Small Business Bestie
Entrepreneurship is hard, and sometimes we could use a friend to walk a mile in our shoes. Small Business Bestie is here to provide that friendship, support, and inspiration that small business owners need from time to time.
Small Business Bestie
27: Michele Dunn's Vision: Clean Meals and Strong Connections
Michele Dunn, the powerhouse behind Dunn in the Kitchen, joins us to share an inspiring journey of entrepreneurship and resilience. From transforming her personal chef service into a successful meal prep business, Michele is passionate about bringing families back to the dinner table with delicious, gluten-free, and dairy-free options. Tune in to hear how she navigates the challenges of expanding her business amidst personal hurdles like her mother's leukemia diagnosis and a nearly threefold delay in kitchen construction. Discover her dedication to clean eating and her creative visions for the business, including potential delivery services and cooking classes.
In a heartfelt conversation with Michelle Smock, we unravel the significance of building meaningful connections in business. By creating a community hub for her customers, Michele Dunn finds joy in offering companionship and home-cooked meals, especially to those who might miss a family dining experience. Learn from these dynamic women about trusting the entrepreneurial process, making thoughtful decisions, and serving a diverse clientele with integrity and passion. Follow Dunn in the Kitchen on social media to stay connected and be inspired by Michele's story of turning culinary dreams into reality.
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Small Business Bestie is edited by Bourbon Barrel Podcasting
Welcome to the Small Business Bestie podcast. I'm your host, michelle. We are creating community and coaching women entrepreneurs, and we are so glad that you're here. Let's meet this week's small business bestie. Today I have Michelle Dunn joining me, from Dunn in the Kitchen, and I'm super excited, as always, to talk with another small business bestie to hear all about her entrepreneurial journey and her goals. So, without wasting any more time, michelle, tell me all about your business and what you do. All right, well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I've been a listener for a little while and I've truly enjoyed it, so I get a lot out of this podcast, thank you. So, yeah, I own Done in the Kitchen. Started off as a personal chef service and in-home service, and now we are your local kitchen with a mission to bring family and friends back to the dinner table. We have family style and individual meals you can purchase online or you can walk in and purchase individual meals that are already cooked and cooled. They have preheating instructions on them and just a quick way to get some good for you and delicious lunches or dinners. We do bone broth and energy bites. She's very addicted.
Speaker 1:Y'all. I'm so lucky because she brought me some energy bites as a little gift, so I'm really looking forward to that, because I used to make some and they were so addictive and delicious and I just don't have the time for it anymore. So thank you so much yeah.
Speaker 2:I had to do it. So we do a little bit of catering and charcuterie and things like that as well, but the meal prep business is on fire, so we have been pretty busy with that and just kind of fit the other things in when we can.
Speaker 1:Wow. So with your meal prep, is it pickup only, or do you guys offer delivery or shipping or anything like that? Currently just pickup, okay, and the location is in Georgetown.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're in Georgetown, at 799 East Jackson Street. We're adjacent to Georgetown College, about two blocks off of Main Street.
Speaker 1:Do you have plans at some point, maybe dreaming of doing deliveries or shipping or anything, or are you kind of like I'm good, like this?
Speaker 2:I never know what's coming next. I guess I could tell you. So I do love to plan this. I never know what's coming next, I guess I could tell you. So I do love to plan. But at the same time, this whole thing, from start to now, has just been at God's whim and I just you know, when it's ready for it, when it's time for me to take another step, I just take the next step, kind of based on his direction. So, yeah, I don't know, it wasn't really my idea to start with. I mean it was, but you know something I desired to do, but the way it actually panned out. His plants are always bigger than mine and better, so Absolutely for sure they are yeah.
Speaker 1:So with your meals, are there like particular, like dietary needs that you're trying to cater to, or, like I know, a lot of meal plan companies are like I'm a keto meal plan company, or I'm a vegan meal plan company, or whatever. Do you guys cater to any of those or do you have a niche?
Speaker 2:I would say our niche is just good I know the word clean has kind of been overused or whatever but just good homemade food. So we do have lots of gluten free and or dairy free options. That's always a consideration when we're building our menu, which changes every month. We're always being mindful of that. So, like I said, we'd like families to sit down and eat dinner together. I feel like it's very important and this gives families that do have kind of those gluten allergies and whatnot to sit down and eat a meal and not think about whether it's gluten-free or not.
Speaker 2:You know it's just normal delicious, whether it's gluten free or not. You know it's just normal delicious. You know food Hopefully get the kids and adults eating a few more vegetables and you know things like that kind of branching out, because I've come across a lot of picky people in the personal chef business and a lot of times you can sneak something in there or just cook it a different way and they're like I never knew that I liked this Right, you know. So, yeah, that's kind of a mission too is to you know kind of get people eating a little bit outside of their comfort zone and realize how much variety there is out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely when, like speaking of the way that we taste food and like what we like and don't like, and if it's prepared a different way, is it like every seven years your taste buds evolve, or something like? I've heard that. I don't know if it's an old wives tale or if there's any credibility to it?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I do know that you know I'm not a picky eater myself, but there have been several things. I'm 46 years old and I shocked my mom the other day by liking olives, and I've never liked olives before. There's only certain olives that I like, but at least you know that was something that I always despised. So I think it's really important for adults and especially for kids, but for adults too to go back and try something that maybe you didn't think you liked, and it because preparation makes a huge difference, yeah. And then, yeah, your taste buds do evolve. You get used to different textures and flavors and like there may be subtle changes that you aren't even aware of, and then suddenly you try something again. We're like, oh, okay, right yeah, like this.
Speaker 1:So the way that you package your food right. So there's family meals and individual meals. So are the family meals like I don't know I'm going on a whim here because I have no idea but like I imagine it would be like one of those like take and bake lasagnas or something like that. Or is it like can you tell me how, how you package and prepare the family meals versus the individual meals?
Speaker 2:Yes, so the family meals, we do put those in oven safe containers because it is packaged four servings together, depending on reheating times, you know, and space considerations. As far as you know how they're packaged, yeah, Whether the sides are packaged separately or with the entree or one big bowl, you know things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we use they're called black and gold foil pans, so they're a good heavy duty pan. It's fairly nonstick and they'll last you for a long time if you want to keep them and reuse them.
Speaker 2:I highly recommend that. Okay, they're kind of expensive, but it's just something I'm not willing to like. I've fallen in love with them and I'm just not willing to change on that. Yeah, so we just always better reheat it in the oven instead of the microwave. But we do package our individual meals in a black plastic containers with the clear lids.
Speaker 2:You know typical meal prep containers, yeah, so, is the menu the same for the family meals and the individual, just like portion different, or is it different? Some things don't lend themselves very well to individual meals. So I think this month the entire menu is available. At least the dinners are available as individual as well. How family style. Sometimes it's only family style and that really just depends on what pricing we would have to have at an individual meal or, like I said, reheating it, whether it's going to work well, you know, in one of those black containers or not.
Speaker 1:So Okay Is your kitchen a standalone like storefront. So OK, is your kitchen a standalone storefront, just you in it, or is it a shared kitchen space?
Speaker 2:It is standalone. So we bought a building and I'm not really sure how old it is. Ok, it is at least one hundred and twenty six years old. Oh, my warehouse. We call it Miss Jackson because you're on Jackson Street and she has a lot of personality. So we have, it's our own kitchen. We did the construction all the way from. It had no sewer and water in it and we put that and I dug the trenches for the plumbing. So I don't like it was literally a labor of blood, sweat and tears. But yeah, so it's our own kitchen. We also have a little retail space in there as well. It was. This place was more than what we were looking for, but cheaper, as far as you know, purchase price and flexibility to expand later and everything. We're actually only using about a third of the 4,400 square foot that this building is. Wow, yeah, so we shall, but the plan is for the rest of it.
Speaker 1:Now I want you to do me a favor. If you drop something at work, I want you to sing. I'm Sorry, miss Jackson, okay, okay, I sing it all the time.
Speaker 2:How can you? Say it about singing that song. Yeah, as soon as you said her name.
Speaker 1:That's all I could think about and I was like, oh no, I would be singing that all day, every day, Awesome. Ok, I'm going to switch gears because I feel like I've got a good understanding of, like what your business is currently. Tell me about how Done in the Kitchen became so. What was the origin story there?
Speaker 2:Like, how did you get into this? I have a degree in public relations and I went into kind of sales marketing things like that. So I worked for a local beer distributor. I worked for Pepsi G&J Pepsi here in town for several years and then I worked for Kentucky Blood Center organizing mobile blood drives. I'm working with the chair, people and stuff to do that and promote the blood drives.
Speaker 2:It was a very flexible schedule, which was good, and so I had some extra time to do things like cook for people.
Speaker 2:I had a neighbor with a baby in NICU, somebody that my husband worked with.
Speaker 2:His mom had breast cancer and it was just him, a 20-something guy, and his mom and she's going through chemo treatments and he can't, you know, feed her and take care of her and everything the way she needs to be nourished, and so just several instances like that where I cooked some food to take to them and it just makes my heart sink and I wanted to know if there was something that, you know, it just kind of laid on my heart.
Speaker 2:Can I do this in a way? That's not a restaurant, and so I, you know, just started poking around on the interwebs and figured out that there was not a private chef but a personal chef, so I could have kind of the variety that I wanted of working for different families, and so I would go to a different family's house each day of the week and usually go back on a weekly or biweekly basis and prepare three to five meals, their meal plan. Well, I designed the menu but it was all based on how they wanted to eat. So I've done the different diets like keto and Weight Watchers and Mediterranean and you know like that. So I have a lot of different cooking styles in my repertoire.
Speaker 1:That's good that for like eight years so it's interesting, just like you were talking about like we never know what you know, food we may evolve to, like you know. When you have that kind of like broad arching experience with preparing different types of foods for other people, it really opens up your creative juices to be able to say, oh, I could mix these two things together that I've never seen done that way before, but I wonder if it'll be good Exactly. Oh, that's awesome. I would love to see some of the recipe creations that are like Michelle Dunn creations. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:They all live in my brain, and that's not it.
Speaker 1:Well, I want them to live on a plate in front of me so I can do that.
Speaker 2:I am terrible at like recipe testing, like that, very like. Yeah, you know, like I just kind of cook from the heart and and kind of on the fly, so but yeah, like I've had clients that wanted like Kentucky hot brown casserole but make it low carb or keto, and so, yeah, going to different places and you know, figuring out how to make the different components and then put it all together. So it's been an adventure for sure.
Speaker 1:So did you have a lot of cooking experience, like growing up as a child. Did you learn to cook, or was it like later in life?
Speaker 2:My parents kind of cooked like that too. It was just a concoction, it was. What do we have in the house? Kitchen sink dinner? Yes, exactly, let's throw it together, and I don't do fried foods very well. I grew up on the East Coast, so a lot of seafood and everything grilled and you know things like that, so that's kind of more my wheelhouse anyway. Yeah, where did you grow up? Maryland Really? Yeah, just outside of Annapolis.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, yeah, so how long did you take to go to New York? Been here too long? I don't think it takes long. I'm like very prone to picking up whatever accent is around me. Same, you know, when I was in my early 20s I married a guy that was from Chicago and I went to visit his family and like within a week, I had this weird like Chicago accent. I was like I'm not from here. I don't know why I'm talking like this, you know, but yeah, kentucky accent. I don't feel like I sound like I'm from Kentucky. I still get people that say where are you from? Yeah, because the Oklahoma twang is different than the Kentucky twang. But yeah, okay, so you came here at what age?
Speaker 2:I came here in 2002. So I went to school in Tennessee, I moved up here with a guy that I was dating at the time, met him in the restaurant business, and so that's kind of also my love for food. I worked for Carrabba's I don't know if you're familiar with that Italian yeah, so they, everything was kind of they didn't even have a microwave and like so everything was just freshly prepared and really solid food, and so I think that definitely influenced, you know, my I don't know desire to just have good, solid food. Yeah, you know, like I loved that, being able to bring it out of the kitchen and set it down, and like there was almost never a food issue at that place, and so that's incredible. I like to, yeah, consistent and simple, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think in all things like, simplicity is almost always the right answer. Right, yes, so what has been your biggest challenge or, like, most difficult thing to like get through with opening your business?
Speaker 2:and all of that, I would say the build out was insane. Okay, we thought it would only take us about six months to build out that kitchen and it took us 19 months. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so luckily I'm very conservative, like financially, so we tried and made sure that we didn't get in too deep to where we couldn't, you know, pay the bills, as we were, you know, making all this and my business was still able to operate while we were in the kitchen. You know, because I was right in people's homes so it wasn't stopping me from doing my business. So that was good.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, just the construction process, because I didn't have a ton of money to hire somebody to handle all of that. So essentially I was the, you know, I had a general contractor, but really, I mean, he was kind of it was his side hustle too, and so it took a lot of time. The timing was off and then, as we moved into the place and just, you know, so frustrated over how long it had taken, I found out that my mom had leukemia. And trying to juggle that as we were moving into the place and kind of pivoting our business model and all that, I kind of realized like it needed to take that long. Yeah, because had I tried to do all of that and been like in the place that I am now and my mom being diagnosed, I would not have had the time to be able to support her and and be there for her and do the things that I felt like I needed to do. Yeah, so it worked out yeah, it always does right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like we never see that it's working out. Yeah, I don't say never, but like, yeah, you know it's hard to see that it's working out when you're in the trenches. You know, yeah, digging out sewer lines for your business.
Speaker 2:So I don't question. You know a lot of people. You know they want to know what we're doing with the back room and all that. You know the unused space and I'm like we're not there yet. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know yet. I have ideas, I have lots of dreams, but I just don't know what you know is going to work out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I talk about this a lot on the podcast the EOS model of running your business, and one of the key concepts in that is that in every company you have a visionary. So the leader who is? They've got all the ideas and they're constantly dreaming up the next crazy thing. And then you have an integrator, who's the person who says, okay, I can actually make this one of the thousand work, and now I'm going to do all the things that it requires to make it work. And oftentimes, you know, especially like solopreneurship you have to be both of those, and that's where the like, that's where the craziness comes in. Right, because you're dreaming up all of these crazy dreams, because you're the visionary, but right now you're forced to also be the integrator, the one to say, okay, which one of these ideas is the right one to choose and how do I implement it, and you know what needs to be put in place to make that happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get asked all the time are you going to do cooking classes? Are you going to? You could do events back here, you know you could, right, and just all these ideas. I'm like, yes, that sounds amazing. I have no bandwidth, you know. I mean I'm busy, you know 50, 60 hours a week doing this and cooking and all the other. You know, just mental load of being a business owner, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So before this recording, michelle graciously joined me at a Women Leading Kentucky event where there were five Michelles. Yeah, so we took a picture with four of us and then afterwards one of the Michelles came up and said I found another Michelle and I was like you've got to be kidding me. There's never that many of us. That was our event. Yeah, we should have had some speaking time just based on that. Yeah, okay, so you have your team in place. You're still working 50 to 60 hours, yeah, okay. Yeah, you guys are doing some big business then.
Speaker 2:Good, job we are, but I mean a lot of it is. You know, we do a lot of our cooking early morning into mid afternoon and so and then there, there, I'm going to be doing work for the business anyway, but I might as well be there to take on, you know, as customers come in. Yeah, so my daughter works with us sometimes as well, and so, hey, dogs, I can. Yeah, so she'll come in and do like store hours for me when her schedule allows and everything. But yeah, it's just kind of I'm going to be doing business stuff anyway. So instead of paying somebody, you know, another part time employee to besides, people have a lot of questions and I just feel like those are better handled. You know, if I'm there, shelby's there, you know. Yeah, I explain.
Speaker 1:It's a unique business concept, so yeah, yeah, so if I walked in without ordering anything, there's like individual meals ready to purchase.
Speaker 2:Yep, we have a cooler in that retail space. Okay, with a selection of meals and most, if not all of our menu, all of the individual meals that we're cooking that month, we'll have some available there.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. And then do you have, like, a microwave available, like if I'm coming in, really, so I can just come in? It's a cute little retro microwave. Make my lunch, yeah, if you want to Walk to the park or something. I don't know if there's a park near you. I made that up.
Speaker 2:You want to go to the college.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, I mean some people are realtors and you know people that are on the go. Yeah, it's just going to be in their car. So, yeah, we put that in there so that they can read it. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Eat on the go. That's why I was asking, because a lot of times, like even doing what I do, I'm just like zooming around all over town constantly and I don't want fast food, but I don't have time to go into a restaurant and sit down, and so I'm like, oh, I guess I'm going, that's what I've got. You know, and how great it would be if there were like places where I could just grab something, heat it up for three minutes and then get back in my car.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure about that, about putting the microwave in, like how that, but it's been great. Do people use it? Yeah? Yeah, we also had a crew of utility workers that they all came in, I mean so on after another, like 10 of them trying to reheat it in that one little bitty microwave. Wow, it's fun. I got to stand around and talk, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's great. I'm so proud of you. That's incredible. So, other than the cooking if you take the food part out other than the cooking, what's your favorite part about owning your business?
Speaker 2:I would say my favorite part right now I'm bad at picking favorites, but my favorite part right now about having this kitchen.
Speaker 2:I've read a book not long ago called the Third Place and it talks about how you know societies we tend to. We have home work and then a third place and so we don't have a place to sit down and eat in there. But I've been seeing more and more regulars that it almost feels like we're their third place to come in and we don't have a place to sit down and eat in there. But I've been seeing more and more regulars that it almost feels like we're their third place to come in and they don't just get meals and go like they talk, we take prayer requests and stuff. So there's been clients that I've prayed with and just talking to them and seeing how their day went and getting to know you know things about them and they bring their kids in and so, yeah, I think that's been my favorite thing so far, because I've really wrestled with not being in clients' homes and would it be the same, you know, to not have those tight-knit relationships and seeing that we still have that in this building has been super cool.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that those connections are so invaluable, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, that's why we want them around the dinner table, you know. But then some people don't have that dinner table to sit down with their family. You know that we've got a lot of single retirees or widowed or you know, and so for them to come in and talk to us and, you know, kind of get the fellowship that way, you know, and then taking away home-cooked meals so they're well-fed and everything. Yeah, especially the older gentlemen that are, you know, widowed and you know, like they grew up in that time where you know wives definitely cooked everything all the time, and so just, I don't know, they got a special place in my heart. Yeah, oh, that's so sweet. I just wanted to feed busy families, but there's another clientele that I didn't realize needed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it sounds like maybe even just another friend group. Yeah, you know those people that you just love. Yeah, you know, absolutely. You're making me tear up a little. Yeah, you know, absolutely, that's. Oh, you're making me tear up a little. Okay, so before we head out, is there any piece of advice, word of wisdom or even just a funny anecdote that you want to leave everybody with, to kind of sum up who you are and what you've learned?
Speaker 2:I think just learning to trust, trust the process, trust yourself, do a lot of research and take your time, don't do the things that everybody says you should do. I guess, like, good advice is wonderful and you need to know where to get that from. But I think sometimes just trusting your gut and what you think will work, and you know, slowly working out the process, you know can't run around willy nilly, just say you know I'm going to do this and it's going to be fine and nobody knows what they're talking about. But yeah, just really you know, doing your research and digging in and just going with your gut and and see how it goes. And I think a lot of times you'll be surprised at what is possible so beautifully said Thank you.
Speaker 1:Great, great advice. Well, michelle, I had a wonderful time getting to know you a little bit at Women Leading Kentucky. I've had a great time here at the podcast. I'll definitely make my way up to Georgetown. I think I even told you like I've got a meeting up there. I think it's next week, so I'll stop by and see you after that meeting and pick up some goodies. Are there ways for our listeners to connect with you Websites, socials anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dunn in the Kitchen, d-u-n-n in the Kitchen, dunn in the Kitchen dot com. That's the Facebook page, that's the Instagram account, so we're very easy to find Awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll link all of that in the show notes, so if any of you guys are listening and don't have something to write it down, you can go back to the show notes later and I hope to run into you again and I appreciate your time so much. Thank you All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for listening, friends. Thank you All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Thanks for listening, friends. My name is Michelle Smock and I own Cultivate Accounting, a boutique accounting firm specializing in small business, and I own Small Business Bestie, where I help women entrepreneurs go from idea to launch and beyond. Check the show notes for links to my website and socials, and also please take a moment to subscribe and review. It really would mean the world to me.