For Teyoshe Smith, making charcuterie spreads for family and friends’ events started as a labor of love. But as the appetite for their delicious displays increased, Smith began selling her creations on Facebook Marketplace in May 2022 and using lunch breaks at her day job as a project manager at Capital One to deliver them to customers around Richmond, Virginia.
It wasn’t long before Smith found herself with a successful side hustle. Her business, Bite by Bite & Co., earned $84,000 in its first seven months and led Smith to leave her job to pursue her business full-time in May 2023.
These days, Bite by Bite has outgrown Smith’s kitchen, operating out of a storefront in Richmond and a commercial kitchen in Atlanta. With over 11,000 followers on Instagram, business is booming, bringing in $379,000 in revenue last year, according to CNBC. Smith plans to open two more franchise locations later this year.
But Smith says the key to her success is much more than pretty presentation. She does everything she can to stand out from the competition, including making dips and spreads from fresh ingredients and coming up with innovative ways to save time on set up at events.
“Most charcuterie businesses take two or three hours to set up these long tables at each venue, because you have to unload all your meats, cheeses, coolers, all this drama. We got custom boards, up to 10 feet long, so we can do all the heavy lifting in our own kitchen,” Smith told CNBC. “Then, when we come set up, it’s only 30 minutes. And we’re not hovering over our customers.”
Most importantly, Smith says trusting her own business intuition has helped her become a successful entrepreneur.
“Things were happening organically and falling in my lap. If things are working, I’d rather just keep going until I run into a stumbling block,” she said. “To my core, I love entertaining, I love hosting, I love giving everybody a good experience.”