Kimi Ceridon promoting her business, Life Love Cheese, at a farmers’ market.
While restaurants across Massachusetts were shuttering their doors and COVID-19’s Omicron variant sent death rates climbing once again, I was doing something that seemed to defy logic: founding a cheese business. On December 28, 2021, as proof-of-vaccination cards became as essential as credit cards for dining out, I filed the paperwork for Life Love Cheese, LLC and signed a lease for a shared kitchen. The restaurant industry was teetering on the edge of collapse, yet something in me knew this was exactly the right moment to begin.
Taking the Leap
After two years of lockdown, I itched to jump into something new—or, more accurately, something I could feel in control of. I knew I wanted to open a brick-and-mortar cheese shop, but I worried about signing a long-term commercial lease with a big investment. Instead, I started with what seemed uncomplicated: an online grazing board company and farmer’s market pop-up cheese shop. All I needed was a website, social media accounts, a shared commercial kitchen, and a wholesale account with a nearby distributor.
Location, Location, Location
As I built my business, I couldn’t stop dreaming about opening my own storefront. But in real estate, they say a property’s value depends on three things: location, location, location. The same is true for specialty food shops, where the right location can make or break a business’s success.
The Boston Metro area presented unique opportunities and challenges. While the region boasted some of the country’s most legendary cheese shops, their success had already laid crucial groundwork—educating consumers about artisanal cheese and creating a thriving market. But this also meant carefully choosing my territory, which brought me to the suburbs.
I developed three non-negotiable criteria for my future location: access to public transportation via commuter rail or subway, a growing community with available liquor licenses, and a population ready for an artisanal cheese and gourmet shop. These became my compass in the search ahead.
The first two criteria are easily researchable, but the last is harder to define. Specialty food such as artisanal cheese is a niche retail category. The customers I was seeking not only needed to be aware of the existence of artisanal cheese but also savvy consumers— asking for specialty cheese and making special trips to get it. It was both lucky and challenging to be in a metropolitan area with an abundance of cheese shops. It meant customers already knew about the product. But it also meant holes in the market were harder to find.
Another view of the Life Love Cheese farmers’ market stand.
Research in Motion
What started as a low-risk enterprise evolved into the perfect market research opportunity. Farmers’ markets became my laboratory for finding the right community. I strategically chose markets in communities where young commuters were settling down, seeking more affordable homes while maintaining sophisticated food preferences. Each market day became a chance to gauge if a community was ready for Life Love Cheese’s permanent home.
For three years, I lived the life of a traveling cheesemonger. Every week, I’d load coolers with carefully cut wedges of New England cheese, offering samples on toothpicks while sharing stories about local farmers and cheesemakers. But beyond selling cheese, I was collecting invaluable data. I’d engage customers in conversations about their neighborhoods, local real estate, and community leadership. These weren’t just sales interactions—they were research interviews in disguise.
Finding the Right Community
Back home, I’d deep dive into demographic research, making calls to municipal offices, and studying the process for opening businesses in different communities. Farmers’ markets gave me face time with Board of Health inspectors, helping me identify which towns truly welcomed new businesses. I toured locations, spoke with landlords, and built a comprehensive picture of each community’s potential.
The most crucial insight wasn’t about cheese at all—it was about municipal support. While many communities claimed to want new businesses, few backed that claim with action. The game-changer was finding a town with a business development director who actively connected new businesses with landlords, guided them through locations, and helped navigate the maze of permits and departments.
The Patient Path to Success
What looked like luck—finding a Business Development Director who loved cheese—was actually the culmination of four years of methodical research and relationship building. Life Love Cheese opened its doors almost exactly four years after its founding, but those weren’t passive waiting years. They were years of observation, data collection, and community building. Years of getting to know my future customers long before they walked through my storefront’s door.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the whole community showed up. We were welcomed by town council members, a state representative, members of the chamber of commerce, and the local community access station. And all those regulars from the farmer’s market quickly became regulars at the cheese counter.
Searching for a permanent home is an exercise in patience. But patience without purpose doesn’t yield results. By combining careful research with community engagement, I ensured my location would be more than just a place on a map—it would be the foundation of my business’s success.
Cheers to success!
