We recently connected with Dean Vickers and have shared our conversation below.

Dean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.

I grew up on a farm in Eastern Ohio. My parents taught me at a young age the importance of helping your neighbor and to give back to those in need. When I created Bake A Difference, I knew I wanted to continue this family value. I knew I wanted to give back to local charities. We chose local, because, as a small business, when we give back to local charieties we can make a bigger impact. We donate between 5-10% of total sales each month to a local charity. As a general rule, we select charities that are personal to me and my husband and business partner, Scott Lanning. Animals, veterans, foster care, cancer (I am a survivor), alzheimer’s (Scott’s mom went through this), HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+. This is just a small list. We rarely turn down requests. We know people and organizations struggle. We want to be part of the solution, not the problem. We believe everyone would benefit from sitting down with someone out of their circle…have a yummy dessert ( hopefully from us :) ) Either way, we are not that different. Open yourself up to new experiences.

Dean, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a veteran from the United States Air Force (Staff Sargent) I am a former lobbyist for animal welfare issues and have done a lot of animal rescues. I did animal rescue after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustaf, Cedar Rapids Floods, animal fighting. I have also passed legislation for animal cruelty and neglect penalties. I am also gay and married to a fantastic man and business partner.

My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018. Most of my family didn’t know the severity of this cancer. At the time he and my mother were in Texas. Five months later, I got my own cancer diagnosis. I knew I wanted to do something more with my life. I also knew I wanted to be able to spend more time with my father before he would die. He was given 6 months; I didn’t want to miss time.

With the support of my husband, I left my job at Chase. I spent time with my dad and my family until he died. I regret nothing.

During this time, I kept trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do something that gave back to charities that supported people in need. This is how Bake A Difference came into existence.

Bake A Difference specializes in filled gourmet cupcakes, brownies and other sweet treats. We love to play with new ideas for fillings and frostings. Sometimes they are fantastic and make it onto our menu; other times…. let’s just say we appreciate (and apologize to) our friends who sample the test products.

If you have a thought for a flavor, let’s talk. We can work on customizing a flavor for you.

We want our treats to be the talk of your affair – in a good way. We work to combine the baking we enjoyed from childhood with where we are today. This collaboration gives you the best of both worlds; a ‘store-bought’ cupcake that is made from scratch.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started the business in late 2019. We were just getting ramped up by talking to businesses about ‘pop-ups’ and permenant products in their stores. Things were going great. We did a ‘pop-up at Chase Polaris in February for Valentine’s Day. Chase was fantastic to work with. i think we brought 50 or 60 dozen cupcakes: we sold out in less than an hour. It was insane. We were excited to talk to them about more regular visits to Chase Polaris and Easton. Plus having our products in their Chase Place quick stop stores.

Then came COVID-19……

We had to come up with other venues. But, everything was shut down. Let’s be honest, cupcakes are not really an ‘essential food product. Since so may businesses were shut down, we increased our online sales and would meet customers in vacant parking lots for a ‘hands free’ sales process. It worked surprisingly well nad we survived for the next few months doing this. To be honest, it always felt like I was doing some illegal transaction, but there we were.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I am good at what I do and I am not afraid to try some thing new. We have a rule of thumb that if 3 customers ask us for something at one market, we will work on it and produce the product. As an example; gluten-free. We were randomly asked about gluten-free products. Our general answer was , no, sorry. Then we had the third request. It happened to be another vendor. I told her that if she was willing to be a guinea pig with sampling, I would try it. To be honest, the first few batches were horrible. It was either a brick or sand, but we finally got the pattern down and now we have a great gluten-free following. We can also do dairy/vegan products. I learned dairy free baking years ago with an ex who had dairy allergies.
It is all doable, you just have to be willing to work on it…except fondant. I do not like fondant, so I don’t do it. I agree it is a clean look, but it has no real value, I mean, who actually enjoys eating it?

ANother part of our reputation is my husband/business partner’s stelluar customer service. As a general rule, He is the main part of our great customer service reviews and I am extremely grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bakeadifferenceohio.com
• Instagram: bake.adifference
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakeadifferenceohio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bake-a-difference/