Turning a hobby into a successful business

Nessa Garvin never imagined her hobby would turn into a successful business, but she has done just that in a very short space of time.

A Cavan native, Nessa moved to Belmullet with her husband and two children in 2020. A nurse by profession, Nessa always had a love of baking and cooking, and a stall at Belmullet Heritage Day in 2023 has led to her products being stocked in many local outlets and their popularity continues to grow.

Nessa sat down with me for a chat in her adopted Belmullet to recount her story.

Angelina: Nessa, thanks for speaking to me. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Nessa: I'm from Virginia in County Cavan. I've got two younger sisters and an older brother and sister. We grew up in a farming background, so we had a lovely youth. 

I've always had a big thing about baking. My mum would do a lot of baking, so I was always watching her, especially with her apple tarts, so she was a big inspiration. I was always baking on and off throughout the years for myself and for friends but nothing really became of it. Then I went off to college and I completed my training in nursing. So it was always just a hobby for me. Then I got married and had kids and we actually moved up from Cork to Belmullet on the first night of the first lockdown back in 2020. 

My husband is from Belmullet and prior to us moving up there, we visited regularly to see family and I always loved spending time there. My daughter was only eight weeks old and my son James was three at the time of the move. We had bought our house here, so it was just a coincidence that we were moving up at the time of the lockdown.

Angelina: Had you been working as a nurse since you left college, Nessa?

Nessa: Yes, I had. I worked in Dublin, Australia, Northern Ireland, and then I moved down to Cork because my husband was down there and I worked in the Mater Private. I had resigned that position because we had planned our move to Mayo. When I got to Belmullet, I started getting work in some of the GP practices in Erris.

Angelina: What was the move like from a personal point of view for you?

Nessa: I settled so quickly into Erris - I was actually surprised myself that I felt right at home. I find that everybody will help you out here. They helped me get work when I moved here. It's a very nice community to be a part of. It is home to me in every sense.

Angelina: When did that hobby start to turn into a business, Nessa?

Nessa: When I was giving friends granola, people were telling me that I should sell it. People were asking me to make it for them. I had a friend who has his own business and he said, 'Go for it, do it'. I suppose when I got the feedback from people, I thought, maybe I can do this. So I decided that I would take a stall at Belmullet Heritage Day in 2023. 

I went to the Environmental Health Officer and got HSE approved for a domestic kitchen. Then I started baking and I got out my recipe book and tried out various bits and pieces. I had lots of my colleagues at work sampling them, so there's a lot of quality control! That helped with my confidence too and I actually started believing I could do it. My sisters came up that weekend for Heritage Day with their kids. One of my nieces Emily, who was 14 at the time, helped me at the stall, so it was new for her, new for me, and she was brilliant. It was such a nice buzz. I loved meeting the people and having the craic. I had little samples to hand out and people enjoyed them and I got positive feedback. That was basically it, that kickstarted it.

Angelina: Tell us where the name Butty's Kitchen came from.

Nessa: I was the shortest in my family! I have two younger and two older siblings, and I was a middle child - it was only a quarter of an inch, but I was the smallest, so I was called Wee Butty! So that's where it came from. And my niece Emily, who helped me at the stall, designed the logo of the little bird. My daughter's called Robyn, so it's a little robin on the logo. And that's how it started - just over the table with my sisters – they suggested Butty. And I was like, okay, that could work.

Angelina: What did you do to take the next step with Butty's Kitchen, Nessa?

Nessa: I did a lot of courses in Údarás- in the Gteic in Belmullet, which is a fantastic facility. We got lots of encouragement, lots of great ideas, things I wouldn't have thought about, and there was just a lovely bunch of people there. 

Out of that, I started approaching shops to stock the products. Now I'm selling in the Bike Cafe, Sláinte Healthfood Store, MFitness in the Broadhaven Bay Hotel and I'm supplying The Cake Queen with my granola for her famous acai bowls. The owner, Mari, has been an absolutely fantastic support to me. 

I've applied to do the Cumasú programme in September, which hopefully I'll get onto. It's a 12-week programme that is geared around female entrepreneurs in the Gaeltacht area. And it works around people who have got kids, who work part-time - which is perfect for me because I've got two evenings at home and I work part-time as well in the hospital. So I know there's going to be lots of great ideas there, which can help develop the business.

Angelina: What was it like to see your product in stores for the first time?

Nessa: It's very exciting. You do think at that point that all the hard work was worth it. I never in a million years thought this would actually be happening to me. Everything's just fallen into place and I'm just beyond grateful. Seeing my product is just like, wow, I did that. I've been very lucky with a lot of the local businesses selling my product. It just happened so fast and it has blown my mind.

Angelina: Tell us about some of the products you make, Nessa.

Nessa: I make a plain and nutty granola, and I also make brittle, a lot of people call it a daim bar, but it's called brittle. I make peanut butter squares, I make a chocolate orange biscuit cake, which is very popular as well. 

I listened to feedback from Heritage Day and a lot of people are asking me about jams, which is something I've never gone into before. So originally I had beetroot chutney, which is delicious with salads, and I branched into some other flavours - I started making rhubarb and gingery gin jam and people loved it. The next one was blackberry, creamed honey and rosemary, which has been very popular as well. And then I started making apple and rosemary jelly and apple and jalapeno chilli jelly. I also made some brownies for the recent Erris Agricultural Show - they went down a treat as well.

Angelina: What does a typical day look like when you're working in Butty's Kitchen?

Nessa: I get up earlier than everybody else, because it's nice and quiet and I've got the kitchen myself, and I put on my podcasts, and I'm in my little bubble. It all depends where the kids are. So when they're at school, that's when I'm doing my baking. I've a set amount of hours where I would do the baking. It depends when my orders would be in for. I always try and have it as fresh as possible. So if I'd orders in for Friday, I'll be busy on a Thursday, getting it baked, packed, labelled, and then delivered that morning. And at nighttime, again when it's nice and quiet, I'll just go back into my little bubble.

Angelina: What would you say to people who have something that they love to do, but are afraid of taking the next step of bringing it to the public?

Nessa: Follow your gut and just have confidence in yourself. Believe in yourself and just do it. My friend had said it to me, what have you got to lose? Don't have any regrets, just go for it. I was very lucky to have found something that can work alongside my career. You've got nothing to lose and people will support you.

Angelina: What keeps you driven, Nessa?

Nessa: Seeing my product out there and seeing somebody wanting some of our products, that's just such a lovely feeling. My husband enjoys sampling all the food as well. He's quality control for me. And he has been very supportive. He great at cleaning up after me, to be honest! But he does help me out an awful lot. I've got that support. If I didn't have him, I wouldn't be able to do it.

Angelina: What are some of your goals for the future, Nessa?

Nessa: I've been asked, where do you see this going? I really don't know. I did not expect to be in this position when I did Heritage Day in 2023. I'm very lucky to have people wanting my product. I'm just enjoying it right now. I'll be concentrating now on this year's Heritage Day, and then I'll be starting to make my jams and chutneys for the Christmas fairs.