Caroline Kersey, a second-year marketing and entrepreneurship student from LaGrange, Georgia, is the founder and CEO of Caroline’s Cheesestraws, a gourmet cheese straw business that has seen major growth since it was established five years ago. Thanks to the recent purchase of a kitchen, her business is now based in Athens, where she is able to make and ship her product more efficiently.

Q: What inspired you to start this business?

My great-grandfather used to make cheese straws for local weddings and other events in a small town. I’m also from a small town, it’s a very South Georgia food. It’s kind of a niche category. A lot of people don’t make them anymore, so my grandmother asked me if I would make them for her book club and her friends. I ended up, picking up through that, like word of mouth and random little events, and people started paying me. Around Christmastime, the demand got higher, and it kind of blew up into something I didn’t expect. Learning the different curves and making it into my product instead of someone else’s has been really interesting.

Q: How has your product developed over time?

I started out with a literal crank gun that I had to wear. But, I ended up 3D printing a mold to go on the end of a caulk gun, a cheese straw mold. And I use that, and I just shoot them out. That’s been really the biggest make-or-break for my business because it saves so much time and energy. Also, tweaking the recipe to make bigger batches, bigger proportion, size and all that.

Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?

I started my company right before the pandemic, that definitely took a toll because no one’s gonna buy things made in someone’s house. I did a lot of the computer work for the company because I couldn’t do the other stuff.  Then, my sophomore year of high school, I shattered my spine, and I was on bed rest for three to six months. I overcame it by finding what I could do. But, it’s been nice starting a business the right way, with all the necessary documents and paperwork. Honestly, it was a good reset button.

Q: How do you manage being a college student and running a business?

Finding a happy medium between school and that and the social life around college. Time management is really, honestly the biggest thing. Just focusing on, this is what I can do now, this is what I can do later. Finding the hours and seeing the people around me pitch in to help when I need it has been super awesome because I could not do it without the community here. I want to be able to do everything, and I don’t want my company to be something that hinders me. Sometimes I have to slow down business and learn how to say no to things, which is hard. It’s all just keeping myself on a strict schedule because it’s not just me depending on me, it’s other people depending on my work. Holding yourself accountable is a quality I feel like I’ve grown to be better about in general.

Q: What plans do you have for the future of your business?

I just got a kitchen here in Athens this year. I’m hoping to have a storefront here and a home base as soon as I graduate. I think I’m going to kind of make it a small business, like a gateway place. I’ve thought about doing pop-ups for parts of other small companies. I’ll probably stay involved [with the entrepreneurship program] here thanks to how much knowledge it’s given me around the logistics of expanding the business.

Comments trimmed for length and clarity.

Ashlynn Isle is a public relations major covering business and consumer news.