Healthy Grains, Wealthy Gains with Tamara Ketchian

Tamara Ketchian lives in Orange, CT and sells gluten-free vegan granola with her cottage food business, Wildwood Granola. Tamara started her granola business in 2021 after years of making healthier granola for her family. After being a long-time stay-at-home mom, she was finally ready to do something for herself. In the past two and a half years, her business has grown substantially and she recently won a pitch competition where she received a $10k business grant to help grow her business! She has now expanded into a commercial kitchen so that she can sell in stores, ship nationwide, and keep pursuing her long-time dream of building a successful food business. What You’ll Learn How Tamara went from a stay-at-home mom to successful entrepreneurWhy most granola is actually unhealthy for youHow to get a cottage food license in ConnecticutThe mindset you need to have as an entrepreneurThe challenge with finding work-life balance as an entrepreneurWhy you shouldn’t try to cater your products to everyoneAn alternate strategy to raising pricesWhy recurring customers are the lifeblood of a businessHow to streamline the packaging processWhere to get ingredients and packaging for granolaWhat you need to consider when labeling productsWhy a commercial kitchen can be “life changing”How to adapt recipes to a commercial kitchenWhat you need to consider when finding a commercial kitchenResources for learning how to expand into wholesaleHow to win a pitch competition Resources Wildwood Granola website (Facebook | Instagram) Women’s Business Development Council Connecticut Small Business Administration  Recommended Stores: Aurora (nuts and seeds)Nuts (dried fruit)WebstaurantStore (coconut oil & Bob’s Red Mill)Amazon (craft paper bags) Connecticut Cottage Food Law Free Tutorial: How To Build a Great Website In 1 Hour