Q: What is Chartreuse Sisters and what is it all about?
A: The company is my sister and I, my sister is the pastry chef and I do all the beverages, communications, and marking, and that’s the team! We have been in business since October 2019 and both came from film and video backgrounds. Both my sister and I attended Grand Valley, during our time there I studied film and video while my sister studied theater. While I was freelancing, I knew I’d also be going from job to job. There was a point when my sister and I were both in a side job at coffee shops. While working there I realized how much I enjoyed making coffee. My sister also found a passion for baking while working in various cafes. So we both were at the same studio for a bit, and we ended up leaving with no set plan of where we would end up next. While in a coffee shop, I talked with my sister about how I love making lattes, but with my past experience working in coffee shops, I knew I wanted the next time to be different. I was striving to push out my personal ideas which I found difficult to do while working under someone else. Then we had the “let’s do it” mindset, which at first felt intimidating and scary, many questions would rush to my head such as, how do you even start, where would we get the money, would people show up, and after they showed up would we make it a place they keep coming back to. This was the first time I felt I was making a choice to fully step outside my zone of what was possible.
Q: What were the first steps of starting your own business?
A: A good thing for anyone to know when trying to start their own business is the first steps are always small. We started small, in a home kitchen baking easier items and creating our own recipes on items we hoped the public would enjoy. The next step was to build a following towards the cafe, we wanted people to know us personally. That is how we began to build our following, from there it grew and we started doing more pop-ups which gave more name recognition. We wanted people to know us personally because the component is us, so for people to be loyal to our business we wanted that relationship between us and them. So that’s kind of how we started and then we just built our following from there got bigger and bigger and we started doing more pop-ups and getting more name recognition.
Q: What do you think was your biggest challenge?
A: The biggest challenge was money. When starting your own business financially you have to be very smart. One thing we had to figure out was how to get funding. Eventually, we were able to secure a loan but before that, we did some crowdfunding, participated in workshops, and also partook in many pitch competitions. Even though we did not win any, we learned a lot which helped us to make a business plan. The experiences taught us things that we hadn’t learned in school because we didn’t go to business school. We had mentors who helped us to solidify our business plan. The biggest challenge was time and money because, for us, the building that we’re in was abandoned for the last 40-50 years. There was nothing in there, no electricity, no water nor heat, but from nothing we pursued and built an entire kitchen. It was intimidating, but because we took that step and risk, we are where we are today, and it was worth it!
Q: What sparked you to make a switch from what you got a degree in and having the mindset to change your plan?
A: Paying attention to how you feel is so important. As you grow older, you are exposed to more experiences and different people. You start to realize what brings you joy and that new opportunities are worth investing in. Knowing that throughout life you may find things that change your path and knowing that it is okay to accept those changes and be open to the risks. In my case I loved foods and drinks, which ties into my passion for travel because I find myself basing trips on researching restaurants and where I’d be eating, that is when it started to fully click that this was a passion I needed to pursue, even if it wasn’t what my major was in.
Q: Did changing your path after receiving your degree bring any fears into the process?
A: Yes, there are always nerves when it comes to doing something that you do not know the outcome of, but it also brings a lot of excitement and fulfillment. It doesn’t mean that you have to leave everything else behind either. Just because your degree is in one area should not be something that holds you back from chasing what you love. It also does not mean that if you do take that step to try something different you can’t be invested in what you once were. I’m still very much a part of the local film community. Just because my passion was redirected doesn’t mean I don’t still love doing film events and staying active in film and video. But at the end of the day, it’s okay to change your mind. Obviously, it’s hard though, because you do feel this pressure sometimes to just stick to this path, but I think for me, I got too tired of doing that when I knew I could be pursuing my new love and by allowing myself to switch it up I found so much more fulfillment.
Q: What makes your business unique
A: Our business is extremely personal, it’s been that way since the beginning. I’ve worked with a lot of businesses, seeing the process of answering the following questions: what is the branding going to be, what do you want to like, what do you want your target audience to be, and how are you going to connect with them? For us when we wanted people to know not just our company we wanted people to know us. We wanted to be a constant part of it, to be goofy, to be serious, and at the end of the day just be ourselves. Being ourselves in our business it helps connect the business with people because people feel they’re a part of your story. Customers come along with the hard parts and the good parts, and that’s what makes us unique.
Q: What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
A: Have someone by your side. I have my sister and we can go through these difficult times and the celebrations together. Having someone you can experience the highs and lows with makes the journey feel a lot less intimidating and a lot more possible! If you can be vulnerable with each other, that’s really important, for us, we are actually sisters so we have a different kind of bond where we can show emotions very openly with one another. Having someone you can let yourself do that with is important to the feelings and success of your business. Knowing it’s okay to say, I’m scared, or I don’t know what I’m doing, or I’m having concerns about whatever’s going on, it makes bumps in the road easier to get through when you can talk it out with someone who is right there with you. It’s also really important to celebrate the small things with each other. Do milestones checks to show how far you have come. Even if they are smaller goals success is a success and little milestones are what make up the large picture in the long run. It’s a good way to keep going because sometimes you can get lost in the big stuff and it’s going to take time and having that mindset will help the process feel successful. I think patience is an important trait to have throughout this process. Patience, and just sticking with it, if it’s worth it to you, you’ll stick with it.
NEU 