Business advice + cookies!

of challenges she encountered. She said she created “The Cookie” for Metropolitan Market ­­– a wildly popular bakery item ­– and supplied it for 5 years. Now, the stores use her recipe without giving her credit. She also described a more recent challenge, a metal detection fiasco in her warehouse when Bite Me! was collaborating with other businesses to create an ice cream sandwich.

Ms. Tuggle emphasized the importance of taking care of her employees through ethical business practices, such as providing a living wage, working only Monday-Friday, and supporting new immigrants in the community by offering high-paying work programs to set them up for success. Her warehouse posts all the signage in seven languages.

The meeting with Ms. Tuggle had a practical purpose, as well. The fifth graders were getting ready to start and run the Seabury School Store. Students spent several weeks organizing ideas and creating business plans independently before collaborating with classmates, or business partners, in this case. They practiced social and business skills: listening to their classmates' ideas with respect, building on to each other’s’ ideas and accepting that sometimes their own do not get actualized.

Ms. Tuggle said she was impressed with the schema the students showed her, and how they had followed basic business practices. She was also impressed with the complex questions they asked her, including those that connected her experiences with their own small business.

She brought some cookie samples, too!