New storefront offers hot cookies, straight from the ovenDate: 1/23/2019 SPRINGFIELD – The cookies at Hot Oven Cookies are baked daily and sell out frequently, but for owner and baker Sheila Coons there is a lot more to the business than just serving unique cookies.
For Coons, a Holyoke resident, the cookie business has been about developing a model for others who are seeking a means to be in business for themselves.
Her shop is located at 1597 Main St. and is open Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 1 to 6 p.m. Coons opened the shop on Nov. 25, and she told Reminder Publishing, the reception has been “great.”
She added with a smile, “I barely remember December; it was crazy.” While January has seen a slight slow-down, Coons said that business is still very good.
The road to a permanent location has been a long one and at times very deliberate. Coons readily admitted that she does a lot of research before making a business move.
A native of Northampton, her mother had a warm cookie business and as a child she noticed the effect cookies had on both her mother as the baker and her customers.
“I was always intrigued with the joy on both parties,” she recalled.
Although she was always interested in cooking, she decided to become an attorney and graduated from Elms College with a degree in legal studies. She had an epiphany while taking the LSATs. She realized she didn’t want to be a lawyer and walked out of the test.
Following her interests, she enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at Holyoke Community College. Although there was an interruption in her career as both a mom and a caregiver for her grandmother, Coons worked in kitchens following her love. In 2010 she opened her own bakery in Chicopee, which she had to close because of personal issues.
Regardless, she was still drawn to the food industry and realized she needed to develop a plan.
She competed to be in the mentorship program at Valley Ventures Mentors and was accepted into the final 10 people out of a field of 37. She completed five months of mentoring and then received a $20,000 grant through the SPARK program in Holyoke, which allowed her to buy a trailer to transform into a mobile cookie bakery.
She and her husband David brought that mobile bakery to farmers’ markets – she was a regular at the market opposite Tower Square this summer as well as the Holyoke market. She also went to as many food truck events as she could ranging from Worcester to Vermont.
She called the trailer “brand extension.” The trailer allowed her to do events at area colleges, which in turn led to being hired to provide cookies at birthdays and other events.
Her shop’s offerings can change from day-to day, but she has several signature flavors: dark chocolate and sea salt chip, nutty piggy chip, blueberry donut chip, snickerdoodles, guava cheesecake and mudslide brookie.
Currently she has developed 125 flavors, all of which are variations of five basic cookies: chocolate chip, double chocolate, oatmeal, sugar and peanut butter.
Her children have helped determine through suggestion and then tasting the final 125 recipes, she said. She kept track of which additional ingredients produced a flavorful cookie. In order to reach the final 125, she baked and tested more than 500 variations.
Coons is now starting to develop a wide business model. She is researching the concept of “micro shops,” which would sell cookies baked on the premise with dough produced at a production hub such as her current store.
She has also started work to receive the proper permits and certificates to wholesale her raw dough to other businesses, as well as having a mail order business that would allow consumers to buy frozen dough to bake her cookies at home.
She explained that while other bakeries do sell cookies through the mail, they are “old” when they arrive. Selling frozen dough would allow people to bake the quantity when they wanted and have a fresh-baked cookie.
She is also considering a franchise system, but like all of her projects she wants to make sure they are properly researched and tested before their launch.
Speaking of the possible franchising operation she said, “I want to be able to share an opportunity to other people. I want to hone it to make it a razor sharp opportunity.”
As she is expanding her business model, she is baking cookies five days out of the week. Follow this reporter’s advice, who has tried a bunch of her cookies: if you crave a cookie and you’re near downtown Springfield this is the place to go.
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