You have to love what you do.
I met April earlier this year at a Good Cakes and Bakes event. I sincerely loved the atmosphere of the bakery - it was like being at home, sitting in your kitchen, eating with family and friends.
After such an amazing experience at her bakery, I wanted to hear more about the story behind her business. And of course, I wanted to know more about her secret to making delicious baked goods. I met up with April at Good Cakes and Bakes to hear more about her journey as a business owner.
How did you get started?
I got started with the BGC and the Revolve Program, which in 2013 had a grant from Art Place America, the Kresge Foundation, and Knight Foundation to do art installation on the Avenue of Fashion, inside of vacant commercial spaces and the area that people see driving down Livernois. They put out a call for proposals in 2013, we applied and we were one of the awardees.
So, we opened under the Revolve program. The money that was given to us was for the murals that you see behind you. The artists were from New York, California, New Orleans, Chicago, and one of the ladies was from here Hamtramck . The artists also did murals in other buildings.
You mentioned in another article that you had no struggle starting your business. So, what made the transition from school and the BUILD program so easy?
I am not going to say that we did not have any struggles (she laughs). I am just going to say that things kind of fell into place easily. When I finished business school, my intentions were to open a bakery within a year. The same time that I left my job is when I heard about the grant for this location here (Livernios Avenue of Fashion ). Before and after pictures here:
We were back and forth about applying for the grant, but I had been pushing to open. I said, "If we apply and we don’t win, the proposal said that we would still get assistance." I did not anticipate winning, but we did win and we opened in 90 days. I think that because we were a part of the Revolve program we were able to get help with the licensing through the city.
You’re up early baking and you spend most of your time here at the bakery. When do you have time to rest?
I rest from 11:00pm-3:00am. Plus, I have Sunday's and Monday’s off. Sunday’s are family time. On Monday I spend time at home and then I go out in the afternoon to do the shopping for the week. I fit some rest in there. My body is not used to resting and when it does get rest, my body is like, "What are you doing? Why are you in the bed still?" (*she laughs*).
How do you manage other parts of your business, such as human resources, marketing, and customer service?
It is extremely hard to do. I have managed to the best of my ability. It is not as organized as I would like it to be. It is hard for me to delegate to others, but I like to have a hold on things. I just want to make sure that things are done correctly.
Do you have stressful days? If so, how do you handle them?
Yes, I do have stressful days. Often, I am stressed, of course, because of my actions. How I handle them is baking. This is when you will get the best baking out of me and when I try different recipes.
When things seem to not be going the way that I want them to go, I just start baking. Some people that know me come in and say, "Hey, you have something new today. Umm! What are you worrying about?" I say, “What are you talking about?” The response is always, "You only bake like this when you are stressing about something." Even my employees know this about me. One of my employees came in last week and I had made a sweet potato cupcake. She said, "What’s going on? You only bake new stuff when you are stressing about something." I realized that I was stressed.
Do you have a business plan and how often have you needed to change it?
I do have a business plan and I had to change it three times in the first two years. I am a numbers person, so I like to make sure that the numbers line up. There are things that you may not remember that you have to take care of when opening. For example, ADT Alarming system, Point of sale systems, garbage cans - these are the types of costs that add up that you do not think about. My breakeven point was not right. We had to fill thresholds.
Have you ever thought about quitting?
I saw this question and it was funny because Michelle [April's partner] just asked me this question the other day. No, I have not ever wanted to quit and I am glad that I have not had that feeling yet. I hope that I never have that point. I don’t think that I am tired, because I love to bake. If I were rich, I think that I would just bake and give away stuff. Baking centers me and keeps me at peace. Baking gives me a purpose. I will never get to the point where I will not be baking. I will always be the head baker.
Many aspiring business owners do not have the resources to start and mange a business, but they have a passion for opening a business. What suggestions would you give?
I get this question all of the time and I speak on this and let people know that, in order to run a successful small business in the city of Detroit, you have to know who to talk to. There are so many resources out there, you just have to be able to step out of your business to get to them. There are no ambassadors coming around saying, "Oh, I know that you are running your business, so here are the resources available to you." There are so many resources available out there for you.
Most people are not aware of what an RFP is. There are resources out there, but you have to invest in your business and do the research to be successful.
How do you compete with your competition? How do you stay relevant?
I think that the one thing that keeps us relevant is that we are more than a bakery - we are a community space.
We are a community space.
What is wonderful about us is that we are in the middle of three of the richest neighborhoods in the city of Detroit: Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest and University District. These communities have bought in to our vision of being a community space. The space is used for board meetings, activities, and birthday parties. We are also all organic, so the people who care about organic is what brings them to us. People are raising their kids now on organic and gluten free sweets, so Good Cakes and Bakes is who people think about for their kids' birthday parties, graduations, and any other party.
How do you market Good Cakes and Bakes?
I would say that this is one of our weaknesses in the company, but at the same time we have been blessed with marketing. We have Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and the New York Times. We have word of mouth marketing and referrals. We were in New York Times twice. We were also in USA Today as one of the top ten places to visit when you come to the city of Detroit. We were #2. We get tours from D:Hive that come all the time, so this also helps with marketing. However, in the winter we are not going to have tours of the city as much, so we rely on our community to keep us going. We need to do more advertising within the city of Detroit as far as community base.
How long did it take your company to begin operating in the black?
This is a two-part answer. It took us awhile to get to where we were making a profit. It took us 14 months before we were in the black. If we make purchases, we have to make sure that we are paying ourselves back. There are a lot of unexpected expenses.
How important is it to do market research?
That is so funny that you ask. Before we started Good Cakes and Bakes, we had friends and family trying our products. We started doing pop-ups because, as a new bakery, we needed to let people know who we were. Being a product based company, we needed to let people taste our stuff, so we had to give some of our product away.
You are asking people to follow you to all of your pop-ups, you are asking people to come to your bakery - you have to give away stuff. Fliers are not enough. We needed to give away product. When we gave away samples, we had people coming from all over to get baked goods. We used our pop-ups as a test market. I had to be creative and think about the consequences later. I take risks. You cannot say you are scared unless you try. Don’t get in the space of doing every trend - you will go broke. Pick and choose what you are going to do that is trendy and make sure it is cost effective.
What are the biggest misconceptions of owning a business?
#1 That you are going to be so rich owning a business. People feel like because you own a business that every dollar that comes in is yours.
#2 People feel like you make your own hours. Yeah, you have your own business and you can pick your hours, but you are probably working 18 hours instead of 8.
#3 It is easier running your own business than it is to work for someone. Not true. When you work for someone they give you a job description. When you own your own business you have to create a blueprint yourself. It is easier to work for someone else. Business owners have to think of everything themselves.
What were your biggest mistakes as an entrepreneur?
Not doing all of the research needed to get our space up to code. I think that was because of the short period of time we had to get the bakery open because of the grant. I had to pay double rent because the kitchen was not ready to bake in. Our food costs were high, when our food cost should have been lower. Those costs were not estimated when creating our breakeven point.
If I could, I would _________with my business?
My goal is to eventually be able to ship to our customers. We have customers that are not in the area, constatly calling for their favorite baked goods. There are a lot of logistics to shipping. However, we're looking forward to having online orders available.
As April and I finished the interview, I was even in more awe than when I first walked into the bakery. In the span of an hour long conversation, I learned just how far a business owner's passion can take them. Despite the tough hours and constantly being on the go, April manages to find balance, de-stress, and operate a successful business all due to her passion and skill for baking. Owning a business is not always a smooth path, but for April, it has been a sweet one.