We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristi Weideman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kristi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.
CRAVE is the very definition of a family business and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Each member of my family contributes in a significant way to the success of the bakery. My wonderfully supportive husband is not only a constant sounding board for ideas about scaling and growth, but also my go-to “mathlete” for crunching all the numbers, measuring profitability, and forecasting demand. Additionally, he does all the heavy lifting involved in the regular Costco runs for gigantic bags of flour and sugar! My kids, 4 and 7 years old, LOVE helping with duties like assembling boxes and adding stickers to packaging, but their favorite business-related task? Taste-testing. You’ll never find a more honest focus group than a couple of kids! As of now, I’m the only baker/marketing manager/product developer, but once my little ones are old enough, I’d love to enlist their help in a bigger way. My son shared with me just the other day that he is proud of our family business, and can’t wait to work with his mama!
Kristi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The seed was planted in childhood for my future baking adventure. I vividly remember “helping” my mom make chocolate chip cookies as a little girl and sneaking the off-limits raw cookie dough every single chance I got. I begged and begged for an Easy Bake Oven, and eventually my own set of cookbooks. I still have my very first recipe book; tattered, yellowed pages, and all. Baking is a labor of love. Stepping into the kitchen to create something delicious is fun and stress-relieving, but the best part is sharing my creations with others. I absolutely love making someone’s day with an unexpected treat, or with a custom cookie flavor imagined just for them. One of my favorite experiences as a baker is having customers share with me that a particular cookie transports them back to childhood or sitting in their grandma’s kitchen and the smell of her signature treats. At the end of the day, cookies are good for the soul, and it’s a privilege that I get to bake as my JOB!
CRAVE is a cottage bakery that offers delicious, homemade cookies and deep-dish cookie cakes. Now the treats that come out of my kitchen are not the incredible works of art made with elaborate designs and colors in royal icing – I will leave that to the professionals. I, on the other hand, focus on what’s referred to as drop cookies. Chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, classic sugar, rainbow sprinkle, and M&M are some of the core flavors that are available almost daily, but I love channeling my creativity into new flavors like apple-cinnamon chip-cookie butter or dark chocolate-espresso-caramel. I announce new flavors and daily options through social media, and also accept special requests. The sheer variety on my daily menu illustrates my passion for baking and I truly believe there is a flavor out there for everyone, even those who claim to not be “cookie people.” My favorite compliment is “oh my gosh, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten!”
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
First and foremost, building a social media presence takes TIME. Be patient and kind to yourself and accept that before you gain any significant traction or following that you will absolutely hear nothing but crickets from time to time. It’s easy to get discouraged, but keep at it and your audience will grow! People are taking notice of what you’re sharing, even if it doesn’t show in the form of post reactions and comments. The social media presence for CRAVE started with a Facebook page. At first, it was exclusively followed by my ultra supportive friends and family, but then neighbors got wind of what I was doing, and now it is spreading throughout my area, and even with other aspiring bakers around the country! One approach to social media that I believe has been helpful for my business is transparency. I have shared, and continue to share, the ins and outs of life as a bakery owner. I don’t exclusively post for the purpose of advertising, which isn’t always something that grabs attention while scrolling. I share pieces of my family life, funny tidbits that make me laugh, and new flavor brainstorming ideas. I think my audience enjoys seeing behind the scenes of life as a small business owner, and watching it grow over time. I love that I can involve my customers in this process, and I believe it’s relatable to many families who are in the same boat of building and growing a small business.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
If someone had told me 5 years ago that one day I’d have my own bakery, I would have laughed them right out of town. My educational background is in counseling and baking has always been a hobby of mine, but during the early days of the pandemic, I found myself leaning on baking as a means of stress relief. Additionally, creating treats gave me a way to connect with friends when we couldn’t necessarily get together in person. I found myself making frequent porch drop-offs of freshly baked cookies to nearby girlfriends, who eventually encouraged me to offer up my baked goods to our neighborhood. What started as a cute little side hustle to help fund a Disney trip has morphed into a more-than-full-time gig that involves my whole family. The surrounding community has been immeasurably supportive, and I’m beyond grateful! The next step for CRAVE is expanding to a commercial kitchen, and eventually – a storefront! My dream is to find a cute older home, full of character, and renovate to create a charming bakery with the best cookies around!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cravecookieco.com
- Instagram: @crave_cookieco
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/thecravecookieco
Image Credits
Photos by Texas Sweet Photography