baked with pride in the hudson valley
little loaf bakeshop
2023-2024 recap
This has been another transformative year for Little Loaf.
We closed a $450K SBA loan (a massive feat in and of itself), ran a successful Kickstarter campaign that brought in an additional $25K, built a brand new bakery from scratch, nearly cracked $500K in revenue out of a tiny incubator kitchen, grew our team by a third, increased our social following and engagement, landed our first press features, and went through a brand refresh.
Check out more of the details below!
A Bigger Little Loaf
In late 2023, while Colleen and I were working a farmers market, a longtime customer came up and said she’d been watching our business grow for a while and wanted to know what our next move was. When we shared our hopes for the future, she suggested we connect with her boss, who happened to be renovating a building in New Paltz. One conversation led to another, and now, a year later, we’re about to move into that very building—a place that will fully be our home.
After a year of intense ups and downs, we are now ready to take on this huge and exciting leap forward for Little Loaf.
Read on to learn more about what all we did in 2024 to get us to this point.
A few small “projects…”
Financing
By the end of 2022, with two years of business and solid financials under our belt, we qualified for an SBA loan. Despite its challenges (anyone who has received an SBA loan knows the pain), the lower interest rate and added support made it worth pursuing. Anticipating our move from the incubator kitchen, we tackled the next steps: five-year financial projections and a detailed project estimate based on architectural drawings. With guidance from the Acceleration Project and a strong legal, financial, and architectural team, we secured the loan from the folks at Pursuit Lending—after 10 anxiety-filled months!
Assembling our Support Squad
Having rock-solid legal and financial support was, and continues to be, crucial to this project (and beyond)—people we could ask “dumb” questions without feeling judged. We were lucky to find local partners who now know our business inside and out, explain things clearly and patiently, and have become folks we trust implicitly.
Then, there’s therapy. I believe all leaders, especially anyone managing people, should be in therapy. And if you’re in business with your partner/spouse, couples therapy is a non-negotiable. It’s been huge for our relationship and our business.
Architecture & Fit-Out
It was hugely important to us to find the right architect. We wanted a local, smaller firm that understood the Hudson Valley, cared about sustainability, and had a diverse team. After some searching, we found River Architects. They understood us and our vision—and were incredibly patient with how hands-on we wanted to be. :)
We also leaned on Colleen’s industry mentors—bakery owners from the Bay Area—to help shape the kitchen design. Working closely with the architects, we dug into every detail: picking tiles for the floors and counters, choosing baking equipment (our rack oven is a dream), and even finding the perfect dishwasher to make washing sheet pans easier on our team. Every decision was intentional, always putting our team first while balancing practicality and sustainability.
The Build-Out
Final Design
(and some pastries because I can’t help myself)
Successfully Funded
Kickstarter Campaign
Our customers asked how they could support us—and we definitely needed the extra help (aka $$)!—so we launched a Kickstarter campaign featuring unique rewards and swag. Thanks to nearly 200 backers, we hit our $25K goal in just 30 days.
Check out the campaign page to see how we set it up and what we offered!
The biggest driver of our success might be the outtakes reel from our Kickstarter video that our friend Ame put together!!
2024 Digital Marketing Recap
This year, we saw substantial growth in our website and social media, especially with the announcement of our new bakery.
New website users increased by 142.6%, and active users rose by 145.9%, reflecting enhanced brand awareness and engagement.
Social media followers grew by nearly 60%, adding 2,500 new followers and boosting organic traffic by 121.2%. Users spent 31.4% more time on the site, improving customer relations and driving sales.
Purchases for special events and farmers markets surged 413.3%, driven by items like our popular Pretzel and Chocolate Croissants.
SEO efforts led to a 319.5% visibility increase for key pages. This multi-channel approach significantly strengthened Little Loaf’s presence and achieved notable year-over-year growth. Check out more details to the right. ➔
Brand Refresh
We wanted our new location to make a splash with fresh packaging, swag, and experiential design. Serendipitously, two of our first—and most loyal—customers turned out to be the power-couple designers we needed. Kate is an expert in wallpaper, murals, and hand-painting; while Scott excels in brand design and illustration.
Collaborating closely, they expanded on our current brand look and feel (initially brought to life by our friends at Sketchdeck) to create a suite of design pieces that we couldn’t be happier with. It’s hard to pick a favorite element, but if we had to choose: 1) the bathroom murals, which reveal something new every time and perfectly capture our brand, and 2) our new box design, which encourages reuse. With returnable food packaging likely becoming a future industry standard, this helps our customers get into that mindset now.
Take a look at some of the design highlights, below
