All About Ella’s Frozen Cookie Dough Business
I’ve mentioned on Instagram that this summer, Ella started a little business called Dough at Your Doorstep.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how it all works, so I’m sharing all the details about her frozen cookie dough business here. If you have a little entrepreneur in your house, it might be a fun project for them too!
All About Ella’s Frozen Cookie Dough Business
Last summer, she and the other girls did a little cookie stand on the street corner, which was a surprisingly big money maker, and this year she was looking for something she could do on her own.
She came up with the name Dough at Your Doorstep, worked with Bart to design a digital flyer and Google Form to collect orders and then sent an email out to every person she could think of.
Here’s what the email said:
One of my favorite things is to make a batch of cookies. Even better is to have frozen cookie dough ready for emergencies.
2020 has been a crazy year and I’d like to sweeten it a bit by making sure you, your family, and your friends are always prepared for cookie dough emergencies!
Dough At Your Doorstep does just what it sounds like – it’s a delivery service for frozen cookie dough balls, ready to be placed in your oven whenever the need arises.
The attached flyer has a menu of offerings, and when you’re ready to order, just click on this link: Cookie Dough Sign Up and before you know it, I’ll be at your doorstep with a humble offering of happiness.
Looking forward to sweetening your days and nights!
Did I die a little over that email? Yes, I certainly did (Bart helped her write it).
Here’s what the attached flier looks like
She currently offers four kinds of cookies:
She offers an on-demand dozen for $10 or weekly deliveries of either a half dozen balls of frozen cookie dough ($16 a month) or a dozen balls of frozen cookie dough ($32 per month).
And she has big plans to offer one seasonal flavor each month through the end of the year.
Her very favorites have been orders placed from out-of-towners to be delivered on birthdays to friends and family living in the Provo area.
She’s hopeful that as the universities here open up, she’ll get more orders to deliver to college students living away from home. It’s such a fun surprise to show up at your door.
Ella paid for all her ingredients up front and I set aside a cupboard in our kitchen for her to store all of them. About once a week she makes new batches of cookie dough, scoops them into balls and flash freezes them.
We have a chest freezer in our basement and she stores bags of all the different kinds of frozen cookie dough in there.
When an order comes through or when it’s delivery day for her subscription, she packs the frozen cookie dough balls into a ziplock bag, puts it in a brown lunch sack and ties it with a ribbon with the baking directions written at the bottom edge of the bag.
Is frozen cookie dough the most lucrative business of all time? No, but it’s been a very fun project for her this summer and I’ve loved watching her develop so many skills, from figuring out pricing to marketing to the responsibility of fulfilling weekly subscription orders.
(By the way, I’ve gotten a bunch of messages asking what she’s saving up for and the answer is nothing. She is by nature not a spender at all (she definitely inherited this from me) and she has saved basically every dime she’s ever made).
Any other question about Dough at Your Doorstep? Happy to answer!
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Photos by Heather Mildenstein
How amazing to have such a creative entrepreneur in your home. I hope she doesn’t stop, because this could grow into a lifelong business and could finance her future. I know you are so very proud of your girl!
Aww….I love this! If we lived in your area, we’d be customers for sure! Best of luck to her. 🙂
She is adorable. This is such a great project for her to do, and it’s great that she’s enjoying it as well. I wish I lived close enough so I can order some, but I’m all the way here in Canada. (I also loved the fact she has a weekly and monthly subscription available for her cookies!)
This is so great! I can see my daughter doing this! Did you have to do anything like a business license or have your kitchen approved for food grade sales?
If this was a bigger business, you’d probably need to look into that. Considering her customers are people in our neighborhood or family, we haven’t.
Doesn’t she need a license to sell food?
Since this is so small scale selling to neighbors and friends, she doesn’t. It’s the same way with a corner lemonade stand run by a few kids – you wouldn’t expect them to have a food license.
Does she only deliver to Provo, or would she do Orem too?
She does Orem too!
How old is Ella? What a fun idea 🙂 good for her for taking the initiative and working so hard!
She’s ten!
This is seriously the most adorable thing I have ever seen. That letter! I’d die too.
Ella is amazing! What exactly does flash freezing entail? Just curious. 🙂
You freeze them on a cookie sheet just until they’re frozen and then you put them in a bag for storage.
I’m just reading about this awesome endeavor! Wondered if Ella was still doing this and any tips you have since the start of the business! Can’t wait to share this with my 11 1/2 year old! She made over $400 selling lemonade last year. She’s a little entrepreneur, for sure!