“It tastes like Christmas,” the man said after trying a sample. Christmas indeed.

A better compliment could not have been given. The very handmade toffee that the man spoke of is our family recipe. Up until recently, it was only given to friends, family and coworkers during the holidays. But this spring we made a business decision to begin selling our handmade toffee at the Enid Farmers’ Market and manufacture it at local community kitchen.

Enid has shown tremendous support for our handmade toffees, and the Enid Farmers’ Market has been the perfect start for The Sweet Shack. Because of our participation there, we have a better understanding of consumer behavior and we are making headway on our brand awareness efforts. You can’t put a price tag on that.

We want to deliver a little taste of the holidays all across the country all year long, and the James W. Strate Center for Business Development is helping us to realize that dream. Enid is incredibly fortunate to have such a first class facility in which business owners can grow and cultivate their company.

If you are not familar with business development centers, or business incubators, they nurture young firms, helping them to survive and grow during the start-up period when they are the most vulnerable. Incubators provide hands-on management assistance, access to financing and exposure to critical or technical support services. The National Business Incubator’s study shows that 80% of new businesses fail within the first five years, but those businesses who are affiliated with an incubator have an 87% survival rate. This figure is four times the national average.

The center provides The Sweet Shack with all of the infrastructure needed to support the business. A side from a new commercial kitchen facility where The Sweet Shack will manufacture its handmade toffee, the center also provides ongoing small business development support for everything from marketing to taxes and insurance.

I’ve been in marketing and public relations for over 10 years, hopes to take the knowledge and skill that she has gained over the years and apply it to The Sweet Shack.
“This is a great challenge for me,” she said. “Every marketing decision I make, no matter how small, has the potential to have a profound impact on The Sweet Shack. That is both exciting and frightening. I have seen marketing best practices go through an amazing transformation, and believe in my heart of hearts that we can’t stop at newspapers and radio. We have to embrace the new social media along with all that is traditional, and that makes for a wonderful adventure.”
The Sweet Shack is already selling its handmade toffee online at http://thesweetshack.com and is on Twitter and Facebook. Warnock is getting geared up to start writing a weekly blog as well. It will not be about handmade toffee, she said, but rather the life of a small business owner meeting the many demands and challenges that come with managing a family and a company.

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The ground moved. The heavens parted, and I heard angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus in four part harmony.

Okay so maybe it is a slight exaggeration to say that our handmade toffees send you into a life changing spiritual experience. But they are heavenly, and we have been told they taste like Christmas. Christmas indeed.

Imagine for a moment being transported to a more simple place and time, when you loaded up in your family’s station wagon and headed to grandma’s house for the holiday. The excitement is building as you pass through small town after small town dreaming of what might be awaiting you under the tree. A gentle snow begins to fall and sticks to the bare trees lining the roads. “A white Christmas,” you say to yourself. You’ve waited all year for this.

“How much further is it?” you ask your father. He looks at you through the rearview mirror, a little perturbed because you’ve asked that same question 11 times now. Still a smile spreads across his face, because he is just as excited as you are. Nobody cooks a succulent turkey quite like his mom. He needs five napkins just to wipe up the juices that drip off the drumsticks, which she always saves for him. Best of all, this is the only time of the year that he gets to have that wonderful handmade pecan toffee that she makes.

It’s the kind nobody else can make quite right. His momma’s handmade  toffee never tastes store bought. In fact she’d be offended if anyone mentioned it as such.  Hers is softer, richer, and more buttery. The sweet goodness is perfectly blended so that even the most discriminating of palettes will be impressed. Then the car comes to a screeching halt…

He doesn’t have to wait for Christmas anymore. With its three signature handmade toffees, Pecan Crunch, Almond Delight, and Walnut Wonder, The Sweet Shack can deliver Christmas to doorsteps all over the world all year long.


The Sweet Shack, L.L.C. is UpFront

Tania Warnock

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