El Bread Shop: How a Mom of Five Flexibly Sells Bread From Home

Meet Noel Deeb

A baker, mother, and owner of cottage bakery El Bread Shop in Louisville, KY. She makes stone ground, whole grain, sourdough breads and treats using organic, regionally grown and stone milled grains. She mills about 30% of their whole grain in house leading to a product that’s old world, rustic, fresh, flavorful and packed full of wholesome goodness.

How she got started

Part of what Noel’s customers love and relate to about El Bread Shop is her story. After 12 years of being a stay at home mom, she looked for a business she could start from her house. Something flexible that works with her family’s schedule, but also creative and fulfilling. She started selling bread to family and friends in her Louisville community and El Bread Shop slowly grew through word of mouth. Moving to a new home that had to be remodeled allowed Noel to build out her dream kitchen and scale her capacity even more.

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Why she switched to Hotplate

Before Hotplate, customers could order their El Bread Shop baked goods via Instagram DM or email. Noel handled conversations with customers and kept track of all her bread orders manually. On top of baking, being a mom to 5 kids, and running other aspects of her business, Noel needed a solution that would keep her organized and save her administrative headache. When we caught up with Noel she joked that she’s somewhat glad she spent years handling everything manually just so she could appreciate how much better it is to have an automated tool!

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How hotplate works for her business

With no brick and mortar location, die hard customers use Hotplate to place all of their orders from El Bread Shop. Noel creates pre-order events for pickups from her home or her booth at weekend markets. New customers she meets at the farmer’s markets can still walk up and purchase on the spot, but are encouraged to sign up for El Bread Shop’s SMS notification list so they can pre-order for next time.

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Scaled to the right size

El Bread Shop has grown organically through word of mouth and local community without much marketing work from Noel herself. She’s spent years selling within her local Louisville community and has nurtured a loyal fanbase of customers that continue to support her business. According to Noel, it’s not in her plan to move this cottage bakery operation into a permanent storefront or become a big booming bakery. With five kids at home, she’s found a way to maintain a steady business while still working around her schedule as a mom.

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Lessons learned from the best

Noel and El Bread Shop are a great example of how you can start a small food business from home and build it around your family life. We’ve boiled down a few key lessons from Noel’s story:

• Scale slowly: El Bread grew slowly and organically, expanding menu items, pick up times, and inventory as their customer base grew. Not growing too big too fast means you minimize wasted food, time, and energy.

• Fit your work around your life, not the other way around: For mom’s like Noel, running a cottage bakery that runs on pre-orders means that you can build your bake and pick up schedule around your life. Offering pick ups from your home also means you’re not wasting time sitting in a market or separate storefront. Laundry and customers pickups can happen at the same time!

• Cultivate community: Noel still uses her home as a pickup location and has grown her business to this level of success through local word of mouth. She’s regularly present at local markets and mentions neighbors and friends being her most loyal customers. Noel also told us about the connections she found in the online sourdough community on social media, and how other bakers are extremely supportive and helpful towards each other.

We’re super inspired by Noel and El Bread Shop. Find out more about her in her Instagram and this great episode of The Sourdough Podcast where she talks more about her life and business.

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