Valerie Allensworth with The Donut Lady

The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Valerie Allensworth of Sitka, AK sells donuts and other baked goods with her cottage food business, The Donut Lady.

Valerie used to work at her mom’s commercial food business, but when she had her son a few years ago, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

However, after a few months she started feeling the itch to bake more, so she started a cottage food bakery, which got her back in the baking game, but still allowed her to stay at home with her son.

As you’ll see, Valerie’s entry point into the cottage food world was quite different from most entrepreneurs, and living on an island in Alaska has presented its own set of distinct challenges, which makes for a fascinating and unique cottage food success story.

What You’ll Learn

• The importance of maintaining consistency in your products to keep customers coming back
• The pros and cons of running a cottage food business on a remote island
• How to get customers to adapt when you switch from one business model to another
• The viability of using direct delivery to fulfill orders
• Whether it’s better to bring fewer products to a market and sell out, or bring enough products for everyone but risk having leftovers
• The differences between marketing to tourists versus locals
• How to balance business growth with your personal life and family responsibilities
• How to use social media to boost sales
• Ideas for sourcing ingredients in a remote location

Resources

The Donut Lady (Facebook | Instagram)

Alaska Cottage Food Law

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Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/119