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

Brittney Posten, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

At the end of October 2020 we ordered hot cocoa bomb molds, we were excited to try them and had no idea what was about to happen! Once we made a few and figured out the best recipe, we made a video to share that we were making hot cocoa bombs and the orders started flooding in. Many times there was a line of customers in my driveway to pick up orders. One store reached out and they wanted to have hot cocoa bombs in their store, we looked into what it would take and what our cost would be and rented a kitchen so that we could wholesale them. Very quickly we were in 8 stores from New Buffalo to Kalamazoo and working 12 hour days in the kitchen and having friends and family help us package so that we could keep up with customer and wholesale demand. One of our stores was ordering large amounts, they called us one day after we had been in the kitchen for nearly 10 hours and they asked if we could make them 24 dozen by the end of that week. We ran to WalMart and got pain relieving sticky pads, cushioned insoles for our shoes, energy drinks and got back to the kitchen and back to work. We worked 17 hours that day!! We may have also picked up some adult beverages to get us through the long day and night. We sold over $20K in cocoa bombs in two months. We were husting!

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?

Megan has been a talented artist for many years and went to school for graphic design. Meg worked in a big box retail store in the bakery for part of her career. She started taking orders from friends and family and continued to learn and grow in her baking and cake/cookie decorating. When Megan moved up into a management role in her career she would often sneak over to the bakery and help out because she found it relaxing and enjoyable to get a change a pace during her stressful days. After a couple of years of baking and decorating for friends and family she started to hear “you should open a bakery” more and more.

Brittney worked in the corporate world for eight years and started attending local workshops where she learned to paint and use the cricut to create various projects. In her teenage years she was always scrapbooking. After many years in the corporate world, she was burnt out and wanting a change and wishing that she could start a business. She started dreaming of an indoor playground and started to write a business plan and getting the word out for investors…

And then COVID happened. Meg and Britt lost their jobs and the world shut down.

In June 2020, Meg had made her daughter’s birthday desserts and her family continued to tell her that she should open a bakery. Brittney told her that she should definitely consider it. Britt went home and thought about how they could combine their passions into a business. Her proposal was that they would have a bakery/cafe by day and host workshops in the evenings for the people like Brittney that hated their day job and needed a creative outlet.

Meg has been baking full time for three years now and has started to turn away customers because she’s often fully booked. She has started to do more weddings and large events for local businesses. Meg and Britt often hear from customers and friends and family how proud they are of the MB duo. Many people share that they have dreams of starting a business and that they never had the opportunity to start.

After doing markets for two years, we had the opportunity to open a retail space. The original plan was that we would have a full service bakery but with the limitations of the space, we had to get creative and figure out a way to fill the space and bring in customers. Since we already had a licensed kitchen, we checked to see how we could “wholesale” to our own retail space and got the correct license for food retail. We wanted to support as many of the hardworking local small business owners that we had met over the years and extended the opportunity to have items in our shop. Many customers have connected with these vendors and placed custom orders, we’re proud to have a community over competition mindset.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We’re currently in a pivot in our business. It’s apparently a slow time for retail and we’re in our first year of learning how to manage a storefront, manage bakery orders, and determine new revenue streams. It’s also just a hard time for small business owners, we’re paying for multiple rents, multiple licenses, and the cost of everything is higher than ever (like eggs and butter which has gotten better, but sheesh!) There’s also the challenge of Amazon and TEMU online stores that provide items for so cheap and with free shipping which makes it even harder for small businesses with handmade items. People are always wanting a deal and it’s hard to spend the time developing your skill and purchasing materials at a higher cost than ever and be able to make a profit for your handmade products.

Brittney has a 14 month old and is learning toddler life while doing vendor management, operations, markets, and running the store. Megan has a 6 year old and is due with her second baby mid August and that will bring new challenges to running the business with two young ones at home.

We’re trying to determine where to spend our time and balance work and home life. Being a small business owner can be all consuming if you let it. We want to make sure our families and children still have time with us so we’re working on a business strategy that allows us to have the store, take bakery orders, and participate in markets that are successful while still having balance.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

Currently, we have a storefront where we have minimal wholesale items and mostly consignment items from local and women owned businesses, custom bakery orders, we wholesale to businesses for some items, we have handmade items made by both of us, we offer workshops hosted by both us and local artisans, and we do local artisan markets. We want to support other local businesses that are hustling every day just like we are to build a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: mb-creative.company.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mbcreativecafe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MBCreativeCafe
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mb-creative-swmi/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mbcreativecafe