We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeffrey Morsfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeffrey below.

Jeffrey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

At Jeff’s Candy Shop our mission is to be a community centric business. With everything going on in the world, I believe we can problem solve at the lowest level by helping our neighbors. I have worked a lot of jobs over the years from various small businesses, to large businesses like Amazon and the Cleveland Clinic. One of the biggest lessons I learned was when you worked at a small business community really matters. You feel you have purpose in what you’re doing, you take pride in your community , and for objective things you can workout with your peers on things like time off or sick days. In big business or corporate environments you are just a number in this machine and it’s hard to find purpose there.

I was so depressed after finishing college and going into the corporate world. I hated the meaningless jobs I hated inventorying and data entry. I hated the fake professional environment with the so many rules and hierarchies. I hated the way these businesses treated the “customers” nickeling and diming for essential care. The world just felt very gray. And on top of all of this I wasn’t even making much money.

So, I created Jeff candy shop. I figured I could at least make the same amount of money as I did at these last companies. I could do something I love (cooking and candy making) and I would make it my mission to be community centric. Give back to the community whenever possible. Get outside and meet people face to face. And as we grow, grow with the community. Employ Cleveland and help my neighbors find purpose and pride outside of these massive companies.

Jeffrey, 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 got into candymaking about four years ago after learning my mom’s english toffee recipe. I’ve always loved cooking, but struggled to share it to more people due to food laws and regulations and other barriers of entry. However, with Candy making you fall under cottage food laws, which means you can make it out of your home and still sell it to the public. This is because Candy making and also baking often use non-hazardous ingredients, which do not pose a threat to the health of the public. With this, my mom‘s toffee recipe means a lot to me and my brothers. My mom immigrated to the United States from Honduras when she was around 10 years old. One of the first things that she discovered in the U.S. was English toffee, and she fell in love with it and over a long period of time She then developed her own toffee recipe. She would make this recipe every holiday season to give to our friends and family members. Everyone always said that she should package it and try to sell it but as an ER nurse with three boys, She was a very busy lady. So with this all being said, partway through college, I started to make the toffee out of my apartment and selling it at local farmers markets starting to slowly grow. Today I offer all our products at jeffscandyshop.com the most popular being “Mom’s Toffee” and the “Jeff’s Toffee Bar”. Mom’s toffee is the exact thing my mom used to make every holiday season and it is offered and a half pint jar with a huge red bow. The Jeff bar is our flagship product and an adapted version of the original recipe into a candy bar, this way it can be packaged and shared across all settings from retail stores, farmers markets, and direct to consumers.

As a business our mission is to be community centric and put a smile on people’s faces. Over the last year we’ve gotten the opportunity to do some great things like donate and volunteer at the Cleveland Food Bank. Give 100 candy bars to ER nurses in honor of my Mom. And Meet Cleveland Legend Tim Misny. The journey is just beginning, and if people would like to follow it, they cand check out jeffscandyshop on all platforms. There I try to post all sorts of things such as community events, candy recipes, and funny videos to make you smile.

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

I really believe in slow growth for raising capital. I started out selling tiny batches of candy I made in my apartment and saving every penny to put towards the next batch. Over time I’ve grown little by little and now I make large batches in a commercial kitchen and ship all over the country. I think it’s important to grow like this because it keeps you lean. The limited amount of money keeps you from getting into a situation you can’t handle.

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

Reputation is really big. Especially in cases like candy making where you may be asking the customer to pay more money for your product vs going to a Walmart and getting candy very cheap. The biggest thing that’s helped my reputation is going to every market possible within Cleveland and having deep personal interactions with each customer that comes by. This helps you share your story and helps you also connect with the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: jeffscandyshop.com
• Instagram: jeffscandyshop
• Facebook: jeffscandyshop
• Linkedin: Jeff’s Candy Shop
• Twitter: jeffscandyshop
• Youtube: jeffscandyshop
• Other: TikTok: jeffscandyshop