Outlook is Everything

Business had been going smoothly for Anne-Marie Constable‘s custom chocolate business, choc.OH.lat. Catering to corporate and social events, she’s been growing it steadily for over a decade. And then COVID-19 hit. “I had ordered all my supplies for March, April, and May, which are busy months for me. I was booked every weekend for March and April and I’ll never forget the first event that called and canceled.” With so many orders pending, Anne-Marie welcomed that tiny break. “And then the events started falling like dominoes.” 

What happened next would make all the difference. For Anne-Marie, it was an obvious choice. “I had all this extra chocolate and I remembered a nurse in New York City holding up a sign that said (and I’m going to cry just saying it), ‘Hi,’ and then the names of her three kids, ‘Mommy will be home soon. I miss you.” I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this woman hasn’t seen her kids in so long and mine are here with me. I felt like I should do something.” 

Putting her plight in perspective, Anne-Marie turned to her chocolate-making for comfort, which she describes as her therapy. Having gotten to know the staff at a local hospital while her own mother battled cancer, Anne-Marie decided to make a large donation of custom-made chocolates, using her spring supplies, for the nurses at the hospital. Rice crispy treats with chocolate band-aids, chocolate aspirins, and candy hearts.

Then magic happened. On the day of her donation delivery, other big-name brands were bringing gifts to the staff as well and the local news was there covering the whole thing. Just like that, the station’s cameraperson approached her, wanting information on her store. “I’m a very social person, but I was speechless. I’m looking at all these major brands and I’m just this little guy, I don’t have a storefront, I’m no one compared to them!” The cameraperson left with Anne-Marie’s business card and said they’d be doing a story on her. Soon, the news station was visiting her kitchen, filming, and interviewing her for the local TV news magazine. She ended up being featured in two separate local TV show segments. 

Anne-Marie then made a second donation for Nurses Day despite a slight underestimation. “I thought there were only 400 nurses, but there are actually over 800! I wanted to make something for every single one, that was my goal. Donating makes me feel good because my husband is a fireman. We’ve experienced him going to work and the anxiety that comes with it.” She says continuing to work even without the orders coming in brought a sense of normalcy to life. “For me, I still had to go to work and make these chocolates. I got to do what I liked to do. The kids just came and did their schoolwork and I kept a routine going.”

The attention from the TV segments didn’t hurt, either. “A lot of people that saw the TV segments didn’t order, but they still sent me messages and said things like, “I don’t need anything right now, but if I ever do, I will think of you because what you did was so nice.’ I never did anything because I thought it would make me look good. I just wanted to do something for somebody else.”

When Anne-Marie moved to Philadelphia ten years ago to marry her firefighter husband, she didn’t know anyone in the city. She left life as a veteran probation officer in her hometown of Baltimore. In that role, she supervised some of the city’s most violent offenders, a role that felt comfortingly familiar in her new life in an unfamiliar city. Rather than go back into the criminal justice system, she decided to turn her chocolate-making hobby into a small business. “I always made chocolates on the side, so as soon as I had my first son, I started selling chocolate-covered strawberries to the fire department for Valentine’s Day.” VDay turned into Mother’s Day and soon Anne-Marie’s husband was suggesting advertising the business on their front lawn. “We live across from an elementary school but I thought it was crazy, because who is going to knock on someone’s door for chocolate?” But people did knock and called and soon strangers were dropping their Easter baskets off at her front porch for Anne-Marie to fill with their candy orders.

Fast forward to this year. With events on hold, Anne-Marie had to recalibrate her focus away from weddings and corporate parties to individual orders. She realized she had a unique opportunity to provide something customers needed. “People couldn’t go to the store to shop for Easter candy and they couldn’t order the chocolates online.” But with everyone staying home, it also meant Anne-Marie had to create all the orders herself, alone. On barely any sleep, she hand-dipped and molded each piece (including masked bunnies) herself. 

Anne-Marie credits referrals and word of mouth for her success. She does little marketing or advertising, instead focusing on making personal connections. Joining networking groups and attending networking meetings was key. Although she now works a room like a natural, it wasn’t an easy start. “When I first moved here, I knew no one and I went to my first networking event which I’ll never forget it. I called my mom from the car, so nervous, clutching my Kate Spade handbag like it was my lunchbox! And she told me, ‘get out of that car, get into that meeting!’ and I felt like I was getting on the school bus for the first time.” Anne-Marie’s advice is to attend events with one “wing-person” who can introduce you to other people. 

Looking to the future, Anne-Marie hopes to focus more on corporate events and needs. “I like corporate orders because corporate is more consistent. Christmas comes once a year for consumers, but corporate needs happen every month.” As an example, Anne-Marie has a financial advisor who buys from her for any client’s life milestone. She says delivering consistency and providing exactly what you promise are key to maintaining corporate accounts. 

But the biggest factor she insists on is the human one. “I’m personable, I talk to them about our lives, they know exactly who I am, my kids, my cat. They get to know me. People tell me they enjoy my personality and I always joke that I like to think it’s my product they enjoy, but so much of it comes down to making that human connection with someone.”

She says you never know where the next lead will come from. As a great example, Anne-Marie recounts the moment that led to her landing one of her biggest orders with mega-corporation, Comcast. “I used to workout at the Philadelphia Art Museum (on the Rocky steps) and was a few minutes early. This girl came running up the steps and I just told her I was really proud of her for doing that because it was amazing. We started laughing and she happened to be one of the girls that worked at Comcast and that led to me getting orders for their movie premieres. That happened just because I said ‘good job’ to a girl that was working out.”

From just wanting to make enough to buy summer pool passes for her kids to working with some of the biggest brands in her city, Anne-Marie unapologetically says she built her business in reverse. “I didn’t start with a business plan, I just started making candy for people. One time a hotel wanted to place an order and they asked for my tax ID and I was like ‘Oh, what’s that!?’ So then I had to get my business license, then my tax ID, then my bank account. By having to do one thing, it taught me something else. I finally figured it out and here I am 10 years later.” 

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