In Lights

A few months ago my brother-in-law, Kyle, was in town for business. During a day of sightseeing, I decided to stop at a small cafe near our house for lunch. Just as I was about to open the front door, I whispered, "I have only been here once before", clarifying that I thought the food was good, but couldn't guarantee anything. As soon as I swung the door open, the owner greeted me. "Camille!" he exclaimed. Kyle looked at me, puzzled. I was reminded of the effect that six kids has in New England. I remembered my conversation with this man a couple of months before. He had never even seen my family of eight, but just hearing about them burned a place for me in his memory, apparently. While waiting for my chicken curry sandwich, I began asking him about his desserts. "Do you make them yourself?" I asked. "No, they are brought in" I was told. "I have always wanted to open up a little cafe. I love to cook," I mentioned. Our conversation about biscotti, mint bars and tarts went on. After lunch I gathered up the kids and was heading out the door. As I was leaving, the man came over and suggested that I bring in some of my baked goods and see how they sell. Somehow I blurted out, "Oh, people love my cookies!" It was too late to carefully place those uncharacteristically bold words back in my mouth. I wondered where they had come from, but then realized that I had just made my first sales pitch.

Later in the day I mentioned my conversation to the kids while driving in the car.

"Well are you going to do it?" Jonathan asked

"You should call it 'Camille's Pastries'!" Emilie exclaimed but then added, "No no! Then you would have to make eclairs and you don't know how to do that!"

"How about 'Ebert's Bakery'" Annelise suggested.

"But then we would all have to help!" someone resisted.

"What about just 'Camille's'" Jonathan said.

"Camille's! In lights! I like it!" Sophia shouted from the backseat.

With the kids on board and Steve supportive, I decided to drop off a few different kinds of cookies, just to see what happened. I took in chocolate white chocolate chunk and gingersnap cookies and lemon bars. Bryan, the owner called the next day and said that all of my cookies had sold. He wanted to know what else I could bring in. I met with him later in the week and gave him some poppy seed bread as well as a list of sale items. He called me on my way home. He had just had a slice of my bread and was calling to say that we simply had to do business!

June was my trial month, I told Bryan. If my baking works for him and if it works for me, I will come up with a name and a logo, set up an LLC then continue baking when I return in September.

I am still defining what I am doing, how it will work, why I am doing it and what the name of my baking company will be. Any suggestions?