Michelle Nicholson wanted to learn how to make sourdough bread, and in 2019, she started to teach herself in her kitchen. Learning a new skill always includes trial and error, and soon, Michelle found herself with more bread than she and her family could possibly eat in a week. She began to give it away to friends, sharing posts in a small Facebook group and leaving loaves on her front porch, free for the taking. Michelle had no idea that her hobby would soon turn into much more than casual social media posts and bread on the doorstep.
Neighbors, family, and friends started to say that they would be willing to pay for Michelle’s sourdough. In December 2019, she acquired a food license that allowed her to sell products out of her home, and Michelle started taking orders. By the time the pandemic hit in March 2020, she was up and running and had a small, regular customer base that only increased when people were stuck at home and the sourdough craze took over social media. “We went from 30 people to 60 people to 120 people. We ended up closing the Facebook group and making it a public page eventually, but it was at 500 people when I shut it down,” explained Michelle. Her weekly sign-up sheets to order bread started selling out, and she realized she needed a way to manage her growing business. During her marketing career, Michelle used Constant Contact, so she knew the digital marketing tool had everything she needed.
“I was using Constant Contact almost immediately because it was my go-to. I had been using Constant Contact for most of my career.”
It’s Bread Week
To manage the demand and create excitement around her new bread each week, Michelle implemented a lottery system where people could enter to win–and the prize was getting to purchase bread. Every Friday morning, she would randomly pull 70 names from the hundreds who wanted her sourdough. Through Constant Contact, Michelle would send the lucky winners an email saying “Congratulations! It’s Bread Week!” and include a discount code that allowed them to order one item.
The community of Hebron, Connecticut could not get enough of Michelle’s baking, so her biggest challenge was keeping up with the orders. She quickly moved into a church kitchen to give herself more space, but even that wasn’t enough, and when there was an opportunity to buy a building on Main Street, Michelle knew she had to make it happen. Using the momentum of her community, she ran a crowdfunding campaign that raised $14,000 in 48 hours, which enabled her to take the next step for The Flour Girl in 2021–opening a bakery that she would later expand into a cafe. The buildings were especially symbolic of her community-driven mission because the bakery used to be the town parsonage, and the cafe used to be the general store.
The main ingredient is community
From the start, Michelle’s business was founded in her relationships with neighbors. Even though her day-to-day looks very different than it did when she was baking every day, the spirit of embracing the community stays the same. “The community built my business,” said Michelle. “The community runs my business. My business runs off the community and they give back to it.”
With such passionate hometown support for The Flour Girl, Michelle relies on word of mouth and hyperlocal marketing opportunities, like sponsoring the T-ball team, instead of investing in paid advertising campaigns. She pairs this strategy with posting social media content and sending weekly email newsletters to increase brand awareness, being sure to feature new flavors, monthly specials, and upcoming events. With Constant Contact, Michelle’s team can create, send, and analyze the results from each newsletter.
Open Rate: 61%
Click Rate: 2%
Open Rate v. Industry Avg: +25%
Click Rate v. Industry Avg: +2%
Michelle attributes her email marketing success, especially an open rate that is 25% higher than the industry average, to the passion of her subscribers and the fact that she sends only one email a week. This cadence works well for her audience, and she always keeps the customer in mind by remembering that local content is what resonates most–and, of course, they always want to know what flavors of bread are coming up next week.
Rising up as Small Business Person of the Year
In 2025, Michelle was recognized as Connecticut’s 2025 Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. This award followed multiple accolades, including the People’s Choice World Bread Award 2022, Hartford Business Journal 40 Under 40 2024, Best Coffee Shop in CT 2024, and others. It is clear that the local community supports The Flour Girl Bakery & Cafe through more than simply buying breakfast and attending events–the business has become a cornerstone of Main Street.
And Michelle isn’t stopping there. She has plans to grow beyond the bakery in years to come, including expanding her business and pursuing speaking engagements to empower other business owners to chase their own success stories.
“Telling the story is where I am. It is what I have the most passion behind besides my business itself–being able to speak to other groups of entrepreneurs and business people and inspire them because I think there is such little content out there about this kind of positive community thinking.”
With Constant Contact, Michelle brings that positivity to inboxes every week, embodying the mission of The Flour Girl Bakery & Cafe–and never forgetting that the heart of her business is not the bread, but the people who come together to enjoy it.
