We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Aguirre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The Art of Donut was born in 2016, at the beginning it was just me wanting to explore the entrepreneurial world but didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve always been a fan of coffee and sweet bread and brunch places and when I met Miguel (Co founder) Boyfriend we travel to California and stop by different cool coffee spots and of course donut shops and fell involve with the vibes and the possibilities and creativity behind crafted donut shops.
Miguel is a 4th generation baker, so that helped a lot too and I’m a Marketing and Psychologist Major so it was the perfect match.
I’m all about creativity and he’s the one with knowledge and experience in this hard but amazing industry.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

The Art of Donut started as a food truck back in 2016, I was working full time and on the weekends I worked the food truck with Miguel. We had a great response from our community and after a long debate I decided to quit my full time job and be 100 percent at the Donut truck. I look back and I’m happy I took that decision but the fear of what If was there for a couple months. Best advice if anyone is trying to start a business no matter what field, is ask as many questions as you can, find mentors, watch videos and read books listen podcasts.
The better prepare you are, the better chance you have to succeed.

Going back to our story on how we started, A year later in 2017 we open our brick and mortar shop, it was quite a challenge because we didn’t have a lot of experience in the food industry or managing a shop.
We expand our Coffee Menu and donut Menu as well, we started making breakfast savory sandwiches and cake donuts.
Space was much needed to take catering and special orders.
Our team started growing and we became a family.
For us it’s really important to have a good relationship with our team, without them we wouldn’t be where we are right now.
its exciting to see how team members that started as cashiers are now managers.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As a Marketing major I new all the social platforms available when we open our food truck, but since I was not a business or community manager back then, I didn’t know the power that social media had when it comes to perspective customers. We were the first crafted donut shop / truck in San Antonio and the day of our grand opening we had the longest line after some bloggers and friends posted a picture of our coming soon marketing material.
We sold out within 3 hours of opening and after that day we knew we needed to put effort into taking cool pictures and learn all the trends at the moment.
Social media is changing constantly so you always have to be on top of the new apps, trends, etc.
You have to be willing to learn new things every day and adapt to the new trends and platforms.
you have to be constant and dedicate time to think of what do you want your audience to see, think or feel when you are posting a video, picture or announcement.
Best advice, Get to Know your audience.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Our customer service is #1 priority, Quality is really important to.
As our Slogan says: “We don’t just craft donuts, we craft moments”.
Everything counts, the way you are greeted when entering the shop, discounts for teachers, first responders, and military customers, asking you how’s your day going, or if you enjoyed our donuts.
Those little things are what makes us unique.
We Also offer a loyalty program, and after certain amount of visits you get products on us.
We send you a gift for your Birthday
We keep our customers informed of our seasonal donuts and new products through email, or text.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artofdonut.com
• Instagram: @artofdonut
• Facebook: @artofdonut
• Yelp: The Art of Donut

Image Credits
all pictures are mine