We recently connected with Sierra Taubman and have shared our conversation below.

Sierra, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Ever since my siblings and I were little, my parents instilled in us the importance of having God’s hand in everything we do, doing everything with excellence, and finishing the job all the way to the end. Giving up wasn’t an option, even when we played sports.

A little background, we own a farm in Hawaii. There were days during peak season where we would have to wake up really early (before school) to go out and finish the harvest. I can clearly remember days I would arrive to school (first grade) and my classmates would ask me “what’s that stuff in your hair?” To which I would respond .. “it’s called corn silk”. Some of us now would feel ashamed by that, but honestly it was so normal for us that it didn’t even phase me.

Learning how to work even when we didn’t feel like it, really shaped me into the business mama I am today.

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?

Fast forward to 2016, my sister got engaged. As she searched for cake pricing from different vendors and on the internet, I could not believe the prices vendors were charging for a cake (looking back now, these prices are totally fair and understandable). I offered the idea of making her cake and she was absolutely for it. The only thing was that I did not know ANYTHING about baking or the structure that a cake needs, temperature, humidity, etc.

My mom and I had to drive the cake from the ceremony to the reception which was around 10 minutes away. I had the cake resting on my lap (terrible idea) and we hit a pot hole in the road. The cake went flying forward but I caught it in my arms! Praying all the way there, we finally unload the cake and placed it on the cake table and I’m sure you can guess what happened next. The cake was leaning at about a 45 Degree angle! I felt defeated. But my mom quickly picked me up and showed me how we can turn situations like this into learning moments. She has always been the type to think quickly on her feet and find the good in every situation.

Moving along to the next year, I got married and decided to make my own wedding cake. Some may say that was a crazy idea due to how busy wedding day is, but it was the best decision I have made! This lead to the proposal of starting a home bakery in 2019. My parents were very supportive but reminded me of what they taught us when we were little.

“Do everything with excellence,” making sure that I created a strong base of knowledge and customers before trying to get my business out there. This was so that the foundation of my business was strong and reliable, especially when it came to customer service.

I started small, taking orders from friends and family for free and asking them to spread the word to their friends and family. Little by little by business began to grow to where it is today. Word of mouth is so powerful and paired with social media. There’s an endless growth of opportunity!

Yes, there were situations where I wanted to not bake anymore. But if I gave up, I knew it would hurt the future of my business if I wanted to try new endeavors.

As for now, I sell custom cakes for any celebration. I still work on our family farm, where each of my siblings and I bring a piece of our business to the table. I do all the baking for the farm during our events, my sister is a wedding planner (which is where I get my wedding cake clients), and my brother does all the welding. My husband is the woodworker and my brother-in-law is our beekeeper.

Our parents always knew the farm would essential be the “hub” for our family business but they also wanted us to bring in our own talents and contribute as a whole. And we’re doing just that! Everyone helps everyone, that’s how family businesses should be.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Besides word of mouth being the MOST effective for growing in my community, providing quality products that meet expectations is really the base of it all.

Without quality products, I wouldn’t be able to capture good photos. Without good photos, I wouldn’t have content to send to my clients and to post on social media. Without social media, I would have to rely on some other type of advertising that I could not afford. You see where I’m going with this?

Packaging was and is very important to me as well. You could have the best product, but if it’s packaged in a mediocre way, it’ll seem mediocre compared to other related businesses near you. YOUR PACKAGING IS YOUR MARKETING!

Once I invested in quality cake and cupcake boxes, I started getting more sales (true story). Then, I added my label and increased my reputation and started branding myself. I was then able to create a better business card and grew my clients even more!

How did you build your audience on social media?

1. Pick a social and invest time into that one stream. Interact with those who respond to your posts and show up consistently for your audience.

2. Be genuine! Just like YOU can tell if someone is just trying to get you to buy something or click on something, your audience can tell too. Be honest and let your audience / clients know and understand what they are receiving from you.

3. Offer giveaways in the beginning and provide a quality product that keeps them wanting to come back for more.

4. Narrow down your clientele so you can provide the best products and content for them rather than an array of random people who followed you for the giveaway posts. For example, I specifically make custom cakes and cupcakes. I have my Instagram set up so that if someone lands on my account, they can easily tell that I create desserts in Hawaii.

Once I set up my page to be more specific (especially in my bio on Instagram), I started to gain more followers which led to more clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sunshinebysi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunshine_by_si/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunshinebysi?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SunshineBySi

Image Credits
Cheyenne Adams