WHAT started as a date night activity for new couple Sara and Doug Taylor almost ten years ago has now turned into a fully fledged multi-million dollar business.
In 2015, the Philadelphia-based couple had just met and enjoyed baking cookies together as they were getting to know each other.
Taylor Chip co-founders Doug and Sara Taylor say they could never had predicted how successful their company would become[/caption]
One of the five Taylor Chip locations in Philadelphia[/caption]
Taylor Chip’s pumpkin spice cookie available during fall[/caption]
They set out to re-create the perfect chocolate chip cookie using a friend’s recipe that Doug loved, but without the Crisco.
Sara had grown up on a small family farm where they had grass-fed milk, and always valued real, natural food over processed items like sugary snacks and vegetable shortening.
When the pair became engaged a year later, they decided to bake and hand out homemade cookies as party favors at their wedding, as a way to save money rather than spend it on traditional wedding favors.
The cookies were such a hit that the couple decided to start selling their baked goods at markets and weekend weddings, while continuing to work in their jobs as a waitress and at a record label.
Using the same website they had used for their wedding, the couple received an overwhelmingly positive response and Taylor Chip was born.
Little did they know that a $50 blender from Facebook Marketplace would turn the fun side hustle into a fully fledged company which now employs almost 80 people and brings in $4 million in revenue each year.
The company now has a valuation of about $25 million.
“We had no idea it was going to get this big, it was a very low investment” Doug told The U.S. Sun.
“It was purely something that we did to spend time together, there was no alternative motive.
“Sara thought I should be eating a better thing, and I just loved cookies so much.”
The growth was exponential.
In the early days of Taylor Chip they were selling about 200,000 cookies.
That soon turned into 800,000 and was catapulted to millions during the coronavirus pandemic.
The cookies are available online and across a number of stores across the country, as well as sold through platforms including DoorDash.
They come in a variety of flavors including chocolate chip, salted caramel pretzel, snickerdoodle, Oreos & cream, s’mores and others.
“Our cookies are SUPER dense, rich and big. They have a slight golden brown crunch on the outside for those first-bite feels,” the company’s website says.
GROWING A SIDE HUSTLE
Side hustles have swept the nation, with Americans obsessed with how to make some extra cash on the side to deal with rising expenses.
According to a recent study conducted by One Poll, 40% of Americans have a side hustle.
Of those respondents with a side gig, 48% of them started it solely to make ends meet.
When pressed on some advice on how to help people turn their side hustle into their career, Doug said “you’ve just got to go all in”.
Doug said they had to make an initial investment to get their business off the ground, including taking out a few different credit cards to purchase the equipment they needed and to rent a space.
The pair knew it was what was needed if they had a shot at being successful.
It is about going all in, we would have kept it as a hobby if we weren’t forced to go all in and the reason we could grow so quickly comes down to our ability to be flexible, and to quit our jobs and dedicate 100% of our time to it.
Doug Taylor
Doug also said people need to work hard and try to limit frivolous spending on themselves.
Sara said people have to absolutely love their side hustle if they are going to turn it into a career.
“It’s not going to work unless you actually fall in love with what you’re doing and have a passion,” she said.
ONLY THE BEST
With Sara’s background growing up on a farm, the cookie company is dedicated to using real ingredients.
“At Taylor Chip we TAKE PRIDE in our ingredients because we wouldn’t want others to eat anything that we personally wouldn’t,” the website says.
“We eat our cookies every day which is why we make sure to use only the best ingredients. It’s with this same spirit that we work hard to develop a workplace everyone enjoys being a part of.
“We want to LOVE WHAT WE DO and who we do it with. We believe satisfaction is found in WORKING HARD and joy comes from SERVING OTHERS.”
Taylor Chip’s s’mores cookie[/caption]
Senior management of Taylor Chip, with co-founders Doug and Sarah Taylor[/caption]
