Running a Post-COVID Business

Elyce Zahn has been making CocoTutti Chocolates since 2010. Originally crafting them from her home in San Francisco, Elcye now makes her confections in her own commercial kitchen, but every chocolate is still handmade. Elyce says “We create chocolate bonbons, filled chocolate bars, and ‘mini’ chocolates as well as toffees, chocolate bark, dipped apricots, ‘turtles,’ spiced popcorn with chocolate drizzle, and custom chocolate work for retail stores and corporations.” She says that her business is primarily seasonal, with October through Mother’s Day driving most of her business. Pre-COVID, Elyce would sell her chocolates at local, in-person events and shows, occasionally traveling out-of-state to sell at chocolate events. 

Elyce got her start making chocolates by chance. She and her husband stopped to check out the California State Fair while on vacation in 2002 and discovered that they had an annual food competition and she decided she wanted to try her hand at entering something. In 2004, she started entering and winning local food competitions. She continued to make chocolates on the side for several years, winning more and more awards along the way, while at the same time running her own architectural firm. 

Her husband suggested that she was happier making chocolates than she was at her day job, so after selling out her entire stock of chocolates at a pop-up market, she agreed and in 2012, she closed her firm and started CocoTutti. To get started, she rented space in a communal kitchen to make her chocolates and confections. Business was strong enough that in 2019, Elyce and her husband renovated and moved into a commercial kitchen.

Prior to the pandemic, Elyce focused her sales to individuals at events such as craft fairs, wineries, chocolate-specific events, and corporate employee gift shows. These sales comprised approximately 60% of her business. She estimates 15% of her business was selling custom items at request, and the remainder was sold via her website or onsite at her kitchen. Because her business is primarily seasonal (chocolates don’t ship well in summer’s heat), she sets aside money generated during the busy months to get her through months when chocolate sales slow.

And Then Came Covid

In 2019, Elyce exhibited her chocolates and confections at a wholesale show in Las Vegas. She had planned on returning to the show in 2020 with the intention of beginning to sell CocoTutti products wholesale to traditional retailers. But the pandemic hit and the show was canceled. She typically sees a sales spike during the holidays, but this is typically due to sales at shows or to corporations. 

Although Elyce has had a website for several years, due to sales generated from other sources, “I did not emphasize the website opportunities, and did not advertise our website and products.” Thankfully, many of the in-person sales events where she generates the majority of her income had already occurred prior to the beginning of the shutdown in mid-March. Elyce says that several of the corporations she works with hosted online events instead of meeting in person throughout April, May, and June. Due to this, her sales were substantially lower than normal, but she was getting by. 

“Because we are a food manufacturing business, we were identified as an ‘essential’ business, so CocoTutti never closed. We have continued to produce, albeit at a reduced amount.” Elyce applied for and received an EIDL from the SBA. She used the funds to pay some of her rent and to purchase a continuous tempering machine and a walk-in refrigerator; hoping these items will streamline her production process and increase her efficiency. 

Elyce has begun implementing some changes to CocoTutti to help her business pivot and succeed in a post-covid market. First and most simply, she is listening for changes in market trends: “I’ve been listening to several food industry podcasts and webinars and also reading the candy manufacturing news. Their surveys indicated that people are buying more ‘affordable luxuries’ in lieu of dining out … in addition, they are seeking comfort flavors.” She’s using this information to update her product line with new items and weeding out items that don’t move quickly. 

She’s also changing how she packages her chocolates and confections, hiring a graphic designer to create more appealing packaging, and replacing her gift baskets with gift boxes, which cost much less to ship. Evaluating and updating her pricing to appeal to a potentially wider range of buyers, and she’s learning more heavily on social media to promote her products to individuals and corporations. 

Thinking outside the box, Elyce is trying new marketing strategies, such as partnering with other chocolatiers to sell joint products or getting her products into gift basket makers’ baskets. 

Elyce’s Tips for Pivoting in a Post-COVID Business World

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