Interview with Susan Kirchner Founder of Chocolate Cake Club
Tags: Business, Chocolate Cake Club, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Susan Kirchner, The Work at Home Woman, WAHM
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Tell us a little bit about Chocolate Cake Club and how you got started.
I am absolutely passionate about inspiring busy families have more FUN. Whether it is helping them plan more fun activities into their schedule, helping them get organized so they have more time to spend having fun, or finding great products that bring a smile to everyone’s face. Before starting this business I knew I wanted to build a brand and have a business where I could be flexible enough to work at home and work odd hours, so you look to your life for inspiration on a needed product or service. What hit me was that whenever we went out to dinner with our friends, we all spent most of the time talking about how stressed out, tired and frustrated we were with managing work and family. However, none of us wanted to give up a thing. We loved our jobs, our families, and our lifestyle.
So, my husband and I thought wouldn’t it be great to build a brand that took that negative energy and made it positive. Reminding people of the good stuff, or what I call the “Chocolate Cake Moments” every day where you are laughing, smiling, and enjoying your family life. So I started with the e-boutique to find products that would make life easier for busy parents or would allow them to have fun with their kids, or distinguish them as a gift giving super hero. I focused on offering Nordstrom type service because I know that a busy Mom has no time and the way to her heart is to make her life easy.
So, to start the business I did a lot of research. I knew a lot about branding and marketing and I knew my ideal target customer, being a busy Mom myself, but I knew nothing about retail. I reached out to everyone in my network to find people with retail, e-commerce, and internet marketing experience to ask for their advice. I also conducted mock focus groups with Moms, Grandmas, and Aunts in the area to get validation for my business idea. This was the best thing I did because it helped me to see what their burning needs were, which group would be my best target market, and what products they wanted to see. When I was getting ready to launch most of my products were to help Mom get organized and some fun family activities. What they told me was that if I wanted them to come back to my site often, I needed to carry more gifts. There is frequency in gift buying. So, I ramped up the gift section of site to meet that need. By doing so, I now had two strong target markets – busy Moms and grandmas who were looking for unique, distinctive gifts that their grandkids didn’t have already.
What did you do before launching Chocolate Cake Club?
I’ve done many things but my background has always been in marketing and branding. Right out of school I worked for Motorola, doing marketing and advertising in their Cell Phone division. Since I was the only one who spoke Spanish in the department, having lived in Latin America for 7 years, I was lucky enough to get exposed to a lot of marketing activities right out of school.
Before my husband and I were married, he worked for Andersen Consulting and when they assigned him to a project in Argentina, we decided to get married (we pulled off a spectacular big wedding in 7 weeks so it can be done ladies) and I moved with him. I went to work for one of Motorola’s distributors handling some of their marketing and advertising. When we came back to the US, I went to work for another division of Motorola handling their Latin American marketing. When they relocated our group to Florida from Chicago, I took my first leap into entrepreneurship. I didn’t want to move and the economies in Latin America were stable so there was a lot of interest in the area. I took the leap and became a Latin American marketing consultant. I figured what’s the worst that could happen. It doesn’t work and I go back to work for another company.
I did that for 3 years and then became pregnant with my son. I didn’t want to travel to Latin America anymore with a baby so I took a job with a start-up branding firm in Chicago. After a year, the branding firm wasn’t growing fast enough so I was out of a job. Some of my co-workers and I felt we could build a better branding agency so we started our own consultancy called Identity 3.0. We specialized in helping companies rebrand themselves after a merger or acquisition. After 5 years, both partners had left to do other things and I had to make the decision to keep the branding firm going or start a new business. I decided to put my money where my mouth was and build my own brand. That’s when Chocolate Cake Club was launched.
During all this time I also taught International Business and Marketing at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
How many hours do you work a week and how much is spent is your home office?
I work about 40 hours a week and spend most of that time in my home office. I “get out” when I am speaking on a Family Fun topic to an organization, attending networking meetings, finding new products at gift shows, and meeting with other Mompreneurs to help support each other’s business.
How did you fund your business?
I funded my business with the money I had from closing my last business. I do some marketing and brand strategy consulting for one client which helps with some very needed cash flow from time to time.
How would you rate your success from 0 – 10?
I would say that my success is a 7. I have some very loyal customers, I absolutely LOVE what I do and how much I learn every day, but I wish I could grow faster and reach more customers. While the company has grown every year, it grows at a slower pace than I imagined. When you are self-funded and entrepreneurially staffed, you can only grow so fast because you have a limited amount of resources – time and money.
How do you manage all of your personal and business activities?
It’s hard. In order to make it work for me, I schedule EVERYTHING. I write in my planner that I will help my kids do homework from 4 – 5 p.m. I write down when I am going to work out. I write down the fun activities we are going to do on the weekend. By writing it down, it’s committed and I won’t let anything distract me from my business, family and personal activities. My husband laughs at me because I still use a handwritten planner for my schedules but it works for me. I need to see everything going on for me, my kids, and the family all at a quick glance. I can’t get that “global” view from an electronic device.
I believe that there is no such thing as daily work/life balance. Sometimes you have to put in a lot of time at work and sometimes you need to give more time and attention to your family. I just work with my kids and husband to let them know what’s going on in my business so they understand my time commitments. I do the same with the business and I learn to make peace with the short term unbalance. However, long term I make sure I feel good about how I spend my time and that both important aspects of my life get my full attention. When work is slow, I take the opportunity to play more with my family.
My son also helps me in the business and he can earn money or extra allowance points. He helps me take boxes to the post office, sort invoices, and shred papers. It’s nice because by getting him involved, he is proud of what I do as a business owner. He tells people everywhere we go that his Mom has a business and he helps. (It’s a great way to get permission to tell my elevator pitch.)
What has been your biggest business struggle?
Accounting! Accounting was never a strong suit for me. Although I took some accounting courses when I received my MBA and I knew some basic Quickbook skills, I was woefully unprepared for the intricacies and the sheer volume of accounting needs in managing a retail business. The sales transactions, inventory, and reporting is a struggle. I have since hired that function out to a bookkeeper which makes my life much easier but it was hard to justify spending the money in the first few years. I spent too much time on this “non-income generating” function when I should have been spending my time on marketing and sales, playing more to my talents.
What are your 3 favorite websites or blogs?
I read quite a few Mom blogs to keep up to date on what my customer base is talking about, new product introductions, and to participate in their communities or forums to build credibility for my brand as a Family Fun expert. I really like Make and Takes, Cool Mom Picks, and Todays Mama. However, the sites I read more to help me with my business are Problogger, Entrepreneur Women, and having discovered your site about 6 months ago, I really like the practical information that you share on The Work at Home Woman. I have bookmarked and printed quite a few of your posts.
What advice would you give to a new entrepreneur?
I have three pieces of advice that I would share with a new entrepreneur.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help. People love to help someone starting a business. It feeds the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us. You would be surprised who will help you if you just ask. Women shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help either. We don’t have to prove that we are superhuman and can do everything. Seek out as many people as you can to give you advice and take them up on any offer of help.
- Outsource what you don’t do well. It’s hard to spend money on services when you want to conserve every penny starting out but fight the urge and hire someone who will do it faster and more effectively than you.
- Validate your idea. Spend some time up front validating your business idea and formulating a business plan. By thinking through all aspects of your business you can anticipate challenges and feel comfortable that you will be able to attract customers for your product or service. I conducted small focus groups with busy Moms and Grandmothers before I started my business where I gathered great information on what they liked about my business, what challenges they face that I could potentially solve, and how they shopped. I also let them go shopping using a “mock” catalog of items I was thinking of selling to get their feedback on product selection.
For more information on Sue Kirchner, please see: Chocolate Cake Club or their e-boutique site and blog site. Follow Sue’s tweets on Twitter @SueKirchner.
Chocolate Cake Club: Your source for Family Fun! From cooking with kids, arts & crafts kits, fun games for the whole family, birthday party entertainment kits, or kids travel gear, our must-have products make wonderful gifts or help you schedule some laughter for the family.
One Response to “Interview with Susan Kirchner Founder of Chocolate Cake Club”
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July 26th, 2010 at 10:56 am
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