We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dannissa Maldonado. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dannissa below.
Hi Dannissa, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I owned a catering business back in Puerto Rico, named Coquidelicias by Dannissa and after I moved to Florida everything stopped. I started working in the Hotel Industry rightaway but always with the idea of having my own business in the back of my head.
I used to sell a lot of desserts during the holidays, so I decided to have a little holiday sale for friends and family and I felt I was ready to put this ideas in reality. Looking into a different way to serve desserts, this quest led to the business name D’Jars by Danna after selling coquito and tres leches in mason jars. It was a fun but exhausting process of searching for new things.
Dannissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Dannissa, and I was born and raised in the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico. I would love to share a little bit of myself and what drew me into this amazing world of cooking and baking.
I grew up watching both of my grandmas cooking, not only for our family but for church events and holiday activities as well. Eventually, I fell in love with the kitchen, I started baking simple things like flan, cookies, and selling from home. From there, I also started selling food which led to many people encouraging me to study Culinary Arts to learn more, and so I did. After I graduate I had the opportunity to improve my skills working in the hotel industry in different areas, from prep to breakfast, banquets, restaurant and pastry.
The culinary industry is not peaches and cream, you really need to love what you do because is full of challenges, it requires a lot of time, creativity, long hours standing in your feet, dealing with all types of people but at the same time is very rewarding; every time a guest compliment a dish is another level of satisfaction.
D’Jars by Danna offers a variety of dessert jars and other services like personalized dessert arrangements, charcuterie boards, dessert bar, brunch and more. I’m very excited and happy to finally see this dream come true where the secret ingredient is always LOVE.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Consistency! Is the key to build reputation and clients.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
I was contacted by a local brewing company that wanted cupcakes inspired by their beer flavors for their 1st anniversary. At the beginning I was a little scared because in all honesty, I’m not a big drinker! But I jumped into the challenge. I had to research and read a lot about the usage of alcohol in cake batter, pairing flavors etc. It was an amazing experience.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: djars.bydanna
- Other: https://bit.ly/3sk3YqP