We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Ramirez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
Frosted by Laura has been a journey for sure, which actually started as LauraKay Sweets. I started my business in 2016 while attending culinary school and working as a prep cook in a local restaurant. While attending culinary school, I shortly realized that baking & pastry was my main interest and that is what I wanted to master. I started offering my services to friends and family and created an IG business that same year. My business was mainly small cakes & party treats such as chocolate covered strawberries, cakepops, & chocolate covered pretzels. Once I finished school I started working at a bakery Full-Time which was not working with my at home business. I decided to completely close down my accounts and go work for someone else and work my way up. From 2017-2021 I worked at different bakeries all around Houston,Tx. I learned so much from these different places and I am extremely thankful for, but I was working for someone else’s name and not mine. I turned down article features, news spotlights, because people I worked for wanted their name to be displayed and some did get credit for my work. In May 2021 I took a risk and quit my last bakery job because I was being overworked and was lacking creativity. At the time I was back in school trying to attain a degree in business, I looking for jobs that would help me later in that career path such as banking. I applied to many jobs, at least 100 banking jobs, and didn’t land one. In November 2021 I made a cake for my sisters gender reveal, and that sensation of people admiring my art, and saying how delicious it was just brought me back to life. That reminded me what I loved doing and all the joy it brought me. In December 2021 I decide to open my IG account and be back up in business, at that point I didn’t have anything to lose. Frosted by Laura was set at a different mindset from when it started, I knew the products I wanted to offer and the ones I didn’t because I didn’t enjoy making them. I now specialize in a modern style of cakes, cupcakes and macarons. Since I opened back up, I have grown at a very fast pace by doubling social media followers and being consistent with my content. Tiktok has been a great source to reach out to my potential clientele. I have clients driving from all the Houston surrounding areas, I have clients from out state, and even international. Something I didn’t think was even at reach, but it has been and we are going up from there.
Laura, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Frosted by Laura has evolved throughout the years and is now kept with trends as they come and go. I started my passion for baking in culinary school and now offer a modern style of cakes and pastries. What I have worked for my brand to be and be known for, is that while I’m creating edible art, the taste of the cakes is just as good or even better than the outside. We love being part of special events in your life by creating something beautiful and something delicious.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The biggest tip I can give to a starting business is to post, constantly. Every behind the scenes, pictures of your products, pictures of your clients with your products (with their consent), reviews or feedback from your customers. All this has helped me grow in social media where is my main source of growth within my market. People see that others like your product, they see how you work, and it is very satisfying to them the way you do things. Like I mentioned before TikTok truly made an impact in my sales, be consistent and you will have results. Find the time and always take pictures of your products. Now you have to make sure you are posting high quality pictures and videos. Invest in a food photography workshop, watch YouTube vids, invest in that ring light, make sure to use natural lighting, these are very important to high quality posts. Invest time to gain knowledge on what will catch your viewers eyes and raise your sales.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think various elements have a part in this, like creating a website that makes it easier for your clients to order. Show your work on social media, you don’t know who’s watching. Create high quality content for all of your viewers. And a very important one is to network with the industry and similar business that can bring you a potential client. Such as a party planner, a ballon artist, a catering company, make connections and the sun shines for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mycustombakes.com/lauraramirez/products
- Instagram: @frostdbylaura
- Other: TikTok: @frostedbylaura