We were lucky to catch up with Dawn Vaflor recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dawn, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
“Take a risk!”, they said. “You are talented, and you can do this.”
This is what my friends and family were saying when after winning several local dessert and bread contests, I was encouraged to start a bakery business.
How does one go about starting a business when you have so little capital to start with. This is what I was thinking.
The prospect of sharing my passion of baking and making people happy through celebrations around the table, enjoying my desserts/breads, was something I began to give some serious thought to starting a business from my kitchen at home.
So with an upgrade to a double oven in my home, I started making desserts and breads for a local farmer’s market and I was HOOKED! I loved meeting my customers and establishing those weekly interactions with those in my community. That is when I knew I needed to take this more seriously and by the end of the farmer’s market season, I began to look for other opportunities to continue to build on my blossoming business.
In January, just a couple of months after the market season ended, I was encouraged- by a friend who owned a bakery of her own- to attend a Sweet Treats Festival that showcased local bakeries. I submitted my application and was accepted. This is where I got my big break that landed me in Ohio’s multiple award winning “Best Farmers Market in Ohio”. I was stunned at the exposure and opportunity.
And here is where there was a “big risk” and decision-altering shift in my focus of my business that took root.
After struggling with an often debilitating auto-immune disease (ME/CFS) for 15 years – a disease that also created food allergies/sensitivities- I wanted to bring to the community something I was even more passionate about other than just baking favorite desserts for the general population. I wanted to shift my focus on clean eating baked goods, gluten free, and healthy dessert options. This was such a huge risk for me, because I had never shared my own healthier treats/gluten free baked goods with anyone other than my family, so I had no idea if anyone would even enjoy them. And I was already putting myself out there in front of an audience of several thousand people a weekend at this award winning farmers market. But, I took a big breath and got to work and opened my booth at 2nd Street Market in downtown Dayton.
Nine years later with so many amazing stories I could share with just how thankful I am that I took that risk, we are a truly successful and thriving business and have seen such mind-blowing growth over the almost 10 years we’ve been in at this. Moving my business into a commercial kitchen of 500 sq ft to my current 2000 sq ft kitchen with a staff that started out with 3-5 to where we are now with 19, 15 wholesale customers comprised of award winning gourmet grocery stores (Dorothy Lane Market), Jungle Jim’s International Market in Cincinnati, coffee shops and specialty shops, a retail partnership with a coffee shop (Coffee Hub) in Beavercreek, a food truck, and a growing wedding cake business, we have definitely hit a much needed niche in gluten free vegan paleo baking (also added keto) in this community and beyond. Customers come from all over parts of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Michigan to stock up on our baked goods.
I am so glad I took that risk!
Dawn, 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?
I have been a baker as long as I could hold a pencil in my small hand and write as a kindergartener. If I could follow directions on my easy bake oven creations, I would make my parents my tasty “masterpieces” that made me proud when they remarked how good they were. Even if they were a mix concoction at that time, I was happy to make them smile. As I grew older, I enrolled in our local 4-H club where I focused on baking/cake decorating and photography. I also loved the holidays and baking with my grandmother and great grandmother who were masterful bakers and candy makers. You can say it was literally in my DNA to become a full time baker someday after those early beginnings.
What drives my passion today is knowing that I am helping a community of people who have to be on a specialized diet. Having food allergies of my own, I know firsthand how serious it can be to have food allergies and we work hard here in our bakery to make sure we are as safe as possible for our customers. When we can give customers the experience of enjoying cinnamon rolls or donuts and birthday cakes for the first time in years that they can safely enjoy, it is such a rewarding experience to know we are essentially changing lives for some people. It’s a hard business to create such challenging recipes with specific ingredients, but product development is what I love to do. It has to be as good for the non-gluten free or vegan person to enjoy or I don’t put it out on the shelf. We have a large following of fans, and many of those are not even dietary need folks. I am really proud of that!
We are also a company that loves to give back. We donate funds throughout the year to support community events and/or fundraisers that are doing great things for people in need. We have a great platform to help in our community. In 2019, for example, during a tornado outbreak in Beavercreek that destroyed many homes in neighborhoods close to the bakery, we were able to garner support from our gluten free vegan community with donations of food and water bottles and delivered (in our food truck) packaged meals to those who were sorting through their debris in the destruction of their homes, and we just wanted to be there for them in a small way. I was so proud of our GFVegan community coming together to help their neighbors. It was an experience I will never forget.
We will continue to value others in our community in the years to come and be a vessel of positive generosity!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I think many of us in business can say that navigating a pandemic either made us stronger or broke some of us. It was tough on many different levels, from staffing changes to costs of ingredients and supply chain issues. It’s actually still hard on some of those levels, especially rising costs of everything. I definitely know now, if I didn’t know before, what I am made of after going through such challenges. I would like to think that my years of dealing with a chronic illness that could be really hard at times prepared me for the tough challenges that came with a pandemic as a small business owner. I had to dig deep and put in the hard work, longer days, and patience with the circumstances as they were, and lean into my faith in God for strength to endure the hardest days. I am definitely a stronger person today because of it, and it has made me appreciate the gift I have with a specialty bakery, because seeing other businesses have to close, and knowing we are here for those who need us most, I know we will “weather this storm” together and do our very best to keep going as long as we possibly can.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I was fortunate to have a family member offer to give me “seed” money to get some of my early equipment I needed in my commercial kitchen. I owe everything to them for their unwavering support of my dream and belief in my ability. It wasn’t easy to acquire funding from a bank for a new small business back in 2011 when I was first starting the farmers market business, so I grew my business slowly over time. Most businesses don’t make it past 2-5 years, so I didn’t want to be knee- deep into debt if I wasn’t a successful business owner. I kept adding equipment as I needed to with my growth. Even after being in business for over 9 years, I only owe on my food truck that is over half paid off. Other than that, I am debt free which I am so thankful for. I keep extra funds tucked away for a big expense like an oven or cooler that might go out. I have also had to fund a new air conditioner in our bakery, and was able to pay cash for that major purchase during the pandemic. What a miracle for that during such challenging times!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.purelysweetbakery.com
- Instagram: @purelysweetbakery
- Facebook: facebook.com/purelysweetbakery
- Linkedin: Purely Sweet Bakery
- Twitter: @purelysweetbakery
Image Credits
Jake Vaflor Photography