Shop Spotlight – Sweet & Saucy Shop

I originally thought I was going to be an elementary school teacher and went to college for that, but then found myself newly married at the age of 21 and baking and cooking on a daily basis for friends and family and loving it!  I saw an ad for pastry school on TV and that was that…I switched career choices and went to pastry school the following year.  Once I graduated I worked at a place for less than a year and then decided to go out on my own.  Sweet & Saucy Shop was started in my one bedroom apartment and I grew it for 2.5 years before my parents partnered with me to open an actual storefront!

What made you want to open your own bakery?

Well the job I was at there wasn’t any room for me to move up creatively and I was always a go getter, so I figured why not try to do it out of my house and then I could make anything I wanted to.

I love working with other talented and creative vendors and typically just talking with a client or planner really makes my mind start dreaming up new ideas.  Once you make a lot of cakes and desserts you start seeing anything from a pillow pattern to a dress as something you can turn into cake!

I love a lot of aspects!  It is really great being able to employ people and let them live out their creative talents and see them grow as artists.  I also love that it is a family business that allows me to be around the people I love the most and I also love being a part of people’s special moments in their lives….  Whether it is a 1st birthday, an anniversary or a wedding, celebrating with sweets is so much fun!

After running a business with my family I can definitely see that there are pros and cons and that it should definitely be thought of a lot before jumping into it.  For me, it was definitely the right decision and I could never do it without my family. I have always gotten along great with my mom who is my business partner so navigating the tricky waters of business with a partner was totally doable for us and we love the fact that we can always trust each other, rely on each other, and of course we love getting to be around each other a ton.  My parents believed in me when it was just the beginning stages and invested in our company so we could really make Sweet & Saucy Shop a brick and mortar location.  My dad, husband, sister, aunt, cousins, etc have all worked along side us at one time and that is a pretty amazing thing I think.

On the other hand, I could see that being in business with family if you both aren’t on the same page or tend to have had issues in the past that it would be very difficult and something that could drive a wedge between your non business relationship as well as your relationship in business.

These days it is mostly just hard being a working mom if I am honest.  I constantly am pulled in a million directions and never feel like I can do anything 100%, which is always how I have done things my entire life!  I never want to look back on my early years with my kiddos and feel like I missed out on anything so I arrange my whole life to have them with me almost the whole time, but of course that makes working quite the struggle.  I know this early stage is probably the hardest so I am just trying to stay above water and learn the different things that help me personally be able to handle these days where I wish I had double the amount of time to fit in all that I need to do haha.

I would say that my style is clean and more simplistic, but I love a good bold accent!  I don’t like anything overdone, but attention to detail and placing that in the right place is key in design I think.

Get ready for working non stop!  :)  I definitely think people underestimate the amount of time and energy you need to give a business and your employees.  You really need to make sure you are ready to give it 100% and make the sacrifices needed, but of course if it is something you love then “most” of the time it doesn’t seem like work!