CONRAD — A Conrad woman is turning a pandemic downturn into a sweet success by starting a new business - and what makes this story even sweeter is that the new business venture is a family affair.
Anne Stordahl owns 2B Sweet Candy Shop, and she and her three children work together to make it work.
"It's been really exciting going into something none of us were educated about,” Anne said.
Anne decided to open the shop in 2020 in the space next to her hair salon to take over for another candy shop owner.
When the pandemic hit and schools closed, she decided to get her kids involved: "We home-schooled all day, they did school work, and then at night I started teaching them the aspects of how to mark up things, how to research things, how to start putting the pen and paper together in a business plan.”
The kids said the experience has been eye-opening.
"I didn't realize how exhausting it is to actually work and own a business,” 14-year-old Brylee said.
"It's probably helped with social skills, getting along, learning how to start a business, accounting,” said Brayden, 16.
"It was fun. It's still really fun,” said 10-year-old Briella.
The shop has also brought the family closer together. "We had taken in a foreign exchange student in January, so we had a young man living with us from Japan. We didn't know him very well, he didn't know us, and when we began this business he became a real inspirational part of that. It was a bonding experience for us as a family. It was a time for us to laugh, a time to cry, a time to dream,” Anne said.
The shop has already expanded once and Anne said she can envision needing to expand again.
