We were lucky to catch up with Gena Flick recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Growing up, my family owned a local popular restaurant. Working there from the age of eight (yes, EIGHT!), I learned all about great food! Not just how to make it, but how food really does bring people together. I noticed that certain tastes and smells could transcend time. I can vividly remember cooking with my family and making the special dishes that STILL hold places in our hearts. Our special recipes anchored gatherings and fostered precious time with family…when we made them and when our community enjoyed them.

My family sold the restaurant after nearly 30 years and I went on to be an elementary school teacher. I loved being in the classroom. It was an experience that I hold in my heart (along with my students) to this day. When I had my own kiddos, I chose to leave the classroom and stay home. All along the way though, I continued to play around in the kitchen, cooking, baking and serving up delicious food.

It wasn’t until 2020, when I lost my Dad to lung cancer, that I started thinking about all of the meaningful time we shared together as a family…. and you know…the memorable moments were all in the kitchen! It’s funny how you just never know the memories that will stick! But every fond one with my family includes the kitchen, the restaurant, and food! A cornerstone on our restaurant’s menu was the pecan roll. And truth be told, it was a recipe I held in my collection for years but always too intimidated to give it a try. Grief is interesting. I started waking early in the morning, learning how to work with dough all while my family slept and the moon still lit the sky. It took several tries and a load of tears before I was able to recreate a pecan roll worthy of my Dad’s name. But the same day I nailed it, I sat down at my computer and I immediately set up an LLC. I didn’t even contemplate it. I was just determined to share my dad’s specialty with others.

The gratitude, joy and peace I feel with every order are gifts I treasure. I am able to bake for more than just delicious food. I bake to foster cherished memories, new and old. I bake to further the legacy of our beloved family, and I bake because time spent around the kitchen table is precious. It’s why I like to say, “love at first bite.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Gena Flick the small business owner and baker, too! I am also a mom of two busy boys, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a dog mom! Before I started Crumb De La Crumb, I taught first grade in Plano, Texas. And long before that, I grew up working in our family restaurant…literally. My mom would always say that bringing us to work was cheaper than a babysitter. I was the eight year old hostess that later had to learn every job in the business. I complained then, I will admit. But I now know, the years spent with my family working in our family restaurant were truly the best and definitely the most memorable.

My parents bought our restaurant when they decided to shift their own career paths and it quickly became a cornerstone of our community. The place to meet after church, celebrate milestones and visit with others. Hard work, customer relations and great service made it a flourishing business. But as great as all of those things were, customers would also come just to order my dad’s specialty, the pecan roll. It became a unique item that unmistakably identified both our place and my dad.

After years of success, the aging process and my brothers and I going off to college, my family sold the restaurant. It hurt more than I ever knew it would. At least I was lucky enough to leave with more memories than I could count and the three ring binders full of our special recipes, all of which I socked away. I moved on to building my teaching career and my own beautiful family. But life can be funny with twists and turns we never anticipate. My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in October of 2019 and with his diagnosis came the rush of all my cherished memories. Every memory running through my mind and sitting on my heart included our time spent in the restaurant and around the table and his pecan roll.

After losing my dad just two short months after he was diagnosed, Crumb De La Crumb became a way to “create delicious memories.” Not just for me and my own family but for other families, too. My small business is a gift that fosters a lovely mixture of gratitude, pride, joy, purpose and peace. Carrying my family’s legacy forward and knowing my family recipes bring loved ones together once again are honors I deeply appreciate.

I believe when a business’ path is authentic and genuine, customers can sense the care, integrity and devotion from the packaging to the finished product. Our cottage bakery makes everything from scratch, using only the finest ingredients available. Unwavering quality is a centerpiece, and our homemade bites are nothing short of mouthwatering. Our pecan rolls and cinnamon buns have been rated, “the best in Columbus, Ohio.” We believe this is true because our ingredients, processes, social media feeds and baked goods are held to a higher unshakeable standard. Our buns are mixed, rolled and baked to order and this freshness is a uniqueness we refuse to compromise. We continue to grow exponentially because of our heartfelt purpose, commitment to quality and traditional foundation. I’m so proud of this small business and excited over what the future holds. My only wish is that my dad could have known that I dusted off the binder, dug out his recipe and worked until it became worthy of his name. I think he would be tickled to know that we offer Harv’s Ooey Gooey Pecan Rolls in hopes of making more cherished memories for all.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Columbus, Ohio is a vibrant city with an amazing food scene. Luckily, this also means the saying, “shop small, support local” holds weight. When I first started Crumb De La Crumb, I immediately set up my Instagram account. Admittedly, I felt a bit ignorant so I also started reading and learning about the many pros and cons of social media and its influence on business growth.

After a few months, I reached out to a couple local foodies I had been following. I picked these particular foodies based on what I found to be a common thread of ethics. I offered them a sampling of our cinnamon buns and pecan rolls. My goal was not to hold a give away promotion and I sure as heck didn’t want sugar coated feedback. I was hoping for genuine honesty, authentic excitement and heartfelt support. We are proud of our product and it’s a personal necessity that those that promote us feel the same way.

We were elated when the foodies, with diverse followings, loved our product as much as we do. They posted and shared pictures along with our story, too. Their content was a gift and it immediately extended our reach far faster than we could have done on our own.

There is a secret to social media and other business relationships, though. We only hitch our wagon to those with a similar moral compass. Honesty, purpose and integrity are visible in everything a brand does and it reflects one way or another on you, your product and your business. Maintaining honor with both your actions and connections on social media (and refraining from posting personal content on your business feed) will help the small business, big dream in ways that are really immeasurable.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

We believe that word of mouth is the most honorable way to grow a business. While it requires patience, personal recommendations bring repeat business over and over again. When a customer shares on social media, posts a Google review, brings our product to the office and/or tells a friend about our business and our products, we feel confident that we are moving in the right direction.

Everything we do makes an impact on the customer. Our packaging, our interactions, our posts, our promotions, our community relationships and our products…our customers need to trust every touch point before they will likely recommend us to a friend or loved one. Those genuine recommendations are an honor and they are truly responsible for the solid and respectable trajectory of growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: eatcrumbdelacrumb.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatcrumbdelacrumb/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatcrumbdelacrumb/