Happy Father’s Day!!!

In honor of all great fathers including mine, I fondly dedicate this issue of Smart Cookies to them.

Starting a Homemade Cookie Business. Three aspects of any small business adventure and an example of a family-owned cookie business.

A Similarity Between Fortune Cookies and Tuiles. With usual cookie ingredients, you can easily whip up a batter to make either fortune cookies and tuiles. The creative fun comes in shaping them.

A Versatile Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe. Ingredients, baking direction, and illustrative images to show off a great peanut butter cookie recipe.

Rugelach with Apricot and Pistachio Filling. Cream cheese is just one of a few ingredients you need to make these delicious rugelach. There are also images to help you through the preparation process.


Trivia question: From a cookie recipe, what indication do you have as to how rich the cookies are? Answer



Do’s and Don’ts About Starting
A Homemade Cookie Business

For baking enthusiasts who are thinking about starting a homemade cookie business, here are some helpful tips.

  • Don’t confuse enthusiasm with passion – Enthusiasm comes and goes. True passion holds the key to success. The idea of having your own business is so exciting that it is easy to mistake enthusiasm for passion.

  • Don’t imitate your competitor’s strategy – Identify your own advantage point and capitalize on it.

  • Prepare a business plan. A cookie recipe tells you how much of certain ingredients to measure and how to assemble them. Likewise, a business plan tells your investors and financial lenders how you are going to manage your business.

  • Know the size of your market and customer base. As valuable as the Internet is at providing helpful information, I would not rely on it as a sole source for customers.

  • Don’t spend a lot of money on any one marketing program until you see the result.

  • Connect with your customers and expand that connection.

  • Don’t sell your homemade cookies as a product, but focus on their effect. For example, your customers are cookie lovers who don’t want the extra calories or need a special diet. How can your homemade cookies resolve this dilemma for your customers?

  • Don’t price your homemade cookies just to cover cost plus a mark-up for profit. Instead, price them to their value to your customers.

  • Don’t commit to a large inventory of ingredients until your homemade cookie business is stable and growing. A large inventory can adversely affect your cash flow which is the lifeblood of any business.

Have a great Summer!


Published date: June 11, 2007

Copyright 2007 by Trinh Lieu. All right reserved.