Zack Coughlin, founder of Zack’s Sweet Shop, has had a passion for art, food and business since he was a young boy. “I always say, I didn’t go to the mall for toys or clothes, I went straight to the food court and studied the food business,” he says. “I went to places like Dairy Queen and Mrs. Field’s and not only tried the food, but I watched how they marketed it, how they branded their products and how they upsell it.”
Koglin couldn’t help but notice that many of the products sold in specialty candy stores were far from affordable — a single chocolate strawberry can cost $5 — so he asked his mother if he could make his own. He believed he could create delicious treats and have fun — and maybe even sell them for less than market price. His mother agreed, and Koglin started his own business at just 13 years old.
It started with a 12-ounce chocolate melting pot, he recalls. He would dip strawberries and cookies for friends, and his dad would help make deliveries. In seventh grade, during his first year at a new school, Coughlin’s classmates discovered his talent for baking and wanted to try his creations for themselves. “People were texting me and preordering,” he says. [the treats]”I started taking boxes of treats out into the hallway,” he says. “It started with four or five orders, then 20, then 40.”
RELATED: He started a lavish side hustle at age 13 and now makes more than $10 million a year “When you’re young, everyone helps you out.”
“Adoption has really given me an unwavering desire for self-sufficiency, to really prove my own worth and dignity.”
Today, Zack’s Sweet Shop ships its “fun, approachable and delicious” treats nationwide and aims to achieve seven-figure sales (400% growth) in the next 12 months, and boasts corporate clients such as Google, Disney, Meta, Hulu, American Express, Lionsgate and Netflix. Coughlin says the treats are “a spin on the classic, nostalgic treats we had as kids,” and include favorites like mini pretzel rods smothered in caramel, milk chocolate and salt flakes, and s’mores barks made with cinnamon graham crackers, vanilla marshmallows and dark chocolate sauce.
Image courtesy of Zac’s Sweet Shop
But all of Zach’s incredible success began with an early interest in entrepreneurship, an interest that Coughlin says was fueled by his adoption. “Adoption instilled in me an unwavering sense of independence, a desire to prove my worth and my dignity to those around me, my family, my friends, my colleagues, but also to myself,” Coughlin explains. “It was something that was innate in me from a very young age, but I didn’t actually realize it until much later.”
Related: What’s the biggest lesson to learn as a young entrepreneur?
Coughlin’s middle school eventually banned her from selling sweets to her classmates, but she continued to cater events for family and friends, like birthdays, communions and graduations, and expanded her business. But when she left her hometown of Pittsburgh for Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, the business took a back seat because she knew few people in her new city and lost her customer base.
But when some of his classmates learned of his sweet history and wanted to know more, talking about the business made Coughlin realize how much he missed it. It was time to once again fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming the role model he’d always wanted to see, “create the next iconic American chocolate shop.” “Growing up as a kid, I never saw anyone who looked like me on TV,” Coughlin says. “I was like, ‘I’m a chocolate lover.'” Cupcake Wars and Cake Boss, And I had never really seen myself in that role, so I naturally wanted to become that person.”
“I had to learn a lot about how to scale up from making a few dozen treats at a time to making hundreds or thousands of treats.”
Coughlin “went back to the drawing board” to figure out what it would take to open a chocolate store in Los Angeles, but realized it would be too costly and pivoted to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) model instead after noticing that his favorite bakeries, like Milk Bar and Baked by Melissa, deliver nationwide, which would also mean his friends and family in Pittsburgh would order from him again.
A year and a half of research and preparation (“I spent every day off class learning every aspect of it” [of the business]Coughlin, founder of ” ,” raised about $27,000 through a small Kickstarter campaign in February 2019, enough to set up a commercial kitchen and acquire the initial licenses and packaging materials he needed.
“I [was] “We also learned how to scale our product,” Coughlin recalls. “To be honest, we actually learned that two weeks before we launched. [are] “Chocolate has so many complex factors to it – tempering, humidity, shipping, perishability – so we had to learn a lot about how to scale up from making a few dozen treats at a time to making hundreds or thousands of treats.”
Zack’s Sweet Shop opened in October of that year. From opening until March, the company’s monthly sales were about $1,000, with sales surging during the holiday season. But that all changed after Beyoncé praised the company in June 2020. Coughlin achieved $20,000 in sales in just two weeks, at which point Really He said he had to figure out how to scale up, and luckily, the Coghlin community supported him, with friends working in the kitchen until 3 a.m. to fulfill all the orders.
Image courtesy of Zac’s Sweet Shop
RELATED: A Sweet Side Hustle Started at an Old CVS Made Me $800,000 in One Year Now, she’s repeating the success with her daughter and is already over eight figures.
“It took a long time for this business to become truly profitable, but I always stayed true to myself and who I wanted to be.”
It was a very exciting time for Coughlin and his business, but also a “really tough time,” he said, explaining that it was “one of the first times I realized who I was, what the opportunity was, and what kind of impact I could have.” After meeting Beyoncé, Zack’s Sweet Shop experienced a “domino effect,” gaining corporate clients and catering for movie premieres. In March 2022, Coughlin began his side business full time.
Previously, Coughlin had been using her communications major and music industry minor to manage a girl group, and it turned out there were parallels between that job and running Zac’s Sweets. “I always say I market my products like a pop music campaign,” Coughlin explains. “They’re loud, colorful, fun, glamorous and social media-heavy.”
Related: Does social marketing really pay off?
Now, Coughlin is preparing for an exciting relaunch of his brand, which includes expanding his team (currently just Coughlin, one other person, and a freelancer) and investing more in brand packaging, something the 100% bootstrapped business previously lacked funding for, despite Coughlin’s artistic inclinations and creative talent. “Early mentors taught me to always think about what the business needs, not what I want,” he says.
And for young entrepreneurs hoping to follow in his footsteps and achieve their own success, Coughlin has some hard-earned words of wisdom: “It’s a bit of a cliché, but if you do something you’re passionate about, the money will come,” he says. “It took a long time for this business to become truly profitable, but I always stayed true to myself, who I wanted to be, and where I wanted the business to go. It took a while, but I definitely feel like I got there, and I’m still working hard.”
This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series, showcasing entrepreneurial stories, challenges and successes. Young business owner.
