Walking around King Arthur, your nose doesn’t have to search for a hint of the soft scent of chocolate chips, brownie batter, cookie batter, or even the faint taste of oreos on the tip of your tongue.
Already into her second year of high school, the manager and producer of katz_.kookiez on instagram, Kathrynn Chism, shares her experience in starting her own business and what struggles she fought to get here.
As she settles down into her seat, she starts to share how it all started, “Me and my sister, actually, for a long time wanted to start selling cake. She wanted to start a small business, and in my house I make cookies a lot. Generally I’ll just make cookies, just to make cookies. So, I always got the, ‘oh, you should sell, you should sell cookies,’ so it started as a family thing.”
She continues on with her story, explaining that it’s not an easy start, “I’ve always wanted to have a sponsor, but I never came through with it. Then one day, I was like, oh, I want to start. So I got all this stuff to make them, and I made cookies, but they didn’t come out good. So I hadn’t started my business yet. Then I made another batch of cookies, and I tried to sell those, and I did,” she proceeded, “as I kept going and kept getting orders there were some orders that were good, some orders that were rushed, but it’s all about time and practice.”
“When I’m regularly making orders, it takes a few hours. Probably three or two,” she proceeded to let us know how time consuming this process can get, “It honestly depends on what type of cookie I’m making, and how many orders of that cookie I have, or how many orders.”
Baking cookies must be stressful while managing a business and schoolwork plus a sport on top of that, that’s why Kathrynn, “Didn’t really have a lot of time to bake. I tried to, it was a lot of stress, and I thought it was going to be easy. And I kind of just put it on a pause until I knew I was gonna be done with the (flag football) season.”
With a business, comes bad reviews, it’s inevitable. She shares one of her personal experiences dealing with it. Turns out this customer ‘wasn’t always right’. “I’ve had one customer talk bad about my business behind my back. When I found out, I had unfollowed her on my business account because I didn’t want her to try to order again. I had made her cookies on like a totally different pan. Her order was last minute and I was already really busy.”
Looking ahead, she outlines a positive future for her business, “New flavors and ideas pop into my mind everyday and I always do my best to make them happen,” In a very passionate tone she continues, “My main goal is to spread my business more into the city by offering different pick up or delivery options. With the year ending and a new one coming, I put myself and my business into God’s hand for new blessings and opportunities to help keep my business strong and make it grow.”
As I walk away towards the street, I can feel the scent of vanilla and chocolate escape my nose as it tries to find the sweet aroma again. This sophomore is one smart cookie with a sprinkle of sweet.
