Two weeks ago I was honored as the 2010 recipient of the Young Woman of Achievement Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit from WIN. I’d like to thank Vaishalee Yeldandi, the YWA Chair, for her vote of confidence in this nomination.

The Women’s Information Network (WIN) is Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women. WIN encourages women to make moves and change the world. As a member of this organization I am always impressed by how many women from all walks of life are part of this network.  These amazing women are policy makers, organizers, lawyers, fundraisers, and “movers and shakers,” all with the common goal of building a network of women who know that we can achieve whatever we set our minds to. I think of WIN as a place where we pool our resources and gain access to the places where women need to be more present in politics, on the hill and at the front of change.  It is networks such as this one that have encouraged and supported our new business every step of the way.

This is an amazing time in my life and in the life of our new business. This award illustrates some of the generous recognition and ongoing support that our peers, friends and family are constantly providing.  It is the support of our networks that make it possible for budding entrepreneurs like us to feel confident, encouraged and emboldened.

I did not always consider myself an entrepreneur. I am an organizer who had a good idea. Causten and I saw a way to pair our passion with our values, and support good work with good food. We had the right attitude, a good spirit and the confidence to take a chance.

What is Entrepreneurial Spirit? It’s realizing the joys of being your own boss, it’s thinking creatively, seeing your vision through and loving what you do. It’s the understanding that hard work and long hours are paired with accountability and daily challenges. As the great Journey once sang “Don’t Stop Believing”.

The award for Entrepreneurial Spirit represents the hardest parts of owning your own business, which are believing in yourself and being able taking the first step.  This award says to me, and more importantly to others, that it is ok to be ambitious, to be bold, and to act on a good idea knowing that you can achieve it.  Receiving this award celebrates more than my spirit; it celebrates the willingness of young people, the strength of women, and the power of progressives to envision what they want and figure out how to get it.

This award proves that anything is possible. As a young, progressive, queer woman who now identifies as an entrepreneur to boot, I am constantly reminded of how hard it can be to go out on a limb and take chances. I want to encourage anyone to lead from your heart and follow your dreams. Think about what you want to do, how you want to make an impact and then tell someone about it. As we encourage each other we’ll find strength in knowing that we’re all in this together.

I want to thank WIN for this honor and congratulate my fellow WINners on their many achievements. Get it, girls!

I wouldn’t be here if it were for my partner Causten who helps me be the best I can everyday. Thanks buddy!

We’d like to thank you all for turning to us for your holiday season treats. We hope that every order found its way safely to a table near you. Please keep us in mind as we start a birthday program, cookie-of-the-month club and more.

So… how many orders was that exactly? Glad you asked! I decided to break it down by item. Please keep in mind that these sweet sugary treats were made to order within a 2-3 week period:

13 dozen cookies, 11 dozen shortbread cookies, 9 dozen rugelach, 4 dozen revolution velvet cupcakes, 3 batches of peppermint bark, 2 dozen truffles, 2 pounds of fudge, and multiple batches of Renee’s candy.

Our kitchen runs like a well choreographed ballet.

Our adventure has shown us many things, but there are 3 major themes we’d like to share with you: our learnings, our rewards, and the support we’ve been given from friends, family and community.

The support and interest from our friends and community has been incredible. Our friends have offered us their advice and talents from CSS codes and blogs to finances and accountants, PR and marketing ideas to photos, blog postings and more. All of the offerings and help have really shown us that with in our community there is a wealth of skill and knowledge to be shared.

We’re learning to ask for and accept help. Every challenge and lesson learned we now see as an opportunity to reach out to our people. We’re building new and deepening old reciprocal relationships of skill, knowledge and love. We feel good when we are able to help others, especiallya friends, so why should we hesitate to think that others would want to help us to?  Is this what it means to build community? Yes, for us this has really bolstered and expanded our community. It really is true that we have all the tools that we need among us.

Photo by Emily Goodstein

We were also featured in a documentary and article, “Getting Creative in the Great Recession” on Campus Progress’s website. We had a blast with the author of the piece, Julie Turkiwitz. She came to us because she was doing a piece on the effects of the recession on our generation and the creative things people are doing because of it. She affirmed that our story wasn’t unique but that Grassroots Gourmet was a unique response. Julie accompanied us on a Restaurant Depot shopping excursion, expertly interviewed us, and filmed us baking. Talking with Julie allowed us the opportunity to articulate the connections between Grassroots Gourmet, the recession and our politics. We are incredibly grateful to Julie for sharing our story as it connects to the bigger picture. She is a talented journalist that works fluidly through writing, film and photography. Check out the piece on Campus Progress’s site and her website.

Starting a small business for the first time comes with a mix of predictable and unpredictable challenges. What I mean to say is we do our best to plan and prepare but sometimes we are flat out wrong or surprised by what we didn’t know we didn’t know.

There’s a moment in the “Getting Creative in the Great Recession” film where we are caught off guard by the total of a supplies run, it was almost three times what we had estimated. Running a small business has come with a steep but rewarding learning curve. With every success and mistake there is room to learn and grow. We are finding our work with Grassroots Gourmet to be challenging and incredibly rewarding. Leading us to our final thought for this post.

This is the best job we have ever had. Really, we’re not just saying that. Sara talks about how we have had the freedom to take on and learn the new skills that suit our talents and interests most. This is certainly evident in how she has taken to managing and improving our website and 2.0 happenings and I have pursued the menu development and finances. We are both pleasantly surprised by how there is a constant demand for us to grow and develop as we build Grassroots Gourmet. It’s true to say that we are becoming the people we envision ourselves to be as we build the business of our dreams.

Our theme song has become “Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey. We’re holding on to this feeling. We’re singing and growing in the kitchen. Thanks to all those who believe in us and this journey.

Stay tuned for posts such as: a holiday baking wrap-up, expanding the blog roll, and more….

“Oh, so exciting!”

We applied for our official cards and then began our enchanted journey where we discovered  so many great things.

“You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights!”

-The Incomparable Dr. Seuss

“I like the red one,” we said in unison.

“I picked a small, I swear.”

“We roamed the isles looking up and down,
We were so happy there’s no way we could frown.
We found cake boxes, pans and ingredients galore,
Huge bags of flour, sugar and more!”

But seriously, this place is the best! We will be able to stock our kitchen, buy our packaging supplies, and even get utensils all in one place. They have really thought of everything at Restaurant Depot. It’s overwhelming in a good way and will make our lives easier for sure.

As if all of that wasn’t good enough….there is a Wawa down the street. I know Causten doesn’t yet understand the beauty of a hoagie….but he will soon.  Stay tuned for more adventure in Restaurant Depot Land!

“Brown sugar, white sugar and flour – oh my!”

That’s right folks, we got legit! We filed paperwork with the District of Columbia Office of Regulatory Affairs and the Tax Office. After many signatures and a few payments I, Sara Fatell became the owner of a small business with partner and President Causten Wollerman. We even took on pro-bono (or “Pro-Bonzo”) legal counsel. It was a very exciting morning, to say the least.

We still have a lot to do: write our business plan, get other certificates, licenses and papers, and stock up our kitchen. But we are hopeful that this great start is very telling of our future. The plan:  Deliver food that makes a difference in your work and life!

Look for our soft launch limited menu for Thanksgiving coming soon!

We started by making the cake itself. We chose an unsweetened 3 tier chocolate cake to offset the sweetness of the buttercream frosting. It is both yummy and pretty dense so it’ll hold it’s shape well.

1st step: melting. Now my stove is in the island in my kitchen and it is beautiful and fancy…but also a little broken. It clicks….incessantly….to the point where you kind of want to rip out your eyeballs. The only way to focus is to crank the iPod…so we did.  While Causten melted the chocolate square and butter I got busy with the dry ingredients. We baked the cakes in 3 round pans and called it a night.

Our adventure continued the next day with truffle filling and vanilla buttercream. We took turns trying our hand at icing, spreading, and generally loving on this cake. Decisions, Decisions….. how to decorate. We chose a red feathered heart in the middle of this tall tower of tasty and it looked great! The cake was done just in time.

Now the delivery part was kind of hard. We chose to put the cake on a lazy-susan board which meant it was trying to turn and slide in the car. And it was raining. And there was traffic from the Dupont High Heel Race. But… it was all worth it- everyone loved the cake!

Thank you to Becky for having such great friends who also double as our targeted market! We cannot wait to be up and running and serving those folks delicious treats!