We recently connected with Devonna Banks-Law and have shared our conversation below.

Devonna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Butter Bakery had been in business about 4+ years at this time and an opportunity presented itself to finally move forward to obtaining an actual brick & mortar. My own building to grow and expand my business, what could be better? The process started off very exciting having an incredible landlord and a cool building in a busy area. Then gloom and doom came very quickly!! There are things gatekeepers don’t share about this. When you take on having a building, YOU are responsible for upgrades to the building if they are not up to code. And being that I have a bakery business I needed to have an entire kitchen built from scratch. I was excited about that because it would be my way and I knew people would love it. Hiring an architect that brought in a kitchen designer made me believe my dreams were coming true. Well long story short, all of my money went to them and I ended up with nothing. Eventually having to give up the building because I couldn’t afford to operate my business from another location and keep this dream alive. Speaking of alive, I felt like the only breath I had was kicked right out of me because it seemed that Butter Bakery could not go on. After a couple months of sadness I had a real “Come to Jesus” and it was clear that Butter Bakery is bigger than this pothole in the road to success. I dusted my cookie sheets and cake pans off and went back to work. And here we are now about to celebrate 7 years of baking goodness.

Devonna, 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?

For anyone who may not know me, my name is Devonna Banks and I’m the proud owner of Butter Bakery. We are located in Pasadena, CA and have been baking professionally for 7 interesting years. Initially baking was a therapy for me because my family had experienced some major tragedies and it kept me from sleeping at night. When I tried to sleep I could only think of what GOOD things I could create that could make me and others happy. So I’d get up in the middle of the night and just bake. Eventually a friend had asked one of my friends that owns a cafe if they’d ever tried my baked goods and he was surprised I could bake at all. (Not sure why) Nevertheless, he made me a bet that if I baked cookies and people bought them I could bake cookies for the cafe. Challenge accepted and we are now about to celebrate seven years of bakery deliciousness!!

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

What’s most helpful in building my reputation is first being genuine and caring about people. A lot of people go into business with the first priority being money and honestly it’s about people. Being considered/called the Sweets Specialist is not by accident. My heart is sweet first and I have a real love for others and what I do. When you give a part of yourself from a genuine place it’s very difficult for folks to deny it. But just as important, giving good tasting products. I do not skimp on quality for quantity. If I wouldn’t eat it, I’m not giving it to anyone else.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The absolute best source of new clients is hands down your previous clients. Who would you trust more than someone you know telling you about a product or service. In the age that we live in with social media and tons of ads at every turn, it is difficult to escape. But when someone you know has true it first and can stand on that for your business, it’s 98% a win.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.butterbakery.life
• Instagram: @_ButterBakery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ButterBakeryPasadena?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: Butter Bakery
• Youtube: Butter Bakery
• Yelp: Butter Bakery