Can A Product Be Too Good? with Janna Paterno

The Forrager Podcast for Cottage Food Businesses

Janna Paterno lives in Charleston, WV and used to sell custom decorated cookies with her cottage food business, Sweet Janna Lea.

She shut down her business in 2021 after only running it for two years.

It’s no secret that most new businesses in any realm struggle to get off the ground. Usually cottage food entrepreneurs have challenges finding customers, or they produce a product that doesn’t meet the needs of their target market.

But it’s the exact opposite with Janna. She always had more customers than she could handle, and that’s because her cookies are literally some of the best you will ever see.

A lot of new entrepreneurs believe that if they have a great product, then they’ll have a successful business. But of course, there’s a lot more to it than that!

There are a lot of lessons in this episode. You’ll learn why a cottage food business wasn’t the right fit for Janna, the importance of finding balance in your business, and what someone should know when trying to make and sell custom decorated cookies.

What You’ll Learn

• Some of the best cookie decorators to learn from
• What equipment you should (and should NOT) get to decorate cookies
• Creative ways to avoid spending a lot of money on equipment
• Different techniques for decorating cookies
• Why Janna couldn’t make any money from her business
• Common mistakes with running a food business
• The importance of finding balance with your business
• How long it takes to make high-end decorated cookies
• Some of the challenges of running a cottage food business

Resources

Sweet Janna Lea website (Instagram | Facebook)

Learn Cookie Decorating:

• Sweet Sugar Belle
• Cookie Connection by Julia Usher
• Arty McGoo
• Sweet Ambs
• Jill’s Funky Cookie Studio
• Shape Shifter Ideas (Janna’s leprechaun and flowers)

Cookie Decorating Equipment:

• Tipless piping bags
• Sweetshop Airbrush
• AAXA Pico Pocket Projector
• Cricut Machine

West Virginia Cottage Food Law

Get full show notes and transcript here: https://forrager.com/podcast/61