Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jessica Smith, owner of Different Blend Bakery, located in Schenectady, NY, USA.

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

Different Blend Bakery is a dedicated Gluten-Free Bakery. The bakery makes everything from cream puffs to birthday cakes to house-made ice cream. Its recipes were crafted over years of work, with input from chefs at the Culinary Institute of America, cookbook authors, and certified master bakers. The products' flavors are endlessly creative and presented with great care. In addition, our bakers and team members constantly display their passion for what they do by designing items and serving our customers.

Different Blend Bakery is a destination for anyone in the NY Capital Region. Folks come to the bakery because they crave our Vanilla-Chocolate Cream Puffs, have heard about our specialty mousses, or because they want our exquisitely decorated cakes for their next event.

Because the bakery is also a dedicated gluten-free facility, we also get to participate in some heartwarming stories. For example, we witnessed an elderly woman, who has had celiac disease for 40 years, tear-up after having one of our cookies. We also get to see the joy in little children's eyes when they are told they can get whatever they want and do not need to ask if it is gluten-free. Our products, team members, and customers make Different Blend Bakery special.

Tell us about yourself

I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY, where I earned a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Baking and Pastry Arts. It was only six months after entering the CIA that I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. While this seemed painfully ironic at the time, it was really a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to immerse myself in the science and art of gluten-free baking.

At school, I spent my days surrounded by beautifully baked goods that I knew I could no longer eat. I drove to local grocery and health food stores in search of gluten-free foods that could subdue my cravings, only to find a lackluster selection. Like many others on this same search, I was dissatisfied with the dry, crumbly products that populated the market.

After many failed trips to the grocery store, I became determined to create my own gluten-free foods that were just as good as their original glutenous version. I realized that in order to remove something as fundamental as gluten from baked goods, I would need to use my education and surrounding to gain a detailed understanding of how all ingredients work together. There was no better place to learn this than the CIA. As I started studying ingredients and writing my own recipes, my determination morphed into an obsession. When I created a recipe that had potential, I would bring it to one of my CIA chefs for critiquing. This process of studying, testing, and gathering feedback helped me understand gluten-free baking, and it was then that I created the foundation for what became some of my best recipes.

In 2015 I was finally able to transform my recipes into a full-time endeavor with the opening of Different Blend Bakery! This dream come true represents my conviction that everyone deserves to eat great food and that with enough hard work, creativity, and perseverance, every challenge can be turned into a blessing.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Different Blend Bakery has accomplished big things. It has been more successful than I dared imagine it could be when starting. However, the accomplishment that surprised me the most has been the teams and culture that have grown up around the bakery. Since the first days of the bakery, the passion and excitement about what the bakery was doing were palpable. Today, they are a driving force behind every culinary innovation we produce and every record-breaking holiday we have. Their creativity, hard work, attention to detail, and pride in their work have allowed the bakery to sustain and magnify the vision beyond my singular ability.

However, while the impact the team has had on the bakery is undeniable, I am even more grateful for the impact the bakery has been able to have on the individuals who have invested in it. The growth that many members of the bakery family have experienced, personally and professionally, has been a reason in and of itself to take extreme pride in the bakery.

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

Business ownership comes with many hard responsibilities. While many large looming pressures keep me up at night, the hardest one I encounter on a daily basis is meeting our expectations of ourselves and, more importantly, our customer's expectations.

We take great pride in our work. Every item requires care and attention. Every customer interaction we have tries to showcase our passion by providing excellent customer service. As a result, when our excitement is met with disappointment by our customers, it can be very difficult. Customer expectations are often out of our control and maybe realistically impossible to meet them. While disappointed customers are relatively few and far between, negative feedback, even if constructive, can weigh on us. It is my challenge to recognize the value in the feedback while ensuring we are not discouraged by it.

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

  1. Entrepreneurs often are surrounded by a culture of fast growth. While some of this is driven by business fundamentals, a lot of it is driven by pride or inspired by short-lived but powerful success. As a result, if you are starting a business today, know why you want to grow. Is the risk you are taking to achieve growth for growth's sake, or is it to support yourself, your team, your community, and what you love?
  2. Find people you trust and who care about your success. These people do not need to be experts in your field or on speed dial - they just need to be willing to listen to you, challenge you, and care about your success.
  3. Your vision for your business is critical. It will also be pushed and pulled by all the well-meaning people around you. Everyone from an interested investor to your neighbor will have an opinion on how you can make your business better. Listen to those ideas, but if they distract from what you want your business to be, graciously reject them. It is your pride and your passion that will help create a like-minded team that can then do great things.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: http://differentblendbakery.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DifferentBlend/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/different_blend_bakery/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Different_Blend

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.