Eleanor Joseph opened a very successful Los Angeles bakery in 1983. Heavenly Desserts supplied some 70 Los Angeles restaurants and the city's top caterers, and provided desserts and chocolate truffles for airlines' first-class and business-class passengers.
Joseph, who had been a legal assistant, had to be talked into opening the bakery by family members, chiefly her son, Jay. He was helping a woman in the San Fernando Valley open a restaurant and cajoled his mother into providing the eatery's desserts. "The time has come," he told his mother.
When the recession hit in the late 1980s, Joseph stayed open too long. "By the time I closed (in 1991), I was $50,000 in debt," she says. She went back to work during the bakery's final year to start paying back her creditors, leaving daughter Shari in charge of the shop.
"It took me eight years, but everybody got paid," she says. "And I said, 'I will never do that again.' "
But of course, she has. She blames Shari for innocently instigating her latest venture, Eleanor Joseph Confections, which produces homemade chocolate truffles (including sugar-free versions) and wine medallions. It started as a part-time venture in Culver City, Calif., in 2004.
"My daughter has been working for the same entertainment firm in Beverly Hills for 20 years. Robert Goulet was appearing in South Pacific," Joseph says, "and an agent presented Shari with a pair of house seats." Joseph thanked the agent with a box of homemade truffles. His response: Does she sell them?
"That might not be a bad idea for when I retire," reflected Joseph, who is now 72. Despite her previous bad experience, she wasn't content to wait until retirement. Instead, she rented space at two separate confectionaries on a part-time basis for several years, until each one was sold. After that, her law offices used the truffles as corporate and holiday gifts until February 2009, when she "retired," moved to Phoenix and started Eleanor Joseph Confections as a full-time endeavor.
Joseph admits she moved to Phoenix on impulse, but she doesn't regret her uncharacteristic decision. "I was coming out every two months to see my great nephew," says Joseph, who doesn't have any grandchildren. "And I have a cousin who lives in Milwaukee with her husband, but they have a daughter and granddaughter who live here (in Phoenix), so they come out every winter to warm up."
Her cousin and nephew were driving Joseph to the airport on Feb. 24, 2008, when her nephew decided to stop at a new development nearby. Joseph said she only had to take two steps into the model home to know she wanted to buy the house. "I looked at the vaulted ceiling. I looked at the fabulous kitchen with the humongous island. I said, 'I want it.' I've never done anything like that in my life."
Joseph never carries a checkbook, but she had a doctor's appointment the next day, so she had a blank check with her, intended for her co-pay. "I asked how much money she wanted, and I wrote the check," Joseph says.
Born in Canada, Joseph lived in Los Angeles for 61 years and says she doesn't miss it. "I've met and made more friends in Arizona in the year I've been here than all the years in LA," she says.
Joseph credits ther local BNI chapter for much of her success to date in Arizona. "They helped me build the business. They referred me to a lot of different clients." Her chocolates are sold at several Scottsdale retail stores and wineries, and she can be found at the farmer's market on Saturdays from October through May. She also sells the confections online and, Joseph says, "We can ship all over the world."
Her biggest success to date is Whole Foods. "My nephew made the connections for me, and it took a year to get in," she says. She uses a co-packer to supply Whole Foods--"a co-packer uses your recipe and puts your name on it" Joseph explains--because Whole Foods only sells products prepared in a commercial facility.
Joseph says one thing she learned from her Heavenly Desserts debacle is not to build her own kitchen or open her own store. "As we grow--and I know we will--I'll rent a kitchen," she says. "I won't put one together. It's too expensive, and there's too much liability."
One BNI contact introduced her to a CEO who helps people make connections. "He asked me, 'What do you see for your company?' I said, 'I see building it to an outrageous amount, and having the big boys give me an even more outrageous amount for it. And then I'm going to enjoy my life.' He said, 'That's the answer I was looking for.' " She's now working with several people who are helping "with everything," she says. "Business plan, venture capitalists and connections to get me out there."
Her truffles come in raspberry, apricot, crème de menthe, champagne and other flavors, including aphrodisiac (cinnamon and chipotle). Joseph says she's also experimenting with herb-flavored truffles. Wine medallions are thin "coins" that range from 34 percent cacao to 66 percent cacao. The darker the wine, the higher the cacao content.
In addition to making her chocolates, Joseph teaches an adult "chocolate and wine affair" at Su Vino Winery twice a month. "I make the batter, people get to scoop it, roll it, dip it and decorate it. And then the winemaker explains to them about the wines, and then we pair them with the chocolate," she says.
"If it's a good pairing, they will absolutely enhance one another. If it's not a good pairing, neither one will taste very good."
Joseph also does tastings at stores that carry her chocolates.
She says she's having a wonderful time growing her business, but Joseph warns would-be entrepreneurs that getting a startup off the ground takes a lot of money--and a lot of energy. "I'm working harder now than when I had a job," she says.
Here are Joseph's additional tips for would-be entrepreneurs:
- Know what your market is. "Do your homework. Lots of times people will say, 'You've got this wonderful recipe. You should do something with it.' Wanting to do something and knowing what's involved is something different." Find out exactly where and who your market is. It's a lot easier now because of the internet. Find out all the things you need to know, including whether you can get the ingredients or whatever you need at a good price.
- Be sure you figure everything into your price. You generally have to figure in price for a distributor and broker, and figure in what percentage you want--and sometimes, by the time you're through, it's too expensive.
- Sell to the masses, not the "classes." Although Joseph's market is upscale, she acknowledges that you'll likely make more money if you have an item you can sell for less to the masses, "because there's more mass than there is class."
- Join a networking group, such as BNI.
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