Croissants and the Cottage Food Business: Baker and Software Developer, Sharon Su, Shares Her Experience
Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with Sharon Su, who runs her own cottage food bakery business, Persimmon Bakeshop. Here’s her story!
Photo contributed by Sharon Su.
Sharon Su attributes her longtime love of baking to her mother, who taught her to bake at a young age. “I got into baking when I was young because of my mom, and she started baking because we didn’t live near any Asian bakeries and she missed the pastries she was used to.”
Sharon spent most of her childhood in York, Pennsylvania. Though she enjoyed baking, she had other plans for her career path. After high school she attended Purdue University for computer science and mathematics, which, through a job offer at IBM, led her to Rochester. Sharon continued working for IBM for the next eight years, where she met her husband. She eventually transitioned and worked for a company called HGST which would later become Western Digital, keeping her Rochester based.
“It’s an interesting town. I feel like a lot of people are pushing for cool things to happen in art and culture which is really neat.”
Sharon explained that she really got into baking as an adult to connect with coworkers. Bringing cookies into the office was a pretty great ice breaker! As her friends started getting married she also had the opportunity to bake and decorate cakes for them.
Photo contributed by Sharon Su.
In 2011, Sharon decided to try selling her pastries at events, the first of which was Art on the Ave, followed by Thursdays on First. Thursdays were immediately a challenge since the event happened on a workday and she had to take time off of her day job to make it work. She stuck it out for a month, then pursued some other event options because, at the time, events were her only option.
“Back when I was getting started, Minnesota didn’t even have a fully formed cottage food law. Instead there was something called a ‘pickle law’ (as the name suggests, it existed for individuals who wanted to sell homemade jars of pickles and other canned goods). Baked goods also fell under the pickle law. But the tricky part of the law was that you couldn't facilitate direct sales to customers, you had to sell your goods at community events. Outside of events it was very difficult to sell anything.”
Frustrated with market challenges and inflexible laws around cooking and selling food from one’s home, Sharon started looking into commercial kitchen spaces to rent and use for her baking, unfortunately with little success.
“Most of the places I reached out to weren’t willing to let me use their spaces, which I understand because of course it’s a big risk to trust a complete stranger with something that could potentially burn your building down.”
In 2015, the cottage food law passed and Sharon gave up on her efforts to find and use a commercial kitchen. Selling her goods became simpler and she eventually became a regular vendor at the Rochester Famers Market.
Photo contributed by Sharon Su.
As business picked up and Sharon started selling her goods at a higher quantity and more regularity, pricing became a challenge as she tried to determine a way to not price her goods higher than what the average Rochester consumer was willing to pay, and yet be fair to herself and her efforts.
“Rochester is interesting in that it has Mayo Clinic, which makes it cosmopolitan in a way, but in many other ways it's still just a typical Midwestern town. It makes pricing things tricky because I feel like there are people around who are willing to spend a little extra for an everyday luxury, and others that think that you’re charging way too much for a baked good. I don’t want to price myself out of the market, but I also care about paying myself a fair wage and sourcing locally as much as possible.”
Pricing has continued to be a challenge as the pandemic caused immense supply shortages and price spikes for products. In the early months of the pandemic, Sharon had to completely stall production because she was unable to acquire flour or sugar from grocery stores like she had in the past. This, however, had a positive solution as Sharon connected with a Minnesota based flour mill, which never experienced an interruption and was able to continue supplying flour to people. The pandemic has also led to the necessity of pre-packaging each individual product that Sharon makes, which has added significant time and money to the process of selling her goods.
Ultimately, Sharon said that she does her best to price fairly by combining the estimated cost of goods and ingredients, her labor, the overhead of rent, and market fees. “I do my best, but sometimes it still feels like I’m throwing a dart at a board and hoping it works out,” she explained.
Sharon hopes in the future to start a subscription service for her baked goods, to remove some of the risk involved in baking goods she isn’t entirely sure will be sold, to minimize waste, and to make sure that she makes enough pastries for everyone who wants them. She does not, however, see herself expanding to a brick and mortar shop.
“I’ve noticed during my time selling my pastries that some consumers don’t view cottage bakers as professionals in the industry. Even other professional bakers might not view me as a professional, even though people pay for my products. Which is just a strange perception because I believe that if people are paying for your goods, you’re a professional baker.”
She continued, “Sometimes people come up to me at the Farmers Market and say things like ‘You should totally open your own place!’ ‘You should get a brick and mortar shop; it would be great!’ and I know they’re paying me a compliment by saying those things. Honestly, I’m not sure that I would want that kind of responsibility. It would also be really hard for me to give up my software developer job. In college I was one of two women in my classes and I had to work really hard to get where I am today. I’m really happy with where I’m at now with both my day job and my baking. I feel like sometimes the default goal for businesses has been to grow, grow, grow, but I really feel like it’s okay if you want to stay small and not expand.”
Sharon’s favorite pastry to bake is croissants, because of the technically challenging process. “There’s always a way to make them better.” she said.
Photo contributed by Sharon Su.
In Sharon’s spare time she enjoys playing on a local broomball league as well as playing violin in the Rochester symphony. She often finds herself at the Rochester Public Library feeding her “cookbook obsession” and enjoys watching movies at Gray Duck Theater. She also loves local coffee shops such as Fiddlehead and Cafe Steam.
To those considering starting a food based business out of their home, she said, “If you’re interested in starting a cottage food business, it’s pretty easy to register so just go for it! It’s also really helpful to seek out a community or a peer group for support. Even if you feel like you don’t know everything you need to know to get started, jump in anyway. Don’t let that be a barrier for you.”
Sharon gleans happiness from the joy her baking brings to others. “I really have some of the best customers, I love them. One of my favorite things about baking is that pastries make people happy. The best part is when people come up to me and say, ‘I really love your croissants!’ or ‘I was having a bad day, but I had one of your pastries and I feel a lot better.’ That’s what I love about doing this.”
Thank you for taking the time to read Sharon’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about Persimmon Bakeshop by clicking the link below!
*Sharon is a participant in a Food Peer Group facilitated by Collider! If you or someone you know could use the support of entrepreneurs working in food-based businesses, reach out to us at hello@collider.mn and we will help get you connected!
A special thank you to our storytelling sponsor, Fredrikson & Byron, for their support! Their Midwest-based law firm is known as the firm “where law and business meet.” Their attorneys provide practical legal advice and advocacy that help people achieve their business goals. Just as Collider amplifies the voices or Rochester’s business community, Fredrikson & Byron helps new and growing businesses with a full range of services, combining a common-sense approach with decades of experience. to get things done for clients.
Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.
