Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Barbara Jemison. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Barbara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When my granddaughter was born I wasn’t sure what I wanted her to call me. After much thought, I landed on Nana. All my grandchildren call me Nana . When my daughter was little, my mother gave her two cookies, one for each hand. I continued that tradition for my grandchildren as well. When Sofie (our oldest grandbaby) was about 18 months old we took notice that her hands were so small, she needed little cookies. So when I was trying to come up with a name for my business I knew that it was going to be about being a Nana and what that meant to me and my grandchildren. I also want it to mean to bring back memories to our customers; memories of their Nana, Grandma, Gigi or whatever it was that they called their grandmother. I believe foods, sweets and snacks in particular go hand in hand with family memories. This is me doing a little to help people relive and remember the joys of their own childhood and families.

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.

I started working in the baking/pastry industry a little over thirty years ago when I was hired to work in as a cake decorator in a Super K-Mart. Not long later, I became the manager there and things just sort of progressed. I worked for different companies such as Pillsbury, Maplehurst, and Dawn Foods and traveled up and down the east coast setting up bakeries with products my company sold, along with teaching their employees how to do the same. When my husband was transferred to Chicago while serving in the Navy, I landed a job for a high end catering company with set of 4 shops, and one central kitchen. I learned so much there. When my husband was discharged from active duty we moved to his hometown in S.E.Kansas where there weren’t a lot of opportunities for bakers. I worked several years for a non-profit company, until I moved into a position at the state university’s purchasing department. At the university, I also attended school and received my Bachelors in Business Management, with a minor in Fine Arts. Homesick for the east coast and for our family to be closer, we sought a way to come back to Carolina. In February of 2020 we moved to the Garner area. Covid happened and like many others, things did not go as I had planned! Looking for a change, I began baking again. I started small, but the business quickly outgrew my home, and in 2022, Nana’s Lil Sweets opened her doors.
Nana’s makes cakes, cookies, pies, breads and pastries. We also make high end cakes including wedding cakes.
One of the things that I am most proud of and that I love most about what I do is meeting the people that come through my door, getting to know them, and what brought them in.
Nana’s is about community and relationships with our customers. It is about doing life with the people that we come into contact with and are able to serve in some small way. It is the person that needs a cake for a 50 year wedding anniversary, or the customer that comes in every Saturday to pick up the same set of cookies each week and the employees all fight to answer the phone when she calls to see if we have them ready for her. There are so many different stories that I could tell you about the customers that come into Nana’s. There are so many great people that I have met in the time since I have opened the doors.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When the idea came up of possibly opening a brick and mortar store, it was a really big decision. My husband had taken a job with a new company which was the reason we were able to move to North Carolina. I had decided I needed to pursue baking fulltime, and that brought us to the decision to use a good portion of our 401K’s and put that money into the business. We didn’t want to be burdened with a loan and have to make payments on it. Even with the upfront money, it goes pretty fast with the start up costs. It really was a blessing in how everything just sort of fell into place and we were able to come up with enough money to be able to open the store with out any outside help.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When my husband and I decided that he was going to leave active duty and move back to his hometown in Kansas, I thought that I could get a job at a bakery there or even start my own. Things did not work out that way. It was a small town of about 15,000 people and there weren’t any opportunities to work in a bakery. Needing a job, I had to find something else that I would be able to do. I was hired by a non-profit company to work in their accounting office where I really learned about business finance. When I took the position at the state university purchasing department, I had another opportunity to be able to get my degree in business. All the while, i kept baking, it is my passion and a gift. I met people in my church that would ask me to do wedding cakes, and I was making birthday cakes and cupcakes for friends and friends of friends. I knew that God had given me a talent in baking and I knew that it was something that connected me to people, and I knew that baking was something that I would always want to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: nanaslilsweets.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanaslilsweets/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NanasLilSweets