We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jes Juma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jes below.

Jes , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

I am the sole Owner and Baker of a small, cottage goods bakery, that I operate out of my home as a side business to my full time job working for the State of North Dakota as the Director of Operations for the Labor and Human Rights Department. I am also the mother of 2 very busy, active sons. When I started my bakery, it was at the encouragement of friends and one specific co-worker. They knew I loved to bake. They all enjoyed my baked goods and kept encouraging me to start selling my bakes. I never thought anyone would want to buy them. My passion in baking lies in breads and yeast doughs but I knew the majority of people want to buy the sweeter treats (cupcakes, muffins, cakes, cookies, etc). So, I decided to offer a variety box one month. I didn’t even have a business name yet. I simply put up a post on my personal Facebook page, that I would be selling a Breads & Bakes box and would be taking preorders. I was SHOCKED when the first month, I sold 12 boxes. I really didn’t expect to sell any, let alone 12. A few were to friends of friends, whom I’d never met. After that, I decided to set up a Facebook page for my “business,” came up with a business name, registered it with the Secretary of State’s Office, and did my research on operating a cottage goods bakery out of my home. The 2nd month I advertised for my monthly Breads & Bakes Box I sold 18. 18! These boxes contained a variety of items such as a half size loaf of bloomer bread, 4 cupcakes of varying flavors, 4 brownies, 4 dinner rolls, and maybe 1 other item. That was A LOT of baking for me to do solo, all in a day or 2, so everything could be picked up fresh. The biggest excitement for me was when I realized 1 of the preorders was from a person whom I had no connection to, that I could find, at all. It really drove home the realization that maybe people would want to buy my baked goods. It was such an awesome feeling, I couldn’t wait to continue on my baking business journey. That was almost 5 years ago (October 2023 will be 5 years) and although there have been lulls in orders and business (thank you COVID), I’m still baking, taking orders, and will continue to do so until my dream of baking as my full time job is realized.

Jes , 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?

I am a home baker who has a passion for all things baked, especially yeast breads and savory treats. I was born and raised on the East Coast where we frequently had fresh rye bread from the deli, bagels from the local shop, cookies from the Italian bakery on the corner, etc. When I moved to North Dakota in 2008, there was none of that. I missed it so much. I couldn’t even find a decent loaf of rye bread in the grocery store, forget about a small-town bakery anywhere. So, I made it my mission to learn to bake my own rye bread. My sons were little at the time and I was also into baking their birthday cakes and school treats. I just didn’t like the idea of buying things at the store that I knew I could make at home, with ingredients I knew how to pronounce, and without all the added chemicals and preservatives of store-bought bakes.

Jump ahead to 2016 or so and my husband knew how much I loved to bake and how much I was obsessed with watching baking shows on TV and learning about baking bread. He bought me a book for Christmas that included bread recipes and with each recipe, a meal/dessert, to go along with the bakes. I baked my way through the entire book in less than a year and have never looked back. That book truly sparked my obsession with baking everything fresh.

I pride myself on using only all natural ingredients with no preservatives. I only use food dyes if a customer absolutely requests it and I try to not use store bought items for anything, not even decorations. I tell people my style is simple elegance (#simplyelegantbaking). I want my bakes to shine for what they are, delicious, all natural bakes. For example, my white bread recipe has 4 ingredients (flour, water, salt, and yeast), that’s it. I guess it is 5 if you include love, because everything I bake is baked with love. I bake everything fresh to order and will always continue to do so. I want my customers to know, if they order from me, their order is going to be baked as fresh as humanly possible and with all of the attention to detail and love that I put into baking when I bake for my own family. And when I say I make it all homemade, I do. If my recipe calls for candied orange peel, I’m peeling oranges and making the candied peel myself. If a cupcake is filled with an edible cookie dough and topped with a mini cookie, I can guarantee you that I made the edible cookie dough and the mini cookie myself, from scratch.

I am a custom order bakery so if a customer requests a store-bought item be used in their cake, i.e. a sandwich cookie top on a cupcake, I will do it when I can, but it isn’t my preference or my style. I aim to please and if I am able to bake it, I will take the custom requests. I’m not an artist, I don’t have tons of decorating skills, I don’t like fondant, or inedible items on my bakes and I’m OK with that. There are tons of bakeries which specialize in those types of bakes and that is wonderful, but it isn’t my style. I am all about simple elegance. I prefer to bake with restraint so the flavors being showcased in each bake can stand out and be enjoyed without being so over the top that they get lost in it all.

I do this all from my home, as a side business. I work full time, I am a mom and wife full time, and I wouldn’t change the crazy schedule the bakery brings to my already crazy life, for anything. Nothing brings me greater pleasure in my business than hearing back from a customer that “everyone loved the (insert the bakery order item here)” or seeing their smiles when they pick up their order for the first, second, and third times. Baking is my passion, and food is my love language and I hope to be able to expand my business and share it with the world someday.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I love this question. Why? Because resilience is our family word, so to speak. My son and I both have tattoos with the word “resilience” in them and he wrote me the kindest note on a baseball, just before I was getting ready to film Silo’s Baking Competition Season 1, and he reminded me to stay resilient. I have not always had an easy life. I lived on my own and supported myself within days of turning 18 (still in my Senior year of highs school). I had my children at a young age, went through a divorce, had my mom move back in with me (and I was supporting her), and after living paycheck to paycheck for a few years (with debt left from the divorce), I finally had to break down and file for bankruptcy. Through it all, I knew I had to keep my head up and push through everything for myself and for my sons. I ended up meeting a wonderful man (now my husband) who is the best father to our sons and have built a life I could never have dreamed of. When COVID hit, my bakery business, like many other businesses, ceased to exist. No one was ordering anything. The cost of ingredients was through the roof (the price of eggs quadrupled at one point). And I wasn’t sure how to bounce back from the almost year lull in business once things started improving in our community. Thankfully, my main income stream was not affected by COVID but I knew I couldn’t stop baking, just because I hadn’t had an order in 8+ months. My natural tendency to remain resilient and my personal drive to continue baking, pushed me to basically start all over again. I’ve already proven to myself in my personal life that I can overcome obstacles, so I needed to apply that mentality to my business. Things started off slowly, with an order here or there, with contactless pickups, porch drop offs, but slowly and steadily, business picked up again. I had to readjust my pricing to account for the huge increase in ingredients and I was truly afraid no one would pay for my baked goods (which I am learning are still way underpriced) but they did. So, here I am, 5 years from officially starting my business, 3+ years post-COVID, and business is at an all time high. Resilience is a word I live by. If you have the will, and the open mindedness to listen, learn, and adapt, all things are possible

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I am an introvert by nature. I am not a social butterfly. I am not good at “small talk.” I’m just not a social person. However, over the years, I have realized I cannot be a sole business Owner of a customer focused business, like a bakery, and not be social. I have had to relearn how to communicate with people, how to interact with customers, and not be so direct/to the point (which is my natural style), but learn to connect with people, listen to them, and make them feel like they are important to me. Because, they are, and I do care about my customers as people, not just customers. I have had to recognize in myself, my natural writing and speaking style can come across as too direct, uncaring, or all about “the business.” And that is far from the truth. I am still learning and this is still something I work on every time I draft an email, text message, or speak to a customer. I’ve learned that putting the customer first, making them feel special and appreciated, is one of the keys to building a loyal customer base.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jesjumabakes.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesjbakes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jesjumasbreadsandbakes
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-juma-413a2121a/

Image Credits
All the photos were taken by myself or the one of the family was taken using our phone by a friend in the crowd.