Custom cakes and cupcakes - What Hailee Baked

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Hailee OBrien founder of What Hailee Baked, located in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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

I am a SAHM turned home baker, I create custom cakes and cupcakes for the residents of the city I live in and surrounding area!

Tell us about yourself

I have been a SAHM for almost 5 years now, and last January I decided I wanted to start a little family tradition where I always made my kid's birthday cakes. While looking for ideas on what to make for my daughters second birthday I became obsessed with all the pretty designs and details I saw other bakers decorate their cakes and cupcakes with and I wanted to do the same! I never intended to start an actual business, at first it was a hobby. I just kept practicing and perfecting my buttercream, cake recipes and technique and started posting pictures of my creations to my Facebook page and a lot of people were interested in what I could do. I then decided to try out making cakes for other people who weren't my family or close friends and just never looked back.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I feel that my biggest accomplishment is how quickly word spread about my cakes and cupcakes. I have never paid for any sort of adds or boosted any of my posts to try to reach more people, I have amazing customers who share my work to their page and tell others about me and my customer base has grown quite a bit by word of mouth.

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

It's very hard for me to say no to customers wanting to order, but I have to because I am still a SAHM to a 4 & 3 year old and being there for them remains the most important thing in my life at the moment. I've struggled to find balance between the demand for my cakes and also being able to be there for my family. It continues to get harder as my business continues to grow but at the same time it also makes me so happy that so many people want a cake made by me, and I hope at some point when my kiddos are older and I have more free time I can expand my business even more.

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

1. Master your product- I spent a lot of time searching and ultimately creating my own buttercream recipe and cake recipes. I feel like I am still making small tweaks here and there to perfect everything but I am very pleased with the recipes I use and so are my customers.

2. Master your skill- I practiced everything, a lot. I set high standards for myself, and wouldn't stop practicing whatever it was until the outcome was perfect.

3. Taking good quality pictures of your products can help a lot. I learned that once I figured out how to take really good pictures of my cakes and cupcakes, they got more likes and shares on social media. People love to see good pictures on their feed and I believe that increases the likelihood your post will get shared and in turn bring new people to your page and get you more customers.

Just don't give up on yourself and I feel like if what you are doing is truly meant to be then everything will fall into place!

Where can people find you and your business?

https://www.facebook.com/whathaileebaked/

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.