Hi, My name is Melanie Boudar. I’ve had several careers in life beginning with the fine jewelry industry from the age of 19. I attended the Gemological Institute in 1989 and became a gemologist working for a jewelry company in Albuquerque, NM. We were wholesale manufacturers but also had several retail jewelry stores and attended domestic and International industry trade shows to sell our products . I bought diamonds and colored stones for the company in Belgium, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany, and stayed with this company for 20 years. Although it was a great career, I wanted to steer my own direction and stop the 50 hour work weeks.
I quit my job and created a line of Equestrian jewelry. I traveled the Olympic Equestrian Circuit up and down the East coast and into Canada setting up booths and selling the jewelry for a year. After working so long in a vault, the open road was liberating. I slept in my truck and showered at fairgrounds. If I saw something interesting on the interstate, I stopped and checked it out. The travel was wearing and travel expenses ate up the profits. So, in 1998 I interviewed with a  few Wholesale jewelry companies and accepted an offer from  Steven Lee Designs in Honolulu, Hawaii. I moved there to run their production factory of 30 people. We made Hawaiian themed , Tahitian Pearl jewelry and sold to the Military Exchanges, JC Penny and small jewelry stores all over the mainland and Hawaii. We attended trade shows like the Buyer’s Market of American Craft, The American Crafts Council and the specific Jewelry industry shows in NY , FL, Las Vegas and the American Gem Trade Association in Tucson, AZ. We also ran a division called the Honolulu Mint which minted commemorative coins for Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri. There, the owner and I created a product tweak and a method of selling that took sales of $17,000/year in Commemoratives to over a Million dollars. He sold the company in 2003 and the new owners did not retain any management. Rather than return to the mainland, I built an Bed and Breakfast on the Big Island at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It was here I started making fine chocolates to give to my guests. I entered and won the Kona Chocolate Festival in 2007 and that gave me the confidence to open my first retail store. I won this festival for 5 consecutive years as well as a Local Hero Award from Edible Hawaiian Islands publications. Although the first store wasn’t a money making success I went on to open other stores that were, due to better locations and better marketing. I continued to win awards, both for the product and also for sales growth as one of the 50 Fastest Growing companies in Hawaii for 3 years. (Pacific Business News)
That title required a minimum of 50% sales growth over the previous year and we were 75% over. Our stores grossed over $1000/sq foot. In 2013 I added an AG Tourism component to compliment my store in Maui which skyrocketed sales. We conducted weekly tours on a cacao and vanilla farm, along with a workshop. 
In 2015 I sold my last store in Maui for a profitable sum and moved to Santa Fe , NM. With a partner, we opened Cacao Santa Fe a total bean to bar chocolate factory with retail, a café and espresso bar, coffee roasting, tours and workshops. Again we won awards- International Awards for our chocolate products and Local Hero Awards from Edible Santa Fe publication. 2020 changed everything as the Pandemic swept across the country and local government shut down our business. Our lease renewal came up during that time, so not knowing what was in the future we did not renew. We finished out a record breaking December on our on-line Shopify store with some new products and a lot of email marketing since that was the only way we could operate.
Being of retirement age, rather than open a new store, I’ve decided to give other small craftspeople and gourmet food producers the benefit of my decades of knowledge to achieve the same kind of success we had. I currently am a on-line tutor for Ecole Chocolate and I have created some E-books and Master Classes to show you how you to can go from the exhausting world of craft fairs and farmers markets to more profitable stores, both brick and mortar and on line as a combination. Through education, innovation, and implementation you can have the wildly successful business you dreamed of , the ability to provide for your family and have time to spend with them. You will have raving fans, dedicated employees In the end you’ll have created an asset you can sell .