A Year with Much to Learn
Holy Moly! An entire year has passed since I kickstarted my journey as a small business! It is almost unbelievable, how much I’ve learned, how much I accomplished, and how much more prepared I am for this next year. I won’t deny, I had my fair share of stress and frustration. I would say the most important thing I learned is to take advice when it comes at you, and to listen to people trying to help. In my case, my mom owns her own business and would constantly offer her advice and any help she could provide. And being the daughter I am, I immediately rolled my eyes and did not pay attention to anything she said. But I should’ve. Once I had my full circle moment and went back to her, she was more than happy to help me out in whatever way she could. Shoutout mom, for being the best.
I tried out many different angles at production, packaging, and selling product, and to be completely honest, I’m sure I haven’t found the best solution but at least I know what does not work. The biggest thing that doesn’t work, is going at this whole process alone. In the beginning, I handled all of the recipe creation, execution, cost control, shopping, packaging, sales, etc. I mean seriously, I work a full-time job, and work another full time job on top of it even though this is supposed to be something of a “side gig”. Not that I want it to be. If my dream could explode and I could own a legitimate storefront, I think I would be the happiest person alive. Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that I was doing everything alone, and I didn’t want to ask for help because I was convinced, I could handle it (spoiler, I definitely could not). Luckily, along with my mom, my closest friend and my wonderful boyfriend are my biggest supporters. Without them, I surely would have crashed and burned early on in this endeavor.
Another big lesson I learned was anything and everything to do with finance. I was never good at math. Calculating recipe cost is easy but as soon as it comes to monthly expenses, rent, equipment cost, labor, time, etc, it was so overwhelming. I am so lucky to live in the 21st century, where ChatGPT exists, and google and reddit and social media where everyone shares their opinion on every topic under the sun. There are so many resources online as well, apps and websites I can use to my advantage (most of which are free)! My dad also helped me out quite a bit, giving me good advice on specifically the first stages of starting a business. Unfortunately for him, once he says the gist of his point I turn my ears off and stop listening (in my defense he loves to blab). I certainly hope he doesn’t read this - and if you are dad, you’re amazing and I love you!
Among these lessons I’ve learned patience, certainty, trust, determination, and poise. Not to perfection, of course, but I’m working on it, I swear! It is so easy to get upset over every little thing. I could list them off - being on a time crunch, working hard after a full day of working hard, messing up recipes and having to scrap and start again, not having the right packaging, packages being delayed, bake sales not going the way you’d like them to whether it be weather or location, or the turnout of people. The list goes on and on. Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of breakdowns and tears over things that seem so menial in hindsight. This past year has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life and I wouldn’t go back and change a single thing. I can’t wait to share more lessons I learn along the way this year. And on that note, I will see you in the next blog! Thank you for making it this far, and thank you to everyone who supports me in any way they can,
With Love,
Sarah
