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After learning his trade working for a famous Sydney pie shop, Will Gregory decided to pack up his chef whites and start his own venture in Melbourne.
Armed with plenty of his own recipe ideas, the pastry chef and his sister, Jo Baker, opened Pie Minister in Pakenham's growing residential estate, Lakeside, on Melbourne's southeastern outskirts three years ago.
Since then, this family business has been rolling, baking and cooking its way into the hearts of locals with its delicious savoury treats.
All the pies are made onsite by Will using virtually trans-fat free pastry and fresh local produce wherever possible for the fillings.
As the popularity of Pie Minister's gourmet range of fillings has grown, Will has continued to experiment with flavours and now has more than 30 different pies on offer from the humble beef pie to the more adventurous lamb rogan josh and vegetarian lentil dahl options.
In addition to savoury pies, Will bakes apple pies, cherry pies and vanilla slices for those with a sweet tooth and offers catering for residents and businesses in the local area.
Due to the success of the business and encouragement from customers, Will is opening a second shop in Koo Wee Rup, a small regional town south-east of Melbourne.
'The perfect opportunity presented itself when plans were revealed for Koo Wee Rup's brand-new, state of the art Woolworths,' Will said
'This location is ideal as we expect to receive a large amount of foot traffic.'
Scheduled to open in September 2011, the plans for the second Pie Minister are based on Will's successful original model.
'The biggest challenge we face is ensuring the second store is an exact replica of the Pakenham shop,' he said.
Feeling a little overwhelmed with producing the product and ensuring its quality, as well as managing the business, Will attended the Get Your Business Organised seminar, in the Small Business Workshops and Seminar program, run by Small Business Victoria (SBV) and hosted by Cardinia Shire Council.
'I was finding I was spending a lot of time talking to customers and struggling to get things done,' Will said.
'I was aware that my focus should have been on coming up with new recipes, marketing and working on the back-end of the business.
'The seminar helped me structure things better. In particular, putting on extra staff to provide great customer service so that I could concentrate on creating the product and manage the store,' he said.
These insights were also reinforced in a two-day Business Planning workshop he took part in recently which helped crystallise his planning for the new shop.
'This workshop helped me set my goals and objectives and forced me to re-evaluate where I was working in the business,' he said. 'I found it really motivational.'
With the store opening date fast approaching, Will is focussed on planning for the new shop.
'It's a big learning curve for us,' Will said.
'To maintain our high standards, we are looking at making all the fillings on-site in Pakenham before transporting them to Koo Wee Rup where they will be made up,' he said.
Will has also been updating the recipes so that staff at the new shop could replicate them should they need to, and is putting in a sophisticated oven and stove, to prepare for all eventualities.
'Our Pakenham sales are growing all the time, so we are obviously doing something right, and I'm hoping that the new store will be as successful. The SBV workshops and seminars I have attended have helped set the groundwork for this.'
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