How Marisa Papetti of Marie’s Bees Grew Backyard Honey Into a Thriving Product-Based Business

July 1, 2026

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Connect with Marisa

Shop Marie’s Bees online: www.mariesbees.com
Text Marisa Papetti: (360) 224-2387
Events + Classes: https://mariesbees.com/pages/events
Instagram: @mariesbeeswa
PNW Artisan Marketplace: https://pnwartisanmarketplace.com

When you meet Marisa Papetti, founder of Marie’s Bees, you immediately understand why her business has grown into something so much bigger than honey.

Yes, Marie’s Bees is known for raw, real Pacific Northwest honey, whipped honey, farmers markets, classes, events, and local products that people love. But behind the jars of honey is a story about family, caregiving, community, resilience, and learning how to build a business that does not depend on one person doing every single thing.

Marisa is a certified beekeeper, a small business owner, an event creator, a cooking teacher, and what I lovingly call a total boss lady. She has built an entire ecosystem around Marie’s Bees, including wholesale, in-person markets, a commercial kitchen, employees, classes, and even working alongside her husband, Dominic.

But like so many women-owned small businesses, Marie’s Bees did not start with a perfect plan. It started with real life.

It started with family.

It started with bees.

And it grew because Marisa learned how to build systems, hire people, trust her team, and keep going.

The Beginning of Marie’s Bees

The story of Marie’s Bees begins during a season when Marisa was caring for her grandmother.

Her grandmother, who Marisa describes with so much love and personality, had given up her driver’s license and eventually moved into Marisa’s home after becoming disabled. Marisa became one of her caregivers, and while she deeply loved caring for her grandma, she was also honest about how exhausting caregiving can be.

Like many women, Marisa found herself holding a lot at once: family, grief, work, responsibility, and the emotional weight of caring for someone she loved.

To help get her grandmother out of the house, Marisa started creating farm baskets filled with items from their property: berries, fresh bread, honey, and other homemade goods. She would sell the baskets on Facebook and deliver them locally.

Her grandmother loved riding in the car, meeting people, and, as Marisa shared, she could usually be convinced to leave the house if ice cream or fish and chips were involved.

What started as a simple way to bring joy and connection into a hard season slowly became something more.

The baskets grew from one delivery day a week to two or three days a week. People loved the products. They loved the connection. They loved the honey.

And eventually, a local store asked if they could wholesale Marisa’s honey.

That was the moment things shifted.

Marie’s Bees needed a name, a structure, and a path forward.

Why the Business Is Called Marie’s Bees

The name Marie’s Bees carries a deeply personal meaning.

Marisa and her husband, Dominic, were not able to have children. In Dominic’s Italian family, if they had a daughter, her name would have traditionally been Marie.

So when it came time to name the business, Marisa chose Marie.

The bees became Marie’s Bees.

It was a way to honor family, tradition, love, and the life they were building in a different form.

And that is part of what makes this women-owned honey business feel so special. It is not just a product on a shelf. It is a business with a heartbeat.

From Backyard Honey to a Product-Based Business

One of the biggest turning points in Marisa’s story was realizing that selling honey was not as simple as pouring it into jars at home forever.

As Marie’s Bees started growing, Marisa quickly learned that a product-based business needs real infrastructure.

She shared that pouring honey in a home kitchen was not sustainable. Everything gets sticky. There are food safety considerations. If you have pets, hair can become an issue. And for Marisa, using honey around a septic system created additional concerns because honey is antimicrobial.

So she made a decision many product-based entrepreneurs eventually face: she needed a commercial kitchen.

That meant taking the business seriously, reinvesting money back into the company, buying equipment, building processes, and accepting that growth requires support.

For years, Marisa poured the money from the business right back into the business. In fact, she shared that she did not start paying herself until year ten.

That is a very real part of entrepreneurship that often gets left out of the polished version of business growth.

Building a product-based business takes money, time, patience, grit, and the willingness to keep investing before everything feels comfortable.

Building a Business That Can Grow Beyond the Founder

A major theme in Marisa’s story is this: you cannot do it all alone forever.

Marisa learned this lesson the hard way through a previous business.

Before Marie’s Bees, she owned a successful full-service marketing agency. At the same time, her father became ill, her family needed her, and life demanded her attention. She had clients, campaigns, projects, and people depending on her, but when she had to step away, the business did not have the systems it needed to survive without her.

That experience shaped how she built Marie’s Bees.

This time, she knew she wanted to create a real business, not just a hobby with a business name.

She wanted a business that could continue if she was sick, if family needed her, or if life happened.

And life always happens.

For Marisa, that meant:

Hiring people
Creating systems
Finding a kitchen manager
Training her team
Letting employees own their work
Trusting people instead of micromanaging
Building a business that did not rely on her being everywhere at once

This is one of the most powerful lessons for any woman starting or growing a small business: if every single task depends on you, the business can only grow as far as your personal capacity.

And eventually, capacity runs out.

Hiring Employees and Creating Systems

One of the first systems Marisa created was finding support in the kitchen.

For Marie’s Bees, the kitchen is one of the main hubs of the business. Products need to be made, jars need to be filled, recipes need to be followed, inventory needs to move, and quality needs to stay consistent.

Instead of trying to hold all of that herself, Marisa hired a kitchen manager and trained her team.

She also built a workplace that reflects how she believes people actually work best. She pays her employees well, gives them flexibility, and lets them manage their own schedules around the workload.

Marisa’s leadership approach is refreshingly human.

Her question to her team is not, “Why aren’t you doing more?”

It is, “Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help?”

That mindset is a huge reason she has been able to build and keep a strong team.

As Marisa said in the interview:

“The secret to keeping good people is to take care of good people.”

That is a leadership lesson every small business owner needs to hear.

What Product-Based Business Owners Can Learn from Marie’s Bees

Marisa’s advice is especially helpful for anyone starting a product-based business, handmade business, food business, farmers market business, or local brand.

A few of her biggest lessons include:

Know your numbers
Price your products properly
Stop being afraid to ask for what your product is worth
Reinvest in the business
Build systems before you desperately need them
Hire for the tasks you hate or are not good at
Test people before fully bringing them onto the team
Do not assume friends or family are the right fit
Find other small business owners to talk to
Stop trying to do everything alone

One of my favorite practical exercises Marisa shared was this:

Sit down and write out every job you do in your business. Then circle the ones you absolutely cannot stand doing.

That list gives you a starting point for what to outsource, delegate, or systemize first.

It does not have to happen all at once. Building systems can happen one small step at a time.

But the important thing is to start.

Working With Her Husband in the Business

Another part of Marisa’s story that so many small business owners will relate to is working with her husband, Dominic.

Marisa and Dominic have been married for almost 25 years, and they also work together in the business. But the key, according to Marisa, is knowing their lanes.

Dominic is great at sales. He is charismatic, funny, kind, and genuinely loves the products. He understands the mission of Marie’s Bees and connects naturally with customers.

Marisa is strong in directing, organizing, creating, teaching, managing, and building the bigger vision.

They work well in parallel.

But, as Marisa joked, if you ask them to build an IKEA shelf together, someone might not survive.

That honesty is part of what makes her story so refreshing. Working with your spouse in a small business can be beautiful, productive, challenging, funny, and complicated all at once.

The lesson is simple: know each person’s strengths and let them work from those strengths.

Do not force people into roles that do not fit.

The Mission Behind Marie’s Bees

At the heart of Marie’s Bees is a clear mission:

“To educate the public about pollinators through food.”

That mission shows up in everything Marisa does.

It shows up when she teaches beekeeping classes. It shows up when she teaches cheese-making classes. It shows up when she does cooking demonstrations at farmers markets. It shows up when she gives kids honey sticks and asks them what they know about bees.

Marie’s Bees is not just selling honey.

Marisa is helping people understand honey, bees, pollinators, food, and local agriculture in a more personal way.

She even talked about how people often misunderstand honey. Some people bring back crystallized honey and think it is broken. Others assume honey is simple, when really, Marisa explains that honey is more like wine: layered, complex, regional, and deeply connected to place.

That education is part of the brand experience.

And that is a beautiful reminder for product-based business owners: the product matters, but the story, experience, and education around the product can be what makes people truly connect.

Farmers Markets, Events, Wholesale, and Community

Marie’s Bees now shows up in many places, including farmers markets, wholesale accounts, special events, and classes.

Marisa and Dominic are also connected to the PNW Artisan Marketplace, and Marisa has helped grow local vendor opportunities through events like the Tulip Festival Market and the Nutcracker Market.

What began as a small honey business has expanded into a larger ecosystem of local business, artisan markets, food education, and community-building.

That is one of the most inspiring parts of Marisa’s journey. She is not only growing her own business. She is creating opportunities for other makers, artists, vendors, and small business owners.

And for Marisa, those relationships matter.

She talked about how valuable it is to gather with other small business owners, ask what is working, share ideas, and stop trying to reinvent the wheel alone.

Sometimes the best business advice does not come from a formal mastermind or expensive membership.

Sometimes it comes from breakfast with other entrepreneurs who understand what it means to run a real small business.

Favorite Quotes from Marisa Papetti

Here are a few favorite quotes and takeaways from the conversation:

“Stop thinking you can do it alone.”

“The secret to keeping good people is to take care of good people.”

“A good business owner is like a business ninja - you constantly adapt, adapt, adapt.”

“You need to prepare to build a business, not build a hobby that has a business name.”

“If you don’t have systems in place for when actual life happens, you’re dead.”

“People have their talents. You have to go with their strong suits.”

“Find your people.”

“Stop overthinking it. Get out of your own way.”

“Just start.”

“The mission of Marie’s Bees is to educate the public about pollinators through food.”

Topics Covered in This Episode

This episode is especially helpful for anyone searching for:

Women-owned small business stories
How to start a product-based business
Product-based business tips
Farmers market business tips
How to grow a handmade business
How to hire employees in a small business
How to build systems in a small business
Pacific Northwest honey
Raw honey in Washington
Certified beekeeper in Washington
Marie’s Bees
Marisa Papetti
Women in small business
Working with your spouse in business
Wholesale for product-based businesses
How to grow beyond doing everything yourself
Small business systems and delegation

Final Thoughts: Building a Business That Can Last

What I love most about Marisa’s story is that it is not a shiny overnight success story.

It is better than that.

It is real.

Marie’s Bees grew through caregiving, grief, family, farmers markets, sticky kitchens, wholesale opportunities, long days, reinvestment, team-building, and a deep willingness to adapt.

Marisa’s story is a reminder that building a small business does not mean doing everything by yourself. In fact, if you want your business to grow, you eventually have to let other people help carry the work.

You need systems.

You need community.

You need to know your numbers.

You need to know your strengths.

And you need to be willing to start before it all feels perfect.

For any woman building a product-based business today, Marisa’s advice is honest and powerful: prepare to work hard, prepare to invest, find your people, and stop trying to do it all alone.