We were lucky to catch up with April Snyder recently and have shared our conversation below.
April, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?
Back in October of last year I did two amazing charity events with BakeSpace’s BakeCamp LA to raise money for Paw Works. Babette Pepaj founder of BakeSpace asked for a few of us volunteers to provide some of our cookies for promotional use. I happily donated my customer favorite Oreo Cookies N’ Cream along with our Starbucks inspired Salted Caramel Mocha and my lil’ cookies ended up on Fox 11’s In Depth with Hal Eisner. Hal tried my cookies on live TV and loved them! At one point while trying our Oreo Cookies N’ Cream he exclaimed “April I love you!” haha. It was very surreal to hear my name on TV and a very proud moment for me. I was super grateful to have been a part of the charity events.
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?
My name is April and I am the owner of Little Box Of Cookies a cottage food bakery in Buena Park, CA. I am a multiracial born and raised Californian girl who loves baking, traveling, tattoos, hello kitty and drag queens. My love for baking started in my childhood with my mother who loved to bake. And that love grew when I got my first easy bake oven. 80’s kid yes indeed! I have been baking for my friends and family for over 20 years! I lost my 9-5 job in 2020 due to the pandemic and despite my crippling anxiety and being a major introvert I decided to venture out and start my own small. business, making a career outta what I love . . . Baking delicious cookies to brighten peoples day! I saw a void in the market for a cookie that you didn’t have to unhinge your jaw to eat! Don’t get me wrong I love huge cookies too but I wanted to make a smaller gourmet cookie with only the best ingredients, perfect for all your cookie needs and so Little Box Of Cookies was born! I am the recipe maker, baker, photographer, social media manager, customer service, order fulfillment and everything else under the Sun, all in one! I am most proud of inventing new and unique flavors and recipes such as our Hot Cheeto, Kettle Corn, Monster Mash and Snoball cookies. I love all holidays so I really go all out with cookie creations! My favorite holiday is Halloween.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau was a very influential book I recently read. I was already three years into running my small business but I got stuck on ways to grow and progress as a small business. I ordered this book and two other entrepreneurial books off of Amazon on a whim and it really opened my mind up to go after the things I want and how to make the most out of my small business and life goals. Heading into my fourth year of business I now have a clearer path set out for me. I highly recommend this book if you’re thinking about starting your own small business. Its great! I’ll be reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss next.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
I currently do not have my own website and use Etsy to sell online and Square to sell at events. I tried doing a website but it was overall to nerve wracking for me haha. I’ll probably create another one in the future but for now Etsy and Square are a breeze. The pros for Etsy are that it’s easy to sign up and navigate. It’s a quick way to do direct to consumer. Everything is at your fingertips. The cons I would say are the fees. There’s so many! Which takes away from your overall capital. The pros for Square are that it’s an easy and trustworthy system to collect card payments at events. Not everyone carries cash these days. They also send you a free card reader when you sign up. The cons I really don’t see any I mean they do charge a small fee but nothing like Etsy level. So totally worth it in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @littleboxofcookies
- Facebook: @littleboxofcookies
- Linkedin: @littleboxofcookies
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Littleboxofcookies/