Local Business Spotlight: Culinary Capers

For this week's local business spotlight, we spoke with Lisa Martin of Culinary Capers, which is a catering business that was founded in 2002.

Culinary Capers plans events, meals, provides on-call service and bartending staff for hire, in-home personal chef service, and much more.

We spoke with Martin about her business and its interaction with the Windham business community. Here is our Q&A session with her:

Windham Patch: When and how did your business begin?

Martin: I started my business about 10 years ago. When I was a stay at home mom I was looking for extra income so I started on a part-time basis with my personal chef services. That started to grow, so I started to add in catering services, and it grew from being a very part-time business into a full-time business and it’s all I do now.

Windham Patch: What is the no. 1 thing people should know about what it takes to operate in your line of work?

Martin: I think you need to be tenacious and you need to be willing to work hard and do a lot of networking. (Also) have a good product that people enjoy in order to come back and rebuy from you. Loyalty is important. I have a lot of repeat customers so it’s important to make good business connections and not burn any bridges. You never know who knows somebody else. I tend to keep a very neutral profile in town.

Windham Patch: Talk about your efforts to establish a web presence for Culinary Capers.

Martin: I’ve worked with two different web designers. I had a client who was my first web designer in the very beginning and she established my first web presence. Then I started working with MaryAnn Pfeiffer (of 108 Degrees LLC) on developing a more professional looking, more sophisticated site. We just redid it again and relaunched it. I do credit her web design with helping my business grow because I do get a lot of business through the Internet and through word of mouth advertising.

Windham Patch: Because you don't actually have a storefront, correct?

Martin: I’m in the process of doing some research to try to do that, but with the slow economy the last couple years it’s not been the right time, so hopefully within the next year or so.

Windham Patch: How have you worked to build relationships within the local business community? 

Martin:  I’ve built a lot of relationships with other business owners in town. They know me (and) I know them. I try whenever possible to refer businesses locally. Those folks do the same for me. I do provide catering services for a number of the different businesses in town. Maybe a luncheon, maybe a business after hours event (or) sometimes a breakfast for one of the rotaries. It sort of varies. I make a point of going to network events so I can continue to build a network of people who know me and I know them and we know about each other’s services so that we can continue to expand information and share information and help each other grow their businesses.

Windham Patch: What is your favorite thing about your job?

Martin: I guess in a lot of ways I like the flexibility of my business at this point in time. Although I like to be busy all the time it’s nice to have some flexibility during the day so that you know I can do some things that I might not typically be able to do in a nine to five job commuting into Boston. I like being the boss; I like being responsible for the success or failure of my business. I don’t like having to depend on someone else to dictate how successful I’ll be. I know that the more effort that I put into my business the more successful it will be. I also think I’ve become a good role model for my kids to show them that you can do what you love and make a career out of it and you don’t necessarily have to work for someone else. You can start your own business. I think I’ve set a good example for my kids that way

Windham Patch: How important is it for residents to support their local business community?

Martin: I think it’s extremely vital to do that. Especially in Windham where we need to encourage more business to come to this community. I think a lot of our businesses are home-based operations and I think we need to pull more business to the area. I think that the more that local people support the local businesses the stronger they will become and there will be more growth. More people will want to come to the area because they’ll see that other businesses are growing and becoming successful, so I think it’s vitally important to support your local business.