On Biscuits, Business, and Balance
Girl Scout alum and Charleston native Carrie Morey founded Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit in 2005 using her mother’s country ham biscuit recipe and a $20,000 loan. Today she has four shops in Charleston, a pair of cookbooks—Callie’s Biscuits and Southern Traditions (Atria Books, 2013) and Hot Little Suppers (Harper Horizon, 2021), and a PBS show, How She Rolls, which launched last spring.
“If I can turn one biscuit recipe into a multidimensional lifestyle brand, you can do anything,” Carrie says.
She recalls her first job at Pitt Street Pharmacy in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
“I had to walk or ride my bike. I was so upset that my father made me do this. I was the soda fountain jerk. I remember loving that job and hating it at the same time!” she says with a laugh. “It made me want to find a way to make food a career.”
She told her daughters as they grew up that they would need to get jobs when they turn 14.
“When you work, you learn responsibility, and you learn to work for other people, but you also learn what you love. I am a huge believer that passion is what gets you through the hard times, and there are tons of those in a career or as an entrepreneur,” she says.
Carrie, who was a Girl Scout Brownie and Junior, also remembers selling cookies door to door. “Before I was 14 and could get a job, selling cookies was the first time I learned how to speak to people, ask for their business, take money, and do math,” she explains.
As she grew older, Carrie’s priorities were clear—family first, and a food-related job second.
“I wanted to make a career of my own, but I wanted to make sure that my priority was my family. Running a restaurant is a hard thing to do as a mom. So I figured I am going to open a mail-order food business.”
“My mom and I each took out a $10,000 loan on our homes and we used it to put together a website, get packaging, get a package-seal machine, and rent commercial kitchen space. In less than two years, we were able to pay it back,” Carrie says.
She launched her business when the oldest of her three daughters was only 9 months old.
“As I look back on it, my daughters have grown as my business has grown,” Carrie says. “I was able to grow at my own pace. Now they go to school eight to nine hours a day and to sports practice two to three hours a day. Our business may have missed out on growth opportunities early on, but nothing I regret.”
She opened her first brick-and-mortar store in 2014 and was blown away by its success.
“I didn’t expect the support and demand we would create for people wanting hot biscuits,” she says. “But the shop still closes at 2 p.m. so I can pick up my girls and carpool.”
For Carrie, the mantra of “biscuits, business, and balance” has been a guiding light.
“I’m most proud that I have been able to build a business on my terms,” she says. “There is a lot of pressure for anyone who is starting a business to subscribe to do what everyone else thinks is successful. It’s important to think about the things that you deem to be a success,” she says. “What I always wanted was to have balance and create a lifestyle where I could work and put my family first.”
Girl Scouts of the USA has partnered with AAA’s Club Adventures to design women-only, small-group vacation packages that take the work out of seeing something new. From Switzerland and Italy to Morocco, our new portfolio of tours is ideal for solo travelers as well as those who want to bring along a few of their Girl Scout sisters. These tours are a great opportunity to make new friends and keep the old ones close, so grab your former troop mates or camp buddies and join us. Learn more about how, on our Charleston and Savannah tour, you can meet Girl Scout alum Carrie Morey and learn how to make her biscuits, too!
