Heidi Nel' s Fresh Baked Success

On a tree-lined suburban street in Alpharetta, Georgia, a cookie factory grinds away in Heidi Nel’s basement-turned-commercial kitchen.

Her employees are all neighbors and friends—the same ones who attend PTA meetings and pick up Nel’s six-year-old daughter, Carleigh, from school when cookie orders exceed hours in a day.

Last Christmas, the same friends helped Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies produce more than 20,000 cookies for orders across the country. Not too shabby for a business that only became incorporated in 2002.

But her sweet success didn’t come easy.

After September 11, 2001, Nel, a then stay-at-home mom with a three-year-old (and two older children—high school students Kyle and Keali), realized she would need to return to work when her husband lost his technology job due to the economic downturn.

“I wasn’t a bored housewife. I had plenty to do that kept me busy,” she says. “But when 9/11 hit, we were like, ‘What do we do?’”

Nel was seven credits away from a marketing degree, but she stopped focusing on school to bring in money waitressing and teaching English to Korean students.

“Those two jobs really helped me. I learned how a professional kitchen operates, and the tutoring helped fine-tune my writing,” she says. “Even the most mundane jobs can prepare you for life.”

Nel’s revamped family cookie recipes—toffee chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate eclipse—had always left lucky recipients addicted to the oven-toasted almonds, fresh vanilla, and butter. She and her husband, André, would joke about starting a business, and out of desperation came inspiration; they decided now would be the time.

They turned their 1,700-square-foot basement into a commercial kitchen with an $8,000 investment for refurbished equipment. Nel did her homework, taking a six-week course at Georgia State University on how to start your own business.

“There was a lot of red tape involved in starting a business and I would’ve given up if I hadn’t been desperate at the time,” she says. “If you’re in this for just a hobby, it’s not going to work. You have to make sure everyone in your family is going to support you, because it becomes a priority.”

Heidi started baking, while André, whose background is in advertising, took over the look and packaging of the cookies. Although word-of-mouth has been their only advertising, this March Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies shipped 400 times the number of cookies it did during the same month last year through orders at heidisheavenlycookies.com . They’re now in the process of doubling kitchen capacity to produce 50,000 cookies a month. “This business is something that won’t go out of style and can’t be outsourced,” Nel says. “It’s important for me to set up an environment where my staff or I can leave if we have to get our kids from school. It’s been good for my kids to see all the hard work that goes into it.”

It’s no surprise Nel’s friends became her staff. If the comfort and warmth of a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie could be found in a person, she’d embody it.

“I find that women help other women because they want you to succeed,” she says. “People feel that if it can happen to you, it can happen to them.”