Longing for the Easy Life

Well I question my decision to start this cookie business. It would be much easier to just be the worker bee.


Two weeks ago we delivered a ½ case of cookies to a coffee shop. I was using a different oven other than our convection that I’m use to. As it turns out the cookies had to bake longer affecting the shelf life quality. The coffee shop owner complained as well he should.

On Friday he ordered another case, upset that we could not deliver any until Monday as students have started to complain. I assured him that the taste would be consistent with our prior cookies. From the Expo I worked over the phone with the women baking, walking them thru each step. The taste was now consistent but wouldn’t you know something had to go wrong: Now the cookies are smaller than they had been, hence overpriced.

As I’m on the road in Northern California it is impossible to know what went wrong. I suspect that the baker may have picked up a scoop I’d used to test for samples or took a deep swipe in the scoop as they took the excess dough off before placing it on the sheet.

Now I’ve had to take a cut in price for this batch in the effort to be fair. I was really upset about our production consistency but this has been a huge lesson for me. I thought that I’d spelled out everything but it is the details that can trip one up. I’m just privately thankful that the owner of this coffee shop is still willing to work with us thru this learning curve.

I’ll need to be very careful when reviewing the problem with the employees. They were so happy over the baking job they’d done and I don’t want for them to lose their vision for the product or feel unappreciated. So I’ll need to go to Santa Barbara next week and work out the baking details. The balance for keeping the employees feeling like they are important and making sure that they make the product my way is a careful line.

I long for the easy life at this moment!