Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aileene Rosales . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Aileene , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.
I think it depends what your mindset is and what relationship you have with your family, you have to know how to separate what happens at home vs what happens at work as well as control your personal emotions just like in any other job. It can be harder to keep these boundaries when you’re working with your sister or mom but it’s a great algorithm if you work together and avoid the outside issues when ultimately we all want the same goal. My mom was ultimately the one to push me to start Andy’s Mini’s in the first place, she’s always supporting and helping when she can. As of now my awesome staff is made of my amazing family members like my brother Jason, mom Monica, aunt, even my grandmother whom I’m so fortunate to have & super close family friends whom I can really trust and count on. Without them we wouldn’t be growing as fast or able to do all we do and offer, I’m so lucky to have such an amazing team!!
Growing up I saw my family lead businesses and I learned how to work and get along with my family right off the bat. I have always been thankful to my family who has given me the world all thanks to their hard work. I have learned that with hard work anything can be accomplished and it’s even better when those accomplishments are celebrated with those I love the most. Andy’s Mini’s is named after my two year old Andy & since he could eat solids he’s been eating my mini pancakes, he loves them even more as time goes by. Although rare he is sometimes at our pop ups to say hi and once he does get a little older I’d love to continue to watch him grow in the business. Same with my younger brothers who are also at our pop ups from time to time.
Thanks to my family I have a great team, we have expanded to other cities, can do multiple events per day and are starting to see a lot more growth in general. Working with my family has allowed for many new opportunities and I’m so excited to continue to grow with them. And share my accomplishments with them, I do it all for them.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Aileene! I started Andy’s Mini’s as just a small one menu concept, the mini pancakes with unlimited toppings. Shortly after introducing them to Austin we began to grow more and more as well as add on to the menu and expand into other cities. We now have over 15 services we can offer as catering services, individual orders & at pop ups! I quickly noticed that my business would grow based on how much I invested in it and not just financially but time wise. And effort. We love creating special moments with our clients which is why we upgraded our look to create a more “Lux Bar” look that clients can customize to their theme and are constantly learning new concepts to continue to upgrade our look.
Not only have we grown from small individual orders but we have worked and partnered with a lot of huge awesome companies and industries as well as school organizations, local businesses & charities. Although our full menu is always available if your in the mood for a unique dessert we also offer event prep and decorations like balloon garlands, table set up and event organization. If you’re having an event and don’t know where to start we are a great start and have expanded our overall portfolio to make sure we bring you the best of the best between us and other amazing vendors in and around the Austin area to create the event of your dreams!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
When I was starting the business the first thing I thought was how in the world am I going to post about it? I had no clue where to start at first but after talking to my dad who owns his own small business- @Dulcefrida he quickly said “open an instagram you are your own social media manager, get to work”.
Without hesitation I started taking content pictures before I knew it my camera roll was FILLED with mini pancake pictures and different social medias for Andy’s Mini’s. The goal was to be creative and unique I wanted to make sure I was debuting something no one in the area had seen before. Sure you think of mini pancakes as the size of a silver dollar most of the time, but our mini pancakes are truly MINI and it was all in the content and how I introduced it that would create an audience.
My best advise is to post, post, post & HASHTAG!
It doesn’t matter how many likes or comments you’re getting, sooner or later the audience will come keep posting daily, weekly, find our businesses rhythm. Social media is your friend and the more you promote your content to your own followers, the more likely they are to even scroll your page which is something.
Using hashtags as an advertising tool is a great opportunity to reach out to those who might not know your page but are looking for your content- the more hashtags the better chances of getting a higher audience and they might fill out that inquiry form.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I truly did not think I was going to make Andy’s Mini’s my full time. At the time when I started I was finishing up my psychology internship and was going to find a job in the field, the business was a great side hustle but it was not my main focus however deep down I have always been business driven and since baking has been a huge part of my life combining it has been amazing. When I noticed that we were growing a lot in little time I knew I couldn’t let it go. I knew that if I really dedicated myself to the business we would only keep growing and that’s what I hope to continue to see as we continue to expand in and around the city.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/andys.minis?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/people/Andys-Minis/100070231515431/
- Other: Booking form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVchlPJzrGymAlbzKBUMQh1DCNlnx8pcqQxnvvZO94cs4wdQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
Image Credits
Thomas segura mini pancakes plate display photo