There was an explosion of excitement in Heather Dame’s Facebook video as she shared news she was opening a brick-and-mortar location for Lucky Lemon Bakery in Kokomo a bit earlier than expected after passing the health inspection. Backdropped by bright lemons on a white wall, Dame seemed just as bewildered the moment had arrived as she was eager to tell her customers the good news. Not that there was ever any doubt that her business, now located at 3015 S. LaFountain St., would pass the inspection — she’s not a rookie. But the fact that her dream had reached its next stage — a new building with sit-in dining — had the entrepreneur holding back tears of joy.
Heather Dame, owner of Lucky Lemon Bakery, holds an imitation chicken sandwich. The vegan bakery opened at a new location last week.
“I got to get cooking,” she told her customers. “I love and appreciate you all, and I can’t wait to see you Saturday.” It was a dream that began from her home, carried over to the Kokomo Farmers Market and blossomed into a small drive-up spot on Markland Avenue. For many, Dame’s dream and pathway to a business are not unfamiliar. Many new business owners are turning to farmers markets or online sources like Etsy to get started. As the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are heading back into the public and shopping in stores. According to a study by Zippia, a job recruiting website, 94% of customers were heading back to physical stores in 2022. In store spending is increasing 8% year-over-year as of March 2022, compared to 5% at the beginning of 2021.
Owner Brett Manning poses inside The Lantern in Logansport.
Having a physical location also has its benefits when it comes to consumer experience. A 2018 study by the National Retail Federation showed 79% of consumers said experiences are important in determining which brands and retailers they visit, and how often they travel to shop.
A real job
When Dame decided to go into business, she took her last $500 and bought a tent, a table and ingredients and started baking. “I was already baking vegan cookies and taking them to friends, and they always said ‘you need to figure out a way to sell this,’” she said. “I started looking up the health department guidelines, and I could be a home-based vendor. I already knew how to do this. I’m a classically trained chef. Like, I went to culinary school. I know all my stuff.” In Goshen, Jenny French also took $500 to start her business, Soapy Gnome, 210 S. Main St. She was an employee at Notre Dame and picked up soap as a hobby, saying she had always been a do-it-yourself type of person.
Soapy Gnome owner Jenny French gives a tour during the ribbon cutting at the new Soapy Gnome location Friday at 210 S. Main St. in June 2021.
She was having a lot of fun making soap, but also spending a lot money trying new recipes. Her husband suggested she try selling her work at the local farmers market. She already had experience selling there, having previously sold tomato plants. “My booth was really ugly. My soaps were really ugly. But the timing was right,” French said. There was a lot of learning involved, and adapting to the process — she had to learn how to cut her soap so she could sell it in equal sizes and not lose money — but the Soapy Gnome is now in its 10th year of business.
Local artist Brett Manning, right, describes her style as eerie with an intricate, dreamlike feel and a sense of innocence. She draws inspiration not just from her birthday season but from the mythology and folklore of the United Kingdom, including Celtic and Pagan sources.
As a physical space, Logansport’s The Lantern, 430 E. Broadway suite B, is the newest of the three businesses, having just opened in June of 2021. However, owner Brett Manning had already established herself as an artist and had been running an Etsy business since 2007. The Lantern, and Manning’s art, is influenced by mythical creatures and magical whimsy. The shop sells clothing designed by Manning, jewelry, artwork, tarot card decks and more. Manning began selling her work our of necessity after graduating from college and while still living in Chicago. She worked part time jobs, but when she moved back to Cass County the low cost of living allowed for her to focus more on her art. By 2015, Etsy was her full-time business.
Heather Dame, owner and operator of Lucky Lemon Bakery, makes her pitch to judges at Ivy Tech during The Drive on Sept. 15, 2022.
“I made it possible to have a living,” Manning said. “It’s a full-time job having an online shop. A lot of people have this misconception that it is going to be so easy selling my things online and it’s just going to start selling and I’m going to make money. That is not how it works at all. It is a real job and a real shop.”
Physical space
When Dame opened Lucky Lemon, it was important to her to do so without accruing any debt. She knew the odds of a loan to fund a vegan bakery in Kokomo were slim to none to begin with. In September 2021, she participated in The Drive, a business pitch competition similar to “Shark Tank” for Kokomo entrepreneurs. She walked away the winner with an award of $10,000, and she used the money to invest in her new shop space. “I will be able to better serve Kokomo, and people will be able to come in and sit down and relax and enjoy themselves, and that is really important to me,” she said. Soapy Gnome opened up in a tiny store, French recalled, saying it was a great opportunity to test the market without spending too much money. Today, the business has 4,000 square feet of retail and manufacturing space. While soap is still a centerpiece for the business, they also sell other beauty products, socks, stationary and products created by other entrepreneur artisans. “It was not a dream of mine to open a brick and mortar business,” French said. “When I first opened 10 years ago, rent was pretty cheap so I got this really inexpensive place to test the waters, and that worked out really well for me. Our first shop, we were only open three days a week, but I didn’t have employees. It was just me making soap at home a couple of days a week and then staffing the store a couple of days a week. We just kind slowly eased our way into it.” French said for those looking to start or grow a business, a storefront is not the end all be all. “There are a lot of different ways you can have a profitable business without having to be tied down to a store front,” she said. “I’ve worked every Christmas Eve for the last 10 years. It’s not like you can expect your employees to give up everything and work your holidays.” Manning said opening a physical shop was the next obvious step for her business. She had plenty of time to prepare. The space she would move into was being renovated, which allowed her a full year to prepare and stock up on items before The Lantern officially opened. She did a successful trial run as a pop-up shop during the 2021 holiday season as well. She worked on her own art and reached out to friends, many who were also selling their work on Etsy.
Soapy Gnome owner Jenny Frech in her store, the Soapy Gnome, in Goshen.
“Hey, art friend. I’m actually opening up a physical shop. Do you want to do whole sale?” she said. “I already had these relationships built.”
Collaboration vs. competition
“The great thing I learned from the farmers market is that collaboration is so much better than competition,” said Dame. “When you have a robust farmers market with a good variety of vendors, then everyone is working together to attract customers; it’s better for everyone.” It’s a thought shared by all three entrepreneurs. French said it was hard to get her mind around someone being a competitor just because they were selling a similar product. “You can coexist with a similar business if you know who you are as a business and you have your items priced right,” she said. Dame said a healthy mindset of collaboration is important, especially for a business that is focused in the realm of farmers markers. “So if this one person is coming to get my baked goods, they may also want to get produce at another farmers market stand or they will want to pick up some crafts from this other vendor,” she said. “We are all working together to make all of our businesses thrive to create something good for the community.”
Learning experience
Dame’s journey began in 2015, and her vision for the future is big. A new sit-down restaurant is just a new step. She still takes part in farmers markets and she wants to expand outside of Kokomo. But it’s important to her that the city remains Lucky Lemon’s home. “My biggest focus is I want to be able to serve Kokomo,” she said. “There are not a lot of vegan options, and that is important to me, that I am serving my community. This is where I am raising my kids. This is where I will have a home. A lot of people are like ‘you can sell this stuff so much better in Indianapolis’ or Carmel or Fishers and I am like ‘yeah, but I live in Kokomo. I want to support my community.’ That’s been very important to me, that I am able to provide something for Kokomo and not just going ‘oh, I have to leave Kokomo because there are other opportunities somewhere else.’ I want to make my community a better place.” Dame said those who want to follow a similar path should not expect perfection on day one. “You are going to be learning as you grow, and that is way more important than waiting to start until you feel like everything is going to be perfect,” she said. One challenge that comes with farmers markets is the limited time they are open during a year and the threat of bad weather. A canceled weekend because of storms or high wind and suddenly a seller has no money going into the new week. But markets do allow for experimentation and growth, she said. They provide time for an entrepreneur to refine their business and understand what customers want. Dame said there had been plenty of times when she thought she knew what her customers wanted only to see her idea flop. French is an advocate for self-education and encourages entrepreneurs to learn any way they can, be it Facebook groups, podcasts or taking classes. “There’s all kinds of jewelry groups on line, all kinds of e-commerce groups online,” she said. “It’s really important to invest in yourself. I’ve invested in business coaches along the way. I’ve taken online branding classes and go to workshops and trade shows. It’s money well spent, the education side.” And be very cautious when naming a business, French said. “When people are naming things it’s very important to make sure that you can name it, that you get your name trademarked as soon as you can and make sure you aren’t infringing on any trademarks,” she warned. “Someone can come along and say ‘I can name it Soapy Gnome Soap Company’ and I’m OK but you aren’t. A lot of people won’t do the proper research on naming, and then they have to go back and rename later, which is really hard to do.” Manning said combining both Etsy and physical retail shop has been perfect for her. While she did start selling her art out of necessity, she said the best way to get going with a business is to jump in. “This is so cliché but you just have to do it,” she said. “As uncomfortable as it is, it’s all about building relationships and meeting people. And you can’t be afraid. Put your art out there. Otherwise, nobody will see it. People ask me that a lot and I just have the same answer: Go forth and put yourself out there.” Dame also said to take advantage of local resources like the chamber of commerce and other business owners who might become friends and allies. “Start small. Start somewhere,” she said. “Again, you don’t have to start perfect. That’s really important. If you are going to wait until everything is perfect and you have all of the pieces in place to start your business you will never get started. You have to just start somewhere. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Just try not to do it with too many zeros behind it.”
There was an explosion of excitement in Heather Dame’s Facebook video as she shared news she was opening a brick-and-mortar location for Lucky Lemon Bakery in Kokomo a bit earlier than expected after passing the health inspection.
Backdropped by bright lemons on a white wall, Dame seemed just as bewildered the moment had arrived as she was eager to tell her customers the good news.
Not that there was ever any doubt that her business, now located at 3015 S. LaFountain St., would pass the inspection — she’s not a rookie. But the fact that her dream had reached its next stage — a new building with sit-in dining — had the entrepreneur holding back tears of joy.
Heather Dame, owner of Lucky Lemon Bakery, holds an imitation chicken sandwich. The vegan bakery opened at a new location last week.
“I got to get cooking,” she told her customers. “I love and appreciate you all, and I can’t wait to see you Saturday.”
It was a dream that began from her home, carried over to the Kokomo Farmers Market and blossomed into a small drive-up spot on Markland Avenue.
For many, Dame’s dream and pathway to a business are not unfamiliar. Many new business owners are turning to farmers markets or online sources like Etsy to get started.
As the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are heading back into the public and shopping in stores. According to a study by Zippia, a job recruiting website, 94% of customers were heading back to physical stores in 2022. In store spending is increasing 8% year-over-year as of March 2022, compared to 5% at the beginning of 2021.
Owner Brett Manning poses inside The Lantern in Logansport.
Having a physical location also has its benefits when it comes to consumer experience. A 2018 study by the National Retail Federation showed 79% of consumers said experiences are important in determining which brands and retailers they visit, and how often they travel to shop.
A real job
When Dame decided to go into business, she took her last $500 and bought a tent, a table and ingredients and started baking.
“I was already baking vegan cookies and taking them to friends, and they always said ‘you need to figure out a way to sell this,’” she said. “I started looking up the health department guidelines, and I could be a home-based vendor. I already knew how to do this. I’m a classically trained chef. Like, I went to culinary school. I know all my stuff.”
In Goshen, Jenny French also took $500 to start her business, Soapy Gnome, 210 S. Main St. She was an employee at Notre Dame and picked up soap as a hobby, saying she had always been a do-it-yourself type of person.
Soapy Gnome owner Jenny French gives a tour during the ribbon cutting at the new Soapy Gnome location Friday at 210 S. Main St. in June 2021.
She was having a lot of fun making soap, but also spending a lot money trying new recipes.
Her husband suggested she try selling her work at the local farmers market. She already had experience selling there, having previously sold tomato plants.
“My booth was really ugly. My soaps were really ugly. But the timing was right,” French said.
There was a lot of learning involved, and adapting to the process — she had to learn how to cut her soap so she could sell it in equal sizes and not lose money — but the Soapy Gnome is now in its 10th year of business.
Local artist Brett Manning, right, describes her style as eerie with an intricate, dreamlike feel and a sense of innocence. She draws inspiration not just from her birthday season but from the mythology and folklore of the United Kingdom, including Celtic and Pagan sources.
As a physical space, Logansport’s The Lantern, 430 E. Broadway suite B, is the newest of the three businesses, having just opened in June of 2021. However, owner Brett Manning had already established herself as an artist and had been running an Etsy business since 2007.
The Lantern, and Manning’s art, is influenced by mythical creatures and magical whimsy. The shop sells clothing designed by Manning, jewelry, artwork, tarot card decks and more.
Manning began selling her work our of necessity after graduating from college and while still living in Chicago. She worked part time jobs, but when she moved back to Cass County the low cost of living allowed for her to focus more on her art. By 2015, Etsy was her full-time business.
Heather Dame, owner and operator of Lucky Lemon Bakery, makes her pitch to judges at Ivy Tech during The Drive on Sept. 15, 2022.
“I made it possible to have a living,” Manning said. “It’s a full-time job having an online shop. A lot of people have this misconception that it is going to be so easy selling my things online and it’s just going to start selling and I’m going to make money. That is not how it works at all. It is a real job and a real shop.”
Physical space
When Dame opened Lucky Lemon, it was important to her to do so without accruing any debt.
She knew the odds of a loan to fund a vegan bakery in Kokomo were slim to none to begin with.
In September 2021, she participated in The Drive, a business pitch competition similar to “Shark Tank” for Kokomo entrepreneurs.
She walked away the winner with an award of $10,000, and she used the money to invest in her new shop space.
“I will be able to better serve Kokomo, and people will be able to come in and sit down and relax and enjoy themselves, and that is really important to me,” she said.
Soapy Gnome opened up in a tiny store, French recalled, saying it was a great opportunity to test the market without spending too much money.
Today, the business has 4,000 square feet of retail and manufacturing space. While soap is still a centerpiece for the business, they also sell other beauty products, socks, stationary and products created by other entrepreneur artisans.
“It was not a dream of mine to open a brick and mortar business,” French said. “When I first opened 10 years ago, rent was pretty cheap so I got this really inexpensive place to test the waters, and that worked out really well for me. Our first shop, we were only open three days a week, but I didn’t have employees. It was just me making soap at home a couple of days a week and then staffing the store a couple of days a week. We just kind slowly eased our way into it.”
French said for those looking to start or grow a business, a storefront is not the end all be all.
“There are a lot of different ways you can have a profitable business without having to be tied down to a store front,” she said. “I’ve worked every Christmas Eve for the last 10 years. It’s not like you can expect your employees to give up everything and work your holidays.”
Manning said opening a physical shop was the next obvious step for her business.
She had plenty of time to prepare. The space she would move into was being renovated, which allowed her a full year to prepare and stock up on items before The Lantern officially opened. She did a successful trial run as a pop-up shop during the 2021 holiday season as well.
She worked on her own art and reached out to friends, many who were also selling their work on Etsy.
Soapy Gnome owner Jenny Frech in her store, the Soapy Gnome, in Goshen.
“Hey, art friend. I’m actually opening up a physical shop. Do you want to do whole sale?” she said. “I already had these relationships built.”
Collaboration vs. competition
“The great thing I learned from the farmers market is that collaboration is so much better than competition,” said Dame. “When you have a robust farmers market with a good variety of vendors, then everyone is working together to attract customers; it’s better for everyone.”
It’s a thought shared by all three entrepreneurs.
French said it was hard to get her mind around someone being a competitor just because they were selling a similar product.
“You can coexist with a similar business if you know who you are as a business and you have your items priced right,” she said.
Dame said a healthy mindset of collaboration is important, especially for a business that is focused in the realm of farmers markers.
“So if this one person is coming to get my baked goods, they may also want to get produce at another farmers market stand or they will want to pick up some crafts from this other vendor,” she said. “We are all working together to make all of our businesses thrive to create something good for the community.”
Learning experience
Dame’s journey began in 2015, and her vision for the future is big. A new sit-down restaurant is just a new step. She still takes part in farmers markets and she wants to expand outside of Kokomo. But it’s important to her that the city remains Lucky Lemon’s home.
“My biggest focus is I want to be able to serve Kokomo,” she said. “There are not a lot of vegan options, and that is important to me, that I am serving my community. This is where I am raising my kids. This is where I will have a home. A lot of people are like ‘you can sell this stuff so much better in Indianapolis’ or Carmel or Fishers and I am like ‘yeah, but I live in Kokomo. I want to support my community.’ That’s been very important to me, that I am able to provide something for Kokomo and not just going ‘oh, I have to leave Kokomo because there are other opportunities somewhere else.’ I want to make my community a better place.”
Dame said those who want to follow a similar path should not expect perfection on day one.
“You are going to be learning as you grow, and that is way more important than waiting to start until you feel like everything is going to be perfect,” she said.
One challenge that comes with farmers markets is the limited time they are open during a year and the threat of bad weather. A canceled weekend because of storms or high wind and suddenly a seller has no money going into the new week.
But markets do allow for experimentation and growth, she said. They provide time for an entrepreneur to refine their business and understand what customers want.
Dame said there had been plenty of times when she thought she knew what her customers wanted only to see her idea flop.
French is an advocate for self-education and encourages entrepreneurs to learn any way they can, be it Facebook groups, podcasts or taking classes.
“There’s all kinds of jewelry groups on line, all kinds of e-commerce groups online,” she said. “It’s really important to invest in yourself. I’ve invested in business coaches along the way. I’ve taken online branding classes and go to workshops and trade shows. It’s money well spent, the education side.”
And be very cautious when naming a business, French said.
“When people are naming things it’s very important to make sure that you can name it, that you get your name trademarked as soon as you can and make sure you aren’t infringing on any trademarks,” she warned. “Someone can come along and say ‘I can name it Soapy Gnome Soap Company’ and I’m OK but you aren’t. A lot of people won’t do the proper research on naming, and then they have to go back and rename later, which is really hard to do.”
Manning said combining both Etsy and physical retail shop has been perfect for her. While she did start selling her art out of necessity, she said the best way to get going with a business is to jump in.
“This is so cliché but you just have to do it,” she said. “As uncomfortable as it is, it’s all about building relationships and meeting people. And you can’t be afraid. Put your art out there. Otherwise, nobody will see it. People ask me that a lot and I just have the same answer: Go forth and put yourself out there.”
Dame also said to take advantage of local resources like the chamber of commerce and other business owners who might become friends and allies.
“Start small. Start somewhere,” she said. “Again, you don’t have to start perfect. That’s really important. If you are going to wait until everything is perfect and you have all of the pieces in place to start your business you will never get started. You have to just start somewhere. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Just try not to do it with too many zeros behind it.”
