Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Liz Capozzoli, Owner of Owlbbaking, LLC., located in Morristown, NJ, USA.

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

Owlbbaking first launched in 2016 as a recipe blog, but since then has expanded into ebooks, an online cookie decorating course, merchandise, and more! Over the years, we have established a large community of home bakers and anyone who loves to bake as a hobby or as their profession. The recipes on our website consist of easy homemade dessert recipes, which is our specialty! Our approach is to share tried and true recipes that everyone will love, as well as lots of baking wisdom so anyone can bake with confidence!

Over the years, we’ve published a number of ebook recipe books, and in 2021 we launched our online cookie decorating course, Cookie Transfermation, which gives bakers the tools to make perfectly decorated cookies easily using unique royal icing transfers. We were absolutely thrilled to see such a positive response from our clients and community and help so many bakers craft beautiful cookies they are proud of!

Tell us about yourself

My mother and grandmother are at the core of my love for baking, and I started experimenting with recipes when I was a kid. It’s always been a part of my life. Naturally, when food blogs were first coming onto the scene, I found them to be super inspiring, and the idea of sharing my best recipes with the world was so exciting! I dreamed about one day having my own blog.

After getting settled in my corporate job, a new home, and getting married, I finally found the time to set out on this adventure. I started with the intention of sharing my favorite recipes with friends and family (having zero knowledge of building a website). After a few months and a dozen recipes published, I had a whopping 10-15 people visiting my website a month. While that’s not a huge number by any means, I was very excited knowing most of these visitors were NOT friends/family. I was actually reaching people!

Everything snowballed from there. I became fascinated with learning all about blogging, growing my audience with Pinterest and social media, and eventually working my way to blogging as a business. I spent weekends and all my spare time becoming a better food photographer, creating engaging recipe videos, web design, and SEO. My husband has been my rock and has encouraged me the whole way. Without him I would have certainly not gotten as far as I have (he also thought of the name, OwlbBaking, which pairs my adoration of owls and baking!) We now partner on a number of different initiatives for the business.

Most of my inspiration comes from my readers. When someone manages to find my micro-corner of the internet, and they make my recipes, and it leads to a smile, or they say it reminded them of their childhood or made a new memory with their grandchildren or family, those are the moments that warm my soul. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps me going when it’s tough!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner so far is creating my cookie decorating course. The idea of creating an online course was extremely daunting, and coming up with my own unique twist on cookie decorating felt impossible. Aside from learning the logistics of online courses, it was at this time that my struggle with imposter syndrome weighed heavier than ever. I had to remind myself that I did have the expertise and my audiences do find my teachings valuable.

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

One of the hardest things I’ve faced is battling imposter syndrome. I constantly feel the pressure that there are so many creators out there that are better than me, have a bigger social media following than me, put out a higher volume of content, take better photos, land cookbook deals, get more page views… it will tear your confidence down if you let it.

I’ve learned to silence some of these thoughts, but I still deal with them. My years in business have taught me you have to focus on yourself and the task at hand and just do your absolute best. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing - we all have different journeys, and that’s OK.

Plus, the illusion of “perfection” from the outside is always going to appear that way because it’s been curated to appear that way! The fact is, everyone goes through the same process of learning and making mistakes. We all have a starting point and we all have struggles behind the scene.

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

  1. There is always time – I’ve built a successful, revenue-generating blog, and I’ve done it all part-time. I still work my full time 9-5, and I’ve even been promoted to a more demanding role. I’ve still managed to publish more content, launch a course, expand into making recipe videos for clients, do brand outreach, manage social media, email marketing, SEO, and more. If you ever blamed the lack of time as an excuse for not starting a business or pushing yourself more in your business, don’t! You can always find the time. For me, it was forcing myself to wake up a bit earlier, so I could knock out a few tasks before my full-time job or ensuring I did a photoshoot over the weekend so I could edit the photos throughout the week. You can always split up larger tasks and work on them in small sections, and over time, that really adds up!
  2. Do your research – A business only works if it serves others. You have to research your offerings and mold them to fit the needs of your customers vs. only fulfilling your needs. The majority of my recipes are those that I’ve vetted through keyword research and prove to have a high search volume, so I know they’ll perform. While I definitely love to sprinkle in some recipes that are just for fun or out of pure passion, most of them are selected for the fact I know everyone else is looking for them.
  3. Hire out for the tasks you hate – Not every part of owning a business is fun. As soon as you have resources available to hire out for the tasks you hate doing, do it. And remember, you don’t have to wait until you can afford to hire a full-service marketing agency or full-time employee. The great thing about living in a digital marketplace is freelancers and other business owners offer singular services which help to not only tackle the problem you have at hand but makes it a lot more affordable. Doing so will preserve your energy for the things you’re most passionate about, and that will shine through to your customers, keeping them excited to see what you do next!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://owlbbaking.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/owlbbakingblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/owlbbaking/

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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