Maryland small business says buying local is a very big deal – WTOP News

Cheese lovers can now discover Firefly Farms goat cheeses in grocery retailer chains, however when Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet began their enterprise in 2002, they had been working on a really small scale and doing every little thing themselves.

“We began in the way in which that loads of cheesemakers do on a farmstead on our property,” mentioned Koch, describing the primary operation in Garrett County, Maryland, as a microbusiness. “Pablo was a fulltime goatherd,” Koch mentioned with amusing.

Their cheeses had been bought at farmers markets throughout the D.C. space, and Koch mentioned they marked their first full month in enterprise that yr with “simply shy of $700 of gross sales for the month.”

Now, Koch instructed WTOP, “between the retail enterprise and the manufacturing enterprise, it appears to be like like 2022 will end a bit over $4 million” in enterprise.

Regardless of the expansion, Koch mentioned, Firefly Farms nonetheless falls beneath the definition of a small enterprise, in response to the Small Enterprise Administration.

Koch and Solanet function a enterprise in Accident, Maryland, that features a manufacturing area and a retail outlet. Additionally they have a store in Baltimore’s Whitehall Mill.

Solanet says once you purchase from a small enterprise like theirs, “you’re supporting a neighborhood.” Of their case, he mentioned, “we’re supporting all our farmers, all our staff,” and the cash ripples out throughout the neighborhood.

“You see it,” he mentioned.

Koch instructed WTOP that Firefly Farms buys milk from 17 household farms, 13 of that are “30 miles from the place I’m seated” in Accident.

“Help for farmers is why we’re sitting right here,” he mentioned. “It’s why we did this.”

Like every enterprise, Firefly Farms has seen swings within the financial system, and the pandemic modified the way in which folks purchased cheese. Coming into retail areas for a pattern was out, so packaging cheeses for grab-and-go clients turned extra necessary.

The pandemic had some silver linings for western Maryland companies reminiscent of Firefly Farms, Koch mentioned. Most of the trip houses in and round Garrett County had been instantly occupied within the offseason by individuals who wished to depart cities. That meant extra gross sales within the county, and a few of that elevated site visitors has endured.

Customers had been additionally making acutely aware choices on purchases.

“There was an actual change in the way in which we noticed shoppers standing up and saying ‘I’m supporting my native makers,’” mentioned Koch. “Smaller gamers within the meals system had been impulsively very occupied with strengthening their ties with native makers.”

Anybody wishing to begin their small enterprise ought to hold a number of issues in thoughts, mentioned Koch.

“You’ve received to actually need it,” he mentioned, and be ready to make modifications to the enterprise mannequin.

“A half-dozen instances prior to now 20 years, any sane, conservative enterprise particular person would have shut down,” he mentioned.

However he’s grateful they didn’t, “as a result of we’re in a very good place.”

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