Has 2015 been a hard year for you or a good one? A year of re-evaluating and growing, or one of staying the course? The fourth quarter is a good time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the year, deciding what to leave behind and what to take with you into the new year.
For Lindsay Burton, the high point of 2015 was starting her own residential cleaning business, A Maid to Remember (www.amaidtoremember. com).
“We started it in January of this year and have got to watch it blossom into something amazing,” she said. “There is nothing better than being able to work daily with our friends and neighbors in Lexington. Lexington is such an amazing place to own a business.”
She is appreciative of nice customers and being accepted in the community where she is raising her family. One thing Burton has learned over the course of this past year that she will carry over into the new year is not stressing over the small stuff .
“Everything will work out in the end,” she said. “God always has a plan and will provide for us. We had some struggles in 2015 — starting a business is always hard, emotionally, physically and fi nancially — but we made it through and couldn’t be more excited to see what 2016 holds in store for us.”
Donna Gilbert started Heavenly Confectionery (www.heavenlyconfectionery.com) on a part-time basis in 2003 and went full time with the business five years later. The candies she makes by hand include bourbon balls, fudge and truffles, and each is hand-dipped. She is wrapping up 2015 by venturing into a second line that will incorporate flower essences with chocolate.
After experiencing a self-described “scattered” 2014, this year has been chaotic for Gilbert, but in the good way of being busy.
“Usually with my business chocolate doesn’t sell well in summer because of the heat,” she said. “I got no break this year. It never stopped.”
Gilbert credits new clients, new employees and new offerings with the increase in her business for 2015. She has two employees and hires a third for the Christmas rush. She rents a commercial kitchen and has no desire for a brick-and-mortar storefront.
“I only want to grow so much, because I don’t want to turn it over to people who don’t love it the way I do,” she said.
Maintaining her confection company at a manageable rate has been a conscious decision for Gilbert.
“It’s nice that I can make my own schedule,” she said. “Freedom is the biggest perk I have.”
The majority of her business comes through a catalog company that carries three of her products and through corporate clients who order chocolates for their own customer gifts. Gilbert’s handcrafted Kentucky bourbon balls are her most popular item, followed by a bittersweet dark chocolate truffle with caramel and liquid smoke, topped with chipotle-infused sea salt.
A former national educator for aromatherapy, Gilbert is a flower essence practitioner.
“I am infusing truffles and fudge with flower essence for mental, emotional and spiritual healing,” she said.
She will be calling her new business the Chocolate Goddess and will run both operations separately because each has a different focus.
“Heavenly Confectionery is more mainstream, and the Chocolate Goddess will be in a niche market,” she said. “It’s going to be a slow build. Heavenly Confectionery was a slow build; when you do it slow like that there’s such a good foundation.”
Like many solopreneurs, Gilbert sees her business and personal life as connected.
“I’m fine-tuning things so I don’t get so scattered,” she said. “This year I had so many things come at me, so I am working toward simplicity and a little more downtime. It’s been an exhilarating year, but I’m tired.”
Gilbert has found that many other people are looking to simplify their lives and is looking forward to her Chocolate Goddess line of candies to help facilitate that quest for a particular clientele.
“I am a good businesswoman, and I have this other edge to me, this spiritual side,” she said. “It’s important that I keep my company with right intention and living with integrity.”