I stop a 6-make a choice job to draw stop my kitchen-desk facet hustle corpulent time—it made $379,000 in sales in 2023

I’ve repeatedly been bringing household and location visitors collectively around big meals. I am that person that watches you draw stop a bite to head looking out the reaction on your face.

When I modified into as soon as an adolescent, my grandmother, aunts and cousins would come collectively to put collectively the most gorgeous meals. I will vividly take into account my grandmother lining piles of meals in a marvelous cowl down the center of a desk — all the issues produced from scratch and ready contemporary.

As an adult, I started making charcuterie boards for my household gatherings.

Two years within the past, I started a facet hustle to promote elaborate spreads from distinctive substances — admire contemporary herbs and spices, homemade cheeseballs and cheese dips, and pure honey from a native beekeeper — and piece my thought of Southern comfort with the neighborhood.

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Right here’s how I went from feeding my household and location visitors to running a small industry bringing in enough sales that I could well likely stop my job and devote myself to doing this corpulent time.

The day earlier than my daughter’s thirteenth birthday occasion, I modified into as soon as up slack within the kitchen laying out some of her favorites — including strawberries, fontina and pepper jack cheeses, and pepperoni — within the form of a gargantuan “1” and “3.”

My sister-in-regulation complimented me on the spread as it modified into as soon as coming along, and steered I strive promoting similar creations.

“Crafting elaborate charcuterie spreads from distinctive substances turned my thought of Southern comfort,” Teyoshe says.

Courtesy of Teyoshe Smith

I determined to take a look at the waters on Facebook Marketplace over Mother’s Day Weekend in 2022. I posted a sample filled with salami roses, contemporary greens and fruits, and various treats. I tied the field with wire and topped it with a contemporary sunflower and toddler’s breath.

In only two days, I supplied out of 25 bins. The Facebook messages by no design stopped, and I came all the design by myself striking collectively charcuterie bins for mark contemporary purchasers from my kitchen on daily basis after work.

Chunk by Chunk & Co.’s charcuterie spreads can be found all sizes, from small boards to grazing tables several feet lengthy.

Courtesy of Teyoshe Smith

I started my industry — which I first and most major known as Grazing Loopy but bear since renamed Chunk by Chunk & Co. — from my dwelling. But by September I needed to migrate to a commercial kitchen to ramp up manufacturing.

I soon added charcuterie workshops to connect with my native neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, an providing that proved so standard it led to my first corpulent-time rent.

I spent over two a long time in corporate The united states, most recently as a mission manager at Capital One making a six-make a choice wage.

Juggling lengthy hours at my day job with even longer hours constructing my small industry — while also being a corpulent-time mother and partner — turned overwhelming. Just a few three hundred and sixty five days after promoting my first charcuterie field, I modified into as soon as supplied a brand contemporary role, and a lift. I’d must modify more folks and shoulder more accountability.

After lengthy conversations with my household, we determined it modified into as soon as time for me to leave corporate existence and turn my facet hustle staunch into a corpulent-time profession.

Since starting her industry, Teyoshe has taught a complete bunch of folks the fashion to craft their possess boards by charcuterie workshops she runs each and every almost and in person.

Courtesy of Teyoshe Smith

So I gave my perceive and turned my undivided attention to constructing Chunk by Chunk & Co. Our decision modified into as soon as validated when sales straight increased.

In 2023, the company brought in about $379,000 in sales, up from about $84,000 in 2022.

In only two years, I’ve employed 11 team participants. I relocated to the Atlanta, Georgia space, and opened a second brick-and-mortar diagram here. We now supply nationwide shipping, in-person and virtual workshops, and an organization product line for better teams, touchdown contracts with catering companies and 1-800-Flowers.

We now bear supplied our signature cheese dips and cheese balls in stores and wineries in Virginia and Georgia, and supply them wholesale for stores right by the nation. Our number 1 seller from this sequence is our Garlic Feta Cheese Dip, a cream cheese-essentially based whipped dip made with contemporary basil, garlic, pistachios, and honey.

“I’ve repeatedly been bringing household and location visitors collectively around big meals,” Teyoshe says.

Courtesy of Teyoshe Smith

My purpose is to head looking out Chunk by Chunk & Co. areas dotting the nation. So I am within the purpose out time centered on increasing common procedures and recipes to position the groundwork for a franchising mannequin, and am interviewing quite a bit of capability franchisees to be determined I pick the suitable partners.

For now, at any time as soon as I educate folks the fashion to create intricate designs from peaceable slices of specialty cheeses and meats, or the fashion to create the appropriate bite with a mix of candy and superb, creamy and crunchy substances, I in fact wish to pinch myself: I in fact did turn what I admire staunch into a successful industry.

Teyoshe Smith is the founder and CEO of Chunk by Chunk & Co., where she and her team create charcuterie boards and grazing tables and supply guided workshops. She has a stage in broadcast journalism and spent two a long time in corporate The united states, most recently as a mission manager at Capital One, earlier than leaving to execute her industry. To find her on LinkedIn and Facebook and apply Chunk by Chunk & Co. on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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