Pam Sawyer started her full-service floral and gourmet sweet shop business, Country Cottage, in White Stone in 1998. She specializes in custom designs, from flower arrangements for every occasion to handmade gourmet chocolates and homemade fudge. She also offers gifts, cards, flags, and plants, along with a variety of ice cream creations featuring Hershey’s Ice Cream.

Balancing work and family life “is always a struggle,” said Sawyer, and she had to work hard to build up her self-confidence to believe she could pull it all off. But the results of her efforts have not gone without notice. Country Cottage won “Best of Virginia” chocolatier for three years, she said, as well as “Best of the Rivah” for ice cream.

A high school graduate, Sawyer is originally from Newport News, but lived most of her life in Mathews. Before opening Country Cottage, she worked with her husband’s delivery business, doing the paperwork, delivering product to grocery stores, and running a landscape busines...