We were lucky to catch up with Ca-Daryl Sloan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ca-Daryl, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

“A touch of love in every teaspoon” is my motto because with every teaspoon of ingredients that are placed into creating a dish it’s love behind the end result. I love to make each client or customer feel as though they are enjoying a dish that was make specifically for them! I cook from the heart from base recipes, but I do not have recipes written down for each ingredient.

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?

I am originally from Salisbury, North Carolina born and raised. I started “A Hint of Brown Suga” in December 2019 with just selling desserts only. My business name comes from in memory of my deceased mother, Deborah E. Walker “Brown Suga”. As a young child I can remember always being in the kitchen cooking alongside her so anytime I am in the kitchen I feel like it’s a hint of her presence guiding me along. By the time that business started getting steady, Covid-19 hit in March 2020 and business declined due to everyone being kind of skeptical regarding food from restaurants and individual home bakers. In 2021, I relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina from Charlotte, North Carolina. Being in a new city without any customers, no business links to help me get back started so I did what I knew how to do best by self-promotion. I would go to grocery stores and hand out business cards to individuals that were near the meat department but looked as if they “didn’t really want to be there”, I would catch Ubers or Lyfts and pass out cards to drivers or leave a card in the back seat, catch the city bus because a lot of people that worked professionally downtown rode the bus to keep from paying for parking at work. Business started picking up and I went from baked goods only to now catering food and selling baked goods. In the two years of living in Raleigh I have now expanded to personal chef service, meal prep, desserts (shipping available), catering, cold pressed juices. Next on my new adventure I am planning on packaging and bottling seasonings and also barbecue sauce.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients that are not locally has been social media by Facebook reels, Instagram hashtags plus including #ahintofbownsuga, But the best source for local clients have been word of mouth and self-promotion. I have a lot of drive and success when it comes to me going up to strangers telling them my story and also giving them links to my social media because everyone eats with their eyes, and I make sure my photos speak for themselves. I want someone to look at a photo and see each piece of seasoning and flavor on the food. Anyone that is starting out on social media I recommend great photos or videos that are clear and vivid, the lighting not too dark or too bright, unnecessary items in the background. If posting on social media definitely use hashtags in your posts.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

Yes, I offer not just baked items or catering but also, offer cold pressed juices and weekly meal prep. I have merchandise consisting of tumblers, coffee mugs and Yeti tumblers that can be purchased. I started changing desserts recipes so that they could be eligible for shipping since I started receiving customers from a reel of my Banana Pudding cookies to be shipped to every state possible. I offer private dinner chef services and I partner with another business named Top Notch Picnic NC as their private chef during their luxury picnic events. As I stated before that my next source of income regarding my business will be my own seasoning and barbecue line in stores.      

Contact Info:

• Website: ahintofbrownsuga.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/futurechefcadaryl/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/chefsloan/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@ahintofbrownsuga/featured
• Other: a-hint-of-brown-suga.square.site