Love of cooking is the foundation for Detroit small business

Char Mills started cooking when she was a child, peeling garlic and learning to make authentic Louisiana Creole food alongside her father.

She combined this love of cooking and her business education to start an online cooking class company during the pandemic. It has since flourished to include multiple lines of business including in-person cooking lessons and catering focused on stunning charcuterie boards. Modern Maison has served numerous individual clients, and recently catered the National Football League’s NFL Draft in Detroit.

“Food was the center of how we gathered as a family,” she says. “My father was an entrepreneur, and I have an MBA in marketing and management. This seemed like a natural fit.”

Modern Maison is a winner of a 2024 Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award, which recognizes entrepreneurs striving to improve their community and provides them with $10,000 .

Mills recent shared her business journey, including the importance of seizing opportunities, diversifying your offerings, and continuing to learn.

Tip: Be ready to pivot.

Mills was a full-time, stay-at-home parent of three children when she started Modern Maison, offering online cooking classes to kids on Zoom.

She landed her first contract during the pandemic with the Children’s Education Division of Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan, with a promise to teach fundamental classroom skills and cooking.

“Math is a big part of cooking, so we were able to work on those skills in the cooking lessons,” she says. “It was a way during the pandemic to boost online attendance and engage children who were struggling to adapt to remote learning.”

As the world started to open back up and her school contract ended, she decided to evolve her offerings to include catering and cooking lessons for adults. Today, the bulk of Modern Maison’s business is creating custom charcuterie boards and grazing tablescapes for events.

“Charcuterie is creative, and there wasn’t really much in the way of startup costs beyond ingredients and whatever I am serving it on,” she says.

Cooking classes and workshops are typically done on-site at customers’ homes or offices. For her catering business, Mills uses the commercial kitchen at her church for food preparation. The facilities are big enough that she has room to bring on employees as needed for projects, but she can’t store equipment or supplies there.

“Eventually, I would love to have my own commercial space with storage, but that would mean I would need to buy a lot of kitchen equipment,” she says. “That is what I’ll need to do to speed up my growth, though.”

Both Mills’ business education and prior work experience in banking have helped her plan and expand each step of the way. “I kept very low debt initially as I built up my customer base, but for the next phase I will need financing” she says. “I have a Citizens business credit card that I plan on using, and I’m keenly aware that lines of credit and business loans may be helpful.”

Bottom line: You may start your business with one offering and growth plan and need to pivot to maintain or grow. This is a classic business development stage, not a sign of trouble. As the business environment shifts and opportunities evolve, be willing to take your company in a new direction. As long as you stay true to your interests and skills, new markets or lines of business may yield even more success than your original plan.

Tip: Pursue market diversity.

Mills attributes her success in part to her ability to serve a variety of customers and her willingness to serve the needs of different markets. This approach works because she stays focused on delivering her core expertise.

Pursuing business on the smaller side, she welcomes the chance to offer “cooking engagement experiences” to seniors, such as a recent afternoon at the Troy House, an assisted living residence in Troy, MI.

“I got them to come to the table and chop vegetables with me and help cook, and then they get to eat what they’ve made,” she says. “They’re ecstatic, because no one comes and cooks with them like that.”

On a decidedly bigger scale, Modern Maison was a vendor for two 2024 NFL Draft events in Detroit. “It was a phenomenal experience, and it really got our name out into the market,” Mills says.

For one NFL event, Mills and her team created a charcuterie table for 400 people, with over 25 feet of meats, cheeses, fruits, crackers, and other treats including a small-scale replica of a stadium.

“It was a big undertaking, and I brought in about nine people to assist over three days of preparation,” she says. “We all got a chance to put our experience and creativity to work.”

A separate NFL event for business owners, community leaders, former players, and other VIPs gave Mills the chance to bring in a wine bar. This expansion elevated her business to a new level. “I got a lot of good feedback, and I made it to the NFL preferred vendor list, which is fabulous,” Mills says.

Bottom line: As long as you can do it efficiently and expertly, having a variety of customer sets can be good for business. Customer diversification can help with cash flow, since one market may be growing while another one is flat or down. Also, selling to many customer types can help you to explore what offerings are the most profitable.

Tip: Continue to learn.

While Mills had an MBA and real-world business banking experience when she started Modern Maison, she is committed to looking for resources that can help deepen her skills and knowledge.

She’s an active member of the Michigan Black Business Alliance and regularly participates in its educational initiatives. In one program she learned to create a business plan, pursue capital, and create financial projections.

“It really got us down into the nitty gritty of things like purchasing and the importance of knowing what everything costs, down to each fork,” Mills says. “I came away with projections for three years that I can take to a bank if I wanted to apply for a loan.”

Opportunities such as these also help Mills network with other professionals and position her brand for expansion. In French, maison means a large home with many rooms, and Mills sees her business having many “doors” that she can open.

One potential direction for the company is to build it into a lifestyle brand, with a restaurant and a line of branded products. Mills cites the Magnolia Network, co-owned by HGTV star Joanna Gaines, as inspiration. “I have so many ideas and directions I’d like to take the business in,” says Mills.

Bottom line: Professional development can help fill gaps in the skills you’ll need to reach your business goals. Even the most experienced business owner can benefit from ongoing skill building. This may include soft skills such as time management, leadership, communication, and networking. You can also build hard skill such as financial management and technology proficiency.