Cookie business gives shelter a lift

But O’Neill’s business does something else. The Cookie Studio donates a portion of its earnings to the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children, an ecumenical daytime home and resource center for homeless women and children. The shelter assists more than 6,000 women and children each year with everything from counseling to clothing and toiletries.

“It’s partly because I feel such a connection with the shelter; I was a volunteer there for 10 years,” O’Neill said. “But it’s also because this time of the year everyone donates to charity, but not the rest of the year. I wanted an ongoing stream of donation funds, so they’d know the money is coming in throughout the year.”

Shelter officials call her a “blessing,” an angelic entrepreneur who really knows her way around an oven.

“When Barbara first started her cookie business, she’d use us here at the shelter as her guinea pigs,” said Shirley Reynolds, the shelter’s director of operations. “It’s quite wonderful to be used as a guinea pig for a cookie factory.”

Reynolds said money from the Cookie Studio is used for a variety of client services, everything from helping women pay for medication to helping them put gas in their cars so they get to work.

Small but expanding

O’Neill’s company makes 18 regular and five specialty cookies. The baking operation has also expanded into cupcakes and bar cookies such as brownies and lemon bars. Atlanta Magazine has given it a shout-out for having the best Oatmeal Raisin Cookie in town, and Creative Loafing recognized it has having the “Best Cookie in Atlanta.”

Emory University students recently studied the business for an “operations and system management class,” and Georgia State University students used its Web site for a design-class project.

It’s still a small enterprise — two full-timers, two part-timers — with an often sleep-deprived O’Neill riding herd over the whole show.

“Some days, I’m juggling 20 things at the same time,” she said. “You have to deal with a lot different personalities, everybody from caterers to corporate customers to the people who work directly for you.”

O’Neill combined two of her passions when she opened her business. She had previously volunteered at the shelter, helping it develop and update its information and computer systems. Before coming to Atlanta in 1996, O’Neill had worked in information technology for a New York City law firm.

Her love of baking came from her mom, Edie Kaufman, who died last year at the age of 93 after spending most of her life in Binghamton, N.Y.

“She made the best rugelach [thin pastry with nuts],” O’Neill said. “She always had a cookie jar on top of the refrigerator with fresh cookies. Even as she got older she still had cookies around.”

One of the specialty cookies on O’Neill’s menu comes from a recipe used by her mom. The “Katie Thumbprint Cookie,” however, is named after a friend’s sister who was killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.

Consistency is key

O’Neill began the business in her home four years ago and moved to her current location two years back. She got the idea while reading a magazine article about another upstart with charitable leanings.

“I find a recipe and tweak it, or go on the Internet and get something and make additions to it to make it my own,” O’Neill said.

She’s currently updating the company’s Web site, thecookiestudio.net, to make it more user-friendly.

She has some sage advice for other folks who like to cook and would like to start a similar venture.

“Be sure you have enough time and money to commit to it,” she said.

“And you have to have a product that is very consistent. We have a lot of systems here to make sure things get done. You have to be organized, or you will not be able to make it.”

O’Neill said she and her husband, Jimmy (he helps sell cookies on weekends at a local farmer’s market), have sunk about $55,000 into the business so far.

“We’ve been able to pay our bills for the last two years, and we’ve put a lot of money back into the business,” she said.

“We hope to start actually making a profit next year.”

You also need to be in shape. O’Neill said she was stunned at the physical demands of the job.

“This is a very physical business,” said the 59-year-old, who stands 5’4” and weighs 118 pounds. “You’re lifting 50-pound bags of flour all day.”