The Clumsy Interloper

I would like to give a shout out to Tom Kelly, the owner of Crustworthy Pizza, for giving an amazing Food Business 101 presentation earlier this week at the Bread and Roses Community Kitchen at Trinity Episcopal Church. I also want to extend thanks to Market Central for putting on this free program and for their mission of helping food entrepreneurs start their journey. Because of Tom’s talk, I’ve completely reworked my Gantt chart to reprioritize my startup phases. I have a much better handle on the process of obtaining licenses, procuring ingredients, determining an effective costs/profit strategy and booking time in a commissary kitchen.

I’m invigorated that my community has made such a strong investment in small businesses because that is what makes Charlottesville so special. The success stories of hard working and dedicated people dot our landscape and these programs are that launch pad that keeps our storefronts local and farmers markets thriving. I’m also looking forward to reaching out to both the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Community Investment Collaborative (CIC) for guidance in the future while I craft my vision.

I plan to post weekly about my deep dish start up adventure and I hope you will check in regularly to see my progress. For all you Charlottesville folks, please know that I will have loads of deep dish pizza this fall that will need a test audience. So if you like what you see, please drop me a line and I’ll get you a pie 😊