We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emma Martens a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Emma, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

During Covid my business basically came to a halt because I was doing in person classes and events. After getting into a conversation on LinkedIn about virtual events, I started offering my own virtual Chocolate Tasting Experiences and it immediately took off. Now I basically only do corporate events, mostly virtual for which I send out the chocolate kits in advance, but also some in-person events on corporate campuses. I love the feedback from the participants and it’s a wonderful feeling to see and hear how excited they are, how much they enjoy the chocolates, and how much they appreciate all the information about chocolate crafting. I get a kick out of reading the reactions in the chat room and feel so grateful when I receive a round of applause after an in-person event. Seeing all these happy faces is the most rewarding part of my job.

Emma, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Emma Martens, a Belgian chocolatière and owner of Emma’s Delights, Belgian chocolates. I handcraft traditional Belgian chocolates in small batches and make all my own fillings from scratch. I host virtual and in-person team events to share my knowledge about chocolate crafting and guide participants on how to taste chocolate and how to pair hem with wine. The best part is to see how much people enjoy the whole process and to read/hear all the wonderful comments.

I started my business as a hobby after watching online instructional videos on how to make chocolates and started sharing my passion for chocolate by teaching friends how to make soft center bonbons. I continued to learn a lot more about the chocolate making process by taking a confectionary course at the International Culinary Institute in Campbell, CA as well as workshops with a Belgian chocolatier in Los Angeles, and continued to perfect my craft. A year later, I took the big leap to start a business.

I think the big difference with most industrial, and even craft chocolates is that I do not use glucose in any of my creations because it is just another sugar and mainly serves to prolong shelf life. As I only make my chocolates to order, I don’t feel I have the need to add glucose and I prefer to let the pure ingredients speak for themselves. That is also why my fillings do NOT contain any added sugars, except for when I want to caramelize an ingredient; then I use a small amount of organic cane sugar. I also offer vegan and nut free options.

The first few years I attended Holiday Markets and pop-up events to sell my chocolates, was invited to go to corporate campus events, teach classes at clubs and private parties, and host corporate holiday events. Soon I started to focus more and more on chocolate making classes and demos because I enjoy being around people and getting direct feedback. I taught classes for birthdays and bridal events and held team building events at my workshop. I hosted live demos at corporate Happy Hours and clubs, and collaborated with wineries for chocolate and wine pairing events.

When the pandemic hit in 2020 all these in-person events came to an abrupt end, but a casual comment of mine to a LinkedIn post about corporate holiday parties via Zoom led to an avalanche of requests for virtual chocolate experiences and I found my new business model. I offer Chocolate Tasting, Decorating, and Pairing with Wine Experiences, and even though I host in-person events on location in the Bay Area, 90% of my events are still virtual. I ship the chocolate kits a week in advance, send out all the info and a video link, and we meet up at the requested time of day for a fun event. Between the booking and the event we have a string of communications and by the day we meet it feels as if we’re friends already!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

At first I received a lot of mouth to mouth advertising from participating in Holiday Markets and pop ups, and existing customers would always come back and bring in new customers. But I think I also found a niche with my traditional Belgian chocolates so people who were looking for special party favors would easily find me online and contact me. That is how quite a few corporate customers found me and put in orders for luncheons, holiday parties, and even conventions.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I started off with $5,000 of our personal money to pay for permits and licenses, website, and the most necessary equipment and tools. So the first year I only invested in the most essential tools and equipment: 2 melters, spatulas, polycarbonate molds, gift boxes, chocolate of course, and a few good thermometers. I proceeded very carefully because I wanted to make sure that there was a market for high end chocolates and, mostly, I wanted to make sure that I would want to continue investing my time and effort in this new venture because it certainly is not the easiest business and very demanding on the body. I also wanted to make sure that I would continue to enjoy crafting chocolates and not grow tired of it. Those were all reasons why I didn’t want to lease a store front. That was obviously a draw back for sales back then (2013), because you don’t have the foot traffic, but it certainly helps to keep the costs down, and in hindsight, it is probably the best decision I made. It helped me to grow at a manageable pace, to stay out of debt, and most importantly: to still have time for other things in life.
I obviously didn’t turn a profit the first year, but broke even the second, relying mostly on orders from friends and participating in a few holiday markets, all the while investing any profit into buying more tools and another stainless steel table.
Every year was a little better and now I can work at my own pace, as much or as little as I want. Generating profit was never the driving force behind this endeavor; I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and making people happy with my chocolate experiences is the highest reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emmasdelights.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmasdelights
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmasdelights.gourmetfoods
• Linkedin: Emma Martens

Image Credits
photos: Emma Martens