{"id":35364,"date":"2020-10-15T12:50:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T16:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/?p=35364"},"modified":"2020-10-16T11:50:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:50:30","slug":"camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Camarro\u2019s Huge Chocolate Fudge Business, Aided Recently By \u2018Good Morning America\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_35361\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35361\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"749\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc-768x575.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-35361\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katie Camarro founded Sundaes Best, a brand of hot fudge sauces and other natural ingredient chocolate products, with her husband Jeff Shinaman.<br \/>Courtesy Sundaes Best<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By Susan Elise Campbell<br \/>\nKatie Camarro says she has \u201cthe sweetest job in the world.\u201d<br \/>\nShe and husband Jeff Shinaman founded and co-own Sundaes Best, a brand of hot fudge sauces and other natural ingredient chocolate products that came right out of the family kitchen.<br \/>\nCamarro is a third generation Saratogian who spent most of her career with Toy Works in Washington County\u2019s Middle Falls. As national sales manager she \u201cloved the job\u201d but knew she was \u201cgrossly underpaid,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nThis was 25 years ago, a challenging time because her father was ill and in the hospital. He sensed something was wrong when she visited him, and in one of their last conversations together he advised her, \u201cthink about doing something on your own.\u201d<!--more--><br \/>\n\u201cMy husband and I had just cleared land and gotten our first mortgage and I thought, \u2018How can I do that?\u2019\u201d she said. The idea was planted. A short while later her boss decided to give her a raise. She responded with a letter of resignation.<br \/>\nStarting her own consulting firm, Timber Springs Marketing, was the beginning of her journey as an entrepreneur.<br \/>\n\u201cSmall businesses are so involved in product development that they neglect marketing,\u201d she said. \u201cBut without sales, nothing else is important.\u201d<br \/>\nHomemade hot fudge soon entered the stage. Camarro wanted to make gifts for her consulting clients, something hand crafted and personal.<br \/>\n\u201cMy mom said, \u2018Why not hot fudge in quilted jelly jars like grandma used to have?\u2019\u201d said Camarro.<br \/>\nThe recipe came from her mother-in-law, whose secrets everybody wanted but weren\u2019t given to anyone but Katie. The more hot fudge Camarro shared with clients and friends, the more she was encouraged to market it.<br \/>\n\u201cI had reached a point in my consulting career where I had a good balance in my life,\u201d she said. But she took the step, went to her first show November 2001 and sold every jar.<br \/>\nThe flagship Sundaes Best Hot Fudge Sauce was named by her husband because \u201cit makes every sundae best.\u2019<br \/>\nEncouraged by success at the show, she said \u201cthe next step was to figure out how to get it made. I went to a co-packing company who wanted to change it, add stabilizers, substitute the butter with margarine to save money, but I said no. Our family motto is, if you\u2019re going to do something, do it well.\u201d<br \/>\nShe looked around for commercial space and a steam kettle, which she learned would be a six-figure expenditure.<br \/>\nFor four years Camarro went back and forth to a small food incubator in Fairfax, Vt., twice a week to make product. Meanwhile she continued as a marketing consultant, even while getting her product on the shelves at Stewart\u2019s Shops.<br \/>\n\u201cAs I continued to use my sales and marketing skills and the brand progressed, I had to make the decision to jump all in. That was nearly 20 years ago,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nThe line of hot fudge sauces grew from the original recipe to raspberry, mint, caramel, peanut butter, hazelnut and many other flavors. By 2015, Camarro had started another brand for grocery stores called The Chocolate Farmer, a line of spreadable dips for pretzels and fruit.<br \/>\nShe spent 14 years in one location and has been at 23 Northern Pines Road in Wilton for the last four with the help of her husband, who she calls \u201cthe idea guy,\u201d and only three part-time employees dedicated to production, retailing and technology.<br \/>\nOver the past few months the couple has reached out to all the shows they have done and offered them the opportunity to do fundraisers, sharing a percentage of profits from the products sold during the event.<br \/>\nA recent feature on the TV program \u201cGood Morning America\u201d and sales of 12,000 jars of hot fudge sauce the next day prompted Camarro to focus on social media and online presence.<br \/>\nShe had just asked Web Instinct to redesign a web site when Sundae\u2019s Best got the free national advertising, orders poured in. The design firm brought in Marketing Kangaroo to prepare the way for greater online sales through the site and on Instagram, she said.<br \/>\n\u201cSpecialty foods are not protected from a poor economy, but my business plan really didn\u2019t change much,\u201d she said. \u201cCOVID has taught me to swim a different stroke.\u201d<br \/>\nThat means less face-to-face connection and more pop-up shops, more emails and an online marketing focus.<br \/>\n\u201cI am grateful to be able to jump in with both feet,\u201d said Camarro. \u201cNo matter how tough the world becomes, you must never run out of sweetness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Elise Campbell Katie Camarro says she has \u201cthe sweetest job in the world.\u201d She and husband Jeff Shinaman founded and co-own Sundaes Best, a brand of hot fudge sauces and other natural ingredient chocolate products that came right out of the family kitchen. Camarro is a third generation Saratogian who spent most of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":35361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurial-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Camarro\u2019s Huge Chocolate Fudge Business, Aided Recently By \u2018Good Morning America\u2019 - Saratoga Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Camarro\u2019s Huge Chocolate Fudge Business, Aided Recently By \u2018Good Morning America\u2019 - Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Susan Elise Campbell Katie Camarro says she has \u201cthe sweetest job in the world.\u201d She and husband Jeff Shinaman founded and co-own Sundaes Best, a brand of hot fudge sauces and other natural ingredient chocolate products that came right out of the family kitchen. Camarro is a third generation Saratogian who spent most of [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saratoga Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-15T16:50:52+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-16T15:50:30+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"749\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jessewinters\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jessewinters\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/\",\"name\":\"Camarro\u2019s Huge Chocolate Fudge Business, Aided Recently By \u2018Good Morning America\u2019 - Saratoga Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-15T16:50:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-16T15:50:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/b937a48daf87d7a8bd713a73b5d6a1ae\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2020\/10\/camarros-huge-chocolate-fudge-business-aided-recently-by-good-morning-america\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2020\/10\/katie-camarra-hc.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":749,\"caption\":\"Katie Camarro founded Sundaes Best, a brand of hot fudge sauces and other natural ingredient chocolate products, with her husband Jeff Shinaman. 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