We recently connected with Kelly Larson and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

I’m so lucky to be in a family business and can only hope that my daughter or nieces and nephews would like to take over someday. We have learned so many lessons. First, everyone needs a job to be responsible for – that they own. It’s important to have clearly defined areas so that you have some autonomy. When I first came back to work for my parents, we were all in charge of everything and that really doesn’t work! Second, you can never have too much communication! It’s important to know how everything works together. As roles transition, everyone needs to be comfortable and you have to talk your way through those things. My parents and I are at the point where they are transitioning more of their jobs to me and I try to be grateful for all of the advice that they still want to give.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My first job was at Temptations when I was only 15 and my parents bought the store 4 years later. I worked for them through college and after I had graduated they had the opportunity to buy another location. I came back to work for them full time and over the next ten years, we started making our own ice cream and acquired another couple of locations. In 1999 we merged our candy making and ice cream making to form a new company that we called Sweet Temptations.

My husband was working in Grand Rapids at an international company at the time and was in charge of buying their corporate gifts. I had just started learning about baskets and thought this was an area that I should probably pursue! The next year, he got the ok to use us. He left the company the following year and I’m happy to report that they are still one of my largest customers 23 years later! The thing that sets us apart in gift giving is that we understand that it’s our job to put the company in front of their client. We customize as many things as possible. Everything is made to order so freshness is key.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

Nine years ago, I was approached about buying a hundred year old general store in our town, Fortino’s. Originally I passed as I felt like I already had a job! The longer I thought about it, I pictured it being a great compliment to what I owned. Fortino’s is a gourmet food store that roasts it’s own nuts, sells candy, chocolate, alcohol and so many other cool foods. It had been run by the same family for three generations and the fourth generation wasn’t ready to be a shop keeper. We made an offer in August and it took until the beginning of December to complete the sale. I qualified for an SBA loan and had to get a liquor license and those were the things that took the longest to complete. I was lucky to have a great relationship with the sellers and got to shadow them for those few months as well as put my management team in to work with them early to learn. The Fortino family is still around and stop in daily for some conversation as well as every once in a while they’ll offer me some advice. I couldn’t be luckier.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We make all of our own ice cream – my dad actually went to ice cream school and brought back what he learned. We originally started in the back room of one of our stores where my dad would perfect his recipes, with help from a few regional manufacturers in the area (a mix specialist and a flavoring guru). The next year we bought a larger piece of equipment and rented space closer to our main location and then ran it from there until we merged our candy making and ice cream making operations in 1999 to form Sweet Temptations.

Ice cream making is tricky! There is a combination of science and art – sugar, solids and acids are important but so are the right flavor combinations. We have found many great distributors of ingredients and then it’s our job to put it together correctly. We are still learning and are constantly trying new ideas. Last year got award blue ribbons (the highest honor) from the North American Ice Cream Association for our Vanilla Bean and Dark Decadence.

We also make our own caramel corn, fudge, peanut brittle, caramel apples as well as dip chocolate pretzels, oreos and rice krispy treats. As we wholesale all of our homemade treats, we are under a different set of guidelines. We take food safety very seriously as we are governed by the Food Safety Modernization Act. My lesson is to research the safety requirements before you start as they may be more stringent and expensive than you realize.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweet-temptations.com www.fortinosgeneralstore.com
• Instagram: sweettemptationsgh, fortinosgourmet
• Facebook: sweet temptations , www.facebook.com/fortinosstoregh

Image Credits
Kelly Ruffing Senator Roger Victory’s Office