Dynamic Duos

Unless you were a spelling bee champ, spelling tests probably weren't a grade school highlight. Former student teacher Judy Currie wanted to change that. "I'd teach spelling by putting alphabet stickers on Hershey's Kisses," says Currie, 30. "It went from there to decorating cookies [with letters]."

After Currie's childhood friend, Elkin Cushman, 30, then a marketing executive, requested some alphabet cookies for a client promotion, the two saw the product's potential. They changed their delectable medium to Swiss chocolate, incorporated as Eat Your Words Inc., and began selling Word Chocolate in March of last year. Today, the New York City company creates chocolate block letters, spelling anything from "Thank You" to "I Love Your `Blank.' "

Clients can find the goods in catalogs like Barney's Corporate Gifts, on the company's Web site, and through its direct marketing efforts to corporate clients and nonprofit organizations.

Eat Your Words brought in $800,000 in sales for 1998, with 41 percent of that generated during the holiday season. This year, the duo is expanding with a Valentine's Day marketing plan featuring Naughty Word Chocolate. Says Currie. "It'll be interesting to see what comes from it."

This article was originally published in the March 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Dynamic Duos.