The Best Cheesemongers - The Cheese Lady Traverse City

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tina Zinn, owner of The Cheese Lady Traverse City, located in Traverse City, MI, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

When you walk into our shop, you will find we are more than just a cheese shop with Handmade boards and pottery that compliment cheese, linens from around the world, and specialty cheese accessories from raclette machines to fondue pots. The main course, though, is always the cheese. We carry over 140 cheeses from around the world and cut to order fresh off the wheel. When you step up to our cheese counter, your Cheesemonger will provide that individual cheese experience so that we select the best cheeses for your palate. We also carry local boutique wines that we have paired with our cheese. Our cheese friends come for the cheese but come back for the one-on-one experience with our Cheesemongers!

Tell us about yourself

Our shop now has been open for over seven years, and what a great time I am having with my second career. I worked for 27 years in corporate America. The array of work I did there really set me up to be able to run a small business. With a strong customers service, quality, and supplier relationship background, I found at 52 years old wanting to finish my working years doing something I was passionate about. Making people happy was at the top of my list. I found myself moonlighting at my niece Heather's cheese shop in Grand Rapids and fell not only in love with great cheese but even more how excited and satisfied customers were when they left the shop. Traverse City was my favorite place on earth, so I made my way north, and my oldest daughter decided to join me. With two hard-working women at the helm, we have created that very fulfilling experience with our customers. Each day it is a joy to go to work and share our love of cheese with our customers.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I think any small business that made it through 2020 and 2021 has to give itself a major pat on the back. That in itself has to be one of our top accomplishments. With regards to the rest of the years, when we moved to this small town and created a niche business, we knew it would be a lot of hard work and some crazy struggles. What we were not prepared for was our first year in business, having our road shut down the whole summer. It would have been easy to give up, but we chose to get very creative and find ways to get outside of the shop, partnering with breweries wineries and finding farmer markets to sell our cheese. It was by far the hardest year, but it really helped us to always think outside of the box on how to grow our business. Today, we have so many loyal business partners and customers, and many now are our great friends.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Responsibility. You cannot take a day off or go to work and be lazy.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Do your research on demographics for the service or product in your town. Do you have the customers to support it? Is it a saturated field?
Figure a great salary for your employees into your cost. They are your best advocates and cheerleaders.
Hire experts in the areas of your business you are not knowledgeable or good at. i.e., I waited to hire a CPA 6 months after. I hired a great company, and I never ever have to work about making mistakes with paying the state and federal payments.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.thecheeseladytc.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCheeseLadyTraverseCity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecheeseladytc/

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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