The Hayloft – A Farm Fresh Small Business

Farm-to-table is the priority of a local business in Brownsburg. Sarah Simon is the owner and manager of The Hayloft which is located on East Main Street. She first began the business in May of 2017 and has continued to grow in both size and customer base.

After six years of working for John Force Racing and a decade traveling the NHRA Drag Racing circuit, Simon wanted to get off the road and be home more. She thought that Brownsburg was in need of “something that was farm-to-table and focused on local companies.” She needed a change and wanted to bring something more to Brownsburg.

“I knew I wanted to open a business and start from scratch. I wanted something that was more like a farmers market, but a permanent farmers market that was open year-round and indoors,” Simon said.

Starting with just an 800-square-foot storefront with a small bakery, they are currently double the original size. She first “found a bunch of local little farms and little companies” and bought “small batch-type things like jams and jellies, cheeses, sauces, coffees, etc.” With the variety of foods offered, Simon started baking cupcakes and selling out. Due to the high demand for these pastry items, she knew that they needed to expand their store and definitely their kitchen area.

After this expansion took place, they decided to put a wine section in place while also adding grazing boxes, which is their version of a charcuterie box. The grazing boxes took off and added yet another facet of their business model.

Owning a local, family-run business isn’t always a dream come true for Simon. She believes that “there are definitely some hard times where I’m over this, because it’s hard to find good employees and the skyrocketing prices are difficult to manage.”

The Hayloft has a total of 15 employees and is 1600 square feet. Simon continues to implement new ideas for her customers, coming up with new items her customers might like.

“It’s definitely added another layer since having our first baby,” Simon said.

While Simon was going through her pregnancy with her now 9-month-old, she realized how rough it was going to be to juggle everything they had going on as a family.  Her husband, Landon Simon, is a Sprint Car driver, crew chief and team owner. Simon herself is very much involved with the team so she knew that her time would be hard to manage. Even now, she is fighting time to be able to manage both businesses. 

“I do all of the behind the scenes, back of the house, business side of things that people don’t really think about, like payroll, managing taxes, paying the bills, doing all of the ordering, licensing and all of that stuff,” said Simon.

To maximize her time, she knew that she needed every available moment to get work done. While her son was taking a nap, she would get all the work she could done within the allowed time.

Simon and her husband decided to come up with a schedule “where three days a week I would have [the baby] in the morning and then switch off,” she said. This learning curve has made maximizing their time more useful now, making Sundays their family day while the business doors are closed.

Through this time management, Simon has many employees, including highschoolers, that help make the store what it is. “We try to keep it a fun atmosphere, and we try to keep a revolving door of just new fun things,” Simon said. The holidays are times where the store has new ideas for ways families can get involved, such as cookie decorating kits and a variety of holiday specific cookies.

“There are so many layers that go into a small business. It’s hard work, but I was just not going to be one of those people that let all the layers break apart; it really ended up kind of bringing us to where we are now,” Simon said.