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Baby Steps:

Little Town Granola finds Recipe for Success

 

By Celene Adams

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Back in their dating days, Aarica and Daniel Sohar, proprietors of Little Town Granola, were in such a hurry to own their own business they spent at least as much time critiquing local retail establishments as they did with each other.

“We were entrepreneurs at heart,” Aarica says. “Out together on a Saturday night, we’d drive around looking at retail establishments and say, ‘If we owned this, or if we owned that, ….’”

The young couple had ideas aplenty, and, after tying the knot at the tender ages of 19 and 20, they turned them into reality, buying an appliance repair business and successfully running it for more than three years.

But although business boomed, the Sohars weren’t sufficiently experienced to handle it. The operation was expanding too rapidly─and so was their personal life: Before their first anniversary, they’d added a mortgage, two car payments, and their first child, Jack, to their plate.

“We wanted everything, and all at once. We wanted a big house. We wanted to furnish it. We wanted to have the nice cars. We wanted a big family,” Aarica says.

Consequently, by the time they reached their early 20s, the Sohars were deeply in debt, and their marriage was beginning to feel the strain. It didn’t help when Daniel had to take a part-time job to provide health care benefits for the family.

“He was going to work at 4 o’clock in the morning, working this four- or five-hour, part-time job for health insurance, and then doing calls at the appliance repair business all day,” Aarica remembers.

Stressed to the max, the Sohars, who were now expecting twins, decided to simplify their lives. Recognizing that they had “foolishly left God out” of their decision to acquire so much so soon, they decided to seek divine guidance in all their affairs by renewing their prayer life and Bible study.

“In Proverbs 22:7 it says, ‘The borrower is slave to the lender,’” Aarica says. “Daniel and I felt like slaves to our debt load, and we were determined to do life God’s way, according to His teachings from the Bible. One of those guidelines was to live debt free. So, through a lot of prayer and just God guiding our lives, we ended up selling our home and our business.”

Swallowing their pride, the Sohars then moved to Kidron, Ohio, to live in a rental property owned by Daniel’s parents, while Daniel took a job in a machine shop.

“It was humbling,” Aarica says. “It was a very nice, clean place. But, you know. It was mom and dad’s rental.”

Equally sobering was the fact that, while Daniel’s job offered benefits and a steady paycheck, it was a modest living for a single-income family─especially once the twins, Simon and Oliver, arrived. And it meant Daniel was away from home more than ever. So, despite feeling more financially secure, the Sohars’ entrepreneurial spirits were sagging.

“We still had that deep burning in our hearts. We always really felt like we could do more, produce more of an income, and spend more time together if we were self-employed,” Aarica says.

But the Sohars now dismissed such dreams. Their home and business were gone. All they had left was lingering debt and three mouths to feed.

It’s been said, however, that God works in mysterious ways. And, this time, it seemed that God was working with granola.

“I love to cook,” Aarica says. “And, ever since I was little, I was always throwing together concoctions. If I have a recipe, it’s the death of me if I have to follow it to the T. I love to alter it. I love to make it my own.  So when I discovered the boys didn’t like the flavorless, hard, sawdust variety of granola available in stores, I began baking it myself.”

Altering bake times and sauces, Aarica eventually found just the right “crisp but not too break-your-teeth” texture to suit the three little Sohars, and she created five unique flavors: cranberry almond, a moist medley of tart and nutty; cinnamon raisin; banana walnut; chocolate; and “Simply,” a maple and vanilla variety without fruit or nuts.

“Daniel and the boys liked my granola so much, I started using it in muffins, cookies, and pancake batter, too,” Aarica says.

Seeing how much their sons loved the chewy cereal, Daniel and Aarica could no longer contain their entrepreneurial energy. They took samples to Lehman’s, an old-fashioned department store that specializes in simple, all-natural products and supports local business owners. And when the manager invited them to distribute at its weekend open house, they jumped at the opportunity: Aarica baked up 200 pounds─the biggest batch she’d ever made, and her sister-in-laws helped Daniel and the kids package it.

“It really took off from the beginning,” Aarica laughs, recalling how all 100 bags disappeared from Little Town’s sample table by noon. “Everyone loved the texture. They loved the taste. They loved our family. They’d ask us, ‘Oh wow, you have three boys, and how did you start this?’ And once we’d tell people our story, they’d be, like, ‘Oh wow, this is a family-owned business,’ and they’d grab a couple more.”

That night, after putting the kids to bed, Aarica and Daniel stayed up until 3 a.m., stirring sauce and baking whole grain oats into granola. It was exhausting, but they were back in business, and they were enjoying more time together than they’d been able to manage since their courting days.

“I just look back at those memories and smile at how much fun we had,” Aarica reminisces.

Of course, their minds were working overtime, full of ideas about operating their own bakery one day.

“How wonderful it would be,” Aarica mused. “We could be making calls or packaging granola, and the boys could help us.”

After all, the Sohar family was becoming a regular production line. Jack, Simon, and Oliver had just welcomed Otto, the family’s fourth boy.

Yet, distributors and suppliers weren’t always willing to work with a family-run operation that made granola in its kitchen.

“You don’t have your own facility. You’re not in enough stores. You’re just young kids,” Aarica recalls one distributor suggesting.

Baby Otto was another concern.

“We were trying to do granola between naps,” Aarica says. “It was just too much.”

Resigning themselves to these realities, the Sohars, once again, found themselves seeking to sell their business. But, this time, there were no buyers.

“We searched and searched. But we just kept hitting closed doors,” Aarica says.

It wasn’t until a local baker heard of the situation and approached them with a quote for producing the granola that the solution became clear: Daniel and Aarica would retain ownership of Little Town Granola, continuing to take care of all operations except production.

Yet, now the couple faced a new challenge: finding a way to maintain Aarica’s special homemade taste and texture, given the baker’s industrial-sized oven.

“We did the biggest amount we could,” Aarica says. “But it took a lot of trial and error to preserve its unique qualities. So finally, we decided not to do the industrial, 1,000 pounds at a time kind of thing.”

It was a recipe for success: Over the next two years, six more local stores began carrying Little Town’s granola, enabling the Sohars to pay off the last of their debt, move to Massillon, Ohio, welcome Lincoln, their fifth boy, to the family, and begin renting their own bakery─a space where they can work together and be at home with their children.

“We’d love to own a bakery, but we’ve decided to lease, rather than taking out a loan to build one,” Aarica says. “We’re committed to cash-rolling the business this time, too. We used a small amount of cash from savings to start Little Town Granola, and we buy gently used equipment instead of purchasing new. We also save a percentage of our earnings each month, so we can cash-roll necessary purchases like package labels or equipment replacement.”

Rather than grasping for everything all at once, the Sohars now believe in taking baby steps.

“We’ve critiqued our own approach to doing business,” Aarica says. “And we’ve decided that making something good takes time.”

Business name: Little Town Granola, LLC
Business owners: Daniel and Aarica Sohar
Business type: Granola Production
Years in business: 4
Market niche: Local, natural foods
Business philosophy: Fresh baked, homemade goodness takes time
Website: littletowngranola.com