Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathie Armstrong.
Hi Kathie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have always loved to cook and bake and feed people. Born and raised in Canada on the border of International Falls MN. and I married an American Gentleman In 2001 and my journey of being in business and adding baking to it started then. I first had a bakery in Wayzata for a few years and then road construction killed it. My customers kept calling for my food so I decided to take a few of my best sellers and turn them into good clean mixes that are super easy to make and that are delicious. That was in the fall of 2013 and from there it has grown and grown. My biggest accomplishment is that I partnered with Kowalski’s in the early part of 2014 and they saw the potential in my mixes and added them to their bakery as well as my retail mixes on their shelves. They have literally built my business from the very beginning and I will be forever grateful to them.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have done many different businesses in my lifetime in Canada as well as here in the United States and nothing has brought me success like my food mixes have. Of course, there has been many difficulties along the way but none so great that it wanted to make me stop. It was mostly a learning curve in all of it at each growth part of the journey. I believe in total transparency in life and business and doing the best you can and I have found people to be very gracious and understanding and willing to work with me all along the way and teach me what I needed to know at every turn. My take has been to find people who are smarter than me and start networking with them so you can build a team of strong people who are willing to help each other thru the problems and find the solution for it. There is always always a solution to every problem.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I believe so much in helping others and doing everything possible to help whenever I am able to. My business is a part of me, it isn’t what I do it is who I am so to speak. I have cooked my whole life and love to feed people and make them enjoy the moment of eating something really delicious. It has made me happy to be able to do that. That is what I am doing now. I am creating food mixes that others can use and enjoy and it helps them to make it a little easier for them to do. My job is to help others have better food to eat that does not have all the additives that other mixes have. I have also donated my whole company to my charity of choice cherryave.org when I die so that this company will continue when I am gone and all the profit will go to feed and help poor families in Guatemala. I am building this company to leave to them so what I am building will continue to help for many years after I am gone. Paul Newman’s company was my inspiration in doing this.
So…I am just doing what I do to the best of my ability and I am praying it will help others along the way as well as after I am gone.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
The best advice that I can give is become a part of networking groups that work for you and then find your people…what i mean by that is find the people you gravitate to and then what you do is build real relationships with them and then you help them. The best way to learn and be successful is helping someone else to be successful. There is enough success to go around to all of us, we just need to help others achieve that too and that will rub off on you while you are doing it.
Pricing:
- spend as little money as possible work within your budget
- keep your overhead as low as possible
- when buying products to sell buy as low as you can it is in the purchasing that is critical
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kathiesbakery.com
- Instagram: kathiesbakery
- Facebook: kathiesbakery
