Creativity is a cure - The Sugar Path
Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Michelle Adams, founder of The Sugar Path, located in Geneva, IL.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
I am the owner of a dessert bakery that specializes in events. We have a retail shop in an historic town west of Chicago and we also ship our cake jars nationwide. While we have a lot of customers who stop in for a daily treat, most people come to us for special events such as weddings, birthdays and holidays. We have many customers that have been visiting us for all of the eleven years we've been in business, and we work with a lot of wedding venues and businesses. We also have a few famous customers, such as Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy, and we've worked with Barbara Corcoran when we won a contest she sponsored that helped us grow our online shipping.
Tell us about yourself
I was working as a business law attorney when I found myself burnt out and uninspired. I decided to take a break and grow my side passion for baking into a farmer's market business. The business grew quickly and within a year my business partner and I leased a space, did a build out and opened our own bakery. We got a lot of requests to do wedding catering and became well known in our area for our innovative cake flavors, amazing buttercream and dessert table items, such as pies and mini cupcakes. I've learned that creativity is a cure for being burnt out and uninspired, and every day I seek to stay inspired.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
There's been so many things over the last decade that it's hard to choose just one. Growing the business from a little farmer's market stand in the Midwest to a notable bakery with consistent, amazing customers that return year after year will always be my proudest accomplishment though. When you grace the holiday table of so many people year after year, it deeply affects you. So much of our holiday memories are tied to food, and when you realize you are a part of those memories for so many people, well, it's humbling.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Everything about owning a business is hard. It's important to remember that if it was easy, everyone would do it. The hardest thing is being everything---the CEO, the CFO, the CMO, the COO and in our case, the CBO (Chief Baking Officer!). You have all these titles when you start a business and you need to do all the things. There's a lot to learn and to be successful, you have to learn quickly.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
1. Before you start a business, focus on your product
2. When you start the business, focus on your customers.
3. Invest in education and people. Get a mentor that has done what you want to do. Invest in people that can help you get where you want to go. Keep educating yourself and never think you know it all or can do it all on your own.
Anything else you'd like to share?
I'm starting a business school for the baking industry this year! When I got into this industry I noted a lack of resources for learning how to actually start and run a profitable bakery, whether it's a home bakery or a retail bakery. When I looked for good mentors in this industry I couldn't find any that have done what I wanted to do---grow a successful bakery. A successful bakery is also a profitable bakery.
During the pandemic so many bakers were reaching out to me to coach them that I decided to create my own school. The worst thing is to have a dream you don't know how to fulfill because of a lack of resources. With my legal and business expertise, and my experience growing my own baking company, I hope to help a lot of people fulfill their own dreams. The Sugar Path's Bakery Biz School is going to fill that gap I noticed in this industry.
Where can people find you and your business?
https://www.instagram.com/thesugarpath/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mladam/
https://twitter.com/thesugarpath
https://www.facebook.com/TheSugarPath/
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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