Nearly 11 years ago, I made Top Shelf Cookies official. My only real goal at the time? Make enough money to live while baking cookies.
That’s still a challenge some days—but what I’ve gotten in return has been so much more than income. I got community.
In the early days, I baked out of a shared kitchen. I’ve long outgrown that space, but I’ll never forget those mornings spent alongside folks like Third Cliff Bakery and Exodus Bagels. Alex from Alex’s Ugly Sauce, who became one of my closest friends encouraged me when I was thinking about joining the kitchen, so when things are tough I tell him it's all his fault - he replies "I wanted cookies!" When I started vending at farmers markets, I met Q from Q’s Nuts—who, along with his team, have also become good friends. This community, these relationships, are the backbone of my business.
Starting a small business can be lonely. In fact, it’s why I became a dog mom. I adopted Brady—the OG CDO (Chief Dog Officer)—shortly after launching Top Shelf Cookies. I used to think I craved silence during my cubicle days, but it turns out silence in a second bedroom-turned-office can be deafening. Brady made those early days a little less quiet and a lot more bearable.
As we grew from shared kitchen to our storefront in Adams Village, we also grew our customer community. We started with a loyal following, and hoped that moving into Adams Village would bring new friends. It absolutely did.
Now, we see our regulars: the kids who stop by for one or two cookies after school with their parents or grandparents. “Test Bake Lauren” visits every Thursday and we chat about cookies—or the world. Freddy swings by on Wednesdays, and we’re doing cookies for his first communion this weekend. Sometimes we do wedding favors and years later, we get the call for baby showers. Kevin, a regular who used to grab a half dozen, now pops in a couple times a week for just two cookies (he’s “trying to be good”), and we sneak in a little hockey talk. I even had the joy of supporting the Blue Squirts from Dorchester Youth Hockey who had their own cookie superstition—I loved going to their games.
None of this shows up in my bank balance. If it did, I’d be in a very different financial place. But it fills my heart.
When I was little, my mom used to take me to a Portuguese bakery. The smell, the warmth, the little cookie they’d give me—those are core memories. Right before I started Top Shelf, I stopped by again. I told the owner my mom used to work at the shoe factory across the street and bring home linguica rolls. She remembered me and smiled so big, but her smile melted away when I told her about my plans to open a cookie business. She looked scared and worried. She asked me if I love it. "Do you love it?" I told her I love baking cookies. She warned me that it was hard, but I had to really love it to do it.
I think about that conversation a lot. Because she was right—it is hard. But I do love it.
There are days when it’s exhausting. Days when I worry we won’t make it. In fact, during a recent photo shoot with Jim Koch from Sam Adams (for the Brewing the American Dream cookbook), I wasn’t feeling great. I was burned out. I didn’t want the photos to come out because I was scared I wouldn’t still be in business by the time the book launched.
But we had fun at that shoot. We laughed. We joked. A few weeks later, I saw Jim again and told him how much fun I had. His response?
“Heather, you should have fun every day.”
And since then, I try to remember that. I should have fun every day. Because I love this job I built for myself.
It's been hard. The past few years have been especially unpredictable. But I’m grateful—grateful to every customer who supports us. Grateful to be in Adams Village. Grateful to my incredible staff. And especially grateful to my small business peers, like our friends at The Ice Creamsmith. Being neighbors means we get to vent, problem-solve, and collaborate (yes, on ice cream cookie sandwiches too).
This is what it means to run a small business. It’s not just spreadsheets, ovens, and hustle. It’s people. It’s community. It’s loving something enough to keep going when it gets hard.
And yes, it's also cookies.