For 40 years, Stephanie Shafer worked as a massage therapist for professional athletes based outside the U.S., painting abstract works to relieve stress from the job, which was fun but involved a lot of travel. Then she found a different kind of painting that merged her loves for baking and art. “For 25 years, I painted giant art pieces,” she said. “Then I started making tiny canvases on chocolate.” In 2016, she started a side business crafting small-batch chocolates for parties and events while continuing to work as a masseuse. But when COVID hit, “I couldn’t exactly do massages,” she recalled. “No one wanted to be touched or be around anybody else.”

With her husband, Jim, a chef by training, she transitioned to making chocolates full-time, advertising her made-from-scratch creations on Instagram. Their chocolates provided a sweet escape at a time when people were seeking comfort.

At first, the Shafers filled orders in the parking lot of the Pacific City shopping center in Huntington Beach, California. But demand grew quickly and it became clear that she would not be going back to full-time massage and that they needed a professional space. They named the business Bella Sophia Chocolates and in 2021 opened a 750-square-foot location in Pacific City. This year, they will move into a 1,100-square-foot, which allows them to incorporate an on-site kitchen into their retail location.

In this Q&A with ICSC Small Business Center contributing editor Rebecca Meiser, Stephanie Shafer discusses the transition to retail, the importance of co-locating kitchen and retail space, the logistics of hand-painting chocolate and future plans.

Before COVID, you provided chocolates for the Oscars swag bag. How did that come about?

I hand-painted my own Oscar on a chocolate bar and posted it on Instagram. I was just goofing off originally because I knew people have Oscar parties here. I thought if could make Oscar-painted chocolates, people would want that for their home parties. Apparently the [Oscars organizers] saw the post, and asked for a phone call. They wanted to discuss having our chocolate in the swag bag. We called them back. The date was four days away. They were like: “Can you make it?” And I was like: “Yes, I’m in.” Then they were like: “We need you to make 20,000 pieces.” It was a lot of work. I told Jim: “You’re helping me paint.” He worked at a school, but I told him: “You can’t go to work.” We worked around the clock. That final day, an entire tray of like 200 pieces [got knocked over]. Eight hours before the event, we had to make up for what had dropped. We did. We got there, and we smiled the whole day.”

Not only were actors and actresses tasting our chocolates, they were taking business cards. Some of them had big parties like tea parties with chefs and wanted to include our boxes of chocolates for their guests. We became really busy, but at the same time, we both loved the other jobs we had.

COVID, though, negated your work as a masseuse and put the focus on your chocolate. How did you get the word out about your chocolate during the pandemic?

We made dozens and dozens and dozens of hand-painted chocolates. I put photos on Instagram. I hashtagged them “Woman-owned business,” “Support local,” “Shop local.” Then I kept refreshing my page. About an hour after I posted the photos, one lady messaged me and said: “If you can put gloves on, wear a mask and put it in my trunk, I’ll buy some.” I was like: “Great! How many do you want? I have lots.” I showed her a photo of everything we had, and she said: “I’ll take all of it.” After that order, she called us again to ship 12 friends the same boxes for a wine-pairing party on Zoom. That became all the rage, and we did several more with her friends. We were writing out which chocolate would go with white, champagne and red. It was fun, and everybody was laughing again. I loved how chocolate could help bring joy during a really stressful time. We started getting a lot more orders from other people after that.

You started out distributing your chocolate in the parking lot of the Pacific City shopping center in Huntington Beach, California. People would drive up and open their trunks, and you’d put their chocolate in. How did you transition to a location within the center?

We live a stone’s throw from Pacific City. I told Jim that one day I would love to have a shop, somewhere where people can come and enjoy chocolate and be able to linger — and have that place not be my home. We walked over there one day and we ran into Glenn [Rosen, senior vice president of national leasing for Centennial, which owns the property], and we were like: “What would it take to get in here?” So we had a coffee and I told him my whole life really. I talked about what we wanted to do. He liked the uniqueness of what we offered and that we were a local family and lived across the street. We already had a customer base, so I think that helped a lot, too.

You handcraft your chocolate from scratch, which can be time consuming. What are your days like?

They’re long. I paint from 6 a.m. to midnight or so. In between, I also make recipes for fillings. Jim opens the store from 12 to 7. Then he comes to the kitchen to help me make chocolate for the next day. We’re in there together from about 10 p.m. – 3 a.m. We live across from the beach, so it’s really humid for chocolate. That’s why we need to make it at night. Our sleep pattern is about three-and-a-half, four hours for now.

That doesn’t feel sustainable. Any plans to change things?

Yes. We’re in separate places right now: me in a commercial kitchen, Jim at the store.

Pacific City just offered us a new space in their center. We’ll finally be able to have a space for both a kitchen and retail upfront. It’s going to be an open concept. People can see us making the chocolate, and then we’ll be able to be out front with customers. We’ll be able to finish in a lot fewer hours when we’re in the same place.

What are the some of the biggest challenges, and how have you worked through them?

One of the challenges is our uniqueness. In the beginning, we often would sell out within the first hour of us opening. I needed to figure out: How can I produce more of what everybody wants faster? I learned how to paint faster. Instead of one mold at a time, which is what I like to do, I now lay all the chocolate molds [filled with melted chocolate] out on a six-foot table and I splatter art. I purchased an airbrush machine where I can spray the back instead of hand painting. It’s more efficient. It’s faster. It costs less. People suggested I hire other staff to help, but I really wanted to be able to do it myself. My store is a little like an artist’s studio. I feel like if it’s not your touch, then you’re selling somebody else’s artwork. So I just had to figure out: How do I paint 200 molds [in] under an hour? I still do intricate designs, but I work a lot faster. 

You’ve become a tourist attraction. How did you capture that customer segment?

It’s been huge. The Pasea Hotel is close by. Their guests see us. Their hotel rooms face our shop. We have a lot of customers that come from there. And then we went to two other [Huntington Beach-area] hotels when we first opened to give them a sample. We let them know that we were close by if they needed specialty items or luxury boxes of chocolates. Now, all three hotels send visitors to our store. One of our big supporters is the Huntington Beach visitors bureau. They direct tourists and bring influencers to us. They have been a huge part of our brand growth. We’ve partnered with them and have hosted some special events. I highly recommend other small businesses do that. It’s important for the community to know you are there.

In the new space, you also will serve coffee, croissants and cookies. What made you expand your offerings?

I have great mentors. They said: “You can probably survive on just making bonbons, but it’s not ideal. If you want to stay in retail and succeed, you have to be able to make something else. So I needed to find out what no one else was doing at the center and then do it. What were people wanting? Things like cookies and coffee. We also have on our shelves now some food products from other woman-owned businesses — syrups with cacao, for instance, and also chocolate-covered potato chips. The type of stuff you can’t find on Amazon. That added, an extra 20% in sales for us.

Do you have any worries about the new store?

Right now, we’re 750 square feet just retail. The new store is a little bit over 1,100 square feet, and it is oceanfront. A lot of the other retailers in the center have long lines. You can wait for half an hour in line to get an iced tea, so we’re worried about customers feeling like they’re waiting too long. Obviously, we’ll learn and adjust, but we’re already thinking about things like: Do we need somebody outside taking orders? We want people to walk away feeling good about the experience, so we’ll need to figure it out. But it’s a challenge that will be fun for us.