We recently connected with Alyssa Lescallett and have shared our conversation below.
Alyssa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
When the pandemic happened, I decided to take on a new hobby — the art of sourdough. What started as a challenging and at times, very frustrating hobby, quickly turned into a passion of mine. I have always loved baking — coming up with recipes, recreating my favorite foods into healthy alternatives, baking delicious foods to share with family, baking to relieve stress, etc. As I started to get the hang of the sourdough process, I slowly began sharing the sourdough loaves I was making with family and friends. Turns out, they loved it so much and they continued to encourage me to make it into something more. That is when the idea of starting my own small business surfaced. At the time, I was a stay-at-home mom (still am), and I had been itching to do something more. In October 2022, I took a leap of faith and launched my business — Ginger + Thyme Bakes. The beginning was very exciting, but also overwhelming and draining. You have to figure everything out — inventory, cost vs demand, marketing, time management — literally anything you could probably think of. You truly don’t know what goes into owning and running your own business unless you’re actually doing it! It’s a lot.. but it’s also worth it! It is definitely a balancing act, and to this day, I am still learning to juggle it all. I feel like I have come a long way, but I know there is still so much to learn, and I’m ready for it! We just came up on our 1 year Anniversary, and I’m so excited to see where it continues to take us.
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?
Ultimately my love for baking and recipe creating, plus my passion for healthy living, led me to where I am today — the owner and baker behind Ginger + Thyme. We sell small batch, made-from-scratch sourdough bread, focaccia, gourmet cookies, miscellaneous baked goods, and custom cakes. We take deep pride in knowing where our food and ingredients come from, so you will never find any artificial ingredients, dyes or preservatives in our products. We use as many organic, local and homegrown ingredients as possible. We truly want to give our customers to best products possible, which is why we have them and their loved ones in mind at all times.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth, and current clients sharing their love of our products with their friends and family has been one of the best sources of getting new customers. More times than not, when a new customer reaches out to place an order, they’ll tell me that one of their friends referred them to me, or that they tried one of our products from a friend/family member and loved it so much that they had to order more. Another source is hands down the Moore County community that our business is surrounded in. They are so amazing at supporting and promoting small businesses. I truly have never been apart of such a wonderful community where everyone is trying to boost each other up.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I first started my business in October of 2022, the holidays were quickly upon us. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the busiest months (to the day), and I quickly learned a lot from them — especially Thanksgiving. I had just started up the month prior, and had never navigated a busy season before. I didn’t know what limits and boundaries to set, but boy, did I quickly find out. We were flooded with pre-orders, which was very exciting, but soon turned to feeling beyond overwhelming and exhausting when the days leading up to Thanksgiving became longer and longer as we needed to finish what felt like never-ending orders. I was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to finish all of the orders and getting little sleep on those days/nights, all while continuing to fulfill my other duties as a stay at home mom and wife during the day. It taught me how resilient I was, to keep going no matter what, but also the lessons of figuring out your limits and what you can appropriately handle.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @gingerandthymebakes
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/p/Ginger-Thyme-Baked-Goods-100086974479016/
- Other: Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Family photo – Field of Light Photography