Remember the hobbies that got you through the early days of Covid-19? Some of us started sourdough baking, others picked up knitting again. Sarah Anyieth, a partner at Riveron, the accounting and business consultancy, became a vegan chocolatier.
What started as a way to connect with friends during the pandemic has become Nhiär Chocolates, a bootstrapped business with commercial space, an online storefront, and corporate and hotel clients. Anyieth spoke with CFO Brew to talk about where she learned to make chocolate, when she realized her hobby had become something more, and how, as an accountant and business transformation consultant, she’s helped Nhiär grow with skills from her day job.
How did you get the idea for the business?
I didn’t [set] out to start a business. It was Covid, and I was trying to find a way to spread love when everyone was trapped at home. I was thinking, “What can I send?” I settled on chocolates. I would go to the USPS store with my mask on, stand in line, and mail the package to my friends.
How did you learn how to make such intricate little chocolates, and why did you decide to make them vegan?
My mom was a culinary artist. People would come to the house just to learn how to cook from her. One of my favorite things she would make was Black Forest cake. I remember she would make and shape the chocolate like a forest on the cake. It was so fun. But she used sugar and back then I didn’t have a dairy allergy. I tried to think what I could do that would taste good, not be super caloric, and not have dairy.
When did it become a business and not just a hobby?
I started out sending chocolates to friends. Then [they’d ask] “Oh, can you send me more chocolates?” I’m like, “Okay, [but] pay postage.” It starts getting expensive. I’m getting Venmo, Zelle, maybe PayPal. I learned about Etsy, and that’s where things started really changing, because all of a sudden, I’m getting orders from people I don’t know.
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I wasn’t making [chocolates] to scale then, but I started getting more orders. My rabbi said “you can use the [synagogue] kitchen,” so that’s where we started. But then we got too big, so I had to find a space. Finding a commercial space for a new company is really hard. They don’t want to give their warehouse to anybody; they want established companies.
I started out with one machine to grind the chocolate [but] we started [getting] a lot of orders. It was actually really scary because I was still working full time. There was a period where I didn’t sleep because I had [just] one person helping me. She would come at six o’clock and we’d work till midnight every day just to fill orders. So we bought our second machine. It’s like, “oh my gosh, I’m going all in.”
What skills from your day job have helped you run the business?
Unit economics. What does this cost me from a staff perspective, overhead, what is the retail? If you go through distribution, what’s the minimum margin hit you can have? So all that stuff was helpful.
How to make things automated. What do I keep in-house versus outsource? We outsource marketing. Part of what I do now, especially as a partner [at Riveron], is a lot of business development, a lot of being able to tell the story and speak to people.
What’s next for the business?
What I learned from year one, which was crazy growth, was that multitasking is really difficult. So for me to grow this, I need to find talent for me to be comfortable levering up.
I had the option of receiving funding to continue to scale, and I made the choice to continue to steadily grow. My focus has always been on profitability over scalability. I want to make sure as we grow we continue to be profitable, because I want the business to be self-sustaining.