This week’s post is all about things that have recently caught my eye.
In the ten years that I’ve been crafting bean to bar one thing has never ceased being clear to me:
it takes a lot of chocolate bar sales to pay for beans, ingredients, equipment, overhead, packaging, employees, and all the stuff that = a chocolate biz.
And as you know, if you’ve been around on Instagram awhile, or read my posts here, or joined me for a class, I don’t believe big = success, or that big is necessary for a craft chocolate livelihood.
When I read this title and tagline by Ted Gioia I of course had to read his entire essay, which I’m linking for you here too.
Why Creatives Will Win by Thinking Small: In 2024, the path to success has been turned upside down
Here’s the golden takeaway quote:
Artists and other creatives have a realistic advantage versus the power brokers and gatekeepers. In fact, their advantage is growing over time, not shrinking.
But the way to do this is to think small.
If small is trending, simple + small is even better.
At Map in my recent bar drop I ditched my earlier, $$$ packaging INSTEAD of raising my bar prices, thinking “what my audience wants is the chocolate they can’t get anywhere else.” I came across this packaging (Noisette Bakehouse) and wanted to buy the product instantly. Lesson: simple is a statement as loud and popwerfull as small is.
Re; understanding food allergies.
In case you missed my recent post, this heartfelt essay drives home a point all chocolate makers need to heed.
What I wish more peope knew about deadly allergic reactions.
Okay, so we’re small; how do we get the word out about our amazing bars?
I get lovely once-or-so a week emails from a new-ish small batch craft chocolate company. I’ve ordered bars directly from those emails, so yes, they are doing a good job of reaching an audience (and someone who wasn’t even thinking about buying chocolate :)
What Works writer Tara McMullin shared some clarity around platforms and visibility:
On a low-friction platform like TikTok or Instagram, a piece of content is much more likely to be shown to someone who has only a cursory relationship with the person or brand that created that content. A higher-friction channel like an email newsletter or podcast, on the other hand, will almost exclusively be shown to people who have a stronger relationship with the person or brand that created the content.
Speaking of Insta, ICYMI, I posted this recently.
Thanks for being here, and happy chocolate crafting,
Mackenzie
Mackenzie,
Do you only make all types of chcocolate in the summer, dark, milk, and white, or a subset of that? Also, how do you store that chocolate prior to tempering? Thanks