Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Alexandra Jones, co-founder of Collective Creamery, located in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Her co-founders are Stefanie Angstadt and Sue Miller.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We're a women-powered artisan cheese subscription serving Philadelphia, Southeast Pennsylvania, and South Jersey. Each month, we curate boxes of handmade cheese from our two small member creameries, with styles ranging from tangy fresh cheeses to luscious bloomy rids to pungent blues and bitey sharp cheddars. More importantly, we offer cheese lovers a direct connection to the people and places that produce this delicious traditional food.
Tell us about yourself
Before we launched Collective Creamery, I had worked as a local foods buyer for a few nonprofits, which is how I met our cheesemakers, Stefanie Angstadt of Valley Milkhouse and Sue Miller of Birchrun Hills Farm. When I left nonprofit work and started freelancing, the three of us knew we wanted to work on a project together. We had all kinds of ideas—a service that built cheese wheel cakes for weddings, a mobile cheese shop that drove around Philadelphia—but decided to start with a CSA-style cheese subscription. That was six years ago, and our membership has quadrupled over that time. Seeing how many folks in our region want to pay upfront to support our cheesemakers and ensure their access to high-quality, nutritious, and absolutely delicious artisan cheese heartens us and keeps us going.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Internally, we've really refined our offerings over the years. We used to offer different share sizes, different frequencies of pickup, etc., but the return wasn't worth the additional strain on our very small, very lean team. We had been toying with the idea of streamlining our offerings to a one-size, once-per-month box but worried folks would abandon us. Well, the pandemic hit, which put even more strain on our makers, who lost restaurant customers overnight and had to put a lot more work into farmers' markets. It was the perfect time to launch a streamlined offering. We had our biggest season-over-season growth in spring 2020. Our team had the breathing room they needed to adapt to doing business in a pandemic.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
For us, it's been figuring out which forms of outreach offer the best and most consistent return. Before the pandemic, we did a lot more in-person events to promote the cheese subscription, and sometimes they'd result in a ton of signups, and other times, none. We've learned that while IRL relationships are really significant to our business, we can target and reach potential subscribers much more easily with digital, collaborations, and word of mouth.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Have a solid plan, be ready to adapt, and invest (whether time or money) in good branding early on.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.collectivecreamery.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CollectiveCreamery/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectivecreamery/
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.
Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.