September 9, 2025 • 13 mins
She loves creating things from scratch! Dora Cheng had a family recipe and passion for high-quality wontons. With hard work and support from SCORE Mentors, she has launched Yee Mama into wholesale and more recently, opened a storefront at Cincinnati's Findlay Market!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
My name is Michael Dawson, your host of scores My
Sinsei Small Business Stories. In this episode, I will be
talking with Dora Chant, owner of Gee Mama and a
SCORE Client of the Year finalist. We'll find out more
about that after this message.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they had the support from a mentor.
My sincey small business Story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of SCORE Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:40):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome, Dora, How are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
How are you so? That's exciting? You were a finalist
and Sports Client of the Year.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
He was an honor.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Did you attend Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I attended the ceremony and met my score mentor in
person for the first time. We usually chat on zoom,
so that was really nice to finally get to see him.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Good. Good. So tell me what is Yee Mama.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So Yee Mama is a food company specializing in handmade
one tons and small badge sauces. So let's just a
step back and like talk about the language. Because I
grew up speaking Cantonese, so Yeem in Cantonese means aunt
(01:50):
and my mom means mom. And I grew up spending
a lot of time with my aunt because my mom
wasn't working. So my aunt took care of me and
made me a lot of food growing up. So we
were really close and I used to call her ye
(02:12):
Mama because she's like a mom to me. So when
I decided to start this business, I decided to name
it after her.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Interesting, So how did you get started? I mean, were
you in the food industry to begin with, or this
was like a hobby or some idea you thought I
want to try.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
This, So it started as a passion project. I always
loved to cook, and I was just playing around with
the different recipes because I was having a hard time
finding one TNS that was kind of like at the
same quality as the one that I grew up eating here.
(02:55):
So I decided to make it myself. And it wasn't
like I had a business plan or anything. It just
really like a passion project and a lot of friends
and family tried it and really enjoyed it, and I
always wanted to have my own business. I love creating
(03:18):
stuff from scratch. I love projects. But you know, I
worked on the recipe for many years and then finally
decided to launch the business.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And who launch.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
We have a lot of people who are foodies, they
love to try international food. But we also have a
lot of people who are parents and they have children
and they just want something that is made with high
quality and convenient. We also have a lot of older customers.
(03:53):
They love that the fact that they can just purchase
the frozen dumplings and boil them and they can host
like the family, you know, when they're visiting, or just
like a quick and easy, convenient meal.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So how did you get connected with Score?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
So?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I was part of Finny Kitchen, which is incubator space,
and we used to rent kind of like a prep
kitchen space, a Finity kitchen, and one thing that they
do is to connect small businesses with resources that are free.
(04:35):
And I was at the point in my business that
I feel like you'd be useful to have someone who
is kind of like not my family or not my
friends and kind of provide kind of like advice or
a feedback from like an outsider's perspective. I was strong
(04:57):
to scores volunteers expertise in their own field. I like
the fact that they are not necessarily in the excess
field I'm in, but they're able to provide feedback based
on their own area expertise.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So how often do you meet with your score mentor.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So we used to meet once a month at the
early stage of the business. I had a lot more
questions about operations and scaling and growing the business. Now
we meet like once a quarter. We are more stable
and established, and we recently opened our first door front.
(05:39):
We used to focus more on the wholesale side of
the business, so we still meet regularly, but I definitely
need a different type of support at this point of
the business.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And how long have you been in business?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So I've been in business for five years. We started
in the middle of the COVID when everything shut down,
so that was an interesting time and then we kind of,
you know, slowly grew our business organically and also kind
of be more thoughtful about the business model. And we
(06:15):
have gone through some changes over the years.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So what's been your biggest challenge?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I would say probably staffing and training the team. So
our dumplings are handmade, and this is what really set
us different from other types of dumplings, folks and dumplings
on the market. A lot of other dumplings are the
machine made. But because our products are handmade and they
(06:42):
also look really beautiful, it takes a lot of time
to train a new team member to produce high quality dumpling.
So that was something that I had to spend a
lot of time and resources on. And obviously the last
several years it was really challenging when it comes to
(07:03):
hiring in the food and beverage industry, just because of COVID,
of our people burned out. But now we have a
good team, so that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What's news with you? Look out five years? What are
you hoping to have?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So we recently opened our storefronts. We literally opened it
like a month ago, so that was like a very
different operation for us. But in the future like I
was saying five years, we still want to continue to
expand our wholesale operation. So right now, the way our
(07:39):
business model is we started as wholesale and then with
the storefront we have retail opportunity, but we want to
grow the operation in terms of so we sell dumplings,
but also like sauces that we have and we have
a copacker for that. So for the sauces, we can
(08:00):
see opportunities to scale it and get it into regional
or national retailers. So that's something that we are actively
working on. But for the dumplings, we want to keep
it local. We are in Funny Market, but we are
also in ten to fifteen local retailers in the Driestay area,
(08:25):
so we want to keep it local because it's handmade,
so it's more difficult to kind of scale it. And
we also don't want to make a tubic because we
want to maintain the quality.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Tell us where we can find the Yemama.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So we have our store fronts at Finly Market. We
are open Tuesday to Sunday. At our storefronts, you can
have the dumplings cook to order. You can also buy
the frozen dumplings if you want but for our frozen
planes and out line of sauces, you can find it
(09:03):
in a lot of local specialty store like Dorothy Lane Market,
Jungle Gems, etc. Produce. You can find a list of
retailers on our website.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And what's your website addressed?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's yemama dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Easy enough to remember. Yeah, what's one piece of advice
you would give to a new entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I would say being consistent. When I say being consistent,
it includes from the product quality to the way you
show up for the business. We started a business as
kind of like a pop up business model, and I
find it really important to be constantly doing pop ups
(09:48):
instead of only when I am free, because you know,
you don't build customer loyalty or brand recognition by just
doing and random pop ups. So we're very consistent when
it comes to doing pop ups. And also when we
release our product, it's like a weekly release, and I
(10:11):
think that really was helpful to help us get the
word out of our products about our brand. And also,
the product quality has to be really consistent because regardless
of when people come get your product, they expect a
certain quality and this is what makes people stay to
(10:32):
or keep coming back, so being consistent and also there
are lots of ups and downs in running a business.
Being consistent not getting too excited or too upset when
your revenue is going up and down, because that is
part of the journey. So yeah, I always say be consistent. Obviously,
hard work is kind of like the baseline for running
(10:56):
a business.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
We've been talking with Georgian owner The Mama, and you
can find her at emama dot com. Tell us a
little bit about Confluence. How does it fit into school's
mission and when's it happening.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Confluence fits perfectly in SCORES mission because we are all
about mentoring and education and this Confluence is an in
person conference. It provides us great opportunity for small business
owners and their supporters to gather together, learn a ton
of useful information, and also benefit from all the networking
(11:35):
of being in person with each other and with our
exhibitors and with our sponsors. So it fits neatly into
our mission. We hope that all of our members will come,
all that our all of our clients will come, and
we're hoping that people who might not yet be familiar
with SCORE will also come and get the benefit. And
as for the details, the when, the where, et cetera.
It's going to take place on September seventeenth, that's a Wednesday.
(11:59):
The venue is Matthew twenty five Ministries in Blue Ash.
They've got a beautiful conference space that we're going to
be in and we are hoping everybody will get registered
and join us there and I'll just slip in now.
The way to get registered is to go to score
dot org forward Slash Greater Cincinnati. The sign up is
(12:21):
happening right now, and we urge people to get signed
up early. We actually have a re registration, an online
registration price that is advantageous forty nine dollars. If you
sign up now, it's a seventy nine dollars value if
you wait. The way to get signed up is www
dot score dot org forward slash Greater Cincinnati. That'll take
(12:43):
you to our website and on September seventeenth, you'll get
yourself to Matthew twenty five Ministries. That's where we be located.
We're going to start the program at about nine o'clock,
wrap up by three point thirty, and we hope to
see everyone there.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Thank you, Patty. If you would like to sign up
with them or would like to become a mentor, go
to score dot org and click on the appropriate link.
Please subscribe to this podcast, share the link, and very
much so thank you for listening.
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
My name is Michael Dawson, your host of scores My
Sinsei Small Business Stories. In this episode, I will be
talking with Dora Chant, owner of Gee Mama and a
SCORE Client of the Year finalist. We'll find out more
about that after this message.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they had the support from a mentor.
My sincey small business Story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of SCORE Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:40):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome, Dora, How are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
How are you so? That's exciting? You were a finalist
and Sports Client of the Year.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
He was an honor.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Did you attend Yes.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I attended the ceremony and met my score mentor in
person for the first time. We usually chat on zoom,
so that was really nice to finally get to see him.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Good. Good. So tell me what is Yee Mama.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
So Yee Mama is a food company specializing in handmade
one tons and small badge sauces. So let's just a
step back and like talk about the language. Because I
grew up speaking Cantonese, so Yeem in Cantonese means aunt
(01:50):
and my mom means mom. And I grew up spending
a lot of time with my aunt because my mom
wasn't working. So my aunt took care of me and
made me a lot of food growing up. So we
were really close and I used to call her ye
(02:12):
Mama because she's like a mom to me. So when
I decided to start this business, I decided to name
it after her.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Interesting, So how did you get started? I mean, were
you in the food industry to begin with, or this
was like a hobby or some idea you thought I
want to try.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
This, So it started as a passion project. I always
loved to cook, and I was just playing around with
the different recipes because I was having a hard time
finding one TNS that was kind of like at the
same quality as the one that I grew up eating here.
(02:55):
So I decided to make it myself. And it wasn't
like I had a business plan or anything. It just
really like a passion project and a lot of friends
and family tried it and really enjoyed it, and I
always wanted to have my own business. I love creating
(03:18):
stuff from scratch. I love projects. But you know, I
worked on the recipe for many years and then finally
decided to launch the business.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And who launch.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
We have a lot of people who are foodies, they
love to try international food. But we also have a
lot of people who are parents and they have children
and they just want something that is made with high
quality and convenient. We also have a lot of older customers.
(03:53):
They love that the fact that they can just purchase
the frozen dumplings and boil them and they can host
like the family, you know, when they're visiting, or just
like a quick and easy, convenient meal.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
So how did you get connected with Score?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
So?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I was part of Finny Kitchen, which is incubator space,
and we used to rent kind of like a prep
kitchen space, a Finity kitchen, and one thing that they
do is to connect small businesses with resources that are free.
(04:35):
And I was at the point in my business that
I feel like you'd be useful to have someone who
is kind of like not my family or not my
friends and kind of provide kind of like advice or
a feedback from like an outsider's perspective. I was strong
(04:57):
to scores volunteers expertise in their own field. I like
the fact that they are not necessarily in the excess
field I'm in, but they're able to provide feedback based
on their own area expertise.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
So how often do you meet with your score mentor.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So we used to meet once a month at the
early stage of the business. I had a lot more
questions about operations and scaling and growing the business. Now
we meet like once a quarter. We are more stable
and established, and we recently opened our first door front.
(05:39):
We used to focus more on the wholesale side of
the business, so we still meet regularly, but I definitely
need a different type of support at this point of
the business.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And how long have you been in business?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
So I've been in business for five years. We started
in the middle of the COVID when everything shut down,
so that was an interesting time and then we kind of,
you know, slowly grew our business organically and also kind
of be more thoughtful about the business model. And we
(06:15):
have gone through some changes over the years.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So what's been your biggest challenge?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
I would say probably staffing and training the team. So
our dumplings are handmade, and this is what really set
us different from other types of dumplings, folks and dumplings
on the market. A lot of other dumplings are the
machine made. But because our products are handmade and they
(06:42):
also look really beautiful, it takes a lot of time
to train a new team member to produce high quality dumpling.
So that was something that I had to spend a
lot of time and resources on. And obviously the last
several years it was really challenging when it comes to
(07:03):
hiring in the food and beverage industry, just because of COVID,
of our people burned out. But now we have a
good team, so that's exciting.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
What's news with you? Look out five years? What are
you hoping to have?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So we recently opened our storefronts. We literally opened it
like a month ago, so that was like a very
different operation for us. But in the future like I
was saying five years, we still want to continue to
expand our wholesale operation. So right now, the way our
(07:39):
business model is we started as wholesale and then with
the storefront we have retail opportunity, but we want to
grow the operation in terms of so we sell dumplings,
but also like sauces that we have and we have
a copacker for that. So for the sauces, we can
(08:00):
see opportunities to scale it and get it into regional
or national retailers. So that's something that we are actively
working on. But for the dumplings, we want to keep
it local. We are in Funny Market, but we are
also in ten to fifteen local retailers in the Driestay area,
(08:25):
so we want to keep it local because it's handmade,
so it's more difficult to kind of scale it. And
we also don't want to make a tubic because we
want to maintain the quality.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Tell us where we can find the Yemama.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
So we have our store fronts at Finly Market. We
are open Tuesday to Sunday. At our storefronts, you can
have the dumplings cook to order. You can also buy
the frozen dumplings if you want but for our frozen
planes and out line of sauces, you can find it
(09:03):
in a lot of local specialty store like Dorothy Lane Market,
Jungle Gems, etc. Produce. You can find a list of
retailers on our website.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
And what's your website addressed?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's yemama dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Easy enough to remember. Yeah, what's one piece of advice
you would give to a new entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I would say being consistent. When I say being consistent,
it includes from the product quality to the way you
show up for the business. We started a business as
kind of like a pop up business model, and I
find it really important to be constantly doing pop ups
(09:48):
instead of only when I am free, because you know,
you don't build customer loyalty or brand recognition by just
doing and random pop ups. So we're very consistent when
it comes to doing pop ups. And also when we
release our product, it's like a weekly release, and I
(10:11):
think that really was helpful to help us get the
word out of our products about our brand. And also,
the product quality has to be really consistent because regardless
of when people come get your product, they expect a
certain quality and this is what makes people stay to
(10:32):
or keep coming back, so being consistent and also there
are lots of ups and downs in running a business.
Being consistent not getting too excited or too upset when
your revenue is going up and down, because that is
part of the journey. So yeah, I always say be consistent. Obviously,
hard work is kind of like the baseline for running
(10:56):
a business.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
We've been talking with Georgian owner The Mama, and you
can find her at emama dot com. Tell us a
little bit about Confluence. How does it fit into school's
mission and when's it happening.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Confluence fits perfectly in SCORES mission because we are all
about mentoring and education and this Confluence is an in
person conference. It provides us great opportunity for small business
owners and their supporters to gather together, learn a ton
of useful information, and also benefit from all the networking
(11:35):
of being in person with each other and with our
exhibitors and with our sponsors. So it fits neatly into
our mission. We hope that all of our members will come,
all that our all of our clients will come, and
we're hoping that people who might not yet be familiar
with SCORE will also come and get the benefit. And
as for the details, the when, the where, et cetera.
It's going to take place on September seventeenth, that's a Wednesday.
(11:59):
The venue is Matthew twenty five Ministries in Blue Ash.
They've got a beautiful conference space that we're going to
be in and we are hoping everybody will get registered
and join us there and I'll just slip in now.
The way to get registered is to go to score
dot org forward Slash Greater Cincinnati. The sign up is
(12:21):
happening right now, and we urge people to get signed
up early. We actually have a re registration, an online
registration price that is advantageous forty nine dollars. If you
sign up now, it's a seventy nine dollars value if
you wait. The way to get signed up is www
dot score dot org forward slash Greater Cincinnati. That'll take
(12:43):
you to our website and on September seventeenth, you'll get
yourself to Matthew twenty five Ministries. That's where we be located.
We're going to start the program at about nine o'clock,
wrap up by three point thirty, and we hope to
see everyone there.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Thank you, Patty. If you would like to sign up
with them or would like to become a mentor, go
to score dot org and click on the appropriate link.
Please subscribe to this podcast, share the link, and very
much so thank you for listening.
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