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Discovered! 505
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Hidden Dollars

How to Make
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Small Business
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You Can Own
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Here is a stupendous bundle of energy wrapped in a small package. Pat wears a size 9 dress and her waist measure is only 24 inches. You might wonder which is the mother and which the oldest daughter, for they can wear each other's clothes. For, yes, she is the mother of four daughters and two sons.

About two years ago Mrs. Rooney's husband, Bill, who is employed in a garage, suffered a serious injury to his back. It seemed that he might not be able to work for some time. Pat put on her thinking cap. She could not leave her little tots for employment downtown. And how were they to meet the staggering grocery bill that six young and growing Rooneys ran up each month? Besides, almost all of the children needed dental work done. So Pat decided she'd have to solve the problem. And when Pat sets out to do a thing she gets it done.

She had always had compliments on her baking and besides she loved to bake. Here was something she could do in her own home to supplement the strained family budget for a time. She began making rolls and a local grocery store sold them for her on commission. Customers told their friends and now her home baking business has grown to the point where she will soon need an assistant.

MRS. ROONEY rises early each morning and mixes and sets her rolls before the family is up. By the time breakfast is over, her husband, who has improved somewhat, is off to work and the children to school, the rolls are ready for the pans and the oven. Pat usually gives them one rising, not working them down. Her recipes, all of which she knows by heart, are figured out systematically so she never has a failure. For sweet rolls and cinnamon rolls, she uses large pans that exactly fit her oven and hold six dozen each. She has a special twist that makes them fit the pans evenly, makes the rolls of uniform size, and insures easier wrapping. She prefers the dark tin pans for cinnamon rolls because they brown better, but the aluminum pans are all right for Parker House rolls.

You would have to watch the process to understand what I mean when I tell you how fast Pat turns out her baking. Not a motion is wasted as her deft fingers roll the dough, brush on the melted butter and scatter on the spices, sugar, nuts and fruit which she uses generously. Next she gives them a twist, rolls them again in sugar and cinnamon, and they're in the pan. As she whisks one pan out of the oven and turns it on the cooling rack, the next one is popped in, the next is rising in a warm place, the next is being rolled. In her spare moments she is frosting the cooled ones, wrapping them by the dozens in wax paper of which she uses rolls and rolls, because a well-wrapped, attractive appearance means so much, sealing them with staples (she has a miniature stapler) and attaching the proper printed label. She has rubber stamps with the name of the product and her name for her most popular brands and prints the rest.

Mrs. Rooney started her baking with a small Skelgas stove but before many months her business had reached such proportions that it was replaced by a beautiful new two-oven electric model, which has a timing clock. All day the timer is ringing to remind her when rolls are just the proper golden brown to be taken out of the oven. She knows the exact baking time required for each type. There is no guesswork about it.

By 10:30 o'clock in the morning the first baking is ready for delivery. This may include Parker House rolls, plain rolls, pecan rolls, frosted rolls, caramel rolls and other kinds of sweet rolls. There may be an apple ring and raisin rings at from 30 cents to 50 cents each. She loads them into the car and delivers them in person to the Star Grocery. Little Tommy gives a Tarzan yell, "We're going," and the three or four youngest Rooneys pile into the back seat, for they are never left at home alone, even for a short time. She brings home a box of groceries and supplies and the second baking starts. If it is a good buying day, a second delivery is made before noon. Her rolls reach her customers oven fresh.

VERY SOON Mrs. Rooney was expanding to other items besides rolls. These are baked in the afternoon or evening several times a week. Her cookies, sacked in cellophane bags, which she buys by the carton, are in great demand and sell for 60 cents a dozen. Some of her most popular varieties are her ice box cookies, sugar cookies (these take longest to make), oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, banana cookies, raisin oatmeal cookies, peanut butter, orange pecan, and butterscotch cookies. Perhaps the best liked are her date cookies. She originated the recipe for these herself. They are moist and fruity. Her cookie sheets just fit the oven.

Also in demand are Pat's banana bread and date bread. These are baked in small one-loaf pans that just fit the cellophane bags. At holiday time she bakes fruit cakes in one-pound and one-half-pound coffee cans and holiday wraps them. For Easter she tints her clover leaf rolls in pastel shades. She is full of original and clever ideas. Quite often she sandwiches in an order for pies. Since they take so much time she prices them at 90 cents each. But they are deep and her pie crusts are so flakey you will say they are well worth it. Occasionally she bakes a birthday cake. She even finds time to decorate these attractively.

It is not at all unusual for Mrs. Rooney to have an order for fifty dozen rolls for some large banquet or dinner of some organization. When she first started baking she donated rolls for a dinner served by her church organization. They made a big hit. Since she lives in a small town, the word was passed along to other organizations that now order her rolls regularly for their dinners and banquets. She bakes part of these a day or two in advance and stores them in a friend's deep freeze. They are like fresh when thawed and heated. Her Parker House rolls sell for 40 cents a dozen; sweet rolls for 60 cents.

Mrs. Rooney uses only first quality ingredients throughout her baking. She purchases her flour in fifty- and one hundred-pound sacks direct from the mill, which delivers it also. This means a great saving. Her eggs come strictly fresh from the country by the case. Using eggs generously speeds rising time for rolls. Pecans come in quantity at about five pounds for $5. Her kitchen is kept spotlessly clean at all times.

Mrs. Rooney has learned that profits vary in accordance with careful planning. She tries to anticipate good buying days and bake accordingly because if she bakes a surplus, day-old rolls must be sold at a sacrifice. Also, they are not good advertising. Quantity buying is wise if ingredients are used rapidly enough so they do not deteriorate in quality. Time is another element to be considered. To take hours from the baking for tedious nut cracking might not represent good judgment. It is better to buy well-known brands than experiment with inferior brands at lower prices. Pat has discovered that one brand of cellophane sacks keeps her nut bread and cookies fresh for three days, another slightly cheaper brand of the same size lets them dry out in one day. Brown sugar, if it's cane sugar, gives a nice glaze to the "goo" at the bottom of rolls; brown beet sugar turns it sugary. Soaking baking dishes immediately cuts dishwashing time to a minimum.

HERE ARE recipes for two of Mrs. Rooney's most popular products:

Parker House Rolls
1 cup water
¼ cup shortening
2 cakes yeast
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs (beaten)
¼ cup sugar
About 6 cups flour

Scald milk, and add shortening and sugar. Let cool until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in cup of warm water in mixing bowl. Let stand five minutes or until bubbly. To this add 2 well beaten eggs and melt mixture. Add 2 cups flour and beat well. Then add rest of flour, 1 cup at a time until dough is soft, elastic. Grease top lightly and let rise in warm place until double in bulk. Roll out on floured board to ¼ to ½ inch thickness. Cut into rounds with floured biscuit cutter. Butter with pastry brush and with a knife make a deep crease down the middle. Fold biscuits over, and crease edges together lightly. Place biscuits in rows in greased pan. Let rise in warm place until they are light. Bake in 400° F. oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

     Non-Roll Sugar Cookies
Dump into mixing bowl:
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1¹/3 cups shortening
1 tsp. salt
3 eggs

Beat with electric mixer until creamy.

Add:
1½ tsp. soda
3 tsp. baking powder

Sift into mixture 4 cups flour and stir with spoon until well blended. Make into oblong roll on waxed paper as for ice box cookies. Chill an hour. Cut thin slices and place on greased cooky sheet and press down lightly with fork. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a 400° F. oven about 10 or 12 minutes or until golden brown.

MRS. ROONEY gives the grocers 10 per cent commission for allowing her to display her products in their store. They do not buy her rolls outright, so do not ask the usual higher mark-up price of 30 or 40 per cent. Any rolls not sold that day are her own loss, so she tries not to bake an over supply. Another woman had baked for the grocery previously on a small scale so the idea of handling baked goods was not new to the store when Pat suggested it. She merely took a sample of her goods to the store, talked it over with the manager and came to an agreement. In turn the store has given her many pointers, such as the fact that buying is not so heavy near the third week of the month as it is when everyone has a new pay check. They help her sales by suggesting to customers that her date bread makes a delectable dessert with whipped cream, etc. In the friendly small town atmosphere advertising is not a major problem.

With such a busy life you might think Mrs. Rooney's family would be neglected. But you could not be more wrong. Her family comes first. The kiddies are in and out of the kitchen during the whole process. In her unruffled way she settles minor disputes, administers mild punishment, referees a near battle between the two little boys, is never too busy to take time out to help teen-age Patty decide between the peach or the blue bathing suit, to select a birthday gift and plan a party for Barbara, to have a conference with her husband about the advisability of taking the youngsters to the circus that is coming to town, to stop and hug 3-year-old Cathy as she turns on her flirty brown-eyed charm and whispers, "Mommy, I's being a nice girl," to redecorate the front bedroom, add a unique pair of salt and pepper shakers to her collection, go to a movie with Bill or have a cup of coffee with a friend. The whole family, however, shares in the household chores. The girls keep the dishes washed help tidy up the house, hang out clothes, fold and put them away, mind the little folk for mother. Each has his own little tasks that he is responsible for.