Fear's Confections Business Expansion

Hi there! My name is Cassandra, owner of Fear's Confections, and I am fundraising to expand my business by extending it next door into the former Ice Cream Joy/Lakewood AF space.

 

I embarked upon the first leg of the journey that is Fear’s Confections in March of 2010, as a licensed home-based mail order and catering business. A wide variety of handmade chocolates, geek chocolates, and brownies are available. Caramels, toffees, truffles, and pecan turtles are just a small sampling of what we create. All of the products offered are made in small batches using the freshest possible ingredients with no additional preservatives giving them a truly homemade essence. Everything is made by hand with the care most expect to have been long forgotten by today’s mass produced disposable society. With growing demand, our small home kitchen was quickly overrun with candy and brownies piled onto every flat surface.

 

On August 4th 2013, Fear’s Confections made the leap to an out-of-home production and retail space on the east side of Cleveland. This progression allowed for the expansion of product lines and better service for our local customers.

 

Shortly thereafter, in December, my business partner came into the shop overnight and stole most of the equipment and money and left the state. I also found out she had not been paying the bills and utilities, and had been pocketing the money so I received shut-off notices and nearly lost power.

 

Through all of this (and with a lot of help from friends and family) I was able to run out the lease year and look to relocate and start fresh. On October 6th, 2014 we had the grand opening at our current Lakewood location, where we have been for the past 7.5 years. We persevered.

 

Over the years we have done a lot of work within the community with schools and organizations, minority groups, theaters, and more. In 2014 Alton Brown from the Food Network named us one of his top 8 places to visit in the country. We have also expanded our product line, events, local wall, and up until covid, hotels and companies we wholesale to.

 

As you well know, many businesses, especially small ones, took a large and often fatal hit due to covid. We went through closure, limited hours, less limited hours, and then finally opening back up full time. The hit was and still is to finances, staff, supply chain, and more. Yet we have persevered again.

 

Another brief but ill-fated business venture has once again put a major dent in our attempts to grow, yet we persevere.

 

Over these past years we have outgrown our space. Having gone through one move years ago and having the massive rent inflation over the past few years, we cannot afford, nor do we want to move locations. Our storefront is our home. The next best move would be to expand into the adjoining property within the same building. This would be a direct solo-project expansion under the original Fear's name only.

 

This expansion would double our kitchen space, triple our fridge and freezer space, more than double our frontage, and double our storage capacity. Our plan for the space would be as follows:

 

 

With all of this in mind, the time has come to be ambitious and take a "grow or go home" approach. To do this we are going to need help from our fans. We urge you to please consider donating. If you donating is not your style, then stop in (or order) some goodies or even simply consider sharing this page with your friends. Help expand the reach and increase our chances being able to do big things.

 

Thank you for the past 12 years, and here's to many, many more!

Cassandra Fear