Smith's Country Cheese - Allie Catlin
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Allie Catlin, co-owner of Smith's Country Cheese, located in Winchendon, MA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are Smith's Cheese, located in Winchendon, MA. We're a family dairy farm that makes raw milk cheese for a living. We use sustainable energy and old-fashioned recipes to bring you the highest quality, most delicious cheeses around.
Tell us about yourself
My husband Jake and I, along with Jake's brother and his wife, bought this farm from the Smith family in 2016. We had ZERO farming or cheesemaking experience (really). We apprenticed on the weekends for 18 months while working our full-time jobs before buying the farm and leaving our traditional jobs. It was terrifying and amazing.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I always joke that it's still being married after five years as a business owner, but really, it's being able to raise our kids in a happy environment while doing the work we love.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
There are no days off, and there is no one to blame if something goes wrong at the end of the day. The responsibility of owning a business and making a safe product that our customers and family consume is something we take incredibly seriously.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Remember to take some time for yourself each day.
- Build a team of employees that is positive. You can always teach them how to do a job but can't always teach them positivity. It's crucial to a happy work environment.
- Take the extra time to give impeccable customer service (even when you don't feel like it). A single customer interaction can follow you forever.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
A lot of raw milk cheeses get a bad rap because people might think it's dangerous. We always want our customers to know that this traditional way of making cheese lends itself to more flavorful and (often) gut-beneficial cheese. However, we take food safety very seriously: we age our cheese for 60 days and then send a random sample of every batch we make to a food safety lab to test for pathogens before selling it. You get the benefits of raw milk cheese without worry!!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://smithscountrycheese.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmithsCountryCheese/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithscountrycheese/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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