Smart Steps

Women business leaders and entrepreneurs from various industries share their tips and advice in a "quick read format" on a variety topics.

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Topic: Starting a Home-Based Business

Halfsies Cookie Co. Website

Heather Muir Maffei brings more than 15 years of beauty know-how to readers at Real Simple and Health magazines as beauty director. She has worked at Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Allure, Fitness Magazine, and more.

Heather launched Halfsies Cookie Co. with her husband, Dave, from their Hudson Valley, NY basement in 2018. While her husband does the heavy lifting (including bulk ingredients, like 500 pound bags of flour), Heather runs the social media aspect of things.

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What happens when a school principal and a magazine beauty director decide to start an in-home, Internet-based cookie-baking company? You get Halfsies Cookie Co. which sells limited-edition flavors at regular drop times that have people setting an alarm on their watch at work, so they won’t miss the next flavor drop.

“It was a total whim for us,” Heather says. “When Dave gets something in his head, he runs with it. Someone sent us cookies from [a prominent New York] bakery. If I like the cookies, I’ll just buy them again. But he decided to try to make them on his own.”
 
After about 10 months of tinkering to try to find the perfect recipe, they brought a batch of cookies to Heather’s mother’s house for Easter. Heather’s mother thought the cookies were too big and cut them all in half before plating them. The guests devoured them, Heather says, and the name Halfsies was born. And, she noticed, “We realized when people saw they were halves, they were more likely to take two or three and try different flavors.
 
They made a website and Instagram account and hit on the idea of selling via a drop model, where the cookies are offered at a certain time on a certain day. “We built a commercial kitchen in our basement, created an LLC, and ran with it,” Heather says. “Now we have three bakers who bake for us.” It’s not unusual for 150 packages of cookies to sell out in a minute or two.

Heather’s Smart Steps for Starting a Home-Based Business:

Dos:
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• Do keep it exciting and get inspiration from different places. We have over 200 flavors at this point, and I think that’s something that sets us apart. Our sampler pack is our most popular item, but we’ve branched out and tried cookies with bacon, lemon, coconut, and cookies with fruit. It’s cool to see which ones do well. I want chocolate and peanut butter, but some people want fruit flavors. 
• Do involve your whole family. It’s not a 9-to-5 business, so making it fun becomes an extra resource. Sometimes we involve our kids [both born after the business began] in our videos. It’s a good point of differentiation, and for us, it was all about being different. There are hundreds of cookie companies on the internet. 
• Do use your differences to your advantage. We’re very public about the business, and people are interested in the personality of the brand. It’s the same with lipstick. You can buy a lipstick anywhere, but it’s fun to know the story behind how it was made. 
• Do have all your ducks in a row in terms of permits. Things may not feel as official because they’re in your house, but make sure all your legal i’s are dotted and t’s crossed. 
• Do have the correct manpower. For us, because we have such big bags of bulk ingredients, we have to be sure we can carry everything. Also, invest in the equipment that will help you.

Business in the Basement
Photo Courtesy: Halfsies Cookie Co.

Don’ts:

• Don’t forget that in addition to being an internet-based business, you’re also a local business. When it came to branding, we had everything Halfsies: hoodies, hats, the license plate on our car. People in our town will say, “I’ve heard of you.” So don’t forget to put the brand out there in an old-school way. We support our local Little League team and have received a lot of orders that way.  
• Don’t overlook customer service. Dave is so good with that. In the beginning, we got so many emails from people who were disappointed they couldn’t get the cookies. You can’t please everyone, but you can be nice to everyone. Dave gave them a gift code or a discount coupon. Some of them passed them on to friends who became repeat customers.  
• Don’t forget to be flexible. We offer local pickup now. It’s a little adjustment that keeps clients happy.  
• Don’t box people in or think too narrowly when it comes to hiring people to fill roles. Keep an open mind if people don’t seem to fit the mold. Hire people with a good work ethic. It’s more about creating a fun atmosphere.  
• Don’t get too focused on one thing, and don’t get too rigid. Instagram changed its algorithm, for example, and we had to learn to adapt. Also, we just started doing weddings, making favors where the groom picks one flavor half and the bride picks the other. It’s become a cool part of our business.

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The Halfsies
Photo Courtesy: Halfsies Cookie Co.

Halfsies Cookie Co.

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