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Linda Paider of Two Rivers turns the joy of making cheesecakes into a successful business

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6 months ago

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Linda Paider of Two Rivers turns the joy of making cheesecakes into a successful business

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt
 |  For Green Bay Press-Gazette

In the midst of the pandemic when most people were subject to a stay-at-home order, Linda Paider of Two Rivers spent some of that time experimenting in the kitchen. She especially enjoyed trying out new recipes in her Instant Pot. One of those recipes changed the course of her career.

She was looking at social media when she saw photos and raving reviews for an Instant Pot cheesecake.

“I was testing new recipes and thought, ‘That sounds good. I think I’ll try that,’” she said.

What she didn’t anticipate was the reaction of friends. They loved the texture and taste. That led to trying more conventional methods of making cheesecakes and testing a variety of flavors. The friends were impressed and encouraged her to pursue it as a business.

At the time, Paider was working as a certified medical assistant, a job she had held for almost a decade.

She said, “It came to a point about one and a half years into the pandemic that I had to decide between staying at my job and quitting making cheesecakes or making cheesecakes and quitting my job. I decided to make cheesecakes.”

It was a risky proposition. Not only was the economy still struggling because of the pandemic, she had no experience in starting a business. Despite that, she forged ahead. Her close friends, especially those who had business experience, helped with the planning. One of the first items on the agenda was choosing a name.

“My friends and I were tossing out ideas and someone said, ‘How about Linda Loves Cheesecake‘? That name sounded right and it just stuck,” Paider said.

The next steps included the usual. She worked with her accountant to form an LLC, filed for a sales tax number, registered the business name, and set up separate bank accounts. When a boutique closed in her friend’s building, she also found a retail space.

Remodeling included the addition of a commercial kitchen.

“I worked with the health department to come up with a plan and make sure everything was in compliance,” Paider said. “I had started in early 2020, and the kitchen was done by June of that year.”

In addition to cheesecake, other retail products were added. She had some favorites from Door County and brought in items like Door County Coffee, freeze-dried cherries, and cherry snack mixes. A company that made cherry salsa and barbecue sauce packaged it for her store and added her label.

“I wanted to add Door County items because Two Rivers is like a small Door County and I love Door County. When I was designing the store, I contacted some of the shops I visited and decided to sell some of my personal favorites in the store,” she said.

The items have been popular, but the highlight is definitely the cheesecake. By 2021, the sales were growing as word of mouth and social media brought people in the door. She listened to customers and took suggestions and came up with recipes for more than 100 different types of cheesecake. About seven are featured each week on a rotating basis.

“I was still nervous about the business, but it was getting better,” Paider said.

To increase sales, she turned to wholesale and began to contact some of the more exclusive restaurants with a request they consider selling Linda Loves Cheesecake on their dessert menus.

“I started calling restaurants, and if they were interested, I met with them and brought in a sample platter of cheesecake to try along with a price list,” she said. “I ended up with about 10 of them deciding to purchase it.”

The restaurants, in northeastern Wisconsin and Door County, helped increase sales and also brought increased name recognition. She plans on spending time contacting more restaurants this winter, but a recent addition to the business has added to her work schedule.

Earlier this year, Paider decided to join the food truck crowd. She found a used trailer in Florida and made the trip there to pick it up. It was priced right and only a few things needed to be changed to bring it up to code. Steamed hot dogs were added to the menu and the trailer was named Desserts N Dogs Cruiser. In addition, she sells shaved Hawaiian ice, edible cookie dough, cheesecake cups, and frozen brownies on a stick. The cheesecake slices are kept separate to drive customers to her store.

Her work schedule now includes baking for the store and restaurants, filling custom orders, working in the retail shop, and hitting the road with the food truck.

“I do all of the ordering, wash the dishes, do the baking, contact restaurants and make sure deliveries are made,” Paider said. “I send out invoices, market the business, update social media, decorate, and handle the administrative work. An accountant handles the major bookkeeping.”

That amounts to about 50 hours a week. It isn’t unusual to see on the schedule posted online that she will be at the shop until 2 p.m. before leaving for a food truck engagement that will last well into the evening. The good news is that the truck has far exceeded expectations.

She said, “I have been overwhelmed by how well the food trailer went over. I am booked out all summer. I wanted to do the Manitowoc Farmers Market and then I signed up for a number of food truck rallies.”

Her efforts have been recognized, not only by increasing sales, but also by the community. Although she didn’t win at last month’s Progress Lakeshore’s annual awards breakfast, she was selected as a nominee for the Entrepreneurial Achievement Award.

All of this has her dreaming big. She would like to lease a space with a bigger kitchen, increase wholesaling to restaurants, add employees, finish designing a website, add an ecommerce site, and continue to grow custom and retail sales.

To accomplish that, one of the main challenges is pricing because the cost of ingredients keeps going up and there are limits to how much customers will be willing to pay. Slices of cheesecake cost between $5.99 and $6.99, but that will likely increase in the next month. There are lower cost options for ingredients but quality is imperative to her success.

She is working with her accountant to look for other areas where she might be able to reduce expenses. As she does that, Paider will continue to work toward achieving her goals.

She said, “I have learned that if you truly want something in life, it is well worth fighting to get what you want. You may have to work harder and many more hours than expected, but in the end it all pays off. It feels good when people come up to me and say, ‘I love your cheesecake.’”

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.

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