It started in the kitchen.
It always does.

Before there was an institute, there was a table. Before there was a curriculum, there was a recipe. And before anyone ever called us teachers, somebody in our family was already teaching — a wooden spoon in one hand and a lesson in the other.

The Merch Small Business Institute is what happens when a family of teachers and cooks decides those two callings were never separate at all.

It started in the kitchen.
It always does.

Before there was an institute, there was a table. Before there was a curriculum, there was a recipe. And before anyone ever called us teachers, somebody in our family was already teaching — a wooden spoon in one hand and a lesson in the other.

The Merch Small Business Institute is what happens when a family of teachers and cooks decides those two callings were never separate at all.

Teaching and Cooking Run in Our Family Tree

In our family, the kitchen and the classroom were never far apart. We come from people who taught — and people who fed. Some of us stood at the front of a classroom, some of us stood at the stove. Most of us, at one time or another, did both.

We learned early that a good cook and a good teacher do the same thing: they take something they love, break it down into steps anyone can follow, and then hand it to someone else — expecting nothing back except that they pass it on.

We Practice What We Teach

Real Products

We operate HavSum—our family's licensed cottage food brand.
What we teach, we make and sell.

Real Compliance

Every label, every form, every requirement we teach is the same Georgia Cottage Food law we follow ourselves.

Real Pricing

Our pricing models, cost-of-goods sheets, and profit strategies come from our own numbers— not theory.

Real Customers

We don't sell in the classroom. At markets, events, and to real buyers. We teach what customers actually ask.

Join us in developing one of Georgia's first...

When Georgia HB 398 opened the door for home-based food businesses, we saw thousands of talented cooks standing at that door with no one to show them how to walk through it — legally, profitably, and with confidence.

The Merch Small Business Institute is Georgia's first career training program officially approved under HB 398 Cottage Food Business Launch—operating under a Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) Recreational Exemption.

Our four-week program takes students from home kitchen to licensed, insured, revenue-ready business, with a 90-Day Launch Plan in hand on graduation day.

Georgia HB 398

Built for the law that opened the door for thousands of home kitchens.

Real Training

Practical, step-by-step education for launching a compliant, profitable cottage food business.


4 Week Program

From license to launch in 4 weeks— with a 90-Day Launch Plan in hand.


GNPEC Recreational Exemption

Approved. Compliant. 
Georgia recognized.

We are here to create new possibilities

To help you become successful in your field, our experts will teach you tips and tricks as well as the best practices.
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Every home kitchen in Georgia is a potential storefront.

Compliance shouldn't be a mystery— it should be simple.

The best teachers are still practicing what they teach.

Food made with love is meant to be shared— and everyone deserves to have some.

OUR MISSION

We exist to educate, equip, and empower home cooks to build legal, profitable, and lasting cottage food businesses that strengthen families and communities across Georgia.

BUILT ON EXPERIENCE. DESIGNED FOR YOU.

Everything in the program was created from real-world experience— in our kitchen, in our business, and in our community.

Pull up a chair.
We saved you a seat.

Come learn with people who have been in your shoes.
Then go build something your own family will be proud of.