We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alicia Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alicia, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Right now, I think the biggest challenge for me personally is the rising cost of ingredients and still making a profit. We’ve seen a huge increase in some of the everyday items we use, such as eggs and butter. For me, there’s been times where I contemplated whether it was worth it for me to continue. Instead, I’ve narrowed down my offerings. So instead offering 10 items, I’ve decided to focus on 3 items.

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 would describe myself as a self-taught treat maker. I started with cake pops. My youngest niece was turning a year old and I decided to try them out for her first birthday party. That was 12 years ago. Since then I’ve expended to cupcakes, various chocolate covered items such as strawberries, pretzels and Oreo cookies. Shortly after the start of the pandemic, I started making cheesecakes. And I think that’s what I’m most known for now. As of right now, I offer cheesecakes, cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries.

I graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 2014 with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work. I am employed with Contra Costa County as a Social Services Program Assistant. I would like to go back to school to get a Masters of Social Work degree and become a Social Worker for Child and Family Services. Hopefully, after my children graduate from high school.

I am a single mother of twin 16 years old, a son, Elijah and a daughter, Gabrielle. Both are in their junior year of high school. Being a mother is probably one of my biggest roles and accomplishments, as I find I’m constantly growing, along with my kids. To be able to guided them and give them the confidence and skills to be able to think and make decisions for themselves, makes me proud. It has also helped me as treat maker, to trust my own judgement. Most times, they are the first to try a new cheesecake flavor I’ve come up with and will give me feedback on what they think, as well as suggestions.

I take a lot of pride in my work and I consider myself a perfectionist when it comes to making treats for customers . My work has to have a certain look because it represents me, so it’s important that when I deliver to a customer, not only does it look good but taste good as well. It’s not unusual for me to remake something if I feel it doesn’t look right. It is a good feeling when I hear customers say “it looks so good, I don’t want to eat it!” That always makes me smile.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Two things that have been helpful for me are 1)word of mouth and 2)doing cheesecake slice sales. I think when you have a quality product, people will tell everyone about how good it is and they’re more likely to want to try it. Secondly, by doing slice sales, it is a way for people to try the product without committing to a whole cheesecake. This has been helpful as I always say, it sells itself. And most times, it has resulted in customer buying a whole cheesecake or two, just from buying a slice of cheesecake.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

All money isn’t good money. Sometimes, you’ll take an order and realize it wasn’t worth it because the customer wants more for less. I think this is where I decided to scale back on the items I wanted to offer. I don’t think people realize the time and effort that goes into certain items such cake pops. It is a very tedious task and I just didn’t find joy in making them anymore, even though that’s initially how I got into making treats. I don’t feel bad anymore about turning down certain orders.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: amazingsweetsbyalicia