No Monkey Business Here: Cheesy Monkii’s CDAP Journey

Lauren Morris always had a passion for food but felt stuck working two jobs, challenged to make ends meet as a single mother. Inspired to make a change, she returned to school for the Entrepreneurship program offered through Fanshawe College. During the program, Lauren heard that a food truck in Bruce County was for sale and knew she had to jump on the opportunity.

“I geared all of my business planning into the acquisition of the food truck that very spring,” she explains.

Lauren put all of her savings into the new venture, and what started as a humble stand has quickly gained popularity and has now transformed into a thriving business called Cheesy Monkii.

Cheesy Monkii, now entering its sixth year on-site at the Kincardine Municipal Airport, has become the “soul food of the community,” as Lauren explains. “We serve handcrafted meals featuring exclusively local (ingredients)… to showcase the talent of many other local vendors in the area.” Cheesy Monkii’s famous mouthwatering burgers are hand pressed in house and made with 100% hormone-free, locally sourced beef.

To grow her business, Lauren recognized the importance of improving Cheesy Monkii’s online presence. It was also important to Lauren that her online site aligned with the exceptional quality of their food.

“My DIY site was overridden with spam (on) both my contact form and the comments sections to the point where we couldn’t even debug it.”

Then Lauren heard about the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP). CDAP provides small businesses with the unique opportunity of accessing both a micro-grant of up to $2,400 and support from a dedicated one on one e-Commerce advisor, who can assist business owners in understanding the basics of e-Commerce solutions, cybersecurity, digital marketing strategy and more.

Lauren eagerly embraced the assistance of her e-Commerce advisor and made the most of the micro-grant.

“(My e-commerce advisor) was great; he answered all of my questions and had tons of resources to help me,” explains Lauren.

As for the microgrant, Lauren felt this investment needed to go toward a new website for Cheesy Monkii.

“The microgrant allowed me to have enough budget to work 1-1 with a very professional software developer locally who not only knew all of the integrations and how to use API (application programming interfaces) to converse with our back office in the POS (Point of Sale) we already use but helped me with all of the hardware components and actual set up and a full test to make sure everything not only talked but was trustworthy to consumers while visiting us online”, Lauren continues. Already the new website has been a remarkable success. “I am very excited about this new digital presence.” “We have seen lots of traffic through online sales already,” she explains.

With the knowledge she learned from her e-commerce advisor, Lauren says she is keen to see where her business goes and plans to take her e-commerce strategy to the next level.

“We have yet to implement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) program online, but the plan is to do so through email and have an affiliate marketing discounted rate for reviews and comments to help us better understand (what) our business needs from the perspective of the customer,” she says.

For Lauren and Cheesy Monkii, having an online store opens another opportunity for the future, as it allows for year-round sales – something that was not possible before. With the new website, Lauren sees future possibilities to take her business to the next level, with dreams of opening a physical location.

“Right now, and in the past, my business has always been caught by inflation in the spring as we are closed in the winter months. Being able to sell gift certificates and merchandise online is key to being able to reinvest in more locations for pop-up food service and to hopefully invest in a bricks and mortar spot,” says Lauren.

Lauren expressed her gratitude for the CDAP program and acknowledged a few others who have been a part of her journey. “The strong support I have had through family and friends throughout the years, having great reliable staff, and access to mentors like Rob and Dale through Fanshawe who gave me the courage to take a chance and see how things played out.”

When asked to share her advice to other businesses considering applying for CDAP to grow their business online, Lauren says, “Do it. Do everything possible you can do to get yourself online. I am very happy with our decision to use this grant.”

Visit Cheesy Monkii in Kincardine or online (Website, Instagram,Facebook) 

To learn more about the CDAP program, please visit here.