Business: Half Baked Goodness

Address: 2863 95th St., Naperville

Phone/website: 630-432-0446, www.halfbakedgoodness.com

Owner: Tami Reid, 51, of Naperville

Years in business: Opened in December

What does your business do? “We bake cookies. All of our cookies are made from scratch here in the store. The difference between us and big cookie chains who shall remain nameless is they get mixes they add ingredients to. I have recipes,” Reid said.

What’s the background? “In 2019, a friend of mine in Texas, Stephanie Ferreira, started a cookie delivery business out of her house. She called it Half Baked Goodness. … In 2020 when the world shut down, her business exploded because it was all delivery based. She hired three of my four kids to work for her. Then, she opened up her first storefront. There are four stores now in the Houston area. By the end of this year there should be eight in the Houston area. There’s one in Arkansas. This is the first in Illinois.”

How did you get started? “We moved back to Naperville two and a half years ago and my husband, Kyle (Reid) said, ‘Why don’t you open a Half Baked?’ All four of my kids had graduated (high school) and went to college. … I called Stephanie. She was looking into franchising.”

How’s business? “It’s going great. The first two weeks of January when it was super-cold and everybody had New Year’s resolutions, I was questioning my life’s decision. … It’s interesting, being near Jewel, the night before a storm, when everyone is going to Jewel, we are busy. Might as well be home with cookies.

“My biggest expenses are, No. 1, payroll; No. 2, rent; No. 3, butter. Our recipes have a little more of a Southern emphasis, brown sugar and butter. … Typically, we go through five cases of butter a week. A case is 36 pounds.”

How many varieties do you sell? “We have 11 regular flavors every day. We have two cookies of the week, two new flavors every Monday morning. Then we also have six keto/gluten-free cookies every day. … We sell more of the regular. Our biggest sellers are chocolate chip and crème brulee, a fan favorite here in Naperville.”

What do you do with unsold cookies? “I would love to find an organization I can donate those to. Some of my workers work at the hospital and they take cookies to the nurses and transporters.”

What have you learned? “I’ve learned tons about operating a business, staffing, payroll, hiring, sourcing, inventory management, social media marketing.”

Are the cookies half baked? “They’re fully baked, but they’re served warm and gooey. If they’re frosted, they’re not warm. We can’t keep the keto cookies in the warmer because they have almond flour and we’re trying to prevent cross contamination because of the nuts.”

What misconceptions do people have about your business? “Half baked — do I have to take it home and cook it? You don’t have to do any work. The other misconception (about) half baked, they wonder if I put pot in them. … I had to figure out a price for a single cookie. Andrew, my 21-year-old son, thought it would be funny to charge $4.20 (420, 4/20 4:20 are slang terms for marijuana consumption). … I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. The whole idea of me being a weed dealer is funny.”

What are your hours? “We are open Monday through Thursday 10 to 9, Friday and Saturday 10 to 10. Closed on Sunday.”

What challenges do you face? “Trying to predict what people are going to want on any given day. … For example, on (Feb. 5) I could not make enough keto cookies to keep people happy. I don’t make a lot of them every day. They’re expensive. Yesterday (on Feb. 8), I made extra keto cookies for a fundraiser. I sold one keto cookie the whole day.”

What do you like best? “I love the fact that it’s a fun business. It was so fun yesterday (hosting a school fundraiser) to have 125 families with their kids come to the store in two and half hours. … We have a school lined up almost every single week. They get 20%.”

How many employees do you have? “Thirteen. I love hiring varsity athletes because they know how to work, they’re used to getting things done.”

Any future plans? “Our goal is to (open) five of these through Chicagoland.”

What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “It takes longer than you think it would. … I’ve found the nicer I can be to people along the process, the more those people helped me when I needed help.”

Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. If you know of a business you’d like to see to profiled in Down to Business, contact Steve Metsch at [email protected].