Vermont Shortbread Company

Brits vote shortbread nation's favorite biscuit

Well, the UK certainly loves shortbread!  Check out this article that talks about how the nation voted shortbread its favorite biscuit. 

Prime minister Nick Clegg did not vote shortbread his favourite bikkie.  I have, personally, always been a fan of the chocolate digestive.  McVitie's and tea remind me fondly of living in NYC with my former husband who introduced me to so many British delights.

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/194051/Britain-votes-shortbread-its-favourite-biscuit/

I think Vermont needs a favorite cookie challenge.  And of course Vermont Shortbread Company needs to be at the helm. 

Just sayin'. 

Life Lessons and Shortbread

People pleasers sometimes do not make good business people.  I mean, there's got to be a balance between pleasing your customers and killing yourself trying to make everyone happy.  Herein lies my biggest achilles heel both as an entrepreneur and as a person striving for healthy personal relationships. 

When I decided to revive Vermont Shortbread Company I did so with the commitment that there would be no more 80 hour work weeks, that I would reclaim my own Christmas joy, that I would get enough sleep and not forget to eat and laugh and that I would no longer operate out of chronic financial fear. 

Limited batches of shortbread periodically...according to what I could comfortably manage without compromising my health was the answer I came up with.  It fits in nicely with the whole Slow Food Movement too.  Perfect, right?  I think so. 

And yet...I feel  twinges of guilt.  I will feel guilt in advance  when I know I will have to tell people that I cannot fill their orders because I've reached capacity.  I feel guilt when I tell them that I already have a full time job in which I work 40+ hours a week, a teenager, a house and ongoing health issues.  I feel guilty when I tell them that no, there is no shortbread available today. 

I suspect that this is part of the master plan - what I am supposed to learn by re-doing this little business - has to do with boundaries and taking care of #1.  This is not easy.  I so want my friends and my customers to be pleased.  And it makes me feel good when they are.   

I probably could have avoided all of this discomfort by simply selling the business as originally planned, but in keeping with my personal commitment to compassionately yet assertively speak my mind, that's not a viable alternative.  Wondering what could have been would be far worse than the occasional pang of guilt I feel about possibly disappointing someone. 

No, it's time for me to get on with this.  My health and well-being depend upon it.  Do you know what happens to a lifetime of unspoken words?  They cause disease and anxiety.  I've begun to draw boundaries in my personal world about what is no longer tolerable and what I want to attract.  I'm already harvesting some fruits of those efforts and I've pissed a few people off.  And so it goes.  And so it hurts a little...but it hurts  less than if I did nothing. 

I am ready to try it in my work life too.   

I suspect this is a common theme with small business owners.  And I am thrilled I am getting a chance to work through it...with the best customers in the world.   Thanks for sticking around. 

Reviving the Shortbread News

Remember our old newsletter?  Interviews with shortbread customers-of-the-month, tips for serving shortbread, specials and our own special brand of goofy fun and humor?  We loved writing our newsletter and we're excited to bring it back. 

We're reviving the newsletter in preparation for our launch of limited batches of shortbread 2.0 which   will be released this fall.   

See that mailing list box in the upper left of the blog?  Sign up for our newsletter there.  We won't bombard you with email.  You can opt out at any time and you'll be notified of specials, contests and darn good writing. 

C'mon.  Do it. 

Shopping Cart for Shortbread 2.0?

One of the first things I did when I decided to sell Vermont Shortbread Company two years ago was to disable the PayPal shopping cart that had been set up a few years prior. 

Now that I'm resurrecting the business, I will need to get a shopping cart back up and I'm thinking I don't want it to be PayPal. 

I think it's a pretty simple order to fill.  There will be one product (our 8" round gift box) with probably 4 flavors and our re-entry plan is to produce limited handcrafted quantity batches to start, in the tradition of the slow food movement.  So, if I decide to sell 500 gift boxes this Christmas, I want ordering to be disabled at the 500th order.  Either that or enable it between certain dates (i.e., holiday orders can only be placed between Nov. 1 - Dec. 15?  Can I do this? 

I mean, can I...Ann Z...do this?  I am fairly technically savvy, but I have never done anything like this.  What should I be asking?  Looking for?  Expecting to pay?   And could a person with basic HTML skills like me (and a lot of moxie) do it?  (Mind you, I'm pretty smart, but not a masochist!)

Shortbread 2.0: We're baaaaaaack!

I'm baaaaack. 

I thought I had said good bye to Vermont Shortbread Company.  I thought I was done with 80 hour work weeks and juggling full time work with running a part time business.  I thought I was ready to pass my baking business on to someone who would love it and nurture it.  That was two and a half years ago. 

I didn't sell.  I couldn't. 

It occurred to me recently that most of my decisions around the business were made out of fear and panic.  And understandably so.  I was a single parent, proudly not collecting any money from my ex and in way over my head with a house, mortgage and six acres of land.  I was terrified 99% of the time. 

I'm not scared now. 

As I've explored new ways of communicating, thinking, being (and found a full time job in corporate America that I love - go figure...), found new relationships and a new (but old) voice of my own, I've been able to move to a "what if" place that I couldn't have possibly embraced even a year ago. 

What if... I didn't have to work 80 hours a week? 

What if... I could pay others to do the work I don't want to do? 

What if... I moved the bakery out of my house? 

What if... I made limited batches of shortbread (in the way that I know good food should be prepared) and maintained slow and steady control over growth? 

What if...I was very clear about what needs and desires in my life and business were negotiable and on which ones I am not willing to compromise? 

As I read my list of what ifs, I realize that they not only apply to the possibility of shortbread 2.0, but to the possibility of Ann, version 48, release 1. 

(Sorry about the corny software references, can you tell I was a technical writer for 20 years?) 

And so, Vermont Shortbread Company is back.  I am relicensing the bakery and gearing up for a limited edition run for the holidays.  

Slow food. 

Slow entrepreneur. 

Quality.

Love. 

Balance. 

Join me for the adventure.  I'll be blogging about it here and writing about whatever suits my fancy at www.annzuccardy.com. 

Thank You, Cupcakers!

Thanks to all who commented or emailed me about my cupcake thread.  The response blew me away.  I will get back to you.  It may take awhile, as I have a full time job that I'm passionate about, but I always do get back. 

The cupcake thread got me thinking.  How can I build on Vermont Shortbread Company's platform, use my bakery for cupcaking, yet be involved in operations, distribution and management at a very high level?  There's got to be a way to use Vermont Shortbread Company as a springboard for a cupcake project that benefits me and other bakers.  I am grateful to all for launching these cupcake thoughts which now find their way into my dreams at night. 

An amorphous idea is beginning to take shape.  I'll be back with cupcakes and bells.   

Your friend,

The Shortbread Cupcaker

I Just Bought VermontCupcake.com

Hey, for $9, it's a worth parking the domain.   

I usually use godaddy.com to register domains unless someone else offers me a better deal.  Anyone know anything about how to figure out how much a domain name is worth?  Just curious as I own quite a few. 

I also want to be able to figure out what www.vermontshortbread.com is worth.  No clue how to do this...

Cupcakes are Suhhhh...weeet!

Attention Vermont food entrepreneurs: cupcakes are all the rage in the baking world.  I first read about the cupcake craze a couple years ago in a specialty food magazine.  Cupcake bakeries (where you can even buy a "shot" of frosting) are springing up in big cities everywhere.  Yum. 

On a personal note, cupcakes remind us midlifers of childhood.  What child doesn't to lick the frosting off a cupcake while peeling the paper off the moist cake inside?

Cupcakes do not seem to have made it to Vermont yet.  Since I've been reading a cupcake blog regularly (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/), I've been thinking it might be cool to turn Vermont Shortbread Company into Vermont Cupcake Company.  Okay, I admit, I mostly just look at the photos on the cupcake blog and dream in cupcake possibilities.  I'm even considering taking a cake decorating class since I've become so obsessed with cupcakes. 

Who wants to partner with me on Vermont Cupcake Company?  I can't do it alone.  I have a commercial bakery.  I have the vision and the infrastructure already in place.  I also have a full time job that I adore and I'm no longer willing to compromise my family and my health for my entrepreneurial dreams.  But there's gotta be a way...I am seeing cupcake kiosks in malls across the country in my dreams. 

Any cupcakers out there?  Hello?