Bite Into an Island of Flavors

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food & beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Rachel Diaz, Owner of Borinken Cakes, located in Chicago, IL, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Borinken Cakes is a gourmet Puerto Rican cupcake shop serving the Chicago community.

Tell us about yourself

I moved to Chicago in 2007 to be with my now husband and finish my digital design degree. When my son turned 3, I was looking for a special cake to celebrate his birthday. I wanted a soaked cake with crunchy icing like Puerto Rico's.

After searching everywhere, I realized no one was making them in Chicago. As the artsy girl I was, I didn't let that stop. With the help of a phone call with my aunt, I was able to bake my first Puerto Rican cake. Everyone was so impressed with the flavor and silky texture of the cake even people who usually don't eat cake (like my father-in-law) loved it!

I started perfecting my recipes and falling in love with baking cake after cake. Word started spreading around the Puerto Rican community in Chicago. Soon enough, all my weekends were dedicated to baking from home. There was something so special about bringing a piece of our island to people who missed it as much as I did that kept me going. I fell in love with making people smile and dreamed of a day when I could bring joy to more people with our sweets.

In 2017 the company I designed for had to close its doors, and I had to either look for another 9-5 or risk it all and start a bakery. Having no money in the bank to create a Puerto Rican bakery in Chicago sounded like a crazy idea.

But we started small, worked extremely hard, and with the help of my mom and sister, we were able to open a small kiosk inside a mall in the North side of Chicago. Eight months later, we could finally open the bakery in the South of Chicago. And when our mall lease was over a year after, we moved the kiosk to a brick-and-mortar in the North Side so we could keep serving our northside as well. We currently have 2 locations and plan to open more places shortly.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Opening a business with no money was a significant accomplishment. Still, the biggest of them was doing it with no marketing budget. All our customers came in through our organic social media accounts and word of mouth. Eventually, local news channels like ABC, and NBC5, started contacting us to appear on their tv shows. This helped spread the word as we started small.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

One of my biggest dreams was to create jobs when jobs were lacking during the pandemic. We started our business in the middle of Covid and kept every employee through the ups and downs. Having a marketing budget is challenging as we need a consistent customer flow. This makes it tough to stay balanced and keep up with our increasing expenses, especially since we started with no financial cushion or savings. It has been a challenge, but we are slowly finding stability.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Start with an audience by either starting small as we did or creating a community in social media and collecting all the emails you can. Social media can close your accounts for no reason or decide not to show your content. Your email list will be your primary source of communication with your customers.
Save enough for marketing before starting anything. Marketing is equally if not more important than getting that fancy equipment or even tables and chairs.
Have a cushion saving account for at least three months of expenses when things get tough. This will make your smooth first-year sailing rather than a chaotic rollercoaster.

When starting a business from scratch, you'll need a lot of money, passion, and time. Passion is what's going to keep fueling you when things get tough. Having a vital purpose is essential to your success.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.borinkencakes.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BorinkenCakes/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BorinkenCakes/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BorinkenCakes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-diaz-3a85b663/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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