Business Description
After the real estate market crash in 2008, I took my last $800.00, and started The Wacky Cookie Company from my home. Through hard work, and little sleep, in our sixth full year in business we had expanded to working out of a shared commercial kitchen with one full time and one part time employee. That year we saw a net revenue of 156K until in late 2015 when an electrical fire torched our incubator and crippled our business significantly. The greatest challenges of owning a micro business are limited capital, and having to practically do it all yourself. I’m the head Baker, Decorator, Marketer and Customer Service person, I also clean the kitchen and refill the flour bins. It takes up all of my time, but there is huge satisfaction in knowing that I’m not just in the cookie business, I’m in the people business. Every cookie that I decorate brings someone joy. From my youngest customer enjoying her or his first decorated cookie, to the bride to be, choosing cookies for her wedding. There’s more to baking for others than just making a profit. It gives me great pride to serve and be there indirectly for their most cherished occasions, whether it’s a wedding, christening or birthday. The Wacky Cookie Company has also helped me grow as an artist. My cookies have been featured in magazines such as Edible Artists Network Magazine and widely recognized blogs such as How Does She? My greatest desire is to continue to grow in to a nationwide franchise, with other women entrepreneurs who are creative and lead their own their business. With this loan we hope to be able to once again expand to our national customer base and continue to uplift the world, one cookie at a time.
What is the purpose of this loan?
This loan, will allow us to complete the build-out of our new kitchen space into a fully functional licensed bakery along with the purchase of a new oven, updated packaging equipment and additional working capital. This would allow us to expand our sales nationwide, thereby increasing our client base and sales. When our commercial incubator space burned down in late 2015, we had already built a strong national customer base. Not having a commercial space to operate from, our capacity was diminished significantly, leaving us to serve a very limited local market. As of six months ago we have moved to a new area and acquired a space that will allow us to expand our business greatly by once again offering nationwide shipping to our existing non- local customers online. Planned use of the $10K loan will be as follows: Kitchen Build out $2500.00 Commercial Oven$3000.00 Packaging equipment$1500.00 New web-based cookie shop (design, development and marketing) $1,000.00 Additional Working Capital $2,000 Based on previous year’s sales, we estimate that after we complete our build-out and update equipment to ship nationally, we will be able to grow our business to a gross revenue of approximately $95-100K for the 2017-2018 year and $100-125K for 2018-2019. On a personal note, after the financial crash of 2007 left me financially devastated, with my last $800.00 Within a few years of starting The Wacky Cookie Company, we were operating from a shared commercial kitchen with one part time employee and netted mid six figures in sales. The Wacky Cookie Company, saved me and gave my family much needed income after we lost it all. This loan would completely change our lives once again by giving us the capacity to increase our sales and customer base.