We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daneisha Simon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daneisha below.

Daneisha, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

When I first started my business I had the same idea as a lot of other people in the world- all I have to do is copy what everyone else is doing, and BAM! booming business. Of course, this journey did not work out like that lol! Majority of my learning process came from various YouTube videos. I practiced my craft a TON in the beginning. I was so eager to get to the “booked and busy” status that I just knew one day I would wake up to a bunch of people wanting to book my services. Even though I practiced a lot, I still negated the fact that my beginner’s journey was far from over.

One of the biggest things I wish I hadn’t done in the beginning (no regrets, everything is a life lesson) was letting outside influences dictate what I did and how I ran my business. When I reference these influences I’m not only talking about bad things, it could be good influences too, but their impression on me and my status negatively affected my business. For example, if I saw a video of an artist designing this heavily detailed 2 tier cake in a matter of 30 minutes, my mind immediately went to this- “that looked fairly easy, and it only took her 30 minutes to do. I can do that too!” My mind couldn’t comprehend the hours of practice, trial and error, disaster stories, etc that she may have had under her belt. Her ability to design a cake with that much detail in such little time didn’t come overnight, and neither would mine.

Another thing I wish I hadn’t focused on was everything. Literally everything. I came out the gate trying to be that one stop shop for my customers, so I tried to make every dessert people asked about- cake, cupcakes, cookies, Oreos, pretzels, apples, macarons, you name it. This slowed me down even more because I never narrowed down a focal point for my business. I was so focused on not missing any money that I thought this was something I needed to do.

Once I realized I couldn’t do it all and needed to take my time (about 3 years into my journey), this is when my real growth started to show. I took a look at what treats I really liked to do and what I was willing to let go. Once I narrowed those down, I started to focus on perfecting the basics of these treats. The biggest takeaway from my entire journey was when I realized the fundamentals really do pave the way for your success in the future. I know, I know, I’ve heard it 1000x before with everything else in life that you have to have the basics down before you can move on to bigger steps, but for some reason, even at this point in my business, it just hadn’t clicked yet. Once this did click, though, that was it. This is when I started to really see a difference in my quality, production time, and customer feedback. This one realization made all the difference my business really needed.

Now, having been in business for 7 years, I look forward to my continued growth and success. There’s nothing I can’t do!

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’m Daneisha, a luxury cake artist that provides custom, hand crafted works of art for Georgia residents. I started my business in 2015 when I realized corporate America was no longer for me. I longed for a position that would give me the financial ability to provide for my family while also allowing me to be more involved in my children’s lives. I hated asking my boss for permission to spend time with them, and knew I had to find a way to quit my job for good.

At Pastry Addict, we take your theme, design ideas, and visions and turn them into beautiful, edible realities. We thrive on wowing you and your guests at your next event! Decorated buttercream cakes are our specialty, but we also provide treats that can compliment your table, such as cupcakes, pretzels, chocolate berries, and dessert shooters. If you can dream it, we can make it!

How did you build your audience on social media?

When I first started my social media page, Instagram being my focal point, I didn’t really understand how it worked. I honestly thought that me posting desserts on a regular basis would be enough. I know, silly thoughts. The main thing that helps to grow our social media is simply being social- liking posts, commenting, sharing to our story, all of these things drive up your interaction, which in turn helps to push your posts in front of other pages. Ads can help if you really know how to us the insights and analytics to your advantage, but organic growth is the real key for longevity in my opinion.

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

About 80% of my business comes from Instagram. This has been my focal point for reaching clients and running ads since I’ve started. I keep a consistent look across my page, only posting what my clients want to see- my work. I use the same background for all of my pictures, I make sure all of my videos are clear and concise, and I (try) to post on a regular basis. I also make a habit of checking my DMs at least once a day, twice if I can. I know some people are against DMs, but a lot of money has been made from mine so until that slows down I’ll be keeping mine open :)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pastryaddict.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/pastryaddictco
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/pastryaddictco
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/pastryaddictco
• Other: www.pinterest.com/pastryaddictco

Image Credits
none, all photos taken by me