Meet the woman with Down syndrome who launched her own cookie company, made over $1 million, and is helping adults with disabilities

Meet Collette Divitto, the 31-year-old CEO of a profitable cookie firm. Divitto based her candy firm – Collettey’s Cookies – after struggling to discover a job after school.

Divitto – who was born with the genetic dysfunction Down syndrome – was bullied in highschool. However, Divitto attended and graduated Clemson College. Divitto was able to be impartial after Clemson College, however hiring managers stored saying, “It was nice to satisfy you, Collette, however right now we really feel you aren’t an excellent match for our firm.”

Throughout powerful occasions, the one factor that at all times made Collette comfortable was baking.

“So really, I at all times liked baking, since I used to be 4 years previous. From highschool, I had been taking baking courses,” Divitto informed CBS Information. “It was a tough time for me. I had no mates, I didn’t have a social life. I obtained bullied, I obtained picked on. And that’s why I had been taking baking courses.”

Devitto determined to show her ardour for baking right into a profession.

Collette’s mom – Rosemary Alfredo – taught her daughter the fundamentals of beginning and operating a small enterprise. They designed a emblem, created an internet site, and registered the enterprise.

Divitto’s signature creation is “The Wonderful Cookie” – a chocolate chip cinnamon cookie, which nonetheless stays the corporate’s hottest taste. Collette introduced samples of her superb cookies to an area store in Boston – and so they ordered 100 12-packs of cookies.

Alfredo recalled, “We’re shopping for 40-pound luggage of flour, bringing them into our condo, pondering, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s gonna occur.”

Divitto admitted she was “so scared on the very starting,” however the brand new enterprise made her really feel “superb and assured. I by no means, ever felt that manner in my total life.”

The mother-daughter duo shortly rented a industrial kitchen and began the enterprise for lower than $20,000, so they might fulfill the fledgling firm’s first order.

Alfredo revealed that Collettey’s Cookies has by no means acquired exterior funding regardless of making an attempt. “That was our greatest problem, folks questioning [Divitto’s] skills and the potential success of the corporate together with her because the CEO and COO,” Alfredo mentioned.

Within the first three months of enterprise, Divitto bought 4,000 cookies. Since launching in December 2016, Collettey’s Cookies have made $1.2 million in lifetime income, in accordance with CNBC. Collettey’s Cookies can be found on-line, at 7-Eleven comfort shops, and on the TD Backyard sports activities area in Boston, Massachusetts.

Collettey’s Cookies has garnered nationwide headlines, and grown a following on social media with over 40,000 followers on Fb and greater than 28,000 on Instagram.

Nadya Rousseau – the founder and CEO of promoting and PR agency Alter New Media – was so impressed by Collette’s story that she labored for the corporate professional bono this yr.

“I simply was struck with how genuine she was, and simple,” Rousseau revealed. “So many individuals have layer upon layer in entrance of them and so they can’t simply communicate their fact. She’s at all times talking her fact.”

Collette works six days per week, and sometimes begins her day at 4 a.m. at her industrial kitchen.

Collettte is one sensible cookie, and has branched out to be the creator of two kids’s books and was featured on “Born for Enterprise,” a actuality TV docuseries about entrepreneurs with disabilities.

Devitto understands that it may be tough to get a job when you’ve gotten a incapacity, so her firm employs many employees who’ve disabilities.

“Creating extra jobs for people who find themselves disabled,” Collettte mentioned. “That’s my complete mission.”

In 2018, Divitto and Alfredo launched a nonprofit known as “Collettey’s Management Packages” – which gives workshops and mentorship companies for folks with and with out disabilities. A portion of the proceeds from Collettey’s Cookies goes to the nonprofit.

“Don’t let folks carry you down. Don’t focus in your disabilities,” Collette mentioned. “You solely must focus in your skills.”

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Supply: TheBlaze