) have been friends for 20 years. In that time, they have lived close together at times as well as continents apart. Despite the miles, they have enjoyed keeping in touch about each other’s careers and life journeys. This has given Lyg...
In this third of four back-to-back episodes about people who make personal care products, Tania Teschke explains how many roads from childhood through adulthood have led her to become a home-based entrepreneur. This includes a do-it-yourself mindset, a passion for mixing, and a diverse set of skills, including cooking, soap- and balm-making, writing, photography, wrapping, and, perhaps most importantly, being a mom, that enabled her to launch her business earlier this year. Tania i...
In this second of four back-to-back episodes about personal care products, Leslie Arthur discusses how she started her first business in Hawaii 16 years ago and organized the most recent business, now seven years old. She shares practical advice about research and development; selling retail, wholesale, and by consignment; and strategies to make product lines more cost effective and accessible. Leslie started making and selling soap, bath, and body products when she and her boyfriend, no...
This episode veers somewhat away from our typical discussions with makers into a sister industry, “direct to consumer,” to explore how this industry markets and sells its products and lessons that can be applied to home-based production. “Direct to consumer” is a product distribution model that relies on representatives to sell a company’s products directly instead of through stores—think Tupperware, Cutco knives, or Mary Kay cosmetics. This is quite different from home-based production,...
This episode describes how a home-based clothing designer and producer conceived her niche and comparative advantage in a market otherwise dominated by large labels. In her last months of maternity leave, Lysandra Weber tested an idea for starting a home-based business. Her work colleagues had regularly complimented her clothes, which she had made herself, and she wondered whether the interest would translate into sales. Well, it did. The test was such a success that Lysandra thought she...
This episode describes art as a path to home-based entrepreneurship and the ways in which a new hobby can be transformed into a part-time or full-time career. We all find our passions in different ways. For this guest, Maria-Victoria Checa, discovering a love for painting was the result of renting her home a few years ago. To attract interested renters, she wanted to fill her walls with colorful paintings but did not have a ready source. So, like many other parts of her life, Maria-Victo...
This episode explores the thinking of an early-stage entrepreneur who is deep in the process of fleshing out his longer-term plan. Like many of us, Matt Asin spent the early days of the Coronavirus lockdown trying to keep busy at home. Matt is a professionally trained baker and restaurant professional, so he naturally spent some of his time in the kitchen. Although he had never thought much about making bread, his new time in the kitchen started to change his mind. He started to cr...
This episode shows how quickly a new product idea can turn into a successful business and the key steps in the process! When Amanda Farnum’s kids were young, she wanted to take a break from her day job to spend time with them, but she didn’t want to retreat from the business world completely. She thought long and hard about how to use her project planning skills and arts education to create a small business. The “a-ha” moment came on a family vacation, when she thought that tourist hotel...
This episode introduces the idea of “small-scale, home-based production businesses” (whew! that's a mouthful!) as a powerful approach to career-building, income, and wealth that might be right for you. This is nothing new. Humans have produced, bartered, and sold home-based products for millennia. However, spending much more time at home during the global pandemic has made all of us to think about our careers in new ways. Plus, with amazing new production techniques, marketing strategies, and...
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