Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | May 15, 2023 | wbjournal.com PHOTOS | EDD COTE Getting out of the kitchen To move his home business to a Graon storefront, a former educator found an unusual partnership BY KEVIN KOCZWARA WBJ Staff Writer C huck Brown's day starts before sunrise. By 3 a.m., he's at the bakery to get that morning's bread ready for when the storefront of his Graon shop opens at 7 a.m. On weekends, when it's cinnamon roll day, the morning starts earlier. One Saturday, he arrived at 12:30 a.m. and sold out the 16 dozen rolls he made before 8 a.m. He needed to make more the next week. Having to bake more seems to be the norm for Brown. What started out as a hobby has morphed into Bread Guy Breads during the coronavirus pandemic. e former Chuck Brown keeps Bread Guy Breads open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. school principal for 15 years at schools in Vermont and Millbury, as well as the head of school at Seven Hills Charter Public School in Worcester, baked bread for years as a pastime. e sourdough starter he uses at the bakery dates back years. But it was always for pleasure and not a job. During the pandemic, though, Brown decided to step back from his ca- reer in education. He needed something new. So, he began to bake more bread. When a friend lamented the area had no good bread, Brown told him he could bake something he'd like. at's what he did. Word got out. More people put in orders. His home oven became a life- source. A new business. What was once a passion project became something else. It grew to the point where he was featured on WCVB Channel 5's "Chronicle" news magazine program. "I had a little more time, and I gave bread to some friends," Brown said. "en somebody posted on Facebook, 'Oh, he makes bread.' And then all of a sudden it was madness. And then the health department called me and said, 'You have to be legal.'" Brown needed to apply for the proper permits to operate a bakery out of his house. He needed to become a retail residential kitchen, which is anyone pro- ducing food for sale. at meant Brown needed to be inspected and permitted by the local board of health in Graon. Brown filed as a sole proprietor, and by late 2020 he was on his way. Brown's home filled with proofing dough, baking pans, flour, and other ma- terials. He started accumulating Dutch ovens, which he used to bake in his home oven because they're different from commercial ovens and the cast iron pots allow the bread to reach the right tem- perature and retain the proper amount of moisture in a conventional oven. He launched a website for ordering. A hobby became a career. But it had all got to be too much. His home was no longer his home. He needed a plan. He reached out to the Massachusetts Small Business Develop- ment Center Network at Clark Universi- ty in Worcester and started developing a business proposal. He started looking at a way to make this baking thing into his next act. "I was making about 400 loaves a week at my house," Brown said. The right partner Starting a business is hard enough, as historically about one-fih of new companies fail within the first year and about half make it beyond the fih year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis- tics data. Creating a successful and sustainable new business requires an idea and execu- tion, some luck, and good timing. Being in a suburb with everyone locked up because of COVID was the right time for Brown to start a bakery. It afforded him time to learn because he had no other preoccupation and because other people FOCUS S M A L L B U S I N E S S

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