We were lucky to catch up with Bianca Martinez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Bianca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?
As a business owner, I absolutely recommend taking time off to relax and reset. Previously, I was always on call, always available to everyone. I felt that if I didn’t answer that call or respond to that email right away I would lose that customer, lose out on that money, and never advance my business. I absolutely felt that I couldn’t take a step away from my business. It resulted in me becoming burnt out very quickly. I was always tired and had little energy to give to my family. My business became “work” rather than something I loved to do. So, I made a decision to change things. Little by little I started creating boundaries. First, it was turning off my phone by a certain time. Then it was setting specified times for work and personal time. Then it was learning to say no to work that I “could” do that always resulted in late hours and no time off. This year, I’ve committed to taking mini vacations every so often to keep from burning out. I pick a couple days which are normally slow days and block off my calendar. I might go out of town to visit family, take a road trip, or just have a stay-cation where NO phones or emails are allowed! Even if it’s just one or two days in a row, I really feel that having this time scheduled and set aside for personal time helps me to clear my mind and not get burnt out doing what I love!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve always had a passion for pastry. When I was younger, I loved watching shows like Chocolate with Jaques Torres and all of the baking competitions on Food Network. I loved the creative and artistic aspects of creating beautiful food. After high school, I went a more traditional route and majored in Finance, and worked in the Finance Industry for a few years. The company I was working for at the time was going through some major changes, and it reached a point where I needed to consider a new job. So, if I had to change jobs, why not change careers? I still had this love for food art and decided to pursue my dreams and go to culinary school. I attended the International Culinary Center in NYC, where I entered into an immersive 6-month program. While there, I interned at a custom cake shop. I thought I wanted to become a chocolatier, but I ended up loving to make cakes! After I graduated, I did cakes for friends and family on the side, while working at different places honing my pastry skills. As my baking business started to pickup, I discovered what I really loved most was being able to be artistic and never doing the same thing twice. In 2020, I decided to leave my job and make custom cakes my full time job!
At Bianca’s Custom Cakes, we specialize in making unique, custom cakes to make your event memorable! Our cakes are featured at many over the top, milestone events. I love making first birthday cakes and baby shower cakes as they signify a huge milestone event in someone’s life and are very special. My favorite types of cake, however, are sculpted cakes! I love the challenge of having to sculpt a cake and make it look life-like. One of my favorite sculpted cakes is a safari animal cake I created for a baby shower. It was BIG. and was a hit at the party! No one knew it was the cake until they went to cut it! Everyone loved not only the look of the cake but also the taste! One of the things I pride myself on is that my cakes are always delicious. A lot of the times you hear people complain about wedding cakes “looking good” but are not tasty at all! One of the comments I get most often is how our cakes are always moist and not too sweet, and this is the biggest compliment I could ever receive!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think the biggest pivot I’ve made in life was trading my career in Finance for the sweets life! When I made the decision to switch careers to become a Pastry Chef, it was not taken lightly. I knew it would mean working nights, weekends, holidays, and longer hours. I knew the pay wouldn’t be the same as a successful career in Finance. I knew it would mean starting at the bottom again, but it was something I felt so strongly about I could not ignore it. I did a lot of research, visited schools, contemplated how much this would change my life, and made a plan. I left to NYC for culinary school and never looked back! I went eager to take everything in and take every opportunity available to not waste this chance. I studied hard, went to every extracurricular activity, volunteered at every event possible, went to every demonstration, and had a blast discovering new desserts all over New York!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
After I graduated from culinary school, I returned to Houston and began working in restaurants where I was able to really test my skills. I started making cakes on the side here and there, but being busy working full time meant I didn’t have much time to dedicate to my side hustle. After working in restaurants and hotels I really realized that I loved the artistry of cake decorating and that was where I wanted to focus my career. When I FINALLY got a social media account for my business and got my first order online, that was a major milestone for me! Up until that point I had been making cakes for friends and family that knew me personally, and a few cakes from word of mouth. But I was psyched for my first order from someone who didn’t know me! As I posted more and started getting more regular customers, I was eventually able to quit my full time job and exclusively work in my business. I was already turning away business since I didn’t have the time, so it felt like the right time to take that leap. It was scary but felt like such an accomplishment! I now have many repeat customers that I work with and I love being able to see all the different life events they’ve celebrated that I’ve been a part of.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.BiancasCustomCakes.com
- Instagram: @BiancasCustomCakes
- Facebook: @BiancasCustomCakes1