Meet Anne Becker | Caramel Cravings Founder and Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anne Becker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anne, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started selling caramels as a seasonal fundraiser around Thanksgiving and Christmas in the fall of 2013. I was going on a trip to Australia and my parents wanted me to help pay for it. They believed I would appreciate the experience more if I was financially invested and they were right! I continued this trend of raising money to support my travels with 4-H and FFA throughout my junior high and high school years. During my senior year, I was in a business class called CEO which stands for Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities. It was a before-school program that started at 7:20 am each day at local businesses. There were students from all the local high schools and we wore professional attire. It is an awesome opportunity because it is fully supported by local businesses. The main goal is to host a class business or event in order to gain seed money for your individual business. I decided to make my caramel fundraiser a full-time business. Caramel Cravings …transition of customers and challenges of branding and makes cards

family recipe, used mom strengths of cooking,
expanded from seasonal fundraiser to being available all year long and additional location.
transition of trips and travel to paying for college
small batches, homemade, soft and chewy

What should our readers know about your business?
Caramel Cravings was never intended to be a business. In 2014, I had the opportunity to travel abroad through the People to People Student Ambassador Program. The biggest thing holding me back was the money to pay for the trip. My parents wanted me to pay for a part of my trip. Their philosophy is that if you are willing to pay with your own money, you really want it and will appreciate it more. I researched popular fundraising ideas but none of them seemed like a good fit for me. Instead, I decided to use a family recipe for homemade caramels. My mom and I used to make caramels each year at Christmas and I always looked forward to it. I figured that since we only made caramels once a year and because the process is fairly time-consuming; maybe that is why I rarely saw them being sold by other small businesses. My initial fundraising was so successful that I continued to sell caramels at Thanksgiving and Christmas throughout Junior High and High School to pay for trips to National 4-H Congress and Conference, FFA trips, and a trip to Spain with my High School.

Fast forward to 2019, I was selected to be a part of the Morgan-Scott CEO (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) program, one of the requirements for the class is to create a small business to help reinforce an entrepreneurial spirit. Remembering back to the success I had in 2014 while fundraising for my People to People trip abroad, I figured that I already had a pretty good start for a small business. In the CEO program, the small business is the final project that a lot of people don’t normally start working on until the spring semester, but I knew right away what my business was going to be because my previous customers had continued to reach out to me in the following years, even when I wasn’t trying to sell them.

What really sets my business apart from most others is the unique position I was in by participating in the CEO program my senior year of High School, that class is where Caramel Cravings formally began. From the get-go, I was extremely busy. I knew that I had to put money into the formal startup to capitalize on the upcoming Fall/Winter and holiday season. I started doing research and noticed there was still a void in the local homemade sweets department for Jacksonville, and all I needed to do was expand on marketing the product. The initial marketing was easy enough to get off of the ground as I still had friends, family, and other patrons that had supported me with my fundraising in the past. I started putting together business cards and an expanded menu, but the real struggle happened when I found out how many licenses, certifications, and permits come with getting started in the food industry. After a labor-intensive process of getting inspected, certified, and licensed, Caramel Cravings was really starting to take form into a full-time business. We got a domain online, put together a logo, and we were cooking like crazy!

Being a full-time student has really limited my ability to attend vendor fairs a do a lot of the self-promotion that I used to do in the past. Fortunately, Caramel Cravings has been lucky enough to partner with the Grab ‘N’ Grow Greenhouse in Riggston, IL to sell caramels on a continual basis. I am proud that I am able to continue my business while attending college full-time! It is really awesome being able to partner with another local small business! I am thankful for the skills I learned through the CEO program and relationships that were built along the way. It was a real-world learning experience with mentors that I could ask basic business questions. I am grateful for my family and friends that never stopped supporting my on this journey.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Monday: Get a pedicure together

Tuesday:
Walk around and look at local murals
Eat at Leo’s Pizza that has the best Taco pizza!

Wednesday:
Go shopping at antique stores in Jacksonville

Thursday:
Visit Springfield, IL and visit historical sites

Friday:
Go shopping at all the locally owned businesses
Eat downtown at the Mulligans Irish Pub and have Irish Nachos

Saturday:
Sell caramels at a local vendor event on the square downtown
Eat at Little Mexico

Sunday:
Visit St. Louis and watch a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom and dad are my biggest supporters! I would not be able to continue my business while I am at college without them.

Website: https://homemadecaramelcravings.square.site/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homemade.caramel.cravings/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HomemadeCaramelCravings

Other: email: homemadecaramelcravings@gmail.com