Natural Breads, Savoury Pastries - Salting Baking Company

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ashley Schmalenberg, owner, and CEO of Salting Baking Company, located in Regina, Canada.

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

Saltine focuses on producing naturally leavened sourdough breads and savoury driven pastries here in Regina, Saskatchewan. Our products are made with a focus on local ingredients, including organic grains, farm eggs, honey, camelina oil, salt, and produce when it's in season. Prioritizing quality ingredients and long fermentation times results in high-quality products that are nutritious, easy to digest, and delicious while allowing us to support our local farmers wherever we can!

Our customers range widely, which is amazing for us! We have a large group of customers who have been with us since our farmer's market days which we are so grateful for. We see consistency across the table of customers looking for well-made, nutritious bread and who appreciate our process.

Tell us about yourself

I worked cooking and baking for a few years in local restaurants, trying to learn as much as I could in the kitchen before I found bread baking. It felt very natural to me right away, and my obsession grew quickly. There aren't many local bakeries that were doing the specific type of bread I was interested in. Still, I was lucky enough to have a local chef allow me to work on a bread program for a restaurant in town. In a search to continue learning as much as I could about the industry, I took a business planning course through Women's Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan without any real plan in place. The concept grew quickly during this course for me, allowing me to pair my passion for cooking and bread baking into one baking business. Before I knew it, my company was registered, and I had applied to the local farmers market.

The hours are long as an entrepreneur and especially as a baker. The joy I've found in having teamwork alongside me who I can mentor and grow is indescribable and gives me the strength to keep going. They've helped me grow in so many ways. I hope that I can do the same for them by fostering a safe, educational, and understanding workplace culture.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Running a business that can give back to the community is so important to me. In 2020 a local group put up the first community fridge in our city. This is a mutual aid effort where community members are able to donate food to a stand-alone structure equipped with a freezer, fridge, and dry storage for anyone to access. We implemented our Community Loaf program during this time. Our customers pay $5 to cover the costs of ingredients and provide the labor to deliver the loaves to the community fridges. We've been able to donate 1500+ loaves in the past year to take directly to local community fridges with the help of our customers. Nobody should be without bread.

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

There are always going to be daily stressors that come alongside being a business owner. For me, one of the hardest things was and continues to be learning to step back and lean on my team, delegating where necessary. Saltine was run by me alone (with much help from my husband) for four years before we took on a brick-and-mortar location. Learning to communicate my processes, expectations, and vision will always be a challenge, but it is so fulfilling when I get it right!

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

1. Take time to write out a clear vision and business plan before starting and revisit it once a year.
2. Do what you do best and hire someone to do the rest.
3. Build a wall around the parts of your business that you love!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.saltinebakingco.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saltinebakingco/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltinebakingco/

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.

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